Kudos to Tommy Pham for being named the Midwest League’s offensive player of the week. Now, if only he can do that in Palm Beach. . .
Colby Rasmus is in Kevin Goldstein’s Monday Morning Ten Pack but we’ve already had a lively discussion re: Rasmus. Allen Craig makes the list too and I think Goldstein is just a little inaccurate about some speculation:
Over the last week, he’s begun to see some time at first base and left field, which doesn’t help his outlook as a prospect, but if he keeps on hitting…
The Cardinals play their top 2007 draft pick at third on occassion even though the consensus, and you could go as far as to say that everyone, thinks he’s going to stay at SS long term. The fact that Craig is playing other positions means next to nothing in my opinion — it’s simply an organizational tendency to see whether the infield prospects could slot elsewhere on the field. It’s a bad organizational tendency, imo, but I don’t think there’s a direct causation from defensive prowess.
Mather violated the HR pitch in Sunday’s 1-0 win for Memphis, says manager Chris Maloney.
Steven Hill the right-handed version of Kyle Russell?
Mail Call: Jeff Luhnow answers your questions.
Jaime Garcia falters a bit. Springfield snaps their double digit loosing streak as Palm Beach breaks out their big boy bats. The QC hurlers toss a 4-hitter as the organization goes 3-for-5.
- Joe Mather, playing CF for the second night in a row, goes 1-for-4 with a double.
- Nick Stavinoha went 2-for-4 with a HR. He’s hitting .378/.409/.568 — a nice line but he doesn’t walk at all and that batting average just isn’t sustainable. I’m not convinced he’s regained prospect status but he’s making some noise.
- Gabe Johnson was 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Bryan Anderson was 0-for-2 with a pair of walks.
- Jaime Garcia hits his first bump in the road this year allowing 8 hits in 5 innings. Including 2 HRs, he allowed 5 runs overall to go with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.
- Matthew Scherer struck out 2 in a scoreless 6th.
- Mark Worrell has a shaky 8th allowing 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 2 and escaping any damage.
- Allen Craig goes 3-for-5 with a double.
- Jose Martinez and Matt Pagnozzi both go 1-for-3 with a walk.
- A nice outing for Clayton Mortensen as he goes 6 strong innings allowing 3 runs. He was a little hittable (9 hits) but only 1 for extra bases (a HR). He struck out 4 and had 10 groundouts against 3 airouts.
- Luke Gregerson struck out 2 of the 4 batters he faced in a scoreless effort.
- Fernando Salas got tagged for the last run in the 9th allowing 2 hits and striking out 1.
- Brian Cartie goes 3-for-5 with a double.
- Arnoldi Cruz and Donovan Solano both collect a pair of singles in 4 trips to the plate.
- Andrew Brown goes yard.
- Daryl Jones has the standout line of the night going 3-for-4 with a walk including 2 HRs.
- Shaun Garceau tosses 6 innings allowing 5 hits, 2 runs (1 earned) with 1 walk and 2 Ks.
- Jon Mikrut and Francisco Samuel combine to strike out 6 over the last 3 innings of work.
- C Paul Vasquez goes 2-for-4 with a double.
- Francisco Rivera goes 2-for-4 with a HR.
- Tommy Pham continues to hit lacing a triple and a walk in 4 PAs.
- Brian Broderick allowed 4 hits in 5 innings striking out 3.
- Josh Wilson makes a showing finishing the game with 4 perfect innings striking out 4. He also had a sterling 7:1 GO:AO ratio.
- Wilson Perez takes the offensive accolades in this game (although several could have received them) going 2-for-4 with a HR and a walk.
- Props to Moises Colorado on the pitching side who struck out 7 over 3 innings allowing 3 hits, 1 walk and 2 ERs.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
Starting to be intriqued by 3B Brian Cartie in Palm Beach. Anyone know more about him, defensive ability, power potential, etc. You usual 3B prospect stuff.
David Brito of the VSL team deserves some love, with the win in relief today he is now 2-0, and has yet to give up a run in his11 innings of work, only surrendering 4 hits.
right now I’d take Hill over Russell. What a terrible idea that was for him, going back to college. he started horrible, but finished ok..hitting .293/.445/.629. struck out 50 times, though.
AZ, respectfully, I’m not convinced that letting young, developing players try different positions every now and then is a bad thing. I think it could have long-term benefits.
I think it makes sense to give players a view of the action from a slightly different perspective — in theory, I could see how it would help them become better all-around ballplayers.
But the main reason I might want to do this, if I were in charge of player development, is to give the young guys a mental break.
Going from high school or college ball to a full-time job, playing games 6 or 7 days a week instead of 2, 3, or 4, has to wear these guys down. If you let the shortstop play third base every now and then, or let the third baseman play first base or left field, you take away some of the pressure.
There must be a term for this in educational theory — why someone can take a step forward by occasionally taking a step sideways.
Matt Scherer has been a pleasant surprise. He has pretty much picked up McClellan’s innings this year as the 7th inning guy for Motte-Perez.
Not to be nitpicky, but the farm system went 4-5 last night, not 3-5.
So I am curious. Everyone seems to think that Pop Warner is probably the best manager in the minor league system. Is it by design that he is coaching AA in that it is perceived to be the most difficult jump to make in the minors? Is it a team philosophy to put the best coaching staff at AA?
I support the Cards allowing players try out different positions with one major caveot. If you got a guy who is 19-21 and you project and/or need them to play either SS or CF. I say that only because those are probably the most difficult and important defensive positions in the game. It doesn’t make sense to me that if you got a really young SS that you drafted and project as a SS that you would mess with putting him at other positions.
I do support it for 90% of the other guys for one major reason - it can spead up their progression to the “Big Show”. Not every player is going to become a Pujols or Hanley Ramirez. Guys like Jose Martinez, Greene, Mather, and even Allen Craig need to learn other positions to improve their chances of making a big league roster. Plus it is easy to forget that guys like Allen Craig need to learn other positions because of the fact that they may or are blocked by another prospect that is either graded the same or higher. Assume that Allen Craig continues to hit and Freese continues to hit at AAA. Glaus is still signed for next year so he is going to play at the MLB. Which means Freese stays at AAA. If Craig can only play 3B then he has to stay at AA to get his ABs, but if he can play a little LF and 1B you can put him in AAA as well and have him play all three spots to get his ABs. Then all of a sudden Craig has put himself in competition not only for 3B in 2010, but in competition for a utility role in Sept 09 call up.
My only problem with the Cardinals’ organizational philosophy of giving players looks at different positions is the whole “jack of all trades/master of none” theory. I’d rather Craig play at 3B every day and master that position, because I think he holds more value as a 3B who can actually field that position well than as a guy who can play multiple positions but none very well. He was a college SS, which leads you to believe he can stay in the infield and probably do very well. Same for Kozma. . .I’d rather him master the SS position. A guy like Hill has no natural position - other than in the batter’s box.
Quick clarification: I wasn’t suggesting that the Cards put top prospects at different positions as a fallback plan.
The goal, from what I can tell, isn’t to force the kids learn another position. It’s to let them play a different position — and I mean “play,” as in have some fun by trying something different.
In other words, I strongly suspect it’s a reward for hard work at the primary position, not part of a plan to turn Pete Kozma into Aaron Miles.
Lou — I understand what your saying but if Kozma makes an error at third do you think he just shrugs it off because it’s not his normal position? Personally, I’d feel more pressure being removed from my comfort zone. There’s still pressure in letting your teammates down when you botch a play.
And I really do question whether it impacts their defense. Craig almost certainly needs as much time and work at 3B as he can get. He’s right on the edge of being a servicable 3B but the club moves him to the OF and 1B occasionally. He’s certainly more valuable as 3B and getting him to be defensively adequate is a huge part of that.