Archive for the “Justin Fiske” Category

Derrick Goold has the full list.

There’s a couple real surprises on that list for me. Andres Rosales was just 22 and had posted some nice strikeout rates but was undone by poor command in recent seasons. Justin Fiske was damaged goods in an organization with too many upper minors pitchers right now.

The rest of the players simply weren’t performing up to par to keep their roster spots. This is likely the first of several waves of releases from minor league camp.

Justin Fiske has enjoyed quite a rise in his stock this past season. After having his contract purchased from the independent league Joliet Jackhammers just a little over a year ago, Fiske to now pitching in the Arizona Fall League, which is considered to be the “finishing school” for a professional club’s top prospects. During the regular season, Justin pitched in relief for the Quad Cities and Palm Beach and was moved to starting for AA Springfield. Cumulatively he averaged over a strikeout per inning and posted a 3.20 FIP, impressive for someone who throws a mid-eighties fastball. He has only thrown two innings so far in the AFL due to a sore shoulder, but has kept busy with a number of baseball activities, including a little blogging on the side. Justin kindly agreed to answer some of my questions during his down time.

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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.

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Kevin Goldstein’s Future Shock [subscription only] series hit the NL Central today and he gave an update on what his Top 11 Cardinals prospects have been up to. I know that no matter what he does, someone will complain – and it is nice that he covered a lot of ground, talking about more prospects for the Cardinals than the other clubs, but the one sentence summary for each player really left me a bit unsatisfied.

Kary Booher has a profile of Justin Fiske. Interesting story – left handed relievers are a weak point in the Cardinals organization, so it is nice that they were able to pluck a successful one from the Independent League.

Springfield was off and Johnson City played a double header, so the system had five teams playing six games and they went 2-4. All the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »