Future Redbirds

I skimped on the DPR last night so I’m spoiling you tonight with an extended intro after the break.

Carpenter hits a homerun in Batavia. Amaury Cazana Marti goes boom. Arnoldi Cruz continues to rake. And we’ve got a Stuart Pomeranz sighting. It’s all here in the Daily Prospect Report.

Commiserate with the surprisingly good Mark Shorey. Also, there’s this tidbit about Pop Warner:

Careful with his words while expressing confidence in Shorey, Warner pulled his eyes away from his laptop in his tucked-away office at Hammons Field and leaned back in his chair ahead of Wednesday’s game. Usually, he fields questions in pre-game while researching numbers on the computer. This subject, though, he knew was delicate.

I wonder if he has Future Redbirds bookmarked. He should. Yo, Pop. Can I call you Pop? K, thanks. Drop me a note if you read this. erik and I would gladly look into numbers for you.

In all seriousness though, I do feel bad for Shorey who is handily outperforming Danielson but because Shorey doesn’t fit the “leadoff” archetype, he loses playing time. It’s a stupid reason for deciding who gets at-bats. I understand why Haerther (40-man roster), Amaury Cazana Marti (might be 72 years old) and Rasmus (CF of the future) get ABs, but Danielson? Shorey should get those at-bats and have someone else lead off.

If you live up by the Quad Cities, well, my apologies to you. The Swing are, however, giving away free tickets to this wednesday’s game at noon. If you live up there, you obviously have nothing to do so go catch the game for free.

The Palm Beach paper has an article on Luke Gorsett.

Colby Rasmus performs inteview number 5197345.

Injury Report: Edgar Gonzalez to the DL retroactive to July 31st for his shoulder. I’ve heard nothing about this prior to now.

Chris Constancio has a discussion of managing young pitchers at Firstinning. Tyler Herron shows up on that list due to the piggyback system the Quad Cities employed to start this season. There are too many uncontrolled variables (did they pitch in college, how hard do they throw, do they throw a lot of breaking balls, etc.) to draw any strict conclusions from that list but as a conversation starter it’s interesting. Chris says:

It’s not uncommon to hear criticism of pitch counts as an insufficient one-size-fits-all solution to developing young pitchers. But this list seems to emphasize that there is still a wide range of approaches in managing young pitchers’ workload.

From that regard, I’ve warmed up to the piggyback system employed by the Quad Cities — so long as it ends after the draft and pitchers can go deeper into games.

From the recent Baseball America chat:

Chado from San Diego, Ca asks:
Who do you view as the next great Catching prospect currently in the minors?

Matt Eddy: Jeff Clement, Hank Conger and Bryan Anderson rank Nos. 1-2-3 on our prospect position rankings, but all three are offensive-minded catchers. If they can stick behind the plate, their ability to bat lefthanded and to hit for power will make them attractive options to their teams. Unfortunately, we don’t really have an all-around catching prospect–like a Saltalamacchia–in the minors right now.

Matt Eddy: The 2007 catcher draft class, including Wieters, Mesoraco, Arencibia and Canham should give us reason for hope, though.

And in The NeverEnding Story:

JAYPERS from IL asks:
Does Ankiel get a September callup, or no?

Matt Eddy: Yes, I think the Cards will add him to the 40-man roster and call him up in September. Not only is he second in the minors with 31 homers, but he’s been playing a fine center field for Triple-A Memphis. And he can still throw, of course.

At least if someone has to take the bloody mound it won’t be Aaron Miles anymore.

Memphis 2, Tacoma 3

• Slick Rick went 1-for-4 with a triple.
• Tagg Bozied went 2-for-4.
• Jarrett Hoffpauir had a big night going 3-for-4.  I have the feeling that he is going to be the player that causes me to rail at the big league club next year when they continue to waste at bats on Aaron Miles and Adam Kennedy.
• Ryan Feierabend threw a complete game for Tacoma allowing 9 hits and striking out 2.  He’s on the cusp of being a major-leaguer and has bounced back and forth between Tacoma and Seattle this season.  He doesn’t offer a lot of potential or upside but is more of a flyball command pitcher who strikes out just enough batters to get by.
• Mike Smith was ok for the Redbirds throwing 7 innings but allowing 10 hits and walking 3.
• Mark Worrell threw a scoreless inning striking out 1.

Springfield 4, Tulsa 2

• Colby Rasmus went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks.
• Amaury Cazana Marti went 1-for-3 with a HR and a walk. What actually happened was Marti caught the pitch and walked out to centerfield and dropped it over the fence. Everyone was too scared to tell him that was against the rules and he was awarded with a HR.
• Juan Lucena went 2-for-4 with a double.
• PJ Walters is acquitting himself well at Springfield. He has a 3.50 ERA and picked up his first win tonight. Pitching 7 innings he allowed 2 ER on 6 hits and 1 BB while striking out 2.
• Tyler Johnson was asked to pitch on consecutive days at this stage in his rehab and responded with a perfect inning striking out 2.
• Jason Motte pitched the 9th allowing a hit while striking 1 out for his 5th save.

Palm Beach 5, St. Lucie 8

• Allen Craig, Brandon Buckman and Chris Grossman all collect two hits.
• Luke Gorsett goes 3-for-4 collecting the only extra base hit: a double.
• Trey Hearne allows 7 ER in 5 innings. I feel bad for Trey who dominated last year and has been absolutely atrocious this year.
• Robert Ransom strikes out 4 in 2 innings while walking 1.

Quad Cities 7, West Michigan 4

• The man, the myth, the legend goes 2-for-3 with a HR and a walk.
• Steve Hill continues to mash going 3-for-4 with a double. As a 13th round selection he looks awfully good. Baseball America said this about him, “He’s strong and has a quick bat, which has enabled him to set the Stephen F. Austin single-season and career home run records.”
• Clayton Mortenson was quite good allowing 5 hits and 2 walks in 4 innings. He kept the runs of the board allowing just 2 (1 ER) by striking out 7 and recording 4 groundouts (to 1 air out) and participating in a double play.

Batavia 6, Jamestown 7

• Batavia fell just short of tying the game in the 9th after scoring 4 runs in a late rally.
• Tyler Henley went 1-for-6.
• C Paul Vasquez, DH David Carpenter, 1B Charlie Pelt and LF Mateo Marquez all had 2 hit nights. David hit a solo HR in the 6th.
• Pete Parise pitched a scoreless first frame but failed to retire a batter in the 2nd and was charged with all 5 runs scored that inning.
• Ryan Riddle struck out 3 in 2 scoreless innings.

GCL Cardinals 5, GCL Nationals 3

• Luis De La Cruz went 2-for-4 as the catcher.
• Reid Gorecki made a rehab appearance doubling and striking out 3 times.
• Stuart Pomeranz, who has missed the whole season with a shoulder injury, started the game and threw a perfect inning.
• Wladimir Mendoza struck out 3 in 1.2 IP.
• Rigoberto Lugo struck out 1 in a perfect 9th for the save as the Cardinals scored 5 times in the last 3 innings for a comeback win.