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Pinder is also hitting very well.
Mendoza already up to Palm Beach. Faster than DeJong and Bader moved in their first season.
Actually both have had their good outings. Oviedo moved up to State College. He has 3 quality starts and Seijas has 4.
Just read Brian’s article and generally agree with him. Wonder if he considered Mike Mayers, if he has not had too much major league experience.
He has just been converted to relief and so far looks good.
July 31 Update
Total 266
14 Flaherty, Hudson
13 Gallen, Helsley
11 Gomber, O’Reilly, Jones
10 Hicks
9 Weaver, Marco Gonzales, Woodford, Oxnevad
Alcantara 8 and picked up his 9th on August 2. Has Had 5 consecutive quality starts.Short Season
4 Castano and Pereira (DSL), and Ventura (DSL)
3 Cordero (DSL), Seijas, Oviedo, MulfordSeferina is making a good splash at Springfield. And he has made some eye popping plays on defense.
Also I think I heard Selby say on the Memphis broadcast last night that Caldwell had been called up.
DeJong appears to be a guy who makes good adjustments. This is a guy who struggled to get above the .250 mark at AA last year albeit with some power. And for the most part he has had good at bats in the #3 spot.
he seems to be making the plays at shortstop and I didn’t realize how strong his arm is. I think the Sabermetrics guys like him too.
I think some are being pessimistic about him. Maybe the Diaz think is bleeding over here. And I’m not ready to give up on Diaz. He showed good plate discipline late in the season last year and should be able to recover that. And I love the way the ball comes off the bat when he takes a good swing. I do believe that he has lost the shortstop job permanently to DeJong so a change in positions may be in store for him.
I would be disappointed with any trade with Kansas City. I have no interest in any of their minor leaguers including Mondesi who had stalled out at the major league level. The only regular major league player I would like is Hosmer so we would have to do something about Carpenter.
Duffy appears to be the strongest starter but I don’t see any advantage in picking him up. I don’t know the contract status of either Duffy or Hosmer and I know that would play a role in any deal.
I would rather count on our scouting department to select a better second round draft pick any minor league guy we could pick up from Kansas City.
O’Neill hit a two run homer to tie the game tonight against Salt Lake. Redbirds win 3-2 for their 6th straight.
Actually Ozuna’s defensive numbers were about the same as Fowler’s last year and below Grichuk. Guy can really hit though. But a left fielder not a center fielder. Blackmon also did not have good defensive numbers.
I have to add the bullpen as a huge disappointment. I never saw Oh as a permanent closer. Rosy has been brilliant at times and awful at others. Bowman is a Maness type guy and like the little girl with the curl. When he is good he is very, very good and when he is bad he is awful.
We may be too hard on Piscotty. Not sure he has been 100% any time this year. Fowler hindered by injuries as well.
Yadi has slowed a little on D. He doesn’t block the balls in the dirt as as well as he used to and his throws to second are often of the left side of the bag. Still one of the best catchers around.
Could tell we won by the small number of posts. Just kidding.
I thought DeJong did an excellent job in the 3 hole. Good plate discipline and hit the ball hard. Also excellent play on defense.
Big K by Brebbia of Aredondo and Siegrist of Parra. I was hoping they would have left Brebbia in to see how he handled the pressure. We need a reliever we can count on and he looks like just as good as any of them.
Diaz got a couple of hits tonight including a long home run. Selby reports that the Buddah (Mark Budaski, Memphis hitting coach) is making good progress with Diaz.
My biggest disappointment is Diaz. He really progressed during the season last year and had good at bats. Even improved his defense. But this year he is swinging the bat wildly and lunging after almost everything. I am not advocating that we dump him. Wouldn’t bring much now anyway. You can’t teach his bat speed and potential power. Beginning to think that we may not be able to teach him good batting fundamentals either. If anyone can it will be the Budda (Mark Budaska, batting coach at Memphis).
Second is both Fowler and Cecil. We have a lot of money committed to them with abysmal results. We probably have at least 4 center fielders in the minors who are better defensively than Fowler. I may feel better about them later in the season as it often takes some time for a player to settle down and produce after a big transaction bringing them to a new team.
I am disappointed on our base running, particularly Carpenter. When he is on base and a ball is hit he usually ends up one base short of where I expect him to be at the end of the play. Yadi trying to steal a base with arguably our best home run hitter batting and one who is likely to strike out if he doesn’t hit a home run.
I am most disappointed at our lack of focus at times. How can a veteran pitcher fail to cover first base in a crucial situation. That is a Class A or rookie league blunder.
You are right about a lot of games that could have been won with more power and a better bullpen but I don’t think any of those guys would help except Cozart. We would have to send Wong because we should not even think of getting rid of DeJong without getting something pretty substantial in return. I could live with Cozart at shortstop and DeJong at second but I can also live with DeJong at shortstop.
I think the price for Cozart would be very high. And no guarantee that he would extend with the Cardinals. He is coming off an all-star campaign and probably would go very high in the free agent market.
We dabbled with Neshek at closer when we had him with poor results. I don’t see him a better closer than what we have.
I think it is a good move. I believe at best Gonzales would be a situational lefty. He often is real good the first time through the lineup and then blotto. We probably have other good prospects to fill the sit lefty role.
On the other hand as much as we pick at the numbers we got a guy that was #2 in the Seattle system and top 50 (actually mid 30’s) in 3 of 4 BA pundits. A guy with the power we have sadly missed in the middle of the lineup. I know we, me probably more than others quibble with BA’s rankings but we have to remember those rankings are due to a lot of scout input.
So we part with a possible back end of the rotation lefty or a situation lefty for a legitimate power hitter and a decent outfielder with plus arm. Also only 22 years old at AAA.
Didn’t mean to offend Brian. I do enjoy your interviews, particularly with the coaches and minor league officials. I am referring to the sideline interviews during the games.
I don’t really care for coaches and players interviews. If you have heard one you have heard them all. And I really don’t like it when they minimize the action and show the interview on half or even all the screen while the game is going on.
the whole world in too much into editorializing today. And ESPN doesn’t seem to be able to cover an event with less than 5 people talking.
Oh for the days of just Chris Berman, George Grande and Gail Gartner.
They probably paid a little extra for agreement concerning the hair issue. Just kidding.
Seriously why do women spend a lot of money to look great and men seem content to look scruffy.
That is like us giving up Reyes and Kelly and two minor prospects. We seem reluctant to give up our prospects for someone that can help.
So what do you think.
1. We don’t feel that Quintana would improve our starting rotation that much
2. We are not in as much trouble with starters as the Cubs so not willing to part with top prospects for the potential return.
3. We are looking more long term and feel that Reyes would be better than Quintana soon.
4. Unwilling to give up Reyes for anyone short of Stanton like players.
5. Weaver and Kelly would not have done the deal. Maybe would have had to throw in Flaherty or Alcantara.
6. OtherHurst a bases loaded triple for State College. Robertson 4 hits including 2 home runs for Peoria and we went 3-2 today.
Viva the 17 draft class.
We do have a real surpluss of outfielders. The Cardinals have not been real good at selling high so I don’t know how they get out of it. Of course, Bader, J A Garcia, Mercado, Arozarena, Carlson and to a lesser extent Sierra have yet to prove that they can do the job at the major league level but as it stands now they won’t get a chance unless the Cardinals move some of the guys in front of them.
I don’t see Leake as a really bad pick up. Certainly he was not that good last year but has been pretty good most of this year. He is one those guys who has to be right and when he isn’t he is pretty bad, but on balance I think he will be good more than bad.
I didn’t want Fowler when they started shopping for center fielders. He was a good leadoff man for the Cubs last year and a real catalyst for their offense. But based on the defensive stats from last year he was not a good center fielder. Actually Grichek had better defensive stats all around. My problem was that if we were looking to improve the defense I didn’t see him as an answer to that issue.
Many are probably familiar with my rants about Baseball America under estimating our minor league system. Possibly they have done it again.
Fairly small sample but the trio of Pham, DeJong and Voit up from Memphis have 23 home runs in just over 300 official at bats. Their cumulaive slash line is .361/.562/923. Then you have the impressive debut by Sierra.
The two pitchers up from Memphis with the most appearances Brebbia and Tuivailala are a combined 2.54 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. Total of 39 innings pitched with 29 hits and 40 K’s. Also small appearances by Mayers, Gonzales, Weaver and Gant.
Memphis behind prospects Bader, Kelly, and Wisdom have a 14 1/2 game lead at the all-star break. This while their pitching is somewhat in disarray with 11 different pitchers with quality starts and only three of them with more than four. Springfield in the hunt for a first half division win and one game out of 1st the second half. Palm Beach finsihed strong to win the first half. Short season teams still sorting it out but of note is the DSL Cardinals scuffling a bit but with a roster of 27 players who will be 18 or younger at the end of this season.
Then you have Gallen at AAA, Hudson, Knizer, Edman at AA, Conor Jones, Jeremy Martinez, Shane Billings and Andy Young at Palm Beach from last years draft picks. Also a large Latin signing class with Adolis Garcia moving from Springfield to Memphis and doing well and Randy Arozarena moving from Palm Beach to Springfield and doing well after being the player of the month for June.
12th not bad but maybe BA sold the organization a little short again.
We need to take a hard look at players who are inconsistent.
Carpenter – defense, baserunning, strikeouts
Grichek – plate discipline
Diaz – defemse, strike zone
Wong – defense, strike zone, Good defender but blows too many routine plays
Rosenthal – some games just awful
Lyons – great curveball but gets hit hard too often.
Bowman – Usually good but when he is bad, just awful. Much like Maness.Got to move Fowler to left field or trade him and cover a lot of his salary. Lot of good outfielders in the pipeline.
This could be Gyorko’s peak performance year.
No way we offer Oh a qualifying offer. We need to offer Lynn or trade him to someone who can sign him. You don’t get much for a rental unless it is someone like Chapman.
If we could get another starter move Wacha to the pen. He is usually good the first time through the order. However, he would probably go free agency later for sure if he is set on being a starter.
Carp in his declining years is an ideal fit for the American league where he can DH and back up infield positions.
