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A couple of clarifications.
This is not Mieses’ first time at Triple-A. In fact, it is his third this season. For unknown reasons (perhaps just a relatively small number of at-bats), he has been substantially better with Memphis than with more ABs at Springfield.
The Diaz-Espinal trade may say “for future considerations” somewhere, but in reality, it was for international cap money the Cardinals could not spend anyway. (Same with Lane Thomas.) Details can be found on page 180 of TCN’s 2019 Prospect Guide. 😉
The minor league teams have been devastated with injuries. What was supposed to be a very strong team at Memphis has morphed into a team with poor pitching, particularly in the pen and a fair number of guys that should still be at AA if not A.
Injuries have been an issue, especially at Memphis, but they did not play particularly well out of the gate. They were sort of like St. Louis (without the huge April) – hanging around .500 into mid-May before the losses started piling up.
Other than Montero at Springfield, there haven’t been many significant injuries down the system and I don’t feel other levels have been hit unusually hard numbers-wise by injuries this season. I am not going to give them a pass. It exposed a drop in overall talent, IMO.
For the first time in a long time going through the affiliates games from yesterday were not too difficult to take.
It was interesting watching Oviedo pitch for the first time since I saw him in Peoria last year. He throws 94-98 mph with a curve, slider, and change up. The slider and curve have similar shape. He still has bouts of wildness. I saw him walk the bases loaded last year, and he still has control problems at times. If he can throw more quality strikes he has the makings of a #2 or 3 starter. I would also guess he would start 2020 at Springfield again, and maybe get an early promotion to Memphis.
It was interesting seeing the Springfield bullpeners. It has been said the Texas League radar guns may be a little inflated, but seeing Dobzanski, Osnowitz, Williams, and Whitley pitch gives hope to our future pen prospects. Whitley clearly has the best stuff and has been the most consistent. He throws upper 90’s velocity, and seems hard for batters to square. Dobzanski, Williams, and Osnowitz seem the same type of fastball/slider combo pitchers hitting 94-96 mph, although Osnowitz, (who is the somewhat old to be a prospect, perhaps he has been injured) might throw a splitter. I could see any or all of the 4 pitching in the majors.
Blake Drake made his pitching debut today for the GCL Cards. 1 inning, 1 walk, 1 strikeout.
Also, this recent non drafted signee Reichenborn has had 2 good games to start his career.Carson Kelly's younger brother Parker @ParkerKelly20 is making his first professional start Sunday after 12 very solid appearances since joining the bullpen of Class A Peoria at the start of June – 1.69 ERA, 8.8 K/9, 1.4 BB/9. pic.twitter.com/Q0lZKWTDPK
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 20, 2019
This guy gives first hand accounts of Toŕres and Nunez.
https://cardinalsbestnews.blogspot.com/2019/07/early-thoughts-on-jhon-torres-malcom.html?m=1
Nunez 18 has an ETA for AA in 2023 according to the story as he has more to learn at 3B. While Torres 19 could be knocking on the clubhouse door at Busch in ’23. This sounds about right. Be patient.
Blake Drake threw a perfect inning today. Makes me want to look up Walker Robbins. I thought he has started well in his pitching career also.
Yasenka pitched a great game today. 7 innings, 1 run allowed, 10 K;s. Missed Parker Kellys start Sunday. Maybe starting is his calling. Pacheco intrigues me with his super high K rate. If he had better control, maybe he could be closer material.
There’s a couple of guys leading the surge in the new-look Springfield lineup. Toerner is 11-25 (.440) in his last 6 games and YGonalez is 17-39 (.436) in his last 10. YG is in his 4th pro season and has a .295 career average.
Check out Jack Ralston in the State College bullpen. Our 6’6″ 7th rd. pick this year out of UCLA will be 22 in Aug and is flashing some super numbers 7-GP 12.2inn 17-Ks 4-H 0-ER Oavr-=.098 and a WHIP of 0.39.
Our 21 year-old 17th rd. pick YaSenka is starting to get some notice. The Johnson City RHP is carrying a 0.60 ERA and in 6 games (4 starts) he’s pitched 26.1inn. with 34-Ks 2-ERs and a WHIP of 0.84 his game scores = 73-67-72. He should be heading up to State College soon.
Victor Garcia is quietly having a great season for JC. The 6’3″ OF has his avr. up to .300 and has a hit in 11 out of his last 12 games. He hit .304 for the GCL-Cards in ’18. This guy can hit.
I am bullish about the pitchers drafted this year. Here are the stats for the first 11 rounds:
IP 87 Hits 86 Earned Runs 34 Walks 32 Strikeouts 133
Without 10th rounder Sommers
IP 71 1/3 Hits 62 Earned Runs 23 Walks 25 Strikeouts 109Early assessment:
Thompson has struggled, but is pitching at the highest level
Locey has great stuff, but has control issues thus far
Pallante has looked solid, to plus
Thomas has pitched well and is at Peoria
Gragg has good strikeout to walk ratio. I wonder if he will be tried as a starter next year?
Ralston has had the best pro debut so far. Live arm, and deceptive windmill delivery.
Sommers has been so so. Nice strikeout rate, but has been hit hard at times.
Lunn pitched very well twice and may be done for 2019, Hopefully precautionary.And this is not counting Yasenka, who has pitched great for Johnson City
It is a shame Gorman is in a lineup where Plummer and Ortega precede him regularly. Neither seem capable of hitting themselves out of a wet paper bag. 2 promotions I would like to see. 1) Get Palm Beach another outfielder, and bench Plummer. 2) Promote Redmond to State College at least. Possibly Peoria.
Ynfante is batting ninth and is at .100.
I would have like to have seen Palm Beach’s relievers Santos and Dayton as co-players of the day. 4-IP 0-ER 0-H 8-Ks. Closed down Dunedin in a rare 4-2 win.
Garcia, Arozarena, and Thomas are making their cases for next outfielder up, wow. And Whitley will surely be riding the I55 shuttle in 2020.
It took Brandon Riley 299 ABs to hit his first HR this season, but he has raised his batting average since batting .375 over his last 7 games.
I’m not intending to influence the TCN Pitcher of the Month…. but a guy at Johnson City, Michael YaSenka had a terrific July. 4 starts, Game Score avg = 68. ERA – 0.64 28 IP – 32 Ks OAvr – .200 WHIP – 0.89. No other pitchers are close to his GSs.
Our newest prospect Jeffry Abreu ia a 6’4″ 200 pounder…. at 19. The AZL Dodgers looked like they were stretching him out to become a starter. He’s at low-Rookie but don’t discount him. He’s a perfect guy to keep an eye on and he might do well in Florida with the higher humidity that he’s more used to.
Another one of our 19 year olds Kevin Vargas at Johnson City is batting .333 this season and is 9 for 16 (.563) in his last 5 games. His #s =.425 OBP and 5 BBs with 5 Ks.
Nunez TCN’s #8 prospect is hitting .345 at Johnson City and 17-37 he last 9 games. Something he’ll to work on is that he has 15 Ks and only 1 BB.
Ny, the Pitcher of the Month article was already written this morning. You probably will not be disappointed.
Hey, is Mercado making a run at returning to the top-50? On 7/21 his BA was .143 today its .294. A nice stretch of .362 in his last 10 games and 11/20 in his last 4 games propelled the Chiefs to a 6-4 record in their last 10 (very good for them).
This after his season started on June 25 because of an injury and he then played 17 games for State College and batted 3.24. The promotion to Peoria started off slow but he is ripping it lately.
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