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Who said it ruined his career? The Memphis move did however mess with his development. In ’16 he started out with GCL-Cards, moved up to JC and then PB in ’17. This season he started out at PB, promoted to AA SPFD. All this as a starter. So in two seasons he goes from the lowest level in the organization to Memphis, quite a stretch for a 23 y.o. 27th round pick in ’16 out of Flagler College. That’s generally a rush job for a very high pick prospect. So I question the thinking of whoever made the decision to then put him in our AAA bullpen.
The time he lost at MEM plus the time taken to re-adjust at AA as a starter are times lost for someone a young pitcher.
BUT don’t sell O’Reilly short, overrated? Au contraire. He may be better than the 41st ranked prospect.
2 home runs by Gorman yesterday. Does he have a chance to get ABs at State College this year? That could set up a full season gig at Peoria next year.
Who is Diomedes Del Rio? How does he fit into the GCL-Cards OF? The G-Cards could use a LH bat, Fuller is the only other one.
Wow, Johnson City has 3 of the top 6 home run hitters in the league. Cedeno, Gorman, and Dariel Gomez. Not sure who Gomez is. Hope they can keep it as power is a commodity the Cards system is shy on.
Gomez is a big lefty-hitting first baseman, 6-foot-5, 235, but turns 22 years old in a couple of weeks and just reached the Appy League. He would be interesting if three or four years younger.
Johnson City’s home run total is double that of the next closest team in the league (per our Brett Barnett’s JC Cardinals Notebook). However, with shaky pitching, they are fortunate to be at .500. They may have a lot of games like last night’s 13-12 score.
Some thoughts:
1. Gorman comment above, rather he gets time at SC or not this year I will assume he is destine for Peoria assignment to start 2019.
2. Machado after struggling in Peoria is doing very well in JC. Sort of the path Sierra took a few years ago at what I believe was the same age. Struggle in Peoria went back JC for strong finish then returned to Peoria the following year and had a very good season.
3. Interested in the year Cedeno can but together if he stays health.
4. Have three catchers sharing time at JC. HS draft pick Johnson and Soto both hitting well. Both $400k signees.
vj…. all 5 of the guys you mentioned have good potential and as you say all are doing well. Machado#25 and Cedeno are two guys to keep a close eye on. Its interesting that all three catchers at JC are LH batters. Jackson could take off, he has to start impressing.
Let’s not forget Gorman is only 18 and will likely need seasoning before being rushed.
I also posted this on the member forum where there was some discussion of Mendoza and Montero:
It will be interesting how our two 3B advance for the rest of this season and in ’19. They both have good size for corner infielders. If Montero#18 (6’3″ and only 20 in Aug.) can get his defense under control, he and Mendoza#15 (6’2″ just turned 22) could move quickly through the system as Brian mentioned.
Mendoza’s BA has dropped some since his jump to AA but the same happened last season when he went from SC to PEO. But he started in PB this season and didn’t miss a beat. His numbers have been consistent once he gets the feel for the next promotion.
1B Juan Yepes hasn’t fared as well. He was hitting over .400 at PEO and quickly moved up to PB where he is batting under .200. Yepes#37(6’1″ 20 y.o) is the piece we got for Adams in May of ’17 and time will tell who got the better of the deal. My belief is that he’ll his hitting soon and find himself in the mix at SPFD next season. The system will be looking for first-basemen with the potential to reach STL. Currently he is the second highest ranked first baseman in the farms with recently drafted Luken Baker being the fisrt at #17.
Players on the DSL teams, and Johnson City teams’ development may determine how good the lower part of our farm system is in the future, as it is pretty barren of potential impact players. I think the trio hitting home runs at Johnson City could be pushed to Peoria next year if the opposing pitching doesn’t figure them out this year. If they struggle there, they can always backed off like Sierra and Kelly have been in the past. I like the approach Gorman has, as he does not strike out a lot, and appears willing to take a walk.
I’m intrigued about Tommy Layne. He has pitched 3 2/3 at Memphis, and all 8 outs were by strikeout. Interesting guy from the Lou, but is not on the 40 man roster, And he’s 33. I would guess Webb would be called up before Layne, since he is on the 40 man.
Homer by Gorman, his 6th, leads Appy league. And Delvin Perez had 3 hits. Hitting .286. Hope he can keep it up. Last 13 years, 16 homers is the high for JC. Roberto DelaCruz. I hope Gorman is much, much, better. I like the fact Gorman draws walks as well.
Hard to be critical of Gorman, but I did notice that all but one of his extra-base hits have been home runs. Hopefully they are line drives, not all moon shots. The pitching will get tougher.
In part due to the Cardinals hitters, the Appy League combined ERA this season is a not-flattering 4.88. That is up almost a half-run from last season (4.48).
The Cards lead the league in scoring at 7.07 runs per game, but their pitching is getting pounded for a 6.86 ERA. Pretty easy to understand why they are a .500 club.
League-leading Bluefield (TOR) has a team ERA of 3.27.
It seems like our teams at Johnson City and the DSL teams are following trends of MLB. More home runs, and runs scored, plus strikeouts at an all time high. I am not a fan of this style, but I am pleased that we have some young players with plus power potential.
Springfield is 3-16 in their last 19 games. Even when the starters pitch well they still lose. I know that the minor leagues aren’t about wins and losses but 3 wins in 19 games has to be depressing.
Urias, Edman, and Thomas all have a chance to be reserves at the ML level. I think Edman and Thomas could be everyday players on a non-contending club. Mieses is interesting because of his power but has yet to translate development into results at Double-A (struggled mightily with Tulsa in 2017).
Pitching-wise, Jones and Tewes should pitch in the big leagues at some point in the next few years, barring injury. Not sold on O’Reilly, Shew, and Warner having the stuff to pitch in higher levels. I really like Latcham. He will help their bullpen, for sure. Look past the numbers, but Santos has a major league arm.
Roache would be more interesting if the Cardinals were an AL team but heckuva find for a minor league free agent. Nogowski can hit, albeit with moderate power as a first base only type which limits his value.
There are less than a handful of starting pitchers in the organization with #s that cry out to be promoted at this time. So far most promotions have come by way of filling holes created by injury. There has been a domino effect caused by injuries to Wainwright, Wacha, CMart was out, AReyes has been missed, Helsley is down now. So Flaherty and Gant moved up and replaced by Herget, Ellis and more recently Woodford fills the Gilmartin departure. Its no longer “we lost this guy… but here’s a better one”.
Case in point, Springfield, O’Reilly replaced Greene, Shew replaced Helsley and Woodford’s spot was taken by Warner who may have lost that spot with a third of three disastrous starts last night. Generally, those filling in are not as good as those they have replaced in performance or potential. There is definitely a trend developing.
It has definitely been coming for some time, Ny. The vaunted pitching pipeline is drying up.
Returning to the HR discussion earlier. Gorman is not alone, but it seems State College did not get the launch angle memo.
.@JC_Cardinals lead the Appy League with 27 homers in just 15 games. One level up, State College is last in the NYPL with just three HRs in 21 contests. Top JC bombers are Nolan Gorman (6), Leandro Cedeno (5) and Dariel Gomez (4), but nine other JCC hitters have also gone deep. pic.twitter.com/cAsmikDcHd
— Brian Walton (@B_Walton) July 7, 2018
Funny thing is at the beginning of this season I was hoping they could find starting spots for Poncedeleon and Herget, and was intrigued by Ellis’ move to the pen. Now they seem to have more starting spots than competent pitchers. I hope Welsh gets a cup of coffee at AA this year. And Puello comes to the States. One of few promising pitchers in the lower minors.
Also good to see Derian Gonzalez back rehabbing at GCL. Curious to see if they bring him back to Memphis or Springfield.
Last thing it seems like the bullpen for both STL and Memphis is shaping up with the additions of Webb, Layne, and Gonzalez possibly coming back. The only concern is Cecil being the only lefty in the pen. (at least until Lyons comes back from rehab)
*Is Diego Cordero a pitcher to keep an eye on? One thing I noticed about him is that he played 3 seasons in the DSL and his #s were so-so… not much to be excited about. Those were his 17, 18 and 19 y.o. seasons. This year at age 20 he starts out with GCL and after 2 impressive starts, they send him up to adv-A level Palm Beach. (There was an opening there created by both Tewes and Warner being called up to AA-SPFD.) That’s a big jump for a young kid. But his two starts for PB have also been impressive. His #s are much better this season. ERA, WHIP and opp.BA all down. He is not a K guy but seems to get the job done.
Cordero is a lefty at 6″2″ and many still growing. I guess its too early (4 starts) to know exactly what we have here but his next few starts will be something to follow.
*State College and Johnson City are both looking for some different pitchers to step up into their rotations by giving out starting assignments to others that weren’t included in the original rotations. Until they settle on who will become starters, things are in flux (starter-wise).
*Its a little surprising that the organization cut ties with Ian McKinney who was released. I’m just guessing that other issues were part of that decision.
*Ivan Herrera didn’t catch either one of the GCL-Card’s double-header games yesterday.
* Sam Tewes looks like he has shaken off what was bothering him earlier in the season. That’s good news for the S-Cards, especially since Warner is having trouble adjusting to AA ball.
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