Future Redbirds

It’s an off day for the big club, so between your Office watching you can check out the baby Birds in action on the radio.

Quad Cities is visiting the Clinton Lumber Kings, affiliate of the Texas Rangers. You can listen to the game 6:00 PM here.

Palm Beach is “at” Jupiter Hammerheads , the affiliate of Marlins game is at 6:05. Audio found here.

The S-Cards are visiting the Midland Rockhounds, AA affiliate of the A’s. You can listen here starting at 6:30 pm. Cory Rauschenberger gets the start.

The Redbirds host the Oklahoma Redhawks, AAA affiliate of the Rangers at 7 pm. Here’s the audio link.

I’ll try and have brief recaps later tonight.

(All times CST)

With the rosters finalized, here’s a brief rundown on each team.

The Swing is going with an 8 man rotation, with 2 starters pitching every 4th day. Names to know in that rotation are: Blake King, Tyler Herron, Brad Furnish, P.J. Walters and Shaun Garceau, who I’d call a sleeper. He was considered a top high school arm and was drafted in 2005, but spent all of last season on the shelf with a muscle tear and a burst artery in his throwing arm right quad. Yikes. The lineup has been depleted with the promotions of Colby Rasmus, Jon Jay, Tyler Greene, Bryan Anderson…you get the idea. Daryl Jones is the only position prospect of real note, but watch Luke Gorsett and Mark Shorey. Gorsett took over Alex Gordon’s role as top hitter at Nebraska last year, and has some pop in his bat. (Though Gordon, he certainly is not. Very few are.) Don Solano is a 19 year old from Columbia, he has a fantastic defensive reputation and decent upside.

Palm Beach will have Adam Ottavino at the top of their rotation, along with Trey Hearne, Gary Daley and Tyler Norrick to round things out. Mark Hamilton is their best hitting prospect, Shane Robinson and Jose Martinez should be hitting at the top of the order, and are of course worth keeping an eye on as well. Nate Southard is another player I’ll be watching, he’ll be in the outfield. Hard throwing ex-catcher turned reliever Jason Motte and the under the radar Luke Gregorson are in the bullpen.

Springfield is THE team in the organization to watch. Top prospects Colby Rasmus and Jaime Garcia are on the team, both aggressively promoted at age 20. Top relief prospect and 1st round draft pick Chris Perez will be their closer. The rotation could be decent with Garcia at the top, followed by Mitch Boggs, Chris Lambert and Mike Parisi. Boggs was hittable at A ball despite his good ERA and decent strikeout numbers, so this will be a good test for him. Lambert and Parisi should be in Memphis right now, but because of the likes of Randy Keisler, Matt Ginter and Mike Smith they are repeating AA. Bryan Anderson is also only 20 and will be catching, and other top prospects that will be in the lineup will be Jon Jay and Tyler Greene.

Memphis will be worth checking out if for no other reason then Rick Ankiel is in center field. They also could have the best bullpen in the system what with Mike Sillman, Mark Worrell, Dennis Dove, Andy Cavazos and Troy Cate all fighting for innings. Nick Stavinoha is the team’s best hitting prospect, followed by Brendan Ryan. Travis Hanson will be looking to start his comeback, and the rest of the team is full of journeymen AAAA roster fillers like Jolbert Cabrera, though Ludwick and Bozied aren’t too far removed from their once held prospect status. Narveson and Blake Hawksworth will also make checking the scoreboard worthwhile on the nights they start.

All in all, the best rotation is probably at Palm Beach, the best lineup at Springfield and the best bullpen is at Memphis. It’ll be an interesting year.

Oh, here’s a quick look at notable names on the DL:
Mark McCormick (shoulder)
Cody Haerther (wrist)
Eric Haberer (?)
Stu Pomeranz (?)