Archive for the “Uncategorized” Category

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Thanks to Wachto for the link to Keith Law’s first Mock draft. Law’s Mock Drafts are packed with information, not just in the pick but in the explanation below the pick. After the jump, let’s parse the names Law casually throws into the Cardinals selection at 19. (ESPN insider for the full article)

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Seth Maness went another 6 innings last night without a walk.

Early games for Memphis and Palm Beach.

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The lead photo for Memphis’ walk off homerun by Pete Kozma last night is … a picture of Allen Craig?  With Lance Lynn, Donovan Solano and Evan MacLane?

I think it’s time for Memphis to hire a photographer or at least send an intern with a cell phone down on the field to snap some photos.

In case you missed it. . .

• Steve Batterson of the Quad Cities Times profiles Nick Martini. An on base machine in college, Martini struggled mightily in Batavia last year as he started his professional career.  Batterson talks with him about adjusting to that and his approach at the plate.
• Baseball America has the recent minor league transactions. Nothing serious for the Cardinals; just a few DL trips that should be short.
• Ben Badler comments on Oscar Taveras’ hot start to the season.
• Baseball Instinct also did a profile of Oscar Taveras this week.  All this Taveras talk, makes you think he might be a kinda good prospect. Maybe.
• Seth Maness is mentioned in passing by Kevin Goldstein who notes his “upper-80s heat but impeccable control”.
• Carlos Martinez, who seems to have been lost in the Trevor Rosenthal jump this year, is having an improved season at Palm Beach notes John Sickels.

I just happened to come across a picture on the main MiLB.com page. This picture is from Ben’s Biz blog the self-acclaimed “Greatest Minor League Blog of All Time”. (Imma let you have your moment but Future Redbirds had the greatest blog post of ALL TIME.)

Anyway, Ben seems to have been in Memphis recently and snaps some pictures of some promotional events. I just couldn’t help but think that this picture of an inflatable bounce house (the kind you put over-sugared kids in after they’ve eaten 10 pounds of birthday cake) is a tad … sketchy.

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I’m slowly working through some long overdue stuff. Contact info has been updated. Some changes in the wordpress software have been made. Now I’m working through the sidebar links.

Today’s your chance to make your browsing easier (and help me out). If you’ve got any GENERAL MINOR LEAGUE SITES that you think warrant attention, leave them in the comments. I’ll take things related to the draft or to the minors in at large.

Tomorrow marks the start of the 2012 minor league season in earnest and hence the “regular” season of Future Redbirds as well. We’re still gearing up but we’ll back to Daily Farm Reports and Probable Starters each day.  In the afternoon, you’ll find a more free form piece on topics pertaining to the minors. We do have a couple of changes this year.

First of all, I’d be remiss in not thanking Hardcore Legend and Pierce for all the great work they’ve done on DFRs here. Hardcore has been around since 2009 and Pierce came on board last year to write DFRs twice a week. I still hope to drag them both back into this blog thing in a modified role but, on the off chance that doesn’t materialize, I want to sincerely thank them for their time and effort. I couldn’t do this alone and they’ve been important in the coverage we’ve provided here.

Of course, that means you’ll see some new faces. Andy Beard, late of Gas House Graphs, will be writing DFRs for Wednesday and Thursday games. Purple_Haze, a regular Viva El Birdos commenter, will be covering Sunday’s DFRs.  You’ll remember t7rick from last year who is moving off the weekend shift to Mondays and Tuesdays. I’ll be returning to DFRs for the time being writing Fridays and Saturdays.

One thing in particular that I wanted to incorporate more of this year is draft talk. It’s something that I haven’t facilitated well in the past and now, once a week, Purple_Haze will have an afternoon post for everyone to speculate and discuss various aspects of the upcoming draft. It’s a big year for the Cardinals with a plethora of first round picks and I hope that the additional draft coverage will reflect that. As usual, Jeff and I will still be posting during the afternoons as well.

The more things change the more they stay the same. My goal is still, as always, to bring comprehensive coverage of the minor leagues with an emphasis on realistic, intelligent analysis and statistics. I’m not shy about the fact that Future Redbirds is unique and I want to expand on what’s proven to be a winning formula for us.

To the commenters, thank you all for your input and participation. I felt like the level of discourse was raised last year as was the level of civility. I hope that can continue. The rules for commenting are simple. Be reasonable, don’t curse at one another and be civil — and no politics/religion. I’m not narcissistic enough to believe that we are writing all of this for ourselves so at the end of the day, I hope that I can make changes that improve your experience on Future Redbirds.

So here is to a new season. May it be as brilliant as the last.

-azruavatar

My Sunday post at Viva el Birdos is an interview with Kevin Goldstein. We talk about prospects and world politics.

Well, we talk about one of those two.