Seth Maness does the unthinkable in Springfield bringing his season walk total up to 9 by issuing 2 free passes. Johnson City romps Princeton twice in one day and Kolten Wong flashes a little power.
- Eugenio Velez and Matt Young were both 2-for-3. Young walked.
- The Memphis lineup is absolutely decimated at this point. The lineup is full of players signed after other teams released them or pickups from independent leagues. Adron Chambers is the closet thing to a prospect in the lineup.
- Brandon Dickson pitched 6 innings allowing 7 hits and 1 walk for 2 earned runs. He struck out 6. The three relievers that followed Dickson all ended the night with ERAs over 6.
- Jorge Rondon was roughed up in the 9th for 2 runs on 3 hits. He would eventually strikeout 3.
- Kolten Wong was 2-for-5 with a double and a triple. It’s nice to see a little power in his box score.
- Jermaine Curtis and Xavier Scruggs both went 2-for-4.
- Adam Melker was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Audry Perez was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Another good outing from Seth Maness but there were walks this time. Maness gave out 2 free passes over 8 innings of work. He struck out 6 allowing 4 hits for 1 run.
- Michael Blazek pitched a perfect 9th striking out 2.
- James Ramsey was 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Chris Edmondson was 2-for-5.
- Cody Stanley was 3-for-5 with his first home run of the year.
- Ronnie Gil was 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base.
- Seth Blair continues to struggle walking 2 batters in 3 innings. He was tagged for 4 runs on 4 hits including a homerun. Blair struck out 2.
- Danny Miranda followed with 3 shutout innings allowing 2 hits and striking out 3.
- Nick Martini was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Quad Cities out hit Cedar Rapids 8-6 despite losing the game.
- Boone Whiting was effective for 5 innings as he held Cedar Rapids to 1 run on 3 hits and a walk. He struck out 5.
- Jonathan Cornelius and Heath Wyatt each followed with 1.2 innings of work. Cornelius would allow the tying run in the 7th and Wyatt would allow the winning run in the 9th.
- Danny Stienstra (1B) was 2-for-4.
- Jacob Wilson (3B) and Matthew Young (CF) were both 1-for-3 with a home run.
- Tyler Melling struck out 3 in 6 innings of work. He allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits.
- Lee Stoppelman looks unstoppelble. See what I did there? He struck out all four batters he faced to close out the game and pick up his 4th save. Stoppelman now has 37 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Johnson City 10, Princeton 9 (Game 1: 7 innings)
- Ildemaro Vargas (DH) was 2-for-4.
- Trevor Martin (2B) was 2-for-4 with a home run.
- Gerwuins Velazco (C) was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Johnson City tallied 13 hits in the game to go with 3 walks. Entering the 7 inning they were down by 5 and would score 6 against three different Princeton relievers for the walk off win.
- Willy Paulino was roughed up for 8 runs in 3.2 innings. He was mainly undone by three errors behind him resulting in 5 unearned runs. Paulino walked 1 and allowed 7 hits including 2 home runs.
- Cesar Aguilar allowed 1 run in 3.1 innings on 4 hits. He struck out 2.
- Ildemaro Vargas (DH) was 2-for-4 with a double.
- Adam Ehrlich (C) was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Bruce Caldwell (3B) was 3-for-4 with a double.
- Trevor Martin (2B) was 2-for-3 with a home run.
- Zachary Petrick was tagged for 4 runs (3 earned) on 5 hits. He struck out 3 in 3 innings.
- Joseph Donofrio would pick up the win with 2.2 shut out innings. He struck out 3 and allowed 3 hits.
Entries (RSS)
I saw on Brian Walton’s Twitter feed that Memphis released Mark Hamilton.
They also put Gast and Sam Freeman on the DL. Not sure what happened to either one. Hope it’s not anything serious.
Interesting that they’re keeping the Springfield team intact, presumably for the playoffs, rather than push them up to Memphis to fill the gaps. I like the strategy. I don’t think it would help any of the real prospects to join a team of minor-league free agents and journeymen that’s just playing out the string. Seems better to let them win now and move up next season.
They probably felt that a release was in his best interest to be a free agent.
No one wants to be in memphis.
Too many pitchers on amd off the DL.
Right oblique on Freeman. Have not seen anything on Gast.
Hamilton has been a good organizational soldier. I wish him the best.
Thought I saw somebody on twitter say Gast was DLed with shoulder soreness
This is accurate.
Gast pitched tonight, albeit horribly. He’s actually just off the DL.
Does anyone know why OT did not play for Springfield last night?
Rest.
Taveras needed to rest that violent controlled swing.
It would be nice to see some walks, to go along with those XBHs, for Wong.
I am not worried about it.
The thing you have to remember is that pitchers will challenge hitters like Wong because he isnt going to hurt him with a lot of homeruns. The type of hitter he is, will continuously see more pitches to hit and more strikes than a pure power hitter. Thus suppressing his walk total.
Generally there are two types of good hitters. Smaller guys need to hit for a higher average and a lot of doubles, so that the higher average supports the OBP and the doubles support the SLG number. These guys are generally going to get challenged with more strikes.
The second type is the high walk home run hitter. Everyone is familiar with this type.
OPS does a good job at catching the value of the hitters that can do a little of both….the Beltrans, Edmonds, Pujols of the world. But I always wonder if it doesnt undervalue the guys at the extremes of the spectrum.
Wong’s ISO this season has declined some down to .116 and he’s only slugging .402. You can till by just looking at his numbers he’s fatigued at the plate as the season progressed in his first full season of pro ball. I’m not worried about Wong’s walks either in his first full season in pro ball.
No, you actually can’t tell “just by looking at his numbers that he’s fatigued at the plate.” That’s just something you’re guessing to explain a downturn in his numbers as the season has progressed. I could just easily say he’s got a nagging injury, that he has a hole in his swing that pitchers are increasingly taking advantage of, that pitchers have figured him out and he hasn’t adjusted, that he’s becoming less patient and swinging at pitcher’s pitches. etc, etc.
The facts are that his walks are down, his K% is up, and his power is down from last year, all in a hitter friendly league.
Wong hit and a double and triple but was picked off tonight; perhaps he was fatigued from running the bases.
Well if pitchers actually are throwing a disproportionate number of strikes to Wong and thus challenging him (as you hypothesize), then he should be doing more with those strikes, because a .116 ISO and 109 wRC+ in the Texas League for a LH hitter at Hammonds Field isn’t much to write home about.
Not necessarily disagreeing with you…his double (XBH) rate is not particularly strong. SLG and ISO i personally feel over weight the homeruns, missing value in hitters that hit less homers and more doubles.
That said, getting overhyped on Wong is part of the problem. He has a pro approach at the plate but his ceiling is a slightly above average MLB hitter (for 2nd base) that has an average glove. I have been pretty consistent in this assessment since I saw him last year.
“SLG and ISO i personally feel over weight the homeruns, missing value in hitters that hit less homers and more doubles.”
???
Homers are roughly double the value of doubles (in terms of run expectancy): http://www.tangotiger.net/runscreated.html
So ISO would over value HR’s (though I don’t think anyone uses ISO solely as the criteria by which to judge a hitter, usually looking at OBP, which I deem more important anyway, as well), but SLG actually does not.
I dont want to get into an argument over SLG. My point was that there were different ways to value hitters. The hitter that hits a lot of doubles is demonstrating speed and base running skills that the stat wont register but will demonstrate themselves in other areas of the game. It is a gut reaction on my part not a bullet proof statistical argument.
Pretty certain that studies have shown that power is more important for generating doubles than speed.
You’d have a better argument for triples.
I am filing a complaint with the adjective police for the word effective being applied to my man Boone Whiting when a good, sharp, or high-quality certainly would have suited him better. I know we are a pitch to contact system but I have always had a soft spot for a guy with a good strike out rate.
Right-on!!
Bought a ticket on the Boone Whiting Bandwagon myself.
If they are going to continue to start Descalso against left hand pitchers, they should have left Jackson at Memphis to play every day until September and called up Kozma to sit on the bench. He was already on the 40 man anyway. Makes no sense to release Hamilton while they bring in all these castoffs to Memphis.
Don’t completely disagree with your sentiment, however, I think Jackson is getting the opportunity to see how the Cards work in the majors, get to know the players, and work with Oquendo. I’m betting that Jackson is as happy as a pig in do do and I doubt that he’s lost much of his edge so far.
I think Jackson will get a chance to play a little this year, and will be afforded an opportunity to make the team out of ST next year. He’s being tested much the way Greene has been. Can you play off the bench intermittently? We’ll see.
Mark Hamilton asked for and was granted his release by the Cardinal organization. Not sure if there were underlying reasons for his wanting out. Maybe it’s because Memphis has changed it’s name from the Redbirds to the Retreads. Although I’m not sure if that’s been officially announced yet.
More true than not, but Memphis now houses two of our top 5 or 6 prospects in Miller and Rosenthal – not exactly retreads….
When you sign 10+ career minor leaguers to fill out your roster. You’re the Retreads, inspite of our two brilliant young pitching studs.
I don’t think Jackson to be more than a utility player in the Bigs anyway, so I don’t see what benefit leaving Jackson to play everyday in AAA gets you.
I would have thought JC’s Shaban’s 14th save would have been mentionable.
Per Derrick Goold
[azru edit: Don't paste an entire P-D article here unlinked. That's not fair to Goold who is an excellent reporter.]
Awesome
I post “Wacha, Wacha, give me more Wacha” then JMo just turns the fire house on. Wacha might even get a start or two in AA this season. Wow.
No hits or runs, six strikeouts in three innings for Wacha tonight.
That makes me feel better about the prediction I made a week ago saying that we’d probably see Wacha at AA for the playoff run.
Lee Stoppelman now owns a 33.6% K rate this season in 27 IP has held opponents to a .158 as well intriguing.
The Stoppelman cannot be stoppled!
Free Lee!!
I see that Seth Maness “struggled” last night. His control was “erratic” as he walked 2 and gave up a massive 4 hits to include a HR in 8 innings….of one run pitching.
Gosh, I love this kid.
But, his K/BB ratio plunged to 10.6.
What is the story on Seth Maness?
No one else intrigued by Trevor Martin? Every site says he just turned 21 but I think that is wrong. I found a local blog that when writing about him being drafted said he was 18. It is unlikley he was playing HS ball as a 20 year old (most states dont allow that). Assuming he is 18 he is showing great power for a MI in the Appy league. He is getting better as the season progresses and his OPS in his last 10 games is over 1.500
Martin was drafted as a HS . . . In 2010. He was 18 in 2010, which he spent in the GCL.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/statistics/players/cards/93073
His numbers in JC have been good. I don’t see a reason not to promote him.
Thanks for correcting my stupidity. :)
I believe Martin was injured and did not play last season if my memory is correct.
Clever Azru: ” Stoppelman looks unstoppelble”. Kudos on your wit…….and on it being an accurate statement as well.
Scott Gorgen took a ball to the left knee and left tonight’s Memphis game… Walked off but wasn’t good. Wonder if he will be done for the year, given only a couple weeks left.
Gast is not on the DL. He is pitching (badly) today in Des Moines. Bad velocity and half his pitches are golfers.