Future Redbirds

I managed to survive my first prospect report, let’s see if I can go two-for-two. Quad Cities (low-A) was postponed and Springfield (AA) had a day off so just two teams to report on:

Memphis 1, New Orleans 6 (Met’s Affiliate)

It was an ugly game for Memphis (see: score) so I’m not going to try and rosy it up. Edgar V. Gonzalez brother of the Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. Ludwick recorded a hit as well. The real offensive force for the night, and let’s say the only offensive force was Stavinoha who went 3-for-4 out of the 5th spot in the lineup. See the end of the post for my thoughts on Stavinoha. On the pitching side, Troy Cate struck out 5(!) in two innings while allowing an earned run on an homerun — but the game was already lost by then.

The bad was very bad in Memphis. Eternal prospect Rick Ankiel went 0-for-4 with 3 Ks. Mike Smith started and was bad. Dennis Dove relieved him and was bad as well. Dove, of more import than the roster filler Mike Smith, went one inning striking out none, walking two and giving up two earned runs. Dove caught Dave Duncan and TLR’s eye in spring training as he blew by hitters with some nasty fastballs clocking in the upper-90s.

Palm Beach 2, St. Lucie 0 (Met’s Affiliate)

Not a lot of offense, but then again, they didn’t need much. Shane Robinson went 1-for-3 playing center field. Dan Nelson is on a tear for Palm Beach right now. He’s posting a 1.091 OPS (he’s got 8 walks in 22 plate appearances) while playing SS. Albeit this is 5 games, but what a 5 games for a middle infielder they’ve been. He went 1-for-4 tonight bringing his AVG down to .357. Mike Ferris went 2-for-4 with a double — take a look at his stats. He was a HR beast in college. . . and now not so much.

Tyler Norrick went 6 strong innings giving up no runs with a 1.000 WHIP. Michael Cooper, Jon Mikrut and Jason Motte each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

It’s hard to nit-pick the bad in this game — not a lot of strikeouts by batters and the pitching was good so we’ll leave Palm Beach on a high note.

Alright now, regarding Nick Stavinoha, I’m something of a Stavinoha-skeptic. I’m just not sure what to make of him after last year but lets start with his 2005 numbers. He posted some monster numbers in the Quad Cities in 2005 to the tune of a .398 OBP and a .962 OPS. That’s a sterling OBP but it was largely batting average driven as he walked in a respectable 8.2% of his ABs — as a ‘polished’ college hitter, ideally he’d be closer to that 10% mark. His BABIP was .352 in 2005 and .346 in 2006, neither which are likely to be sustainable numbers. Still, like I said, monster numbers. But then he had an injury marred season while moving up a competitive rung to AA in 2006. Needless to say the shine of prospectdom — is that a word? — was dulled a little but when you are in the Cardinals farm system it’s easy to stay near the top of the prospect chain right now. I’m hopeful that he posts closer to the 2005 .962 OPS than the 2006 .800 OPS. We’ll see. . .I’m going to reserve judgment on him for the time being and hope for the best.

Maybe he can help the Cardinals organization as a right-handed hitting outfielder in the near future. The current right-handed outfielders don’t really do a lot of hitting per se so it would be nice to have someone who can actually be called a hitter.

Check out erik’s prospect profile of Stavy from March for his thoughts — far more orderly than the jumble I just wrote.