I’m watching the movie 300, which I purchased Wednesday. It’s has it’s gruesome moments but by and large the movie provides excellent cinematography to go with some kickass action. It’s exceptionally entertaining with a better script than most action movies are given. The actors are sufficient and whole visual experience is well done. Some Most All of it is obviously far-fetched but it’s the suspension of disbelief that allows most movies to reach their excellence and this is case in point.
I wrote about this last night so I won’t reiterate my feelings regarding these surveys but, for whatever it’s worth, Rick Ankiel was ranked as the best power prospect in the PCL.
The pitchers were pretty vanilla throughout the system. Some hitters in the lower minors go boom. Kozma scores the game winning run. QC has a loooooooong game for tonights Daily Prospect Report.
- Brendan Ryan, Nick Stavinoha, Joe Mather and Jarrett Hoffpauir all collected a pair of singles. Mather is hitting .368 in his last 10 games so keep an eye on him as he appears to be adjusting to AAA.
- Chris Lambert got the start. Apparently AAA is having as many problems finding starting pitching as the big league club is. That said, he wasn’t terrible going 4 innings allowing only 5 hits and 1 ER while striking out 3.
- Hugo Castellanos pitched two innings and had 5 unearned runs to his name.
- Springfield got shut down by what appears to be a flyball control pitcher. That’s never a good night.
- Mark Shorey was the only batter to reach base twice recording 2 doubles in 4 ABs.
- Adam Daniels had a so-so outing allowing 4 hits, 3 HBP and 3 BBs in 5.2 innings while striking out 3. The 3 ER were enough to saddle him with the loss, evening his record at 4-4 in AA.
- Kyle McClellan struck out 2 in a perfect 9th.
- Isaias Garcia went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles. He’s got a nice little run going on right now. Over the last 10 games he’s hit .342 in 38 ABs with 7 XBHs.
- Jon Jay also went 2-for-4.
- Eddie Degerman got lit up. He was too hittable allowing 8 base hits in 3.1 innings and 7 ER. He did record 7 outs on the ground in addition to 3 Ks. He hasn’t fared well in PB watching his walk rate double and batting average against rise dramatically (BAA includes a large set of variables outside of the pitchers control — this could be a BABIP fluke, in part).
Quad Cities 6, South Bend 7 (14 innings)
- 14 innings and only Christian Lopez was able to collect an XBH for the swing doubling in 1 of his 5 ABs.
- Arnoldi Cruz went 1-for-7. Please everyone, stop suggesting he’s our 3B of the future. He was drafted low in the late rounds and we really don’t have a good grasp of his tools or projection yet. I know Scott Rolen is frustrating right now but Cruz isn’t even a top-10 prospect in the system. He’s flown through 4 levels but the GCL, JC and Batavia are all questionable levels of competition. It’s not like making a multilevel jump from low-A to AA. He also has Allen Craig ahead of him whose had a very good year.
- Jaime Landin went 0-for-2 but drew 3 BBs.
- Elvis Hernandez allowed 4 ER in 5 innings. 11 South Bend baserunners showed that Elvis struggled.
- Kenny Maiques blew a 2-run lead with the help of an error by Lopez.
- Armando Carrasco held strong for 3 innings but allowed a walk-off HR in the 14th.
- 1B Andrew Brown went 1-for-4 with a HR.
- 2B Ross Oeder went 2-for-3 with a BB.
- Blake King had what may have been his best outing all year and was certainly his best outing since being demoted to Batavia. In 5 innings he allowed 4 hits and struck out 3. Most importantly, he didn’t walk a single batter during the scoreless outing.
- Jesse Todd got bit by the long ball. In 3 innings he allowed 6 hits and 3 ER on 2 ER while striking out 3. He’s posting a 5:1 K:BB ratio in Batavia right now.
Johnson City 0, Burlington 5 (Game 1: 7 innings)
- The JC Cardinals totaled 2 hits and 2 walks. Pretty pathetic.
- Peter Kozma went 0-for-2 with a BB and a fielding error.
- None of the pitchers did anything particularly interesting. This is one of those games that wasn’t nearly as close as it may appear. The JC Cardinals never got a runner to third.
Johnson City 5, Burlington 4 (Game 2: 7 innings)
- Peter Kozma went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks and stole his first base for Johnson City.
- Robert Sanzillo went 2-for-4. (Isn’t Sanzillo the name of a Godzilla enemy or something. . .)
- Travis Mitchell went 2-for-3 with a HR.
- Matthew Arburr went 1-for-3 with a HR.
- Eduardo Sanchez struck out two batters in the 7th to pick up the win when Sanzillo singled home Kozma in the bottom of the inning.
The GCL Cardinals were postponed again.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Well, Kozma can’t hit, but he sure does seem to be able to stand and watch a pitch. Kidding aside, the fact that he is drawing a significant number of walks is very encouraging. I don’t care how wild pitchers are in the low minor leagues; if you don’t take the balls, you can’t get a base off of them. A good eye for the zone is an awfully nice place to start developing a major league hitter.
Does anyone happen to know if the Cardinals are set on using Maiques exclusively as a closer from here on out? I know he was a starter in high school, and they drafted him as such, but since he came back from Tommy John he’s pitched only from the pen. Is this a situation just for this season, to protect his arm, or do they just seem him as a closer long term? He’s got a very good fastball/slider combination, and he’s not a big guy, so I guess they could just think he doesn’t have what it takes to start, but, for my money, I would definitely want to see if that’s the case or not before I just accepted that that’s the limit of his capacities. Hell, he’s still a fair bit larger that Lincecum. If anybody knows one way or the other what the org thinks of him, I would appreciate the info.
One last thing. Is Travis Mitchell still playing catcher, or was that just a brief thing? I know he was drafted as an outfielder, and he’s apparently very toolsy, but maybe they’re thinking he could move to a premium defensive position or something? Again, I’d really like to know, if someone out there has the skinny.
I’m personally rooting for both Maiquez and McClellen to start next year. They can always be moved back to relief if necessary.
I’ve heard first hand reports that Mitchell is an outstanding defensive outfielder so unless he is just totally blocked, I’d guess he stays there.
It’s not just Garcia’s last 10 games that he’s been hot. He’s batting .323 with a .851 OPS in 38 games since the FSL all star game. That’s prospect territory!!
Cruz might not be the 3rd baseman of the future (he’s 3rd in line after Anderson and Craig in my mind), but you can’t write him off because he was drafted late. Remember that Albert was a 13th rounder (or something like that).
Let us not forget that Isa Garcia was the batting champ in Short Season A league last year. The FSL is a pitchers league and can take hitters a while to adjust to.
he’s 3rd in line after Anderson
We’re going to have to ban this kind of talk. It makes me worry. . .
write him off because he was drafted late
I’m not writing him off. I am saying that as a college player drafted late, his tools and performance did not earn him high regard from front offices that we’re aware of. It’s not like he’s a definitive first rounder whose blooming before our eyes.
Remember that Albert was a 13th rounder
Which has little bearing on general trends of early round prospects having a lower attrition rate than late round prospects. That’s perhaps the biggest outlier you could cite which tells us nothing.
Anderson will be moved eventually. We have Molina. Granted, at this point we will keep him at C to boost his stock, but he will eventually be a 3B or 2B if he is ever to play in St Louis. You do write him off. Just because you personally did not know who he was when he was drafted does not mean that his production should be ignored.
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Anderson will be moved eventually. We have Molina
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I’m gonna let ya’ in on a little secret, Ray. K-Mart (and Molina’s bat) sucks.
Now if you think that there is just no way that Tony will dump Molina then you might have a point. But is you think that is actually a good decision, well, I gotta disagree with that in a major way.
Anderson will be moved eventually. We have Molina.
Molina is a bad baseball player. Great arm for a catcher. Bad player overall though. He’s no reason to move Anderson and the organization is smart enough to realize that. Until Anderson moves, there’s only conjecture since you don’t work in the Cardinals front office presumably.
You do write him off. Just because you personally did not know who he was when he was drafted does not mean that his production should be ignored.
When I say “I’m not writing him off.”, I’m not writing him off. Is that difficult to understand?
It has nothing to do with me not knowing who he was prior to the draft; no one knew who he was prior to the draft. The Cardinals didn’t select him until the 26th round that should tell you that they weren’t very high on him.
What I’m saying is that we still don’t have enough of a dataset to predict his performance to any degree of certainty. Ignore anything below Quad Cities, those stats don’t tell us a whole lot. Yes he’s producing but talk of him being even our top 3B-prospect is premature.
How in the world can you call the best defensive Catcher in baseball a bad overall baseball player? OY!
he’s bad overall because while he should win a Gold Glove, he can’t hit! he has a career .226 EqA. he’s a bench player, IMO.