Future Redbirds

I’ve been doing these Daily Prospect Reports for a while now and I’ve learned an immense amount just in the month or so that I’ve been blogging. It’s fantastic to be able to scour the minors everyday to help everyone keep up with our farm system. You’ve probably already seen my first of eight pieces in the Move him on up series and I hope to continue to do 2 of those a week. But what I really want to know right now, is if there is anything I can do to make the Daily Prospect Report more interesting or exciting for you? Is there a nightly feature you want? A certain format you like better than others? Do you want me to shut the hell up about our pitchers and their walk rates? (too damn bad!) In all seriousness, if you are looking for something different, leave a comment and let me know.

Memphis 8, Nashville 5

• I just keep waiting for Brendan Ryan to turn his season around. He has good nights but he’s still got atrocious season rate stats (and his last ten games have been right in line with his season stats). I’ll have to take a closer look at him and his peripherals in the near future. Last night he went 1-for-3 with 2 BBs and a SB.
• Nick Stavinoha continues to show signs of life. He went 2-for-5.
• Edgar Gonzales went 3-for-4 with a walk.
• John Nelson was the offensive Beast for the night. He went 2-for-5 with a double and a HR good for 5 RBIs.
• Outside of Nelson, it doesn’t look like the Redbirds were hitting the opposition hard and considering they struck out 15 times in 9 innings, they may have been lucky to come away with the win.
• Ryan Braun, the Brewers uber-3B prospect, batted leadoff tonight again. Why they would bat a player with a .726 SLG for the season is totally beyond me. He’s got a great OBP .400+ but LOOK AT THE SLUGGING! He’s a heart of the order hitter (he really belongs in the majors but the two headed monster of Tony Graffanino and Craig Counsell are obviously slipping Yost and Melvin something on the side to keep their roster spots). Braun homered and doubled and drew a BB.
• Troy Cate went 5 blah innings allowing 6 hits, a walk, a HR and striking out 1. He only allowed 3 earned runs but his ERA as a starter is north of 5 on the season. I’m ready to call this experiment to a close and move him back to the bullpen where he’s had most of his success.
• 4 relievers, 2 blown saves and 3 innings later, Brian Falkenborg comes in to close the game out (is it safe to call him a AAAA player yet?). Andy Cavazos picks up the win in the 8th.

Springfield 3, San Antonio 2 (10 innings)

• Colby Rasmus went 1-for-2 with 3 BBs.
• Recently promoted Casey Rowlett went 0-for-2 with 2 BBs reaching base for the first time and scoring his first run since his promotion.
• Eric Haberer had a decent night. He pitched 5 innings without allowing a run until the 6th. He faced 4 batters in the sixth without retiring anyone allowing 2 runs. Michael Cooper came in from relief to strand the other two baserunners.
• Jason Motte came on to strand two of Cooper’s baserunners the next inning. He struck out 3 (and walked 0) in 1.1 innings.
• Chris Perez was dominant striking out 5 in 2 innings to pick up his 2nd win on the season as Cody Haerther doubled in the 9th and was bunted to third then sac-flied home. Yes, I used sac-flied as a verb. Sue me.

Palm Beach 1, Fort Myers 3

• Isaias Garcia singled in Nathan Southard in the 8th inning for PB’s only run of the night.
• Adam Daniels was the hard luck loser pitching 7 solid innings. He allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5. He also had 12-4 GO/AO ratio. Too bad he couldn’t get any run support.

Quad Cities 6, South Bend 2

• Brandon “promote me” Buckman went 3-for-4 with a double.
• Christian Reyes is only 21 and in limited action at QC has posted a OPS of .936. MILB.com lists him as a catcher but they are bad about updating those — in any even, he played at 1B tonight and went 2-for-4.
• Christian Lopez played SS for the night and went 2-for-4. He’s even younger than Reyes at the tender age of 20. He’s got a above-average walk rate at a key defensive position drawing 16 in 116 ABs.
• Tyler Herron struck out 4 in 5.2 innings. He allowed 2 runs on 2 walks and 3 hits.
• Brad Furnish picked up the save with 3 innings striking out 2 with 2 hits and a BB.