- This topic has 61 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Opening his professional career with a bang, Palm Beach left-handed starter Quinn Mathews put together the top overall pitching performance in the #stlcards system in April. View his results and our other finalists. (free) https://t.co/ruRomNqQqU pic.twitter.com/qhZtHSrWTf
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) May 2, 2024
Fairly easy choice here. Lots of good performances so far among our minor league pitchers, but Mathews has been incredible both with ERA and strikeouts.
For position player? Church? Torres? Iadisernia if he has enough at bats maybe? This one should be a closer call.
I forgot about Fermin. Yeah, he’s a contender too. He’d be my pick for most shocking hitting improvement.
Bling – yes. But he also gets a lot of swings and misses in the zone too. He needs to move up. He’s way too advanced for his level.
By a considerable margin, The Cardinal Nation’s choice as the top hitter in the #STLCards system during April is then-Memphis infielder José Fermín, who bested seven other finalists. (free) https://t.co/UKeUIaNe2Q pic.twitter.com/PJzmn6MmAz
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) May 4, 2024
Fermin was apparently squeezed out by PA count, but had more XBH than Church in 25 fewer plate appearances.
The #STLCards have selected Springfield outfielder Nathan Church and Palm Beach lefty Quinn Mathews as the organization’s April Player and Pitcher of the Month. (free) https://t.co/Toprm74W0A pic.twitter.com/TiAmRg2XUv
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) May 6, 2024
The pitching looks good in the system, and the hitting not so good. The hitting philosophy of the entire organization may need a refresh at this point.
Palm Beach RHS Darlin Saladin had the top overall pitching performance in the #stlcards system in May. The 21-year-old’s results are compared to six other finalists with ERAs under 2.00, Top 10 prospects and last month's winner. (free) https://t.co/tjmu39bu9Y pic.twitter.com/l32CW6sPNy
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) June 2, 2024
Palm Beach again. It is too bad the stand out is again at the bottom of the system rather than the top. Is that not a good measure of the quality of the system?
Brian could just as easy have picked Koperniak at Memphis or Crooks at Springfield. They all had great days.
Niether of them were finalists for player of the month for May. I had observed that a PB pitcher was also the April stand out.
I was thinking this was player of the day in my comment above. Sorry for the confusion. I agree with Saladin as pitcher of the month.
My opinion is it is a waste of time to worry about whether A level pitchers will or will not do this or that. They fall into two categories at this point. Those who survive to reach the upper levels and those that don’t. Don’t either because their arm blows out or because they can’t throw strikes or their stuff gets hammered. If Mathews and Showalter survive and reach AA, then we can start talking about what they look like.
Church has two problems, lack of power and lack of pedigree. Both matter. I see he has played cf some, so I assume he is not functionally unplayable due to his D. It is worth remembering that lots of guys look good in the Texas League, and most of them don’t make it. He seems destined to make it to AAA at least, so we will see how he handles that.
Yeah Church doesn’t have a whole lot of upside, but with him playing CF some, he could be a depth piece more realistically or a 4th OF more optimistically. Even a depth piece provides good value to a franchise and we need to churn some of them out. Look at our current OF situation with Edman and Noot out. We could really use someone that can play a respectable OF defense while not being dead weight offensively. Just playing at replacement level would be an upgrade over what we will be rolling out for an OF on days Siani or Donovan are out.
The other thing about Palm Beach is that Roger Dean Stadium has historically been a pitcher friendly ballpark so that could skew both the pitching and hitting stats for the Class A players.
Position player of the month is going to be trickier as no one had an exceptional month. I guess it’s likely going to be Luken Baker who slugged quite a few homers and some doubles in May. His month was really good, but he’s repeating AAA for his 3rd full time around. After him though, the cupboard is about bare. Trey Paige was pretty good if I remember right at Low A. Jose Suarez was solid at the FCL – along with a guy I think we’ll all be hearing more about over time – Yordelin Pena. Matt Lloyd at AA could be in the mix. But none of these guys was outstanding for May. It’s a rough time to be a hitter in the Cardinals minor league organization.
But the excuse for the pitching situation is that the org prioritized hitting for some years, correct?
Well, yes. And now they seem to have prioritized pitching. One day we will have balance. Maybe.
It is unusual that our hitting has really tanked. Most hitters are at least 100 points of OPS less than last year. And almost all the new guys have been super poor (Levenson and Paige are exceptions – they’ve both been solid, but not great). The only thing that makes sense is that the organization took its eyes off hitting and focused heavily on pitching. There are still hitting coaches. But they are either poor or don’t have the resources. I’m just speculating but I’m not sure what else makes sense.
I think the coaches stay on script,J. The philosophy doesn’t work. Not for hitting, not for pitching. Why did Albert and Maddux up and leave? Not rocket science, IMO.
With leading HR, RBI, BB rate, SLG and OPS stats, Memphis 1B Luken Baker topped 8 other finalists as The Cardinal Nation’s choice as the top hitter in the #stlcards system during May. Top 10 prospects and last month’s winner’s results are also reviewed. https://t.co/siQIPDCDUP pic.twitter.com/QNpI3Qoiwd
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) June 3, 2024
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.