Future Redbirds

 Just an FYI -

BA is doing a “stat wrap” series at each level of the minors. They released AAA two days ago and AA today. I mention these in passing because there isn’t a lot of meat to the articles. . .they’re awfully similar to the numbers I run for the Visualizing Hitters & Pitchers series but it does give you a more comprehensive look at the competition than the Cardinal centric posts that I do. (You don’t, however, get the kick-ass graphs that I laboriously make.)

The added part for the hitters is a speed score, which I don’t try and incorporate. Speed is a somewhat overrated portion of the game, imo, as the best of base runners still accumulate less than a win with their baserunning. Now that’s not to say that 9 runs merely on the basepaths isn’t incredible but that’s the best of the best. Colby Rasmus, however, appears to be one of those players that could tack on an extra half a win or so in that fashion but his real value lies in his batting skills and centerfield defense. He gets praised again in the BA stat wrap.

In any event, the Springfield starting pitchers look pretty good on BA’s lists and I’ll get started on the Visualizing Pitchers series here soon while I finish up the hitters.