Archive for the “Blake Hawksworth” Category

Ok, so this is slightly out of the range of FR, but it involves some of our once and future “Future Redbirds”, so I thought it would be an appropriate venue.  And of course, you know you would like a break from the draft reviews.

Either way, today I will endeavor to prove that the Cardinals have improved their organization through the two trades they made this offseason.

Cardinals trade RHP Blake Hawksworth to LA for SS Ryan Theriot.

Cardinals trade SS Brendan Ryan to SEA for RHP Maikel Cleto.

I’m going to start out with an assumption, but based on how the Cardinals have gone about their business, this is obviously their decision.

1. Ryan Theriot > Brendan Ryan

Whether you agree with this or not (or whether I agree with this or not) is not the point.  The Cardinals believe this to be true, so we will use it as our assumption.

Some corollaries:

a. Fernando Salas > Blake Hawksworth

Over both of their short times in the majors, Salas has more strikeouts per nine innings and a better strikeout to walk ratio.  The same can be said for both players minor league careers as well.  And Salas is not even known to have overpowering stuff.

b. Eduardo Sanchez > Blake Hawksworth

The Cardinals have another up and coming right-handed bullpen arm in Eduardo Sanchez.  Over his minor league career, Sanchez has struck out almost 10 batters per 9 innings.  Although both Hawksworth and Sanchez have similar K/BB ratio, Sanchez’s higher strikeout rate seals the deal.

Obviously, strikeouts and walks do not show all that a pitcher can do, but it gives a quick look at a players control and ability to miss bats, both of which are crucial out of the bullpen on a major league ballclub.  Additionally, Hawksworth’s subtraction can be seen as an addition by subtraction because it makes room for both Salas and Sanchez in the major league bullpen in 2011.

2. Maikel Cleto > Blake Hawksworth

We have already made the points why the moves are for the best for the major league team, but now we can dig further and see why the moves have made the farm system stronger as well.  For evidence on this, we do not have to dig into the stats, just a quick tweet from Baseball Expert Joe Sheehan:

Cards got more for Ryan than they gave up for Theriot.

So, if we use that evidence from Mr. Sheehan, Cleto is a better prospect and better pitcher than Hawksworth.

QED

So, with all the evidence presented, I have now proved the Cardinals have made their franchise better with these two trades.  Obviously, I take the largest point of contention and put it as the assumption, but since this is Future Redbirds, we will leave those types of arguments to Viva El Birdos and other outlets that cover the major league club.  The Cardinals added Cleto into a position of strength, right handed relief, but they have also added to a position of weakness in the system: power arms.

So, have at me in the comments and math people can let me know how badly I butchered proofing.

Two quick notes before the meat of the post:

• The draft mailbag will be posted Monday.  My apologies for the lateness, my schedule has precluded much blogging this week as you may have noticed.  Tuesday is the draft and we’ll be here chatting about it.  We expect you to be here as well.
• cardsfan1, our resident tipster, indicated that Hawksworth got the callup last night.  I’m a little unsure of this because of the risk involved in calling him up.  He can’t simply be optioned down again and would have to pass through waivers.  Now, the Cardinals have a plethora of guys like Hawksworth who are backend starter types so it certainly wouldn’t be a crippling loss but there’s more risk here than a Mitchell Boggs callup.  This is all probably related to the Lohse to DL move, which, by the way, once again shows the incompetency of the medical decisions this season with regards to the DL.

Moving on. . .

Obviously Jess Todd didn’t have the kind of callup that we’d all hoped for.  There’s not much to read into a night when 1) he’s pitching for the first time in the bigs and 2) the Rockies go to score 11 runs against some of our best relievers.

Inspired by The Destroyer’s promotion, bgh sent some quality shots of Todd from an Iowa Cubs v. Memphis Redbirds game.  And, I hope he doesn’t mind, but I have to quote the first line of the e-mail, which had me laughing uproariously at work:

My girlfriend has been holding these pics hostage for about a month via her indifference to my baseball photos.

With much thanks to bgh, pictures after the jump.  Don’t look to close, you might get hurt. . .

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday was an ugly day for the Cardinals, losing 20-6 to the Dodgers.  My man in Jupiter described the scene as “pathetic”.  The good news is that Brian Barton continues to make a strong case for making the team.  He went 2-3 yesterday with a triple.  Colby Rasmus (who really needs a good nickname, if you ask me) went 1-2 with a double and a run, and Joe Mather went 1-2 with an RBI single and a run scored. 

 On the pitching side of the prospect ledger, Mark Worrell went one inning and gave up two hits, one a homerun, and walked a man.  His spring ERA is now at 6.00, which puts a damper on my hopes that he would make the club out of Spring Training.  Blake Hawksworth gave up three runs in two innings of work, but struck out five Dodgers. 

 Today, Clayton Mortenson started because Anthony Reyes has flu-like symptoms.  I will be in Florida starting on Wednesday, so I will be reporting back on what I see with pictures and words.