Archive for the “Blake King” Category

This has been mentioned in passing a few times but with the graduation of Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas to mainstays in the Cardinals’ bullpen and the knee injury to Adam Reifer, suddenly a farm system that looked rich in right handed relief prospects seems lacking.  We’ll traverse the system looking for pitchers who could be the next prominent relief prospect.

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In an effort to be timely, I though I’d take a quick glance at the big name relief prospects in the high minors. Before we get into the numbers, I think the major league pen is fine despite two nasty outings in a row. These things happen when you have a closer who lives on his control and a somewhat crazy-ex catcher who throws pitches into the dugout on a bad play.

There is not currently a player in the pen that I can definitively and unquestionably point to and say, “What is he doing in the majors?!?!?”.  Generally, that statement is followed by an expletive but we’re a family friendly blog.  Part of what brought this post to fruition was a comment from the Cardinals broadcasting pair last night with regards to Kyle McClellan’s future. There seems to be some continued curiosity about his repretoire and converting to starting pitching.  It’s understandable considering that he has a full complement of pitches (FB, CH, CU, SL) but I’ve long had trepidation about Kyle McClellan.

In any event, the Cardinals continue to produce some interesting relief options in the minors. What follows is an admittedly incomplete list of players that may be ready in 2011 or 2012 for a shot at the bigs.

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Our old friend Kary Booher breaks down the rosters of each of the Hawaiian League rosters.

FORGET ABOUT THE REGULAR SEASON: Cardinals righthander Tyler Herron, a 2005 first-round supplemental pick, was only mediocre in Double-A Springfield after arriving in early May and eventually was demoted back to high Class A Palm Beach. He was a combined 7-7, 4.17 with 102 strikeouts and 40 walks in 138 innings. But he also struggled to pitch beyond the fifth inning in Double-A and doesn’t have the put-away fastball, requiring him to pitch to contact.

X-FACTOR: Cardinals righthander Blake King, a nephew of the late Mickey Mantle, was 3-8, 4.52 in 93.2 innings this year in A-ball. A former juco standout in Oklahoma, King struck out 105 but also walked 85 this season.

One of the nice things about Booher’s hire is I think we’ll be hearing a little bit more about Cardinal prospects.

Non-baseball observation: Tyler and Blake had to have been the trendy name to give your kid if they were born in the mid-eighties. Just looking in the Cards’ system, it seems like there is nearly a dozen Tylers and Blakes. I shouldn’t gripe, I suppose. I once considered myself to be pretty anti-trendy when it came to baby names, and now I have a son named Landon…pretty trendy. I wanted to name him Miles, after the jazz musician, but my wife wasn’t having it. Next time.

Baseball observation: There are some pretty good and intriguing prospects going over to Hawaii. Buster Posey, Yonder Alonso, Jason Castro, Andrew Brackman, (the Yankees 1st rounder from last year, who is coming back from Tommy John), Jeremy Bleich, Roger Kieschnick, Chris Carter (Oakland’s Chris Carter who came over in the Haren deal), Corey Brown, Ryan Kalish, Todd Frazier, Tony Thomas, the list goes on. Should be a pretty competitive league, with Japanese players sprinkled throughout.

I just received word that the Cardinals will be sending Tyler Herron, Blake King, Arnoldi “Tony” Cruz and James Rapoport to the Honolulu Sharks of the Hawaiian Winter League. That sure beats last year’s group of Marco Gonzalez, who finished throwing in middle relief in AA and Michael Cooper, who was released early in the season. The league starts on the 27th of this month. Mike Budaska, the hitting coach for Memphis, will be the hitting coach for the team.

• Tyler Herron‘s stock slipped this season from last given how hittable he proved to be in AA, but taking his cumulative numbers and neutralizing for park and luck, he did manage a respectable 3.99 FIP. He threw nearly 150 innings, so I would imagine they won’t stretch him out too much in Hawaii.
• Blake King struck out ten batters per nine innings between the Quad Cities and Palm Beach, but also walked over seven batters per nine. Obviously, he’ll be working on his control.
• Arnoldi Cruz got off to a slow start, but was coming on pretty strong in until hitting the DL in July. He was hitting .308/.342/.511 throughout June and July. Not sure if he’ll be catching or playing 3B.
• James Rapoport hit .277/.322/.339 with 23 steals between Palm Beach and Springfield this past season. He struggled to hit in AA. Seems like a Scott Podsednik clone.

It could prove to be a pretty competitive league, with five first rounders going to play, including Buster Posey and Yonder Alonso. We will keep you posted on the Cardinals progress while they suffer for their craft in sunny Hawaii.