Archive for the “Clayton Mortensen” 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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The Faberge Eggs are busted. And I am so disgusted. Koo-coo-ca-choo is flying the coop, along with my favorite pitching prospect.

FR is not going to be the same without the Walrus. Or Morty for that matter.

Link.

Wallace for Holliday was bad enough as it was. Then they gave away Mortensen too. And Peterson (meh). Still nothing official, but this is a sad day for the HPGF.

edit: Don’t misunderstand me, if Holliday means playoffs, then I can understand it. I don’t think there is a guarantee he does, or that he even vastly improves the odds that happens. I also just think they gave up a lot, and writing for FR becomes quite a bit less interesting.

I’ve had a lot of positive things to say about Mitchell Boggs.  He’s got a live fastball and some inconsistent, but potent, breaking pitches.  PJ Walters has shown a tremendous ability in the minors to use the movement of his pitches while mixing them effectively to retire hitters. Despite his injury, Jaime Garcia might still be regarded as the best pitching prospect in the system.  A lefty with a big curveball and high groundball tendencies, he’s been one of few who have looked like something more than a back end starter. DanUp likes Blake Hawksworth.

Of all the pitching prospects near the majors (and I’m speaking in terms of those that might be ready for 2010), none of the above strikes me as the most likely to crack the rotation and stick.

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Pitch tracking his start on 4/19, below you’ll find the breakdown of Clayton Mortensen.  It was a cold night, which likely led to more fastballs than usual.  You’ll also note that I didn’t break out the sinkers against the four-seam fastball.  It’s laziness on my part but I’d peg it around 80% sinkers and 20% pure fastballs.

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Story, or blurb at least. I quickly find myself turning on all this ballyhooed “classic mechanics” stuff. Kopp and Mortensen were said to be low injury risks, two pitchers blessed with great mechanics. Right.

I’m not an injury expert, but hopefully this doesn’t turn into a TJ situation.

Prior to the season I took a look at the workloads of several Cardinals prospects in relation to the Verducci Rule.  The basic premise of the Verducci Rule is that pitchers who increase their workload by more than 30 innings from one season to the next have a heightened risk of injury.  Will Carroll has found that the Verducci Rule does not exactly translate for minor league innings, but I used it as a conservative baseline for the number of innings I thought would be appropriate for the Cardinals prospects.  After the jump I’ll take a look back at the workloads for those same pitchers and how it compared to the numbers discussed prior to the season. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Kary Booher has a nice article in the Springfield News-Leader about Clayton Mortensen. Mortensen talks about staying away from websites that discuss minor league prospects (I guess that means he doesn’t read us) so that he won’t get caught up in the hype for himself, or the guys he is about to face. There is a pretty interesting quote from a Cubs scout in the article (it is sort of a non-sequitor in the middle of the article), where the scout discusses what he looks for in a prospect:

“I judge hitters on how they play against the No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers,” Jim Crawford, Chicago Cubs veteran scout, said. “That gives you an idea of what you’ve got. In college ball, after Friday night, some hitters make their living on Saturdays and Sundays.”

And pitchers?

“I look for guys who have fastball command, if they can go in and out, change eye levels with their fastballs,” Crawford said. “Fastball command means they are throwing strikes. With college guys, after a couple of years in pro ball, you have to adapt to throwing inside. You’ve got live on the inner half (of the plate).”

Obviously Crawford isn’t giving away any secrets of the trade here, but it is still interesting to hear a high level description of what scouts look for in players.

We had three games this evening, with Quad Cities getting the night off. The system went 1-2 on the day, with an outrageous boxscore from Springfield and a punchless attack on both sides in Palm Beach. All the details after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

There are a multitude of reasons why pitching prospects don’t pan out.  I believe that, after talent, the biggest reason is health.  Every organization has had its share of pitching prospects that have flamed out, or at least have had their career temporarily derailed, due to injury and the Cardinals are no exception. 

There is no absolute connection between workload and injury – certain “rubber armed” pitchers seem to be able to throw endlessly without injury (Livan Hernandez comes to mind), but there is enough of a connection that teams are paying much closer attention to pitch counts than they used to, especially with younger pitchers.  The depth of the Cardinals system, at least according to most prospect lists, lies in our pitching prospects.  The question then, is what has their workload been thus far, and what would be ideal for 2008?  I’m going to take a look at five of the Cardinals top starting pitching prospects after the jump.

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