Future Redbirds

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. No rest for the wicked prospects down on the farm. Let’s catch up on some transactions first.

Tomo Ohka is gone. He was released by the Cardinals. It was worth a try but he was pretty terrible in his outings.

Apparently, FR holds some sway in the front office. Jarrett Hoffpauir was promoted to AAA today. Huzzah! John Nelson was moved to make room. My only concern here is that Nelson was in a utility role and only had 118 PA so far this year compared to Edgar Gonzalez who has 341. If they’re calling up Hoffpauir to play once or twice a week and get 10 PA, this is a bad idea. He should be playing everyday and either Mike McCoy needs to be shifted to a utility role or Gonzalez needs to sit more often. Hoffpauir is the only one with a real shot at the majors. Mike McCoy is 26 and came out of no where this year while Gonzalez is an organizational player that’s nice to have at AAA. Hoffpauir needs to play everyday.

My next target for promotion: Allen Craig to Springfield

Also, it appears that Chris Narveson will be rehabbing in Palm Beach with Chris Carpenter and crew. Everything’s been quite re: Narveson and I continue to remain pessimistic that he won’t need surgery. We’ve heard that he had a dual set of injuries including a strained oblique and shoulder impingement. If he gets shelled a few times in a row, I expect we’ll hear news of shoulder surgery — but that is my speculation.

Here’s a nice article about Tim Dorn of the Quad Cities Swing. My favorite part:

“Even though I hadn’t pitched, they said they felt I had a chance to get to the big leagues in three-to-four years. That sounded OK,’’ Dorn said.

‘They’ is the Seattle Mariners and ‘they’ are an organization notorious for mishandling prospects especially pitchers (see Morrow, Brandon). Let’s hope bit Tim Dorn can show them what they missed.

5 Memphis batters went boom. Mark Shorey finds his stroke. Springfield lays the smack down. Quad Cities gets shut down. Meanwhile the Johnson City game creates an unwanted flashback for Azru.

We’ve got that and more in today’s Daily Prospect Report.

Memphis 7, Alberquerque 12

• Jarrett Hoffpauir makes a splash and makes his believers look good by smacking a homerun in his first plate appearance at AAA. Nicely done Jarrett.
• Rick Ankiel went 1-for-5 with a HR. I know that it’s easy to see the league leading 24 homeruns but Rick has a .307 OBP. Until he is competent enough to be getting on base at a decent pace, even if it’s just hitting for average, it’s a sign that he has significant holes in his swing. He homered of Rick Vanden Hurk who has rocketed through the Marlins’ system in the last year. He’s a legitimate back of the rotation MLB starting prospect but his stuff is only so-so at age 22. Rick Ankiel is someone to watch but calls to promote him to the big league are completely premature.
• Tagg Bozied went 1-for-2 with a HR and 2 walks.
• John Rodriguez went 1-for-4 with a HR.
• Brian Esposito went 1-for-4 with a HR.
• Blake Hawksworth got shelled. I’m officially wondering if something is wrong with him physically. He went 4 innings allowing 6 hits, 3 BB, 4Ks and 5 ER.
• News Flash: Chris Lambert is a terrible pitcher.
• Chris Russ came up from the Mexican league (I think he was released) joining Memphis. He threw 2.1 innings allowing a HR, 3 hits 2 ER and striking out 2. He’s 28 — nothing to see here folks.
• Mark Worrell threw a scoreless inning.

Springfield 10, Midland 2

• Mark Shorey went 2-for-5 with a pair of HRs.
• Colby Rasmus went 0-for-5.
• Juan Richardson went 2-for-4 with a HR.
• SS Jose Martinez went 2-for-3 with a double and a BB.
• Eric Haberer did not have a good outing despite allowing just 1 ER. He owes Zach Zuercher a big steak dinner. Haberer went 5.2 innings allowing 5 hits and walking 3. He only allowed 2 runs (1 earned) as Zuercher came in to strike out the last batter in the 6th and strand the bases loaded. He then went on to strike out all three batters in the 7th.
• Jason Motte struck out 2 in a scoreless 8th.
• Chris Perez walked 1 and struck 1 out.

Palm Beach was postponed.

Quad Cities 0, Clinton 4

• Nothing to see in the hitters. They got shut down.
• Elvis Hernandez allowed 4 ER in 4 innings. He allowed 5 hits and walked 3 while striking out 5.
• Michael Schellinger came on and saved the rest of the pen going 3 innings allowing 1 hit and striking out 6.

Batavia 2, Auburn 3 (11 innings)

• 2B Ross Oeder went 2-for-4 with a BB.
• CF Tommy Pham went 1-for-3 with a BB but was CS.
• LF Justin Roberson went 2-for-4 with a double.
• Clayton Long struck out 5 in 4.1 innings. He allowed 3 hits and walked 1 for 1 ER.
• Clay Mortenson went 3 innings struck out 5 and allowed 1 hit. He also walked 3 batters (booo!).
• Mountain Dew struck out 3 in 2 hitless innings.

Johnson City 5, Elizabethton 6

• I’m ashamed to admit that JC’s opponents reminded me of this movie. I did not choose that movie — no self-respecting male should — and wound up leaving the theater around midway through.
• LF Joseph Hage went 2-for-5 with a double.
• Nicholas Additon threw 5 innings striking out 4 allowing 3 hits and 2 walks for 2 runs (1 earned).
• Jose Arredondo threw 3.1 innings striking out 3 walking 1 and allowing 2 runs (1 earned).