Future Redbirds

Everything is kinda quite on the prospect scene for the moment. The whole Pujols-TLR hoopla is occupying a lot of ink elsewhere. If nothing else, it gives us a break from the Reyes hoopla, no?

Couple transactions to bring to your attention per Baseball America (thanks, erik) :

• The Cardinals signed LHP Justin Fiske from independent Joliet of the Northern League.
• The first draftee of the 2007 class hits the DL - RHP David Kopp. Fantastic. . .no word on the injury.

I think we’ve covered the other moves previously or they aren’t really worth mentioning.
Hate to say it but what a miserable day for our minor league system. Here’s a spoiler for the rest of this post — everyone loses. Trudging through a mildly depressing Daily Prospect Report. . .

Mark Worrell pitched retired two batters and walked a man in the AAA All-Star game. All of AAA was off today.

Springfield 2, Wichita 5

• Bryan Anderson went 2-for-4.
• Colby Rasmus went 0-for-3 with a walk. He stole 3rd base but then was caught attempting to steal home. Wish I could have seen that in person.
• Adam Daniels got skunked by a 4 run 3rd inning. He pitched 6 innings allowing 6 hits, 2 walks and 3 Ks. He also had more flyouts than groundouts. Now, this is one isolated start, but if we start to see 2-3 in a row that look like this, then it’s possible that the scouting report is out and that batters are adjusting to Daniels. It bears watching.
• Matt Scherer struck out 2 walked 1, allowed a hit and an unearned run.
• Everyone is enamored with Chris Perez and his stuff but Jason Motte keeps retiring hitters. He has a sub-2.00 ERA and he struck out 2 tonight allowing 1 hit. He may not have a secondary pitch worth a damn, but he’s doing something right. He and Scherer are undervalued commodities in the system among Cardinal fans and that’s not something you’ll here me say often about relief prospects.

Palm Beach 4, Clearwater 5

• Catcher Brandon Yarbrough went 4-for-5 with a double and a triple.
• Recently promoted Donovan Solano went 2-for-4 with a triple while playing 3B.
• Jim Rapoport erased whatever good he had with 2 hits by being caught stealing twice. Given the data out there that players need to be successful around 70% of the time for SB to be worth it, I’m always dismayed to see CS in box scores. Now, I don’t know the circumstances and everyone loves to see a steal but from a scoring runs perspective, it isn’t a good move on balance.
• I don’t want to talk about the pitching — no one pitched very well. Chris Narveson struggled against High-A hitters in his 2nd rehab start. . .

Quad Cities 1, Clinton 2

• Jared Schweitzer went 1-for-2 with a HR and a pair of BBs.
• LF Steven Hill and DH Christian Reyes both came perilously close to the golden sombrero jpeg I have stored away.
• Elvis Hernandez was the hard luck loser. He pitched 5 innings allowing 2 runs. He allowed 7 hits but walked none and struck out 8.
• Tragically the opposing pitchers racked up 15 strikeouts.

Batavia 2, Lowell 3

• The offense was anemic. 2 hits and 1 walk. Blech.
• Jesse Todd got hit around. He allowed 6 hits in 3.2 innings plus 2 walks and 3 Ks. He minimized the damage to 2 runs (1 earned). Still not his best work.
• Blake King was better than usual. 3 innings with just 2 walks, 5 Ks and 1 hit. We’ve seen worse from him.

Johnson City 5, Danville 7

• Jon Edwards and Beau Riportella both collected 2 hits. Edwards also drew a walk.
• Dognnt Bolivar gets his own bullet point so I can say he had 2 hits as well. Dognnt. Dooooognnt. DOGNNT. doggnt. Sorry, got carried away.
• Steven Hill, the pitcher not the catcher in QC, pitched a scoreless frame striking out 1 as did Mark Diapoules.

GCL Cardinals 2, GCL Marlins 4

• This game was begun on July 6th. It was suspended in the third inning.
• SS Guillermo Toribio went 2-for-3 with a BB.
• 3B Osvaldo Morales went 1-for-3 with a walk and collected both RBIs.
• Andres Rosales struck out 5 in 3 innings allowing a solo HR.
• Joel Pichardo struck out 3 in 3 innings but had 6 baserunners to his name. He was lucky to avoid giving up a run.
• Rigoberto Lugo was the goat responsible for 2 runs collecting a BS and a loss.

GCL Cardinals 2, GCL Marlins 4

• This was today’s game.
• RF Jairo Martinez went 2-for-3.
• 2B Braulio Hiraldo collected the only extra base hit — a double.
• Andres Rosales pitched 3 innings allowing 3 hits and striking out 2.