Neither player is anything flashy with the bat, and Burke was particularly awful last year, hitting for a .582 OPS. Burke’s Marcel projection has him pegged for a .303 wOBA, while Barden a .316. While Barden is expected to be the better with the bat, that’s a whole lot of meh for both batters…

What makes either of these players an asset to a major league team is their glove….or should I say gloves? Dave takes a look at Burke’s UZR numbers and notes that he is a very good 2B and corner outfielder. We don’t have UZR for the minor leagues, but if we did, I’d be tempted to do a naked jig in the 2 degree temperatures I am experiencing in Iowa right now. What we do have is Baseball Prospectus’ FRAA on their translations page, and they tell us that Barden was a +7 at SS last season,  one of the best defensive SS in the league. We also have Dan Fox’s Simple Fielding Runs from last year, and with his former team Tucson, Barden was +11 at 3B. All of this goes with positive scouting reports. When Baseball America polled PCL managers and coaches in 2005, they voted Barden the best defensive 3B in the league.

With Barden you have someone who is a little younger,  a little better of a hitter or at least equal, more defensively versatile and available at a cheaper rate. Seems to me that he is the definition of a utility man, so at age 27, why not give him a shot already?

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.

South Korea 8, USA 7

• Brian Barden had a great game hitting out of the #9 slot in the lineup. He was 3-4 with a double.

Round Rock 1, Memphis 2

• Jess Todd had another outstanding start for Memphis. He went 6.2 innings, allowing only four hits, one walk and one earned run while striking out six. He also had ten groundouts to four flyouts in the game. The Destroyer was on tonight.
• Kelvin Jimenez pitched a perfect 1.1 innings and Jason Motte got two strikeouts in his perfect inning to preserve the victory.
• The Redbirds only got three hits on the night: a single by Uncle Rico Washington and doubles by Jarrett Hoffpauir and Mark Johnson, but they made the most of them with the doubles following immediately behind one of Rico’s two walks which resulted in all the runs the team would need.

San Antonio 1, Springfield 1

• Brandon Dickson‘s adjustment to AA has not yet ended. He gave up four runs, three earned, on six hits and four walks over 4.1 innings. He also struck out four.
• Josh Dew allowed two unearned runs on a hit and a walk in 1.2 innings.
• The back end of the bullpen settled down as Marco Gonzalez, Jon Mikrut and Zach Zuercher didn’t allow a hit or a run as each pitched an inning.
• After a mediocre stint at Palm Beach, Brandon Buckman continued his assault on the Texas League, going 4-5 with a double. He is batting .462 in the seven games since his promotion.
• Daryl Jones was 1-3 with two walks.

Brevard County 3, Palm Beach 4 (in 11 innings)

• Pete Kozma struggled mightily, striking out three times and going 0-5.
• Luke Gorsett hit a two-run bomb.
• Brian Cartie was 1-3 with a double and a walk.
• Tyler Herron got the start and had a little bit of a rough game. He allowed three runs on nine hits and a walk over 5.1 innings.
• The relief pitching was excellent, as Wayne Daman (1.2 innings), the Casey Mulligan Experience (1 inning) and Fernando Samuel (1 inning) didn’t give up a hit for the rest of regulation.
• Pete Parise pitched the two extra innings, allowing three hits but no runs and picking up the win.

Quad Cities 5, Beloit 3

• Deryk Hooker‘s debut for Quad Cities went pretty well. He gave up one run on five hits over five innings and struck out a pair.
• Kenny Maiques pitched a scoreless 1.2 innings, but walked four.
• Dylan Gonzalez pitched the final 2.1 innings, giving up two runs on a hit and two walks.
• Brett Wallace was 3-5 and Jon Edwards was 2-5.
• Francisco Rivera was 2-3 with a walk and Oliver Marmol was 2-4 with a double and a stolen base.

Batavia 3, Tri-City 2

• Brett Lilley was 2-5 with a double.
• Beau Riportella was 2-4 with a double.
• Miguel Tapia got the start and had a little trouble. He lasted three innings and gave up two runs on four hits and three walks. He did manage to strike out three.
• Scott Gorgen didn’t give up any runs, but he allowed three hits and four walks in his 3.1 innings. He struck out four.
• Adam Reifer walked a pair and struck out a pair in a scoreless ninth inning.

Johnson City 1, Greenville 0

• Nico is in a little bit of a slump. He went 0-4 tonight and is 2 for his last 16.
• Curt Smith also was 0-4 and he struck out three times.
• Jarred Bogany had a nice night, going 3-4 and driving in the only run of the game.
• Edgar Lara was also 3-4 with two doubles.
• Osvaldo Morales was 1-3 with a double and a walk.
• Luis Mateo was 2-4.
• Scott McGregor has been on fire since getting promoted to Johnson City, he’s only allowed two earned runs in 22 innings (including tonight). Tonight he went six innings allowing only two hits and striking out five.
• Jose Mateo pitched two innings in relief allowing a hit and two walks and Jorge Rondon pitched a perfect ninth inning.

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.

Brian Barden – Barden was an astute waiver wire pickup by the Cardinals during the 2007 season. He had always hit well as he came up through the Diamondbacks organization (except, actually for the 2007 season), but 2007 would have been his third full season at AAA and Arizona needed a spot on their 40 man roster (I could be wrong, but I think it was so that they could call up Justin Upton). For Arizona, Barden was mostly a third baseman, but once he came to the Cardinals he mainly played shortstop (although he did play all over) and this season at Memphis 91 of his 98 games played have been at shortstop. He has hit well this season, putting up a .293/.357/.434 line and was selected to play for the U.S. in the Olympics. I am not sold on Barden as an everyday shortstop in the major leagues, but he should see some time as a utility player with a little sock off the bench.

Tyler Greene – Greene was a Cardinals first round pick in the 2005 draft (taken two spots after Colby Rasmus). He has been very inconsistent in his minor league career, with only one really good stop along the way (223 at bats at Quad Cities in 2006). Otherwise he has been disappointing. He has shown some glimmers of the talent that led to him being picked in the first round, such as the .327/.364/.564 line he put up in July for Springfield. With Barden off at the Olympics, Greene has been called up to AAA, which I think is a good thing. He’s at that point in his career where he needs to be challenged at the highest level of the minor leagues to prove that he still deserves to be thought of as a prospect.

D’Angelo Jimenez – No, I’m just kidding, we aren’t really going to talk about him.

Casey Rowlett – I talked about Rowlett when we covered the second basemen. He isn’t really a prospect, but he is valuable to the organization because he can be shuffled around positions and levels to cover where there is a need on the infield.

Jose Martinez – He was also more prominently mentioned in the coverage of second basemen, but since Greene has been promoted to Memphis, Martinez has been the everyday shortstop at Springfield (we will see if that changes, though, since Donovan Solano has been promoted to Springfield from Palm Beach). I’m not any more of a fan of his at short than I was at second base. He just doesn’t take enough walks – and with the disappearance of his power this season (.090 ISO), he hasn’t really offered much in the way of offense.

Donovan Solano – Solano is a twenty year old that has spent this whole season at Palm Beach and has done well. His line on the year is .286/.346/.351. It would be nice to see a little more in the way of power, but the .351 mark is actually the highest of his career. Considering that he is still pretty young for the level and is holding his own, I feel pretty good about his performance at this point. He was just promoted to Springfield, which might be a little aggressive for a twenty-year-old that wasn’t exactly dominating at Palm Beach. With Kozma pressuring from below and Martinez/Greene/Barden/Ryan all holding steady above him, it will be interesting to see how the Cardinals handle his progress.

Oliver Marmol – Marmol is a weak hitting, slick fielding twenty-two year old that has bounced between Quad Cities and Palm Beach this year. His ceiling is as a utility infielder, but he hasn’t shown any power at all or any offensive skills, for that matter, that will allow him to be even a utility guy much higher in the organization than he already is.

Pete Kozma – The criticisms of the Cardinal’s pick of Kozma in the 2007 draft were almost unanimous. Pete is one of those guys that does everything well, but nothing exceptionally. He is a solid fielding shortstop that hits for good average, gets on base at a good clip and hits for occassional power. His line this year at Quad Cities is .285/.362/.398. He will almost certainly never be an MVP candidate, but if he progresses through the system and remains above average in every facet of the game, he will be a very valuable major league player. He was recently promoted to Palm Beach as a reward for his solid play this year.

Domnit Bolivar – Bolivar is only nineteen and he’s been moved all over the infield in stops at Johnson City, Batavia and Quad Cities over the last two years. He hasn’t shown much with the bat at this point, but he’s also never really been given a chance to settle at one spot. It seems likely that he is being groomed for a utitility role unless he really breaks out with the bat (think Marmol minus three years).

Colt Sedbrook – Colt is more of a second baseman, but he has played 14 games at short this year, so he deserves mention. Having played four years of college makes him a bit old for his level (Batavia), but I like him quite a bit (as a second baseman, though).

Jose Garcia – Garcia is another in the mold of Marmol and Bolivar: he’s young (20 years old), has played all over the infield, and hasn’t shown much with the bat yet.

Nico Vasquez – Nico has been everything we hoped for as a draft pick and then some. Through 159 at bats his line is .321/.425/.478. The knock on him on draft day was that he has limited foot speed, but he has stolen five bases in seven attempts already, which is better than I would have guessed (although the defensive abilities of catchers at this level are wildly erratic). He is only nineteen years old and looks ready to prove himself at the next level. I would think that he would start 2009 at Quad Cities. Second base could be his position in the long run, especially if Kozma continues to advance, but that is a change that can be put off until it becomes necessary.

Guillermo Toribio – I like to call him Gino, even though that implies a completely different ethnicity and really doesn’t make sense. Gino seems to be another of the young, pliable, weak hitting group of infielders in the lower minor leagues for the Cardinals. I suppose there are worse strategies than grabbing a quantity of these guys and hoping that one or two improve enough with the stick to become useful.

Memphis is still off, with the AAA all star game being played tonight (Nick Stavinoha is Memphis’ lone representative – he went 1-2) so that leaves five teams in action tonight and they went 2-3 on the evening. All the details are after the jump.

Springfield 4, Tulsa 3

• Tyler Greene was 1-4 with a walk from the leadoff spot.
• Jon Jay was 3-5 with a stolen base.
• Mark Shorey was 3-4.
• Andrew Brown was 1-3 with a walk.
• Adam Daniels was the starter and gave up two runs on two hits and five walks. He struck out three.
• Scott Vander Weg pitched a scoreless 1.1 innings.
• Marco Gonzalez gave up a run on a walk and a hit in his inning of work.
• Fernando Salas made the ninth inning interesting, giving up a hit and a walk before putting away the victory.

Palm Beach 1, Sarasota 3 (8 innings – rain)

• Charles Kingrey was 2-4 and had an outfield assist.
• Daryl Jones was 1-3 and he threw a man out at the plate from center field.
• Brian Cartie was 1-3 with a double.
• Matthew Arburr was 1-3 with a walk.
• Brandon Dickson scattered twelve hits in giving up three runs over 7.2 innings before the game was called for rain.

Burlington 2, Quad Cities 8

• Carlos Pupo had a monster game, going 3-5 with two doubles and a homerun.
• Ross Oeder tried to make my blurb about him look silly by going 2-5 with a homerun.
• Pete Kozma was 2-3 with a double and a walk.
• Nick Additon had another nice outing, going seven innings and giving up two runs, only one earned, on four hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out three.
• Jared Bradford finished off the game with two perfect innings, striking out a pair.

Batavia 5, Staten Island 6

• Jermaine Curtis was 4-5 with a double.
• Colt Sedbrook was 2-5 with his first professional homer.
• Domnit Bolivar was 2-4 with a double.
• Ramon Delgado got roughed up for six runs (five earned) over 3.1 innings on eight hits.
• Joshua Hester gave up a hit and a walk over 1.2 scoreless innings. He struck out a pair.  Daniel Richardson pitched .2 innings allowing a hit and walk.
• Jameson Maj pitched three four scoreless innings, striking out four six.

Johnson City 9, Kingsport 12

• Johnson City gave up two runs in the eighth and ten runs in the ninth to lose this game. The damage came off of Jose Mateo, who gave up five runs in .2 innings, Jorge Rondon, who gave up four runs without recording an out, and Matthew Frevert who came in with two outs in the ninth and gave up the walk-off homer.
• Curt Smith was 3-5 with a homer.
• Nico Vasquez was 2-4 with a double, a walk and a stolen base.
• Ivan Castro was 2-5.
• Reynier Gonzalez got the start and went four scoreless innings, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out three.
• Santo Maertz pitched a scoreless innings, striking out one.
• Kevin Thomas threw three innings, giving up two unearned runs and striking out two.

Jarrett Hoffpauir – Hoffpauir fits into the prototype of Cardinals middle infielders like Eckstein, Miles and Kennedy in that he isn’t the biggest guy around at 5’9″ 165lbs. If you look at his cumulative numbers in the minor leagues, they even match up really well with Eckstein’s numbers. Here are Hoffpauir’s “slash” stats in his 520 minor league games: .287/.371/.407 and here are Eckstein’s numbers over his 473 minor league games: .293/.392/.390. Hoff has a little more pop, while Eckstein had a little more patience. Almost a wash. Leaving it at that, wouldn’t you take the 25 year old version of Eckstein as the starting second baseman for the Cardinals at the league minimum? But it might be even better than that. Eckstein’s numbers are were strongest at A+ and AA and then fell off once he faced better competition at AAA (they were closer to the numbers he put up in the big leagues). Hoffpauir, on the other hand, has had his numbers get better as he has moved up the ladder in the minor leagues. It is not inconceivable that the 25 year old version of Eckstein is Hoffpauir’s floor and the Cardinals could get something even more valuable. If they ever give him the shot.

Brian Barden – The Cardinals haven’t tried him at second base, but he has played in 87 minor league games at the position. He’s working on his fourth full season at AAA, so if he doesn’t get a shot soon, he may never get a shot.

Jose Martinez – Jose wasn’t one of my favorites coming into the season because of his inability to take a walk. There can be a place in a major league lineup for a free-swinger that doesn’t get on base a lot, but those guys usually hit for power (Martinez’ career SLG: .398) or save runs in the field (Martinez is projected to be average at best in the field). Jose is really struggling at Springfield this year, putting up a .237/.280/.316 line.

Casey Rowlett – Casey isn’t really much of a prospect, but he is a useful guy to have in the organization because he can probably play just about anywhere on the field when needed (he’s played every position except catcher and first base in his minor league career). It is extremely unlikely that he’ll ever see the major leagues.

Daniel Descalso – Descalso was the Cardinals third round pick in 2007 out of UC-Davis. He was a third baseman in college and he split time between third and second after signing last year, but this season he has been almost exclusively a second baseman. In college he hit a ton of doubles and was very selective at the plate, but those skills have not translated in the minors to this point. He is still only twenty-one years old, but he’s struggling at Palm Beach this season, putting up a .229/.291/.351 line to this point. It is too early to make a call yet on his prospect status, but I would have liked to seen more from our third round pick by this point.

Donovan Solano – Solano is more of a shortstop (and I’ll discuss him in greater detail when I get there), but he has played some second base and with Kozma coming up and Descalso struggling, who knows? Solano is a year younger than Descalso and, while he hasn’t shown much pop, he has been respectable this year in his slash stats: .291/.350/.371.

Mike Folli – Folli was an UDFA out of the University of Buffalo signed in 2007. He’s bounced around the lower levels over the past two years and hasn’t shown much of anything to suggest that he’s a prospect.

Oliver Marmol – Like Solano, he’s more of a shortstop at this point. Unlike Solano, he hasn’t shown much offensively anywhere he’s gone.

Jose Garcia – Garcia is another guy that has shuffled around the infield a bit in the low minors over the last couple of years. He is only twenty years old, so it is hard to say what the Cardinals have in him. He has put up decent numbers this year at Batavia, but struggled while at Quad Cities.

Ross Oeder – Ross was a 28th round pick in 2007 out of Wright State. He has played sporadically over the last two years and hasn’t played particularly well when given a chance. Casey Rowlett‘s career might be his upside.

Nicholas Peoples – Peoples was a 19th round pick out of Texas in 2007 and has played all of the outfield positions and a handful of games at second. His good average and on base percentage in college has not quite translated to the minors, but he has maintained his lack of power.

Colt Sedbrook – Colt was our 22nd round pick this year out of Arizona. In college he was a solid all-around hitter. His line for his senior year in college was .335/.431/.427 (his slugging percentage was a full 100 points lower than in his junior year). He has played ok thus far in his first 25 games at Batavia with a .267/.389/.344 line to this point. Because he’s already 22, I’d like to see him moved up pretty quickly to see what we’ve got in him.

Brett Lilley – Brett is another guy hit for a good average and high on base percentage in college, but his power is a bit lacking.  He was the Cardinals 29th Round pick out of Notre Dame and has the typical size issues of the standard MI in the organization.  He has lived up to billing so far at Johnson City with a .309/.440/.338 line over his first 18 games.

Guillermo Toribio – Toribio is a 21 year old that is spending his second year playing all over the infield in rookie ball.  Last season he slapped the ball around and took a lot of walks and this year his walks are down a bit and his average is propped up by a .414 BABIP, but it’s really too early to know what we’ve got here.