Archive for the “Brad Furnish” Category

Derrick Goold again.

Less surprising than the last round. Brad Furnish, a former second round pick, was a left hander who was touted early but not someone whom I’ve ever bought into. His command started to deteriorate and he just never progressed as a pitcher.

Knuckleballer Charlie Zink gets released to free up AAA innings for other pitchers. Zink was more of a circus act than a serious sixth starter for the big league club.

Hey y’all. Nope, still can’t pull it off. Oh well. I thought I would give it a shot, seeing as how I haven’t been around here much at all for quite a while.

You know, I was actually planning a post today taking that long-promised look at the Cincinnati farm system, but something erik put in his GCL wrap just a couple of days ago changed my mind. And I quote:

I don’t want to pick on Gary Daley any more than I already have, but when was the last time you’ve seen a 5/32 K/BB ratio? From a 22 year old in rookie ball? From a third round pick? That’s just…wow.

That got me to thinking. Over the past few years, the Cardinals have shown a proclivity for drafting a certain type of player, a certain draft demographic, if you will. I’m speaking, of course, of the raw college pitcher. A bit of an odd breed, to be honest. Traditionally, teams would draft one of two ways. If they wanted upside and talent, they would draft a raw high school kid. If they wanted experience and polish, they would draft a guy out of college, who was much closer to being a finished product. The Cardinals, however, have bucked that bit of conventionality by taking pitchers out of college programs who have had relatively poor results, often are considered very raw, and generally just need quite a lot of work.

Anyway, I immediately decided that, rather than discuss the Cincinnati Reds and their prospects, I would take a look at some of the pitchers that the Cardinals have taken out of this specific segment of the draft, and see if they’ve had any success at it. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that three of the pitchers the Cardinals are sending to the Arizona Fall League are left-handed, especially considering the “southpawfulness” we have witnessed this season. (Yeah, that’s right. Southpawfulness. Sure it’s corny, but every time you say it, you owe me a quarter.) The Cardinals may as well audition their in-house options while monitoring the free agent market. From the looks of things, the Cardinals will need more than just one lefty reliever, because as we know in any La Russa bullpen, having two left-handed specialists is sine qua non. I could see them spending money on a Joe Beimel type B free agent over the winter to be the main lefty out of the pen and a poster at VEB has a detailed outline as to what other free agents could be available. Feel free to discuss the major league side over there, but for right now, let’s explore the internal options.

Read the rest of this entry »