BA has it’s rankings for the top players at each position. Bryan Anderson is ranked the 3rd best catcher in the minors out of an average group, while Colby Rasmus is ranked the 4th best outfield prospect following Justin Upton, Cameron Maybin and Adam Jones. Chris Perez was snubbed in the reliever category, I mean busted shortstop prospect Matt Bush made the list, he’s thrown like what, 7 innings? Get real. (Subscription required)
Kevin Goldstein takes a look at the early returns of the 1st round of the draft and has a li’l blurb on Kozma. (Subscription)
If anything, it’s surprising that it took a month for Kozma to sign, as he was seen as a bit of an overdraft, and even slot money likely exceeded initial expectations. The signing also gives the Cardinals a little more wiggle room to sign fourth-round pick Kyle Russell, who will likely get $1 million. After a four-game Gulf Coast League warmup in which he went 2-for-13, Kozma is now in the Appy League with Johnson City, where he’s 3-for-12 with three walks and just one strikeout.
Speaking of Russell, Alan Trubow of the Austin American-Statesman has the latest update on the drama.
Third baseman Bradley Suttle and right fielder Kyle Russell, both fourth-round draft picks still are waiting for official offers.
Russell said Monday that he was in Kansas City and the St. Louis Cardinals will be watching him.
Still waiting for an official offer? What has he been getting this whole time? Is it the 15th yet? I am ready for this whole thing to be over. While I am glad they’ll be scouting him to see how he does with wood bats, I would think that would have the book on Russell by now. Hmph.
Moving onto another Russell, The Birdhouse is reporting that 49th round pick RHP Ronald Russell has signed. Russell is 18 and is a pick out of high school in Arkansas.
Springfield was off tonight. Palm Beach wins in an extra inning slugfest, the GCL doubled up and the Swing’s game was cut short. Onto the action on the field.
- Paul Henley went 3 for 5 with a double and scored 2 runs.
- Ross Oeder went 2 for 3 with a double, walk and a steal.
- Daniel Descalso went 2 for 5 with a double.
- Justin Roberson tripled and walked twice.
- Brandon Garner allowed 2 runs in 4 innings allowing 4 hits and a walk, striking out 2.
- Pete Kozma went 2 for 5.
- Nicholas Vera doubled and homered.
- Matthew Arburr homered.
- Andres Rosales threw 5 hitless innings, striking out 4 and allowed 2 walks.
- Then Mark Diapoules happened, allowing 4 runs and only recorded an out.
GCL Cardinals 2, GCL Dodgers 1 (7 innings)
- Michael Blazek allowed just 2 hits over 6 innings, walking 2 and striking out 5.
- Julio Sanchez struck out the only batter he faced to pick up his 3rd save, and hasn’t allowed a run in 5 games.
- Edgar Lara doubled.
- Ivan Castro went 2 for 2.
GCL Cardinals 3, GCL Dodgers 2 (Game 2, 7 innings)
- Rico Washington is rehabbing with kids about 10 years younger, homering.
- Reid Gorecki, who is either rehabbing or has nowhere else to play with crowded OF situations in Memphis and Springfield. He doubled.
- Luis De La Cruz went 2 for 3.
- Hector Cardenas struck out 4 in 3 innings, while allowing a walk and a hit. He did throw 2 wild pitches.
- Julio Sanchez was busy today, striking out 2 in a perfect inning, picking up his 4th save.
Palm Beach 13, Dunedin 10 (12 innings)
- Eddie Degerman has hit the wall since being promoted to PB. He gave up 5 earned runs on 5 hits and 6 walks. His FSL ERA is now at 7.42. That’s a dang shame.
- Jonathan Jay went 3 for 4 with 2 walks.
- Allen Craig went 3 for 5 with 2 doubles.
- Brandon Buckman went 3 for 6 with a double and a HR.
- Brandon Yarbrough went 2 for 6 with a double, driving in the go ahead runs.
Quad Cities 5, Dayton 3 (8 innings, comp. early due to rain)
- Elvis Hernandez struck out 7 in 5 innings, and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits and a walk.
- Arnoldi Cruz went 2 for 3 with a double.
- Christian Reyes went 3 for 3 with a double.
- Rick Ankiel hit his 32nd homer, tying the minor league lead. Just find a spot for him already.
- Nick Stavinoha went 2 for 4 with a stolen base.
- It’s official, Brian Falkenborg is the set up man, and he nearly cost the team the game by allowing 2 runs in the 8th.
- Chris Perez retired all three batters he faced, striking out 1 en route to his 2nd save.
- Mark Worrell struck out 2 over 2 IP. For a gimmicky delivery pitcher, he’s held his own at each level, which is more then we can say about Degerman today. He has struck out out a batter per inning in AAA, and has 236 K’s in 208 minor league innings.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir went 2 for 3.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
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fewgoodcards
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theredbaaron
Why did BA leave him off the best RP prospects list after naming him the best RP in the Texas League?
Grant…The depth chart, that’s Callis, Kline, Lingo, and the others who write their’s opinion based on the info they get from scouts, managers, and what they’ve seen themselves. The previous lists were voted by the managers of the leagues.
Maybe its time to move Degerman to the pen?
Actually, I’d let him continue to be a starter for the rest of the season and unless he improves I’d move him to the pen next year. Sort of like what the Cards did with Nick Webber this year, I guess.
Donald Veal, Brett Anderson and Troy Patton over Jaime Garcia. . .I think BA is projecting a little too much and not looking at what they’ve actually done.
The Matt Bush inclusion is baffling. He’s been shut down for elbow problems after 7 innings. Seriously, BA, seriously.
Second save for Perez. I like that you can pull up a gameday on some of the minor-league games. 1-2-3 ninth for the young guy, any chance he gets called up this year?
Erik, thanks for the heads up…I didn’t realize that first list was voted on by the managers.
Perez wasn’t included on the RP list!? Who all was then?
Where was Jay Bruce?
RICK!!!!!
The home run was nice — a bullet line drive to right. What made it especially great was that Portland made a pitching change just before he came to the plate, bringing in lefty Will Startup. First pitch, home run. Startup is a decent prospect, a former third round pick who many expect to develop into a setup man in the bigs. Ankiel homering off this pitcher is far more impressive than had it been, say, off Watkins, the journeyman right-hander.
Ankiel’s other at-bats: strikeout, fly to deep center, strikeout. The Memphis ninth ended with him on deck. He looked pretty bad again on one of the strikeouts, once again being way out in front and taking an ugly swing on a curveball. He also caught the third out of an inning in right, and clearly didn’t realize it was the third out. The home run, though, was something to see. He signed several autographs after the game.
Chris Perez: throws HARD! Still no radar at the stadium, and I’m no expert at judging mph, but I can say with certainty that he was throwing at least 4-5 mph faster than any other pitcher who threw the past two nights. He pitched a clean ninth, although one of his pitches flew about five feet over the catcher’s head and to the backstop. Luckily he didn’t let anyone on base.
Mark Worrell: that delivery is bizarre to say the least. First, he almost falls over when he starts the windup; second, he almost touches his hand to the ground during the delivery. I’ve never seen anything like it. When he came in he faced three left-handed hitters in a row and retired them 1-2-3 (although one was a deep fly to the warning track). That was good to see.
Hoffpauir had a couple of singles, one of which was off the center fielder’s glove; I thought he should have made the play. Hoff and Ryan turned a nice double play as well. I didn’t mean to start a riot yesterday with my Hoffpauir/Miles comment. I wasn’t claiming that Hoff’s skillset is no better than Miles’; I was just saying that on the field, in a uniform, he looks a lot like Aaron Miles, which he really DOES. And that was obviously a letdown to me, when the picture I had of him in my mind was more, say, Mark Grudzielanek. I hope I’m wrong about him never becoming a big league regular.
Hugo Castellanos had a base hit tonight! He actually looked like a hitter up there. He’s a big guy who takes a good swing.
I’ll be going to Wednesday’s series finale as well. I can’t wait to see Parisi, as he’s a pitcher who has always intrigued me for some reason. I’ll pass along any impressions I might have.
Michael — do you live in Portland?
you could argue that hamilton, hoffman, garcia all got snubbed. i don’t get that list at all, BA just kills me sometimes.
Not to overwhelm with Kyle Russell info, but here’s a post from the Birdland that makes it seem positive.
It’s too early.
http://www.stltoday.com/blogs/sports-bird-land/2007/08/draft-pick-russell-balls-in-my-court/#more-14048
i don’t really read too much into the “no official offer” quote. no one is signing people for that much over slot yet, so there is really no point in offering him before now anyway. in the case of suttle, he may not have an official offer, but baseball america has said he has already agreed to terms and is just waiting until close to the 15th to sign the deal.
Given Russell’s struggles with the wood bat this year and last, I’m not surprised the Cardinals want to see every game possible before making an offer.
His recent 5-9 with 2 doubles and a triple in money games is encouraging and might ease some doubts among Cardinals’ decision-makers.
The Goold blog is pretty hopeful. Russell sounds as though he’s ready for his professional career to start. Among other things, he probably realizes that another season with an aluminum bat is not going to further his development. The best thing for his career is full-time work with hand-turned ash or maple.
Making this happen would be a sound risk-reward move for the Cardinals.
For those keeping score at home Jarrett Hoffpauir’s BABIP is .348 in Memphis. Don’t expect his batting average to last at .330 but it could hover around .300 accounting for a more typical BABIP.
Yes, especially if you look at his homeruns linked on youtube from the BirdLand blog, those two homers are opposite field *ping* jobs.
None the less, the power potential is there and Grubworm you are right, he has nothing left to do with the metal bats.
Current mood about Kyle Russell signing: Positive
I live across the river in Vantucky.
I, too, was very impressed with Perez…he was BRINGING it and looked awesome. I enjoyed the Major League moment of throwing to the backstop.
The Slick Rick HR was tremendous. I had turned to my buddy and said, “If this lefty throws the get-ahead fastball before he starts slinging junk, kiss it goodbye.” It was wishful thinking, but thanks for that, Rick. Such a free and easy swing and that ball just lined right over the fence.
JH is definitely on the stocky side of the 2B build. I thought the DP he turned looked pretty good, no wasted movement and quick, but he later fielded a grounder up the middle and made a horrible throw that bounced about nine times before it got to first…a difficult play, but one I’d hope he’d be closer making. Granted, a sample size of one and the ball probably slipped out of his hand.
Tagg Bozied hit a ball barely foul in the early innings that left the ballpark and went over the beer garden and across the frickin street. I nearly pooped myself.
Wish I could have attended today’s game…what a treat.
Someone ask Baseball America what they think of their Matt Bush ranking now.