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Lefties lead the high minors and top prospects lead the low minors.

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Quad Cities puts a hurting on Peoria tonight. Shelby Miller has another abbreviated outing and Springfield knocks a few balls out of the park.

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In case you missed it …

• Steve Batterson of the Quad Cities Times takes a look at the 22 year old Virgil Hill who has seen limited playing time in QC this season. Hill was a 2009 draftee who has slowly been moving through the system from the Gulf Coast Cardinals to Johnson City to Quad Cities to Batavia and now back to Quad Cities.  Hill discusses the 2011 demotion and how he handled it.
• Derrick Goold delves into the future of first base in a post-Pujols era and finds … not Matt Adams but Allen Craig.  It’s an interesting look ahead because it alludes to a nice problem that the Cardinals will have as the move forward. Consider that Matt Holliday is under contract through 2016 and Carlos Beltran through 2013. Behind those two players are a host of prospects and young players under team control that are restricted to the corners of the outfield and infield: David Freese, Allen Craig, Matt Carpenter, Matt Adams and Zack Cox. Clearly, that’s more players than you have positions. And that’s not even mentioning Oscar Taveras who could be ready for a big league debut in 2013. Again, it’s a nice problem to have but one to keep an eye on.
• Goold also notes that it will be a few more months before we see Mitch Harris — a 2008 draftee — on a regular basis.
• Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com talks Charlie Tilson and Mitch Harris with Cardinals’ Farm Director John Vuch.
• Baseball America has the minor league transactions from the last week. The Cardinals shuffle a handful of players on and off the DL. No major moves.
• Proof that local coverage is, at times, better than national coverage. Baseball America’s JJ Cooper expresses surprise at Oscar Taveras’ power ouput.  As we often noted here last year, Taveras put up monster power numbers in 2011 for a 19-year-old.  With a .198 ISO in a slight pitcher’s park, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see Taveras hitting for power (.327 ISO) in 2012 in Hammons Field as a left hander.  There’s also the usual equivocating about his defense and being a “proficient corner outfielder” but everyone doubting his ability to stay in center. Keep on proving them wrong, Oscar. I believe.
• Baseball Instinct profiles Trevor Rosenthal.
• If you want to prep for the draft, I recommend John Kilma’s Baseball Prospect Report site.  Kilma, this week, touched on, for a second time, one of the players with the potential to go first overall in this year’s draft, Mark Appel.
• Oscar Taveras made the 10-pack this past week with Kevin Goldstein.

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The system goes 2-for-3 and, outside of Jake Shaffer and Zack Cox, lacks any standout performers. None of the starters had a great night though many of them pitched reasonably well.

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One of the surprise stalwarts for the 2011 Johnson City Cardinals was Kyle Hald. I’ve mentioned his impressive command during his time there last year when he walked just 12 batter sin 53.2 innings. That’s a walk rate around 2 per 9 IP. Hald was old for his level but the command was still noteworthy.

What may have been overlooked was the 2011 work of Seth Maness, which was split between Batavia, Quad Cities and Palm beach. Maness clearly out-controlled Hald during his 53 innings of work walking just 5 batters. Now, Maness finds himself in the midst of a 34 inning walkless streak. (He ended 2011 with 5.2 walkless innings so you can mentally tack those onto the streak if you’d like.)

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Catching up on our poll from a couple days back, Seth Maness pitched another 7 innings without a walk putting his season total at 34. 47% of you voted for “5+ innings” of walkless baseball.  The rest of the non-believers shall be shunned.

A great lineup of arms today around the farm.

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A double header in Quad Cities and Seth Maness takes the mound to extend a streak.  Those of you who chose Shelby Miller in yesterday’s strikeout pole were the winners despite his abbreviated outing.

Also, a brief two-fold request/reminder. (1) Things have been getting a little chippy in the comments lately. I’m okay with the occasional “elbow” but keep things in bounds. (2) Think about whether your conclusions are supported by the evidence. The next question should be whether your conclusion also requires an inference of information you cannot know. We have a lot of data about the minor leagues but over-reaching with conclusions is something that I’m seeing a lot of lately.  Always be a skeptic and leave room for doubt because nothing is set in stone with baseball and especially not with prospects.

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One of the things that those who follow the Cardinals’ farm system right now have to struggle with is that the two top hitting prospects, Matt Adams and Oscar Taveras, have a very similar hitting profile but one that isn’t found among many elite players. This concern, the dearth of walks, has been a common refrain here and it’s a legitimate concern but it’s also one that we’ll simply have to adapt to.

I’ve made comparisons for Matt Adams before based on his statistical profile and while Taveras differs in his defensive capabilities, offensively, he’s not that far off from Adams.  Both players hit for elite levels of power, make consistent contact with moderate strikeout rates and don’t walk much. But what exactly does that last piece look like in the majors?

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