Per Monsieur Goold, the following players have been released-SP Dewon Brazelton, OF Reid Gorecki, Utility IF Juan Lucena, RHP Logan Collier, RHP Armando Carrasco.
For the first time in it seems like ages, the Memphis Redbirds will have a fully homegrown rotation. Huzzah. No journeyman AAAA roster fillers hoarding up spots! This is a sharp turn from the Jocketty era, that filled spots in Memphis with the likes of Randy Keisler and Mike Smith. I wouldn’t be totally stunned if this opens the door for Jaime Garcia, but I’m thinking its poor Anthony Reyes who is going to be the team’s 5th starter. For the Braz, this has to be rock bottom for him. Again. The casualty of Reid Gorecki comes as no surprise; there just aren’t enough jobs in the outfield, and since being named the club’s organizational player of the year in 2004, Gorecki either hasn’t hit or hasn’t been able to stay on the field. He flashed some interesting tools at times-speed, glove, and decent patience and power. But the man’s now 27. It’s more then past time to turn the page.
Kevin Goldstein looks at the state of the NL Central systems. He names both Memphis and Springfield as the team to watch this summer, given Rasmus and Perez will be in Memphis and Springfield looks to have a stout rotation. He rips a bit on Kozma, yet he also ranked him the club’s 8th best prospect, which I don’t quite follow his logic. He also does some prognosticating, giving odds to who will be the Card’s #1 prospect next year. Rasmus is the odds on favorite, followed by Perez and Ottavino. He had Mortensen at 30 to 1 odds, which doesn’t quite jive with me. It’s kind of a fun concept; feel free to post yours in the comments. Here is mine, for what little they may be worth.
Rasmus 3 to 1
Perez 5-1
Bryan Anderson 10-1
Jaime Garcia 12-1
2008 1st round pick 15-1
Clayton Mortensen 20-1
Adam Ottavino 20-1
Peter Kozma: 30-1
I suppose I have high hopes for whomever they take at 13. If they take another college arm such as Tanner Scheppers or Shooter Hunt, then I’d give them 30-1 odds along with Kozma. Not that I wouldn’t like either, I think both are great pitchers, two arms with #2 ceilings. OK, maybe 25-1. Now if they land a high ceiling position player like Tim Beckham, Aaron Hicks or Harold Martinez, then I would think if Rasmus had enough AB’s at the big league level and couldn’t be the #1, that player could very well be #1. I just can’t wait until draft day.
Kary Booher has a feature on Tyler Greene, who’s hoping to press the reset button this year.
Jumping into today’s DPR, once again we have some inter-squad action, featuring a rehabbing starter who’s headed for the DL.
Memphis 8, Springfield 6
- Braden Looper had his final tuneup of the spring, going 6 innings, allow 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. Looper hasn’t looked very sharp all spring.
- Blake Hawksworth followed, going 5 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk while fanning 3.
- Old man take a look at my life…Josh Phelps went 3 for 4 with a walk and a run scored, Rico Washington tripled, walked scored a run and drove in a run in his only two PA’s, and Amaury Marti hit 3 run homer with a stir stick standing on one leg with a blind fold.
- Utility man Casey Rowlett went 2 for 3 with a double.
- For Springfield, Matt Clement threw 1 inning, and allowed 1 hit, no runs with his velocity sitting in the mid-eighties. Derrick Goold has the low down.
- Kris Honel threw 2, allowed a 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 BB, and 0 K’s.
- Trey Hearne went back to his touchable ways, throwing 2, surrendering 5 hits, 5 runs, 4 of which were earned. He walked 3 and struck out 2.
- Nick Webber went 1.2 innings, allowed 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, striking out 2. I can’t believe he was a 2nd round pick.
- Luke Gregerson spun one scoreless inning with 1 BB and a K.
- For the offense, Jon Jay smacked two doubles, walked and crossed the plate twice. Stay healthy. Just stay healthy.
- Cody Haerther also had two doubles.
- Mark Hamilton cranked a 2 run HR. I am in the minority here at FR of being a Mark Hamilton believer. I do agree that taking a player on the wrong side of the defensive spectrum in the first couple of rounds isn’t ideal. I just see the power and hope that he can develop into a valuable trading chip.
- Tyler Greene went 2 for 4.
Palm Beach 4, Quad Cities 3
- Clayton Mortensen is trying to prove he’s too good for A ball. He went 3 innings, allowed 4 hits but just 1 ER while striking out 6. He had a couple of walks.
- Sleeper prospect Josh Dew struck out 3 over 2 innings. He allowed 1 ER on 3 hits.
- Bob Zimmerman threw 2 innings, allowed 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 BB, with 2 K’s. Bob Zimmerman sounds exactly like a man who would own a used car lot.
- Francisco Samuel, the man with two first names, had 1 inning, gave up no hits, 1 BB, 1 K.
- The reemerging Tommy Pham went 1 for 3 with an RBI and walk for PB.
- Daryl Jones, Brandon Buckman, Arnoldi Cruz and Tyler Henley all went 2 for 4. Daaaryl. Daaaryl.
- For the QC, Brian Broderick allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 1 BB over 3 innings. He had 2 K’s.
- Kyle Mura was stretched over 4. He gave up 1 run on 6 hits and 0 BB, with 3 K’s. I’ve seen Mura pitch, he’s not horrible but he throws only about 87 tops from the outing I saw him in. He has a decent curve, but it lacks rotation. He fools the low A batters, but I don’t think he’ll fool people for too long.
- Fernando Salas struck out the side in his only inning of work.
- Charles Kingrey went 3 for 4 with a HR.
- Luis DeLaCruz, the teams #30 prospect according to BA, went 2 for 4.
- Justin Roberson had two doubles, Andrew Brown also had a double.
Filed under: 2008 MLB draft, Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Daaaryl. Daaaryl??? A Simpsons quote?
Erik, do you have any idea why Goldstein didn’t mention Barton as a 2008 rookie in the Show? Seems like a no-brainer to me. Is he simply ignoring Rule 5 guys as a matter of policy, or what? I’ve messaged him about this but haven’t heard back.
I don’t really see inconsistencies in his Kozma positions. He thinks that first-rounders should be higher impact than just the eighth best prospect in a system. That Kozma is _not_ looking to be higher impact, I think Kevin would argue, indicts the Cardinals system as not having fully turned the corner yet. That is a fair enough criticism, if Kozma really is as high as #8 on the team prospect list. (I don’t think he is; maybe more like #10.) The only thing I really disagree with in his analysis is using Kozma to fill in his “Don’t Believe the Hype” section of the article. NOBODY is hyping Kozma that I can see, certainly not here on FR or on any other Cardinals blog or news source that I read. But oh well.
A Simpsons quote?
————–
That’s what fans used to chant at Strawberry when he came to town.
Bart and Lisa did chant it in that episode with Strawberry, Ozzie, Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly and I forget who else.
….Canseco, Steve Sax, Junior (a very young Junior).
Additional players getting a mention in my favorite “Mr. Burns is old” joke: Cap Anson, Honus Wagner, and Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown.
And erik, the proper use of “huzzah” always has an exclamation point after it, FYI.
Bob Zimmerman sounds exactly like a man who would be an iconic singer/songwriter from the 1960’s.
One thing to say about Kozma, *IF* he ends up being an above average SS with a .750ish OPS and decent SB ability I think it will be a great pick at 18. Sure, we would all love to have had a pick that had a super star type ceiling but for all the fuss, more times than not, those guys don’t pan out either. I’m just saying I would rather have a guy that came up and was average than a guy who flames out and never comes up at all (DUH?) And besides, I don’t care what anyone says, the Pirates picking Moskos where they did was the biggest reach in the draft.
i saw mortensen pitching for palm beach and thought to myself after all the hype this spring it would be extremely disappointing if he didn’t start for springfield, but then i saw one of the articles at the news-leader website and it said he is expected to be in the springfield rotation.
Seriously, if we take another OF in the first round, I think I will head butt a rottweiler. Not that we have picked so many OF in the first round, but we have a glut of OF in the system, what with rasmus, mather, barton and the emergence of daryl jones and hopefully tommy pham (fingers crossed). I would hope for either a high ceiling third baseman or someone up the middle (pitcher, 2nd, ss). However, I don’t wasnt us to what the Detroit Lions are to WR’s with SS. I leave out catcher because a) by al indications yadi will be here awhile and b) bryan anderson. If a catcher is taken early, I feel anderson will be a trade commodity. Now, I know it takes years to develop talent, and who knows what the future holds, but I would at least like to see with the first pick that cardinals front office send the message that “Hey, we see we have glaring holes at second and short”, and hopefully address that. But, I guess system depth doesn’t hurt.
i also want an impact third base prospect, and that is why i think harold martinez would be a perfect pick. he is the best high school third base prospect in that draft, and that is a perfect fit for the system. we have glaus signed for 2 years, and we have 2 decent 3rd base prospects in the upper minors with allen craig and david freese. what we don’t have is a stud 3rd base prospect in the lower levels, and martinez qualifies as a stud. i thought we would get one last year with guys like moustakas, dominguez, ahrens, and middlebrooks all considered first round talents, but the first 3 all went before we picked and the 4th slipped due to bonus demands and questions about if he may not be better on the mound. it was also a good year for high school middle infielders, and at least we got one of those.
by the way, I suck at typing, so I apologize for all my spelling errors.
Love the Neil Young reference! Also really looking forward to what should be very encouraging seasons in AA and AAA, if not the big club.
what have you heard about Ross Oeder? 2B
Wow. An Oeder question. He’s sort of the scrappy, hustling player who plays better then his actual athletic abilities. He’s a high contact, low-low power guy who could possibly latch on as a utility player if he can hit for average and defend. He’s not really on my radar screen.
Oeder.. sounds like the sort of player Tony likes