Springfield prevails in game one of their second round playoff series behind a phenomenal outing from Carlos Martinez and some timely home runs. Let’s get to the good stuff….
Hitting
- Jermaine Curtis went 1-for-3 w/ 1 BB
- Jamie Romak went 2-for-4 w/ a solo shot
- Greg Garcia went 1-for-2 w/ 1 HR, 2 R and 1 RBI
- Mike O’Neill continues to impress and surprise, he went 1-for-3 w/ a 3-run home run
- Xavier Scruggs contributed with 1 BB and 1 R in 3 PA
Pitching:
- From a prospect watcher perspective, Carlos Martinez was the star of the night: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB and 7 K
- Eric Fornataro pitched a perfect inning that included 1 K
- Michael Blazek pitched one scoreless inning that included 1 H and 1 K
Entries (RSS)
Great start from C-Mart. Nice to see a start where his stuff actually leads to strikeouts
Was lucky enough to watch the game last night, Curtis missed a homerun by a couple inches(hit the yellow line and bounced back in for a single). Martinez was phenomenal. He was throwing all his pitches for strikes and threw a couple of the best Changeups I think I’ve ever seen, one of which struck out the rehabbing Mike Napoli. There were two potentail double play balls that were botched at second that probably prevented him from being able to go a little deeper in the game
Wong botched 2 DP balls?
I saw that Garcia was charged with an error (his 4th in 6 playoff games, according to milb.com), but he was also involved in 3 DPs.
Strange to see how little offense Springfield is generating. Good thing 3 of 5 hits last night were HRs.
Martinez’s change-up really keeps hitters off balance when he commands it well down in the zone.
Cardinals love position players with low strike out rates. Do Mike O’Neill And Jermaine Curtis have enough speed and arm to make it to the Big Show in 2 years or even next year ? Are they players that have “true grit”, can bunt & get down & dirty.
I think the real question is whether they have enough power.
I don’t know how either scores on the all-important grit tool.
But according to the Springfield paper, Curtis acts as interpreter for Taveras. Is multilingual ability a tool?
Jermaine Curtis is actually a steady defensive 3B the times i’ve seen him play. Ever since he worked to improve his quickness in the off season he’s been steady at 3B. I tend to agree the question is whether Curtis hits for enough power. On the other hand Mike O’Neil is a very pesky hitter that doesn’t have much pop but works the count consistently and gets on base at a high rate.
Curtis has good range and enough arm strength to get by but lacks the power production at the hot corner.
org guys
Curtis is probably an org guy, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him get a cup of coffee or two, or possibly a utility/DH role with a second-division AL team, before he’s done. (Houston, do you copy?)
O’Neill … well, it isn’t clear yet exactly what he is, but “org guy” probably is not the right description. Guys with his tool set (tremendous plate discipline, plate coverage, and bat control, but no power at all) can go anywhere from “washed out at AA” to “long and interesting major-league career a la David Eckstein.” It’s just too early to tell with him. He’ll be interesting to watch next year, although the odds are against him.
I agree with you on O’Neil just a very pesky hitter that has tremendous plate discipline, plate coverage and bat control but no power at all. If O’Neil doesn’t get an opportunity with the Cardinals he could get a type of specific role with another major league club since he knows how to get on base at a high rate and plays all three OF positions.
I love when our top prospects get a chance to pitch in the playoffs. It seems like the organization tells them they can forget about whatever skills they are supposed to be developing, and just go out there and do what they do best, which makes sense since it is one of the few times in the minors when winning trumps development.
meanwhile on the big club carlos beltran continues his offensive suckishness
The post dispatch reported this morning that the club was not planning on renewing their contracts with Quad Cities or Batvia, and said they would look at different cities. Should this be looked at as a negative thing, or just something that happens over time? Is this purely a location/facilites issue?
Carlos with a 12-to-1 groundout/flyout ratio last night, too.
My favorite part was: men on 2nd and 3rd, just one out, he strikes out the next two batters, with 5 of the 6 strikes swinging. (Lots of swinging strikes for Martinez yesterday.)
Everyone who thought that Garcia and O’Neill(!) would provide the power, raise your hand. ;)
I don’t know much about O’Neill’s defensive chops, but if he can add some pop to his bat, he could become very interesting very fast, given his unholy plate discipline markers. I hope the club challenges him with a AAA placement to start next year….
Carlos Martinez has just learned how to become a pitcher instead of a thrower this season meaning polished now.
We can thank Dennis Martinez for that. He needs to be in St. Louis instead of Palm Beach.
We can than Dennis Martinez for smoothing out C-Mart delivery to be less violent he’s been real effective ever since he recoiled his delivery.
Last night was Greg Garcia’s 12th HR of the year (10 in season and 2 in playoffs). He was also HBP last night about an inning after Frisco’s Mike Napoli (rehabbing Ranger) was HBP. Retaliation??? Probably not.
O’Neill’s HR was his first of the season and second of his career. You talk about good timing!
Wong didn’t botch anything. Garcia dropped one (tried to turn 2 before catching the ball) and Scruggs threw over Garcia’s head for another. Still not sure why he didn’t get an error on the play
Good to know, thanks.
C-Mart was awesome last night..watched it on milb.tv..dominating stuff..he got Napoli in the first AB to ground weakly to Wong then in the second ab he threw about a 100mph fb right by him on the outside corner..a perfect really tough to hit pitch
Wacha tonight. Good to see C-Mart bounce back from the last start. Dominated it looks like.
Eric Fornataro has really caught fire out of the Springfield bullpen in the playoffs tossing 5 consecutive scoreless innings in the TL playoffs so far. Fornataro has a mid 90s fastball that has shown a lot of life lately with a much improved big loopy curve-ball that’s shown better location and more consistentency and sharpness since moving to the bullpen this season.
It will be interesting to see the organizations long term plans with Fornataro since he is elgible for the Rule 5 draft in the winter.
Why do cards play kosma ahead of Jackson? I thought Jackson was a steadier, less error prone shortstop with more range at least in Memphis. He also seemed a better hitter.
That’s a good question..I don’t know why Matheny is so reluctant to start Jackson..i’d like to see what he can do with a couple games in a row starting
It must be Kozma who has the pictures….
That’s Mozeliak pushing Matheny to start Kozma so that Mo can prove that he was indeed a better draft pick then Rick Porcello.