The upper minors were pretty rough last night. Both Quad Cities and Batavia featured solid outings from their starting pitcher and Anthony Garcia makes another DFR.
- Lou Montanez was 2-for-4 with a homerun.
- Jose Garcia was 1-for-4 with a homerun.
- Scott Gorgen allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in 3.2 innings. He was tagged for 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4. A reader notes that the abbreviated outing was caused by a comebacker.
- Jess Todd struck out 4 in 2.1 innings of relief. He allowed 3 hits while holding Iowa scoreless.
- Adam Reifer allowed 2 hits while striking out 2 in 2 innings of work.
Springfield 4, Corpus Christi 12
- Kolten Wong was 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles.
- Xavier Scruggs was 1-for-3 with a walk and a home run. It was his 20th of the season.
- Scott McGregor was chased from the game after 1.2 innings. He allowed 4 hits and walked 3 for 8 runs (5 earned).
- Chase Reid did the yeoman’s job of saving the bullpen by pitching 3.2 innings and allowing 2 runs on 6 hits. He struck out 1.
- Deryk Hooker struck out 5 in 2.2 innings allowing 2 hits. Hooker, with the exception of one game, has pitched exclusively out of the pen to better effect than prior seasons. He’s sporting a healthy groundball rate, 37 strikeouts in 42 innings and 17 walks. The command could be better but there’s enough there to warrant keeping an eye on him as a potential future middle reliever.
- Palm Beach tallied just 4 hits and 3 walks.
- Kyle Hald had an uncharacteristic outing in which he walked 5 batters over 5.2 innings. He allowed 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out 4. That single outing constitutes 25% of his walks issued during 126 innings this season.
- Nick Longmire was 3-for-4 with a walk and a double.
- Anthony Garcia was 1-for-3 with a walk and his 17th home run of the season.
- QC had 10 hits and 5 walks in the game. Colin Walsh was the only hitter not to reach base. His injury has significantly derailed an otherwise stellar season.
- Tyrell Jenkins struck out 7 in 5 innings of work. He walked 3 and allowed 1 run on 4 hits.
- Yunier Castillo pitched a scoreless frame while allowing 1 hit.
- Ricky Martinez walked 2 and struck out 2 in 2 innings of work.
- David Popkins (RF) was 2-for-5 with a double.
- Patrick Wisdom (3B) was 1-for-4 with a home run.
- Jacob Wilson (DH) was 2-for-4 with a home run.
- Tim Cooney had an excellent outing striking out 5 in 6 scoreless innings. He walked 1 and allowed 4 hits. Cooney’s strikeout rate isn’t elite but he’s molded in much the same way as other Cardinal draftees from recent years in that his command is well above average to compensate.
- Jose Pasen allowed 4 hits and 3 runs (2 earned) in 1.2 innings. He struck out 5.
- CJ McElroy (CF) was 2-for-5.
- Ronard Castillo (LF) was 3-for-4.
- Ricardo Lizcano (RF) was perfect at the plate going 3-for-3 with a home run and a walk.
- Victor De Leon struck out 4 in 5 innings. He walked 2 and allowed 5 hits for 1 earned run.
Entries (RSS)
Dixon Llorens got hit hard again last night. He continues to alternate between good outings and horrible outings. His strike out rate made him look somewhat interesting, but so far at QC he has been haunted by the long ball.
Regarding Tim Cooney, this from Dan Kantrovitz on Twitter last night:
“Nice to see another strong outing by Tim Cooney for @BataviaMuckdogs – lefty from Wake Forest with excellent pitching mechanics.”
Tim Cooney command has improved a lot in pro ball this season, his command was listed as inconsistent in college looks like he’s refined it as he’s only walked 5 batters in 45.2 IP 0.99 BB/9, 2.9% walk rate, 1.05 WHIP.
Cooney a 6-foot-3 southpaw sits 88-91 consistently on his fastball also throws severely solid secondary pitches cutter is an out pitch sits in the mid 80s, curve-ball has been inconsistent also has had it’s times, change-up he uses most frequently against righties.
Speaking of improving command Victor De Leon’s is much improved as well as that was a question mark in ST is could he command his mid 90s fastball more consistent and his secondary stuff slider, and a curve-ball have shown progression this season as well.
Kolten Wong and his smooth LH swing and ability to spray the ball to all fields now has 34 XBH this season. After the RBI double last night for Oscar Taveras he now has 61 XBH this season.
Wong with 5 extra base hits in the last three games. Definitely good to see.
Does anyone know the story on any of the several cardinal farmhands who are on the so-called “restricted list”? Includes Conley, Luna, Stidham and others. Even Josh Wilson at QC. Is he attempting a 2nd comeback or what?
Don’t know about the others, but Brian Walton (IIRC) reported that Wilson was done after one appearance for the GCL Cards. I think it’s the 3rd time he’s retired.
The restricted list seems to be used for guys who voluntarily retire, or take time off for whatever reasons. I assume it prevents them from signing with other teams before they can leave as free agents. If the Cards have no interest in players they could just release them outright.
Conley and Stidham retired. Luna was coming back from injury; hadn’t heard that he retired, but he may have.
Luna did retire.
Not sure if I saw this mentioned here yet, but Wacha has been promoted to AA. (!!!) http://tinyurl.com/95zduyt
Does anyone know when he pitches next? I think he’s in line to pitch today, but I’m not sure if the promotion changes that.
Wacha pitches every 5 days in relief he last pitched on August 14th he’s in line to pitch tonight for Springfield.
Jenkins looked pretty good last night. Only thing that concerned me was, according to the stadium gun he lost a couple mph in the 5th inning. It had him sitting 91-92 through the first 4 but he dialed it up to 94 easily to get a tough out in Sano at one point, IIRC. I wasn’t counting, but I got the distinct impression that he was working on his curve as he threw it often. Just speculating, but it could be goals like that that up his BB total as he didn’t seem to have any trouble hitting the glove, maybe just worrying more about refining the breaking ball. Either way I was really impressed. Garcia’s HR was a blast to center/right-center, looked like he didn’t hit it perfectly, just muscled it out. I’m no scout so I don’t have much to say about Walsh since he didn’t get a hit, but he passes the amateur eye test. Swings hard. Really want to see him jump to Springfield next year.
Did you get to see Matt Williams make a play? How much range and arm strength and can he stick at SS long term?
Williams was involved in 2 or 3 plays, he made 1 throw to 1st that looked like a typical shortstop’s arm, not great like Furcal but certainly not Ecksteinian either. One I believe was a short throw to second and a force out he caught there. He looked comfortable, but didn’t have to run full speed at many balls so not sure about range just based on game action. In my opinion, he’s a shortstop long-term.