Author Archive

I apologize in advance for the weakness of the introduction tonight (or really the complete lack of a proper introduction), but hey, all of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales weren’t timeless works of art, were they? Oh, they were? Well, who cares about English literature anyway, this is about baseball. Lots of action on the farm today – all the details are after the jump.

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The News-Leader has an interesting article about the Cardinals involvement with Buddy Biancalana’s “Motion Science” system to help ballplayers improve. Now, I still harbor a grudge against Mr. “Can’t hit is way out of a paper sack” for his .435 OBP performance against the Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, but if his system is helping guys like Adam Ottavino and Daryl Jones be all they can be, then I’m all for it.

There was limited action in the system today, with only three teams playing. All the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, you’ve probably all heard by now, but I will post the link to Team USA’s 7-0 victory over Netherlands. They play Cuba tonight.

Derrick Goold has some notes about Colby Rasmus‘ rehab and Josh Kinney‘s intention to return to the team this season. Goold also posted this article about Rasmus and a whole lot of other minor league related notes.

Kevin Goldstein answered three Cardinals questions in his chat the other day. Since it isn’t a subscription piece, I don’t feel bad giving them to you here in their entirety (although you really should subscribe to BP and visit every day):

KCardinal (KC): With Daryl Jones turning his tools into performance this year, will he make your top 100?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m a big Daryl Jones supporter and he’s got a lot of tools, but Top 100 is pushing it.

MikeJordan23 (Brooklyn): I’ll keep asking until you answer: With Brett Wallace hitting abilities but lack of position should the Cardinals trade him to the AL when he’s eligible or find him a new position? And thoughts on Niko Vasquez?

Kevin Goldstein: Stop asking! You don’t really worry about any sort of logjam until you are forced to. The Cardinals right now have a valuable commodity in their minor league system, but there is no reason to start making any decisions on it. Thoughts on Vasquez? I’m a big, big fan.

Jason Motte (Memphis): Would my one-pitch repetoire hold up in the Majors right now?

Kevin Goldstein: Seriously, what’s up with all the Jason Motte questions? Is there a fan club or something? I love the guy, gotta give it up for any converted catcher who has 97 whiffs in 58.2 innings at Triple-A. That said, I think he’d get righties out right now, but his arm angle and lack of secondary stuff would give him trouble against lefties.

Action all over the system (and the globe) – all the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By now everyone has heard, but I’ll provide the link anyway: the US lost its opener to South Korea 8-7 (the details of Brian Barden‘s day will be included after the jump).

I love reading articles like this: Baseball America discusses the “rebirth” of the Cardinals minor league system as exemplified by the talent accumulating at Memphis [unfortunately the article is subscription only].

The Quad Cities Times has a profile of Adron Chambers.

The system had all six teams in action today and all the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

We continue our way around the infield with a look at the shortstops in the Cardinals system. As with second base, shortstop has been a weak spot in recent years – the last shortstop of any signifigance that came through the system was Jack Wilson, who made his major league debut in 2001 with the Pirates. Brendan Ryan was with the big league club for most of the season and many hoped that he could become the everyday shortstop for the Cardinals, but his performance this season has made that possibility seem remote.

Unlike the keystone, however, the minor league system currently has talent at the position sprinkled throughout the levels. We’ve got a minor league trade acquisition playing at a high level in AAA (and now the Olympics), a first round draftee that has regained some luster in AA (and hopefully will continue to do so at AAA), a recent first round draftee that has been proving that he deserved such a high pick in A ball, and a 2008 high school draftee that has been tearing up rookie ball. We’ll take a look at them all after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I missed this in last night’s DFR, but it was mentioned by an astute commenter: Adam Daniels was released and Brandon Buckman was promoted to Springfield. I’m not sure he earned a promotion with a .260/.334/.344 line at Palm Beach, but he went 2-4 in his first outing at Springfield.

This articleat Baseball America is subscription only, but it shows the bonuses given out for every pick in the first round of this year’s draft compared to the projected slot. Note that the Cardinals game in at (or under) the slot for each pick.

The system played five games tonight and went 2-3. All the details are after the jump.

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Chris Perez is back up to the major leagues (and LaRussa relied on him to finish the game tonight for his first career save). LaRussa says that he is going to go with a closer-by-committee approach for the time being, saying:

“There isn’t anybody in that bullpen that couldn’t pitch the ninth inning, in my opinion,”

Not to be snarky, but I can think of a couple of guys in that bullpen that have proven that they are not capable of handling the ninth inning. It will be interesting to see how the committee works out.

The News-Leader has a profile of Luis Perdomo, who was acquired from the Indians for Anthony Reyes.

The system was in full swing tonight, with six full games and the completion of a suspended game. They went 3-4 and all the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The deadline has passed and the Cardinals were not involved in any trades, so the farm system remains the same as it was 24 hours ago. Bernie has an article about the Cardinals posture at the trading deadline. He uses a bit of a tortured metaphor in comparing prospects in the farm system to cheetah cubs and finishes the article with this:

If Mozeliak must pass up reasonable, non-crazy trades to protect the cheetah cubs that are tucked away in the thick brush, I just hope DeWitt and Luhnow are as smart as they think they are. I hope all of these STL prospects are as dynamic as advertised.

I don’t know what the standings will look like in 2011.

I don’t know if the Cardinals will have a chance to win in 2012.

But I can see the 2008 standings and I do know this: The Cardinals have a chance to win now.

This is the type of thinking that had me worried for the last couple of weeks. The Cardinals are set up far better to make a move next year than they are this year. Just because they’ve overachieved this season and are a fringe playoff contender doesn’t mean we should scrap the bigger picture plan.

Derrick Goold asks the “what-if” question about the untouch-ability of Colby Rasmus.

The system had another full slate (I was just about blogged out after putting together last night’s DFR with eight games) and finished 4-2.  All the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Carpenter pitched about as well as could be expected. According to the FSN South broadcast he hit 93 and was sitting at 90-91 during his four innings. His location was a bit off, like it was in the minors, but overall he looked pretty good. Wainwright is next and he may get a start at Springfield on Monday.

There were lots of games tonight, as all six of the minor league teams had action scheduled and both Palm Beach and Quad Cities had double headers. All the details are after the jump.

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Part one and part two got us through the twenty-seventh round and this finale will take us all the way to the end. The odds are extremely long for these guys, but there are several interesting guys at the bottom of this year’s draft for the Cardinals that bear watching. We’ll take a look at them all after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »