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When Kloffenstein came over from
AA ball in the Blue Jays organisation, he was immediately promoted to
Memphis. He had 9 appearances at Memphis (8 starts). In 39 innings he only gave up 29 hits. Had an ERA of 3.00. If he can develop better control, he might be a better call up than Rom if they need him St. Louis to start a few games.It would have been really cool if his name was Frankenstein instead. The walk up music options would be epic.
flood,
You omitted Rom from your list. I am assuming he will be in the Memphis rotation no?
Brian wrote:
But they don’t want to spend money or give up players, so what is left?
That pretty much sums up everything a person would need to know about this organization.
I think they will give up players. It would not surprise me to see nothing much happen until ST is well underway, including the minor leaguers. But decisions need to be made. Remember, opening day is still two months away.
bling said:
I think they will give up players. It would not surprise me to see nothing much happen until ST is well underway, including the minor leaguers.
But decisions need to be made.
What does that mean, please? To the best of my knowledge, there are no players with no options remaining who are on the bubble.
Other than the Rule 5 pitcher Fernandez maybe, the only decisions they have ahead are which guys to option to Memphis. If everyone is healthy, the roster is pretty much set and the guys who are not on the top 26 probably don’t have enough trade value to get a meaningful relief contributor in return (not that any of those guys on other teams will likely be available, anyway).
Why should we care about a guy who can’t make his current team so is made available during camp?
I have had a chance to ponder the rotations and have little to add to what Pads and flood have laid out. I do agree that Hjerpe, with 40 pro innings pitched, should start in Peoria and Rajcic in Springfield.
I know that the idea of Cornwell being squeezed out and into relief has been proposed. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised unless Bloom can add some sanity to the mix. Cornwell and Hence both tried their hand at AA last year and Cornwell won hands down. Not that Hence sould be squeezed instead, but the reality of brick and mortar results has to get some weight over hype and whatever the wonks can dredge out of baseball savant.
I also agree with whoever said Savacool is unlikely to go straight to relief. I think, in general, new guys will get a look over returnees. He will probably start in PB, and Quinn Mathews in Peoria. (6th round from Univ of Maryland vs 4th rounder from Stanford). One thing that can be read out of what has happened from the deadline until now, is whoever is in charge has seen enough of what we had.
I think also it is going to be a challenge to keep the AAA rotation from being clogged with dead horses the org will not give up on. We already know that Liberatore and Thompson are not going to be what we need in the way of starters coming out of the system. McGreevy and Graceffo have not been able to establish dominance vs AAA opposition, so are not real likely to be what we need, and are probably, sooner or later, going the way of Connor Thomas. Rom was a disaster, but being a new guy, will get some time in the AAA rotation to see if he gets it together. But decisions need to be made, and they really need to be made differently that they have been recently. I hope Bloom will help with that.
bling said:
McGreevy and Graceffo have not been able to establish dominance vs AAA opposition, so are not real likely to be what we need…
…I hope Bloom will help with that.
McGreevy and Graceffo were three or four years younger than the Triple-A average and were in just their second full pro season. Not many move that fast. McG led the system in IP and went 13-6, 4.12. His ERA was sixth in the 20-team IL, a league in which offense increased due to ABS. Graceffo struggled with injury but we saw what he did in AA when healthy.
It seems premature to declare their futures.
I will be amazed if Bloom is involved so deep into operational decisions such as which farm players are assigned to each affiliate and who starts and who relieves. I predict he will be frying bigger fish, such as HOW decisions are made vs. making the actual decisions. Maybe that is what you meant…
We have been hearing young for level to explain unimpressive results for some time as the system circled the drain. Liberatore and Thompson are both examples. I accept that it is a ready excuse which cannot be denied. But waiting on the young for levels has not proven worthwile so far. It seems like a part of the wider talent evaluation/development failure.
I don’t know what Bloom’s involvement will look like to us, but maybe we will get some hint as ST progresses.
I hope Bloom’s position is not the baseball equivalent of a political liaison officer that was attached to military units in the old Soviet Union.
Bumping this thread back to the top. We have a much better idea how we did now but we’ll know for sure by end of next week. Overall, some pretty good guesses. Thanks to all of you who played along.
Taking stock of what I think I know so far:
Memphis (known because it has gone once through and back to the first guy)
McGreevy
Kloffenstein
Graceffo
Robberse
SantosSpringfield (known because announced by the manager)
Hence
Roby
Nunez
Rajcic
Cornwell*
Bedell** 5 or 6 man rotation undecided. We will have to see what happens.
Peoria (All I know is who started Friday and who relieved)
Hjerpe (had trouble and pulled after 0.2 IP)
Rincon (announced for Saturday)Palm Beach (All I know is who started Friday and who relieved)
Mathews
– note that Showalter appeared in relief.
Maybe should have mentioned that Winquest went 5 IP in relief in the Hjerpe blowout game. Don’t know if that means he was stretched out as a starter and will be in that role next time around. He went 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K.
I’m not quite ready to tally up points yet on this as it’s still a little confusing. The A ball squads are always a little difficult every season as the line between starter and reliever is often blurred with a few guys. But here’s where we’re at today:
Memphis: McGreevey, Graceffo, Robberse, Kloffenstein, and Santos.
Springfield: Rajcic, Hence, Roby, Nunez, Bedell. Also Cornwell and Baker are stretched out to start or long relieve.
Peoria: Mautz, Hjerpe, Paniagua, Hansen, Rincon. Also Pereira and Winquest appear to be stretched out for starting or long relief.
Palm Beach: 6 have started and 2 have been long relief so far. Really difficult to tell here. Savacool, Saladin, Salas, Davila, Lin, Mathews. Henderson and Arias are either starters or long relievers.
I’ll give it at least another week.
Mem: Santos may be on thin ice unless he gets going.
Spr: Cornwell is starting. Baker is working in long relief. Bedell is #6 starter and is making his first start tonight.
Peo and PB: I think what you see is what you get – until it changes! There could be some piggyback starts, but I’ve had no indication of that as we see the rotations the second time through.
Update: Winquest is starting Game 2 of Peoria’s twin bill tonight.
I am keeping the Roster Matrix current.
Santos may be on thin ice unless he gets going.
Having missed all of 2023, it seems like elbow surgery may have happened. If that is the case, the org knew what was ahead. A lumpy stretch with hood and bad outings is normal. It would be surprising to pull the plug any time soon.
Santos dodged a bullet when the Cards decided to keep Thompson, but when Rom is ready, likely someone will have to leave the rotation. Right now, the clear leading candidate is Santos, though it could change…
The last 2 MLB games have left me feeling completely frustrated. Therefore, im going to only loosely pay attention today (yes, I did notice Goldschmidt was just up with the bases loaded and one out and he didn’t come through again) and circle back around to this thread I started about guessing at our minor league starting pitchers.
We don’t have a clear set 5 starters at each level so I’ve decided to award points for guessing any of the guys who have started.
Memphis: McGreevey, Graceffo, Robberse, Kloffenstein, and Santos.
Springfield: Rajcic, Hence, Roby, Nunez, Bedell, and Cornwell.
Peoria: Mautz, Hjerpe, Paniagua, Hansen, Rincon, and Pereira. Winquest hasn’t started but he’s been a really long reliever. But for our purposes here, I’m not going to count him.
Palm Beach: Savacool, Saladin, Salas, Davila, Lin, Mathews, and Henderson. Arias has basically been in the same boat as Winquest above.
In my next post, I’ll tally the scores.
In order of submissions using the rules I came up with:
PadsFS gets 5 points for Memphis, 4 points for Springfield, 4 points for Peoria, 3 points for Palm Beach, 6 points for starters turned relievers, and 0 points for roster cuts. 22 points total.
I get 6 points for Memphis, 4 points for Springfield, 4 points for Peoria, 4 points for Palm Beach, 5 points for starters turned relievers, and 2 points for roster cuts. 25 points total.
CardsFan64 gets 5 points for Memphis, 5 points for Springfield, 5 points for Peoria, 4 points for Palm Beach, 6 points for starters turned relievers, and 2 points for roster cuts. 27 points total.
Flood21 gets 5 points for Memphis, 5 points for Springfield, 4 points for Peoria, and 4 points for Palm Beach. No other picks. 18 points total.
These took some time to add up. I’m kind of glad we didn’t have a ton of submissions. Thanks for playing and congratulations to CardsFan64 for winning. Now if you could kindly show the Cardinals how to do the same, it would be much appreciated!
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