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McGreevey missing high a lot. Just a bit off tonight. Credit the Royals as well with some really good at bats. They look really confident tonight after beating us around yesterday.
For those of you without Apple TV, Wetherholt turned a terrific double play early in the game. Jordan has also fielded his position well tonight.
McGreevey gives up a HR off Caglione to the opposite field tonight. Not bad pitch. Just really good hitting. Then Perez hits one right at Nootbaar hard and he misplays it just a bit and it goes over his head for a double. McGreevey is leaking lots of runs tonight. You would think this was a good offense. But without Garcia and Witt, it’s certainly not.
Thanks Brian! I love that you do this.
I missed Campos in there. Good deal. I agree with him there.
I’m not confident Thompson makes it as anything ever. He has had good results though in surprising situations. Judgement call for me placing him in my list.
I do hope I’m wrong on Clarke.
Good list. Not a ton of changes from last time, but a few individuals with significant movement.
A few thoughts as I went through it:
I’m far more with Brian on his rankings for Odle, Fajardo, Jesus Baez, Xavier Cruz, and Cho. Those all had pretty big differences from where Brian ranked them to Kyle. I admit I don’t know much about Xavier Cruz yet, but Kyle seems to have really jumped on the bandwagon for a guy who wasn’t even an afterthought a few months back. Odle feels like an injury waiting to happen again. Cho has been on level too long. On the other side, Fajardo and Baez are just way too low on Kyle’s list. These are 2 of the better prospects in the system.
On the other hand, I’ll side with Kyle on Hansen and Brandt Thompson. Hansen has been ok at AAA. Actually a little better than I would have expected. But I consider him in the 40’s on my list and Brian has him quite a bit higher. I’m not sure why Thompson gets no love. I have him in the 40’s too, but Brian has him around 60. I think Kyle was at 48, which feels a lot better for a guy who has performed solidly at every level often after getting promoted with little or no notice.
I’m not sure what to do with Trent Richardson on my list. I don’t think either Kyle or Brian were quite sure what to do with him either. Right now I still have him just outside of my top 50. I’m also not sure what to do with Flores, but I have him a little inside my top 50, well above Kyle and Brian.
The ones that I quibble with the most are Clarke, Gurevitch, and Van Dyke. Clarke is broken. He’s not even on my 50 man list. I just don’t see how he’s ever going to pitch like he pitches and not get reinjured. I also don’t get the love for Van Dyke. He is durable and has a decent fastball. But he just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who is ever going to be an impact player in the Majors (if he ever makes it at all). Best case, he becomes a back-end reliever. And with Gurevitch, I think the other way. I am concerned about his strikeouts, but that guy can hit a ton. I think he’s the best pure hitter (considering the combo of power and bat to ball skills) in the Cardinal’s system right now. And, he may be able to stick at 3B. He’s also got surprisingly good speed. Ranking him all the way down at 25 feels like a miss to me. This guy is at least equal to Blaze Jordan at 16.
A few guys I was surprised not to see included: Mason Burns, Ryan Campos, Matthew Miura, and Cade McGee. They are all a bit fringe. Burns is better than fringe, but his injury for the rest of the season puts him in the fringe bucket. Campos is probably better than that too, but our bountiful number of catchers probably makes him less of a prospect than he actually is. We’ll see with the other two, but I have high hopes.
Those were my immediate thoughts after reading. Thanks as always for publishing these lists!
Could be worse. Peoria is down 16-1 in the top of the 6th. Franklin started that game and got roughed up. Then Galle, who was the PTBNL in the Gray trade (or Contreras trade – not certain) just came in and gave up grand slam, walk, walk, 3-run homer.
In other minor league news, Josh Baez just hit his 24th home run for Memphis.
Agreed Pugs. Thomas has always been a poor fielder. Tried to make himself look good there.
We didn’t get 12. Left the bases loaded which seems to be a theme lately.
This is the absolute worst defense I’ve seen all year from the Cardinals. Velasquez missed 2 flies that should’ve been outs. Fermin didn’t get to one that should’ve been an out. Neither Burleson or Jordan have gotten to any balls scorched right by them. Burleson has been questionable on anything low all season. I’m afraid Jordan will have that same issue in the hot corner. Fermin clearly doesn’t belong in CF. And Velasquez really doesn’t belong anywhere but as DH or PH. I like when we pride ourselves on good defense first. This game is the opposite.
Don’t get me wrong on Burleson and Jordan. They are likely the best choices. Although Burleson probably shouldn’t start vs most lefties.
Velasquez simply missed that catch. Probably could have gotten one of the other doubles had he been a normal left fielder. Still, most of this is on Liberatore missing locations.
I agree some teams appear to be poorly run. However, money often helps to buy better decision-makers. Paying for good scouting or good athletic trainers or good equipment or good coaching isn’t cheap. My point is that it’s a lot easier to look like you’re making good decisions when you have talented people all around you to help. I also realize you have examples like the Mets where this seems to not help them one iota.
I think people make it about the Dodgers being unbeatable, but that’s obviously not the case. Baseball is random and another good team (and usually well-financed team) could beat them, although it gets tougher to do it 4 times out of 7. I think the issue is that 15 teams or more start the season every year with a collective total of 1% odds to win. Those 15 basically have no chance against the Dodgers. Not quite zero, but close enough. That’s 15 franchises worth of fans praying for a miracle that they know isn’t going to happen. I think that’s overall bad for baseball because many of those fans eventually give up on being fans. But I’m not 100% sure because David vs Goliath can be a selling point and we always see at least a couple Davids sneak into the playoffs.
The Davids have struggled to win even when they are represented annually. We know Milwaukee hasn’t won despite some very good seasons. The last David to win was KC in 2015 and the ChiSox in 2005 before them. Two in 21 years isn’t all that good. And those were before the super-team Dodgers were built.
Brian – I remember you sharing this info above. I’m not sure how easy it would be to look up, but I am curious what the longest stretch of having zero starters on the IL is for any MLB team? At least for the last 25 or so years. I would imagine we are setting a record or at least getting near to one. Credit is due to the training staff first and foremost, but also some to Mozeliak, Bloom, and Marmol and of course those pitchers themselves. In a day when pitchers all break like crazy (see Dodgers for example), having a reliable pitching staff has been a blessing.
I think one thing that is super interesting about our rotation is that zero starters have hit the IL this season after zero hit the IL last season. In the modern day, that’s got to be some kind of record. Brian should look into this!
One heck of a game by May. He had great stuff tonight. Credit Masyn Winn for saving a hit and saving a run on another play. Fantastic performance.
I would assume that’s it for May and we will see O’Brien in the 9th much to fan’s dismay. O’Brien needs a bounce-back and May would be pushed over 100 pitches, which isn’t kosher nowadays, but I could see them letting May try to keep the 1-hitter with O’Brien warming up in case anyone reaches.
Of course it would be nice to get a run and let it be Graceffo warming as a back up.
I believe this is our first starter to pitch into the 8th this season. Heck, we haven’t gone more than 4 several times.
That was a truly great play by Winn to get the DP and save a run.
No Brian – I haven’t heard a thing about Molina. I didn’t watch the pre-game, but have listened the whole game.
That was a nice scorcher by Burly. I wish he could hit vs Giolito every batter. I think he’d hit .800. But alas, not in the rules. 3-0 good guys.
Every time KCB has gone to a game this year the opponents have been held hitless. Probably more KCB than May, but I’ll give them equal credit.
