Archive for the “Chris Perez” Category

Around this time last year some of us were bemoaning the departure of some of our favorite Fabergé eggs. Chris Perez and then later Jess Todd went to Cleveland for Mark DeRosa. Matt Holliday was acquired for the man we affectionately dubbed the Walrus, as well as Clayton Mortensen and Shane Peterson. That was four of our top ten prospects going into the 2009 season, and Peterson was in most publications’ top 15-20.

I wasn’t a big fan of either trade at the moment they happened, but I gradually sobered up from my prospect fanboyism and realized that the deals, in themselves, were perfectly justifiable even if it meant putting a pretty big dent in the farm system. So far, Luhnow has done a pretty good job re-stocking the system with some potential, assuming the tops picks of the draft sign and the Carlos Matias signing is OK’d.

I thought it would be fun just to check in with some of the players and see how they’re doing for their new clubs. This isn’t to pronounce a winner or a loser in the trade, just a status update.

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So much for the closer of the future. Mark DeRosa is a good player, and the Cardinals are in an obvious need of offense rather than bullpen help, but my initial reaction this is a steep price for just a rental. Franklin may eventually run out of magic pixie dust, Jason Motte, Kyle McClellan and Jess Todd just do not the stuff Perez has and I don’t think any of them will ever be more than middle relievers. Now, unless Francisco Samuel can figure out how to throw strikes over the next season and a half, or Motte can learn another pitch, the Cardinals will be driven to the free agent market to overpay for some 9th inning reliever after Franklin’s contract runs out next year.

I would have to think the PTBNL is a “C” grade guy, or at least I would certainly hope so.

The flip side is that Perez may never harness his control to be a closer, but even as a good set up reliever, that should be worth more wins in the long run.

I think all the Cardinals are getting out of this is a win, maybe two tops. Flags fly forever, so if that means playoffs, then great. But it puts them in a bad spot a year or two down the road. I don’t hate this trade, but I don’t love it like some people do.

Chris Perez sent to Memphis. In favor of Brad Thompson. Because you know, having a “long reliever” is a mandate.

Despite a down year at the plate, BA whole heartedly named Colby Rasmus the top prospect of the Pacific Coast League, ahead of Chase Headley, Max Scherzer, Brandon Wood and Carlos Gonzalez. It’s their faith in his tools that supersede the numbers and judge that’s it’s only a matter of time for Colby.

Chris Perez ranked the 12th best prospect in the league and is the top relief prospect. Bryan Anderson ranked between Nate Schierholtz and Franklin Morales, and was the second catcher to make the top twenty after the M’s Jeff Clement. They praise his game calling skills for someone of his youth, and they note his improvement in controlling the running game. They also like his speed (for a catcher) and hope he still may yet add some power.

Jaime Garcia and Mitch Boggs ranked 16th and 17th, respectively. Someone needs to update BA with the fact that Jaime went under the knife for Tommy John surgery, as they project him to be in the 2009 rotation. Scouts are high on Boggs’ pitching acumen and competitiveness, but question his ability to stick as a starter without at least an change up.

What excites me the most is in BA’s top twenties for the TL and PCL, nine of fourty made the cut. I’d rather have some players ready to make some big league impact then to have our best prospects in the lower minors. Now it’s up to the coaching to recognize their talents and properly employee them in the right spots.

Cardinal70 recently asked me to participate in the latest “United Cardinal Blogger” collaboration, a project that I could not say no to. The project: Name your Top 7 Prospects, as inspired by our esteemed beat writer Mr. Derrick Goold. The regular minor league season just finished and it seems like it wasn’t long ago we were talking draft, and here we are already ranking players. Time flies.

NOTE: This is NOT our official list that we will be rolling out later. This is more or less my off the cuff rankings as things stand at the moment, and it’s still pretty fluid right now.

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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 »

God bless Liam for creating the Bernie Button, it’s a handy tool to get right to Bernie Miklasz’s internet posts without having to see the psychotic flamewars and endless trade “Duncan, Boggs and Ryan for Matt Holliday” threads that make up the P-D forums. For what it’s worth, the other day Bernie called Chris Perez “Reyes II” and said they are trying to turn him into a sinker/slider pitcher. Ugh.

First of all, he is a slider pitcher. Or at least he is when he’s right. Secondly, I had no idea he was being told to throw the sinker but…um…why? I have no qualms about having him try to throw lower in the zone, but when you throw 95 you can get away with throwing a pitch up on occasion. I tried to find data on Perez’s splits in different parts of the zone and found no success, (not sure what it would’ve been worth, anyhow) but I do remember that at times his FB would get a little too true at times, so he can’t just fling the ball up in the zone all the time, but I don’t seem to recall him doing that.

I’m continually baffled that minor league pitching coordinator Brent Strom preaches that pitchers should “be themselves”, while Duncan has to fix everyone by making them a sinker-ball pitcher. The whole org doesn’t seem to be on the same page, to put it lightly. But I’m not here really to discuss that; I would like to just ask you all: Should the Cardinals trade Perez? Because if he’s not their cup of tea I’d hate to see him be monkeyed with and correspondingly lose his value as a ballplayer.

Even without being monkeyed with, I for one am not thoroughly sold he’s the closer of the team’s future; it seems we have seen a lot of these college closers with shaky control problems settle in as middle inning guys-David Aardsma, Joey Devine, Royce Ring, Ryan Wagner, Craig Hansen, heck, even Braden Looper to an extent. The jury is still out Devine and Hansen, but their outlook isn’t as bright as it was when they were drafted. Chad Cordero and Huston Street have proved to be the exception and not the rule, so I found this past draft to be pretty screwy with the landrush on relief pitchers.

I think Perez is a heck of a bullpen arm, don’t misunderstand me. He’s easily a top 3-5 prospect and has more upside than any pitcher in the system. I’d like to see the Cards exercise some patience and help him develop. But if Duncan is the one developing him and feels he just has to reinvent him, then I’d rather see him traded while his value is high. My heart can’t take another Anthony Reyes saga.

This article indicates that the Cardinals will either be putting Isringhausen on the DL or possibly designating him for assignment. I would imagine that he would clear waivers at this point and his comments seem to indicate that he would accept a minor league stint to find a cure for what ails him. The corresponding roster move would almost certainly be to bring Chris Perez to St. Louis for his first major league experience, since that was the plan for about a half an hour a few days ago before minds were changed. I am sad to see Izzy struggle, because he has given us some good times, but I am really excited to see Perez in The Show.

As mentioned in the comments, Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus had some nice things to say about Jess Todd in an article today. The article is subscriber only, but I’m not sure about this audio interview on BP with John Abbamondi, Cardinals AGM. Elsewhere, Kary Booher has the details of the Cory Rauchenberger retirement and Mark McCormick‘s promotion to Springfield.

The system went 4-1 on the night, with Springfield’s seventh loss in a row as the only blemish on the evening. All the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

My week at Spring Training is over, but my sunburn should last another week or so. I wasn’t able to post as often as I would have liked due to my computer situation (borrowed) and my schedule (Mrs. roarke). Regardless, I have several hundred pictures of various Cardinals players and prospects – I’ll post some with my impressions after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

My first day in Jupiter afforded me the opportunity to get a first hand look at some of the prospects we write about for the first time.  My first impressions are after the jump.

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