Hi All, I’m pinch hitting for Andy tonight. All the DFRy goodness right after the jump.
Memphis 3, Albuquerque 4 (Game 1 – 7 innings)
- Ryan Jackson was 2-3 with a solo HR. Good to see, but in a big time hitters park. Park factor for HRs there is 131 (Average is 100). The ball flies out of that park as it is a better HR park than any in the league and even better than Texas’ Ballpark at Arlington in the majors.
- Adron Chambers went 1-4 with a double and 2 RBIs.
- Tyler Lyons got the 6 inning complete game loss. He struck out 6 and walked only 1, but allowed 8 hits and 4 runs.
Memphis , Albuquerque (Game 2 – 7 innings)
- Zack Cox and Adron Chambers both went yard. (Everything I said above still valid.) Chambers also had two walks.
- Matt Adams had a double and a stolen base (Anyone have video of that?!) and Bryan Anderson a single.
- This game was started by Nick Greenwood in a bullpen game and I’m speculating although it was Shelby Miller‘s turn in the rotation, they held him off until tomorrow since they didn’t know the exact start time for the 2nd game of the doubleheader. They are protecting him, making sure he has his regular pregame routine rather than an abbreviated one between games.
- Nick Greenwood (2 innings), John Gaub, Jess Todd, Adam Reifer and Eduardo Sanchez pitched in the 7 inning game. Eduardo Sanchez almost gave up the 3-1 by giving 1 run back but the Redbirds were able to hold on.
- The Cardinals won this game with 1 run in the 9th on a HR by Jamie Romak with 2 outs.
- Kolten Wong and Oscar Taveras both had hits.
- Adam Melker had a double.
- Carlos Martinez got the start and was good over 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 2 solo HRs. He struck out only 2 and walked 1, but he had 11 groundball outs to 4 outs in the air.
- Deryk Hooker, Eric Fornataro and Keith Butler finished off the game with 1 shutout inning each.
Palm Beach 3, Brevard County 4
- Mike O’Neill, Cody Stanley and Nick Longmire all went 2-4.
- But, Starlin Rodriguez had the biggest swing of the night for Palm Beach with a 2 run HR.
- James Ramsey was 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
- Drew Benes started and gave up 4 runs in 4 innings.
- Travis Miller and Todd McInnis pitched 1 and 3 shutout innings respectively to finish off the game.
- Anthony Garcia was 2-4 with a double.
- Jeremy Patton was 1-2 with a 3 run HR.
- Roberto Reyes also went yard from the 9th spot in the order. His was a solo shot.
- Hector Hernandez went 7 innings allowing only 2 hits and 1 run allowed on a solo shot. He struck out 7 and walked 0. His K/BB numbers don’t look so hot this year, but outings like this continue to show why I believe in him. He’s still the 2nd youngest pitcher on the staff after Tyrell Jenkins.
- Robert Stock gave up an unearned run in his inning with 1 hit, 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
- Danny Miranda finished off the game with a shutout 9th.
- Alex Mejia was 3-5 with a double.
- Jesus Montero went 2-4 and also had a double.
- Breyvic Valera was 2-4 as well with an RBI.
- Jordan Walton also was 2-4 with an RBI.
- Roberto De La Cruz was the only player without a hit.
- Ben Freeman scattered 4 hits over 5 shutout innings with 9 Ks and 1 walk.
- Corey Baker pitched 3 no hit innings and Jose Almarante struck out the side in the 9th.
Johnson City’s game was suspended. Presumably for putting tacks on the teachers chair.
Entries (RSS)
What’s going on with Martinez and only 2 K’s?
Looks like some pretty solid pitching by Ben Freeman… 9 K’s in 5 innings.
Nice job by Butler getting into trouble in the 9th and then back out.
I’m not worried about those K’s, those will come. The fact that he’s holding hitters to a .223 batting average and GO/AO ratio over two at AA despite only being twenty years old is extremely impressive. And that’s three straight starts that he’s gone at least six innings.
Agreed, from the DSL two years ago to what he’s doing, at his age, in the Texas League is very impressive.
Meaning he’s polishing up every sense they made a couple of kinks to his delivery making him have less violence in the finish hiding the ball better. His GB Rate is up, Walk rate is down, has maintained a solid 1.02 WHIP in 8 starts for SPF.
Someone posted in the “today’s starting pitchers” article that he hit 101 on the gun last night. Sounds to me like this kid is smart for his age and is learning how to gt hitters out without just blowin’ it by ‘em. I like that. He could be in the show this time next year with Rosenthal. Keep an eye on Gast. Rosenthals hit 100mph in his Major league debut and was consistantly in the upper 90s. I saw him in early May and reported the same results but posters were saying that the gun in Sprinfield was ‘fast’. That must not be true. That same series I saw a parade of pitchers and the only other two that consistantly hit the mid 90s were Gast and Fornatero. Since Gast is left handed and he has already had decent success in Memphis, he might be a factor in St. Louis at least next year if not September.
Every pitcher will throw harder in one inning stints. He can hit 100 in a one inning, max effort, bases loaded situation legitimately.
That said, the gun at Springfield is undeniably hot.
I followed his pitches that inning on MLB.com and he must have thrown at least 15 pitches 98-100mph. If he did the exact same thing in Springfield, then I cannot see the gun that much different. I also saw Sam Freeman the very same night and his radar readings were the same as when he pitched for St. Louis last month. Both in relief. How does that get explained?
Butler allowed a double and a walk to the first two hitters then settled down and finished strong
Anthony Garcia has now played 81 games for Quad Cities.
(With the implied caveat that no National Leaguer this side of Billy Williams and Steve Garvey ever plays 162 games on a regular basis.): Let us indulge ourselves by extrapolating young Mr. Garcia’s 1/2 season numbers.
We’re talkin’ .303, with 58 doubles, 6 triples, and 26 homers.
Oh, and a rifle that would make Chuck Connors blush, by all reports.
The K rate is all that’s keeping Garcia from top-35 status. Three excellent seasons in a row is a claim *very* few prospects can ever make. This kid could be, in his mid-late 20′s, one of the top 4-6 corner outfielders in The Show.
I’d gobble up his Bowman Chrome rookie cards right now, only he’s so freakin’ underrated & obscure that nobody is even bothering to sell him. There’s no market. Just like Taveras 12 months ago. Arrrrgh.
Garcia is one of those guys that shrewd opposing GM’s try to steal in a deadline deal. Let us hope that doesn’t happen…’cause his upside is giNORmous, folks.
I’m officially giving up on E. Sanchez. Eight AAA batters. Four reach base. None strike out. Mental, mechanical, physical, whatever. He was great. Now he sucks. Really, really sucks. May suck forever.
I. Hate. Pitchers. ‘Specially relief pitchers. Who didn’t think the ONE thing Cardinal fans could feel secure about this year was the bullpen? Show of hands: Who honestly thought the undoing of the 2012 team would be a craptastic relief corps?
Yes, the Big Club has been fornicated by fate — worst record in the majors, in 1 & 2-run games, I believe — but nontheless, the ‘pen failures have only served to hasten the demise.
Whew. (Wipes brow, takes deep cleansing breath.) That’s for putting up with me, gents. I gotta admit, I didn’t think all the positive 2011 Karma would snap back the very next year. (Aren’t Redbird fans *still* owed something for the combo of the Cintron, Denkinger, and tarp-chompin’ Coleman incidents?)
I’m not ready to give up on Sanchez yet. If he recovers his command, he can be a force! He is still young(23) and this year could be the last learning experience he will need. If this is still going on next year….then we can talk about giving up on him.
I agree with you on Sanchez Jim. Many pitchers have not even made the Majors by that age. He is an asset still.
Is it karma, or just overuse? The same thing happened in 2006, when La Russa leaned heavily on young relievers like Tyler Johnson and Josh Kinney. We won a championship, but it may have cost us several young arms.
Salas, Sanchez, and Rzepczynski all seem to have suffered from their work down the stretch and in the postseason, along with Carp and Garcia. And McClellan is finished, although I don’t know if that was the pennant race so much as changing roles halfway through the season (and not being anything special to begin with).
However, pitchers become injuried/ineffective at a very high rate throughout all of MLB.
Unless you can find an organization that doesn’t lose young arms or will say that pitchers are overused everywhere, it’s hard to argue that the Cards overuse their young pitchers.
Fair point.
But I wasn’t really saying the Cards abuse young pitchers chronically, just that it may be an inevitable consequence of a pennant race and postseason, which is an extra month of baseball no one anticipates when looking at a rookie pitcher’s workload.
That said, I thought La Russa was pushing Sanchez too hard from the beginning. I think he had him throw 3 innings in one of his first MLB appearances, something IIRC he hadn’t done for the previous several years in the minors.
I disagree. The Atlanta bullpen is doing just fine and they were pushed harder.
The only guy who really seems to be a major puzzle is Salas, but I still say he showed up out of shape.
Anybody who played much of the season while trying to pass a kidney stone gets a major mulligan for 2012 in my book.
Fact is, relievers are a pretty on-again, off-again bunch.
That’s not entirely true. They faded horribly down the stretch and venters want from being a top 5 relief pitcher to a guy that can’t get an out and is now on the DL. They have had some turnover in the pen and a few guys bounce back. In fact I remember the baseball tonight crew blasting the braves bullpen usage last year as the reason they missed the playoffs.
Yes, they faded last year. But this year Kimbrle and O’Flahtery are doing just fine.
Also, Sanchez was shut down parts of the end last year and so I don’t think overuse is really the key there.
The Braves pitchers had a stress free postseason period to rehabilitate.
Venters is on the DL and kinda messed up.
I have a bad feeling that Sanchez has a lingering problem with his shoulder that he is trying to play through. Sanchez hasn’t been right all year and he was shut down early last year. I’d put him on the 15 day DL and have his shoulder checked out by multiple specialists not named Paletta.
Random addendum: saw today’s Mike Newman F-Graphs chat. Profound disappointment, that.
My Q: Is a man who makes their livelihood *poorly* parroting other (anonymous) people’s opinions *really* a man, really a grown-up?
Okay, so that’s a bit heavy-handed. Newman is a fairly bright guy, with a periodic insight here and there. But he “said” something in *his* chat today, that undermines not only his judgment, but also his independence as a meaningful opiner:
Mr. Newman’s (non-personal) opinion about Oscar Taveras was as follows…
“I’ve had one scout tell me .250 with 30 homers, and another tell me .285 -.290 with 25 HR potential. No need for a specific comp when I can just throw projected numbers out.”
Is that *your* opinion, or is it not, Newman?
This is a person (cough) who apparently actually makes some portion of his living prognosticating about prospects. I choke, calling Mr. Newman a person, as he’s obviously abrogated the primary requirement of personhood: having your own feelings & opinions. Weakly, he went out of his way to attribute his indirect stupidity to others. Lack of competence, married to a lack of personal responsibilty He knows .250 is wrong. He knows .295-.290 is also wrong.
.
Grow a pair, Newman.
Either distance yourself from grotesque illogic, OR claim it for your own. Why make a psuedo-living repeating 7th-rate anonymous hearsay? Given Newman’s relatively solid, stolid track record, I couldn’t feel more distaste/contempt if he’d said what Matt Eddy said about Taveras last June and July. Look it up. (Matt Eddy = Pointless. Or worse.)
Sorry for the sour tone; I just look around and see (velocity whore) Goldstein, and (batting power whore) Parks, and cubbie whores (Callis, Manual), and height whore Keith Law, and 73.52 IQ Marc Hulet at Fangraphs, and “I-don’t-give-a-flyin’-F about having or expressing an actual thought of my own” Mike Newman, and I wonder if there’s a *single* breathing mainstream prospect maven soul other than Sickels who has anything resembling intelligence+objectivity.
You know what Sickels’ only weakness is, as a prospector? Listening to other people. He’s the best…but he could be so much better. If he just stopped incorporating the standard B.S.; the kinda stuff that suppresses the ranking of a kid like Miles Head or Anthony Garcia.
Oh yeah, and hold the J. Mayo. Piece of crap left Taveras off his top 100 pre-season. Can’t believe a talking emptyhead like that still has a job. Oh, wait; his job isn’t to think. Mayo’s job is to relatively eloquently repeat what *other* people think. Some job.
Rant. Over.
This guy is kidding, right? Someone really cares what random people on the Internet say about minor league baseball players? Hilarious.
Bob was not kidding and might benefit from a vacation.
Generally, my view is that if I don’t like what someone has to say, then I don’t read it. But then again, you should be able to derive knowledge from what someone has to say without agreeing with them. Every writer and analyst is making a solid effort to provide in depth coverage. Rather than indulging ourselves in hateful rants maybe we should value unique, and therefore naturally biased, backgrounds that each brings to the table as a strength It’s up to the reader to interpret these opinions, or choose not to read them.
When you gonna quit holding back and tell us what you really think, Bob?
I seriously should not stay up to watch Citizen Cain, or the British Open, or The Lookout ever again. (Though they all do have their unique virtues.)
In retrospect, they all clearly put me in a foul mood. ;)
(1.) Kill Bone.
Nonetheless, what I said — still goes. About all the anti-intellectual dreck. Too, too many lazyass bloodsuckers offering 2nd and 3rd-hand opinions on prospects. We all deserve much better.
Bob, a little perspective. There are 30 major-league organizations. Each has four full-season minor-league teams, which means roughly 3,000 active minor leaguers at any given time, just on the full-season squads. Then you throw in 3 or 4 short-season teams per organization, populated in large part by the 1,500 guys who were drafted just last month.
Even if you narrow it down to an average of perhaps 25 interesting players per club, how would it be possible for any human being to keep track of 750 players, much less scout them in person and form his own opinions of them?
If Newman has talked to 2 different scouts about 1 specific prospect, that’s actually pretty good reporting, considering how many players he needs to know about to do his job.
I don’t get this broad, vicious criticism. They’re reporters. They report what they see, what they hear, and what they know. They need to be fair and accurate, and to protect their sources when scouts and executives share information with the understanding that it can’t be linked back to them. They’re under no obligation to know all information that could possibly be known about every single player at any given moment.
You’re being awfully charitable Lou. I’m still not sure how it defends the misrepresentation of Taveras. That you can actually find one scout that down on the kid is doubtful. Two? Not buying it. If Newman were pressed about his 2 scouts, wonder if he could come up with legitimate names.
WHERE IS CARSON KELLY?
He has 4 HRs in John City so far.
Also, according to BA, he’s tied for the 4th-youngest player in the Appy League:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2012/07/the-youngest-in-each-league-mid-season-edition/
Another fun fact from the report:
Not only is Rosenthal one of the youngest players in the NL, if he’d stayed in the TL he’d be one of the 20 youngest in that league as well (a list that includes Taveras, Martinez, and Wong).
Also, Juan Perez, a RHP in the DSL, is one of the youngest pro ballplayers in any league. He turns 17 in a few days. He’s holding his own, too — lots of walks (21 in 28 IP), but also 28 K and only 20 hits allowed.
Rosenthal looked like a real deal with that fastball.
Smooth easy delivery for Rosenthal ball just explodes out of his hand mid 90s velocity. Would like to see some more of his secondary pitches in his next appearances like that hard slider didn’t really show it.
Well, he did strike out the last batter on back to back curves. Guy throws 100 and Yadie called for 2 curves in a row. That tells me Yadie has confidence Rosenthal can throw it for strikes.
Went to the Batavia/Auburn game last night. Here are some quick observations:
Mejia has one slick glove. He made a play where he went far to his left way base the second base to snatch a slow grounder and throw the runner out at first. He also made a play where there was a high chopper that had some English on it. At the plate, he showed quick hands and some pop with a double in the gap. I’m going to be watching this one…
Valera also has soft hands and he and Mejia turn two double plays. He is on the small side, but he, too had a quick swing. I’m going to be watching him, too. He looks smooth
Outside of a bases-loaded single, Wisdom had a day to forget. His two errors were two sharply ground ball hit right at him. The errors seemed to get him down. He also grounded into a double play early in the game and had a chance to drive more runs in but popped up. He slammed his bat into the ground, cracking it. He has nice size. I know it is only one game, but I was not impressed. Maybe (hopefully), it was just one of those days…
As a former catcher, I watched Jesus Montero the most. He actually looks like a younger Yadier — complete with a mohawk :) I was sitting in the front row behind Batavia’s dugout. Montero called most of the game himself, occasionally glancing into the dugout for a sign. He handled Freeman and the others great! He was pointing out mechanical flaws and framed the ball well. At the plate, he hit the ball hard, including one double in the gap. Just like Yadi, however, he is slow — he was thrown out at home by four or five feet.
Freeman was lights out. He is a tall, lanky (really skinny) lefty who at one point struck out four of five batters — mostly on a curve/slider that froze right-handed hitters all night. He worked quickly and was even-keeled throughout his time on the mound. When his mechanics became off, Montero let him know and he adjusted.
De La Cruz was simply lost. He did not look good at the plate at all. During one at-bat, it was like he was almost chopping at the ball.
What did Freeman sit and top out at on his fastball? Does he depend on deception or velocity?
The gun was not working at Auburn’s stadium. He was probably reaching the low 90s at times. very easy and simple delivery. He was in command with all of his pitches. Sometimes, he overpowered the hitters, but mostly they could not handle his breaking stuff
How about Montero’s arm? Did he get tested?
He did not get tested. I can you tell that he had a quicker feet/exchange and stronger arm than Auburn’s catcher. I’m just saying that based on their throws down to second at the beginning of each inning. The Auburn’s catcher, you could tell he was trying to do it as fast as possible and he still could not top Montero
Thanks for the report.
Saw Montero quite a bit in spring, he’s got a cannon and quick feet. Very underrated guy. Seems to be finally catching on with the bat. He does remind me of a young Molina.
I asked Brian Walton about Jesus Montero here’s his insight on him. “Short, stout. Good d, emerging bat”
Thanks, KBF, for the report.
Ben Freeman. 6’2″, 150. John Carradine-esque.
FYI—Toronto and Houston just made a big deal involving JA Happ
Also former farm hand David Carpenter dealt to Toronto.
Also included in this trade was the entire cast of the Shakespeare play “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Which means Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington just got traded to Toronto. These were good players in their prime but I don’t think either has much left in the tank.
Never, Never put Keanu in a movie with a really good actor like Branaugh. Its like putting and ugly girl next to a supermodel. Why highlight the flaws?
Well, Branaugh is a Shakespeare master so he is going to outclass just about everyone in those roles. But I liked Denzel Washington in Much Ado About Nothing. Thought he held his own.
Good to see Rodriguez hitting for power especially in the pitching friendly FCL. Too bad Rodriguez is blocked by Wong at 2B. Heard he’s got some tools. Anyone got any scouting information Starlin Rodriguez?
Freeman was 88-92 according to the Batavia gun. This kid should be getting a lot more attention than he is. He is only 20! Youngest pitcher on the staff. Very good breaking ball and changeup also.