Daily Farm Report 5/16/08

I didn’t see Chris Perez tonight, but checking out Gameday it looks like he had a solid debut. His fastball was 95-97 and that’s mostly all he threw, with the exception a couple of sliders to Longoria, whom he struck out. Congrats to Perez, we’ll miss talking about him around here.

Jaime Garcia was in the 6-spot on Friday’s Prospect Hot Sheet, netting some much deserved recognition after dominating AA and making a seamless transition to AAA. I’m dreaming of a 1-2-3 of Carpenter-Wainwright-Garcia for 2009.

Kary Booher takes a look at how Shane Robinson got back on track this year. Can anyone possibly hit for a quieter .400+ average?

Jim Callis makes some educated guesses in his first mock draft, and predicts the Cardinals pick OF Zach Collier of Chino Hills High in California. Some see Collier more of a supplemental rounder or even 2nd rounder, so at 13 he could be considered quite a reach, but that’s also what was said about Pete Kozma. I just have trouble believing the Cardinals would pass on Friedrich if he’s available. Anyway, looking at his draft video, it looks like he could develop some pretty nice power.

Get to know Daryl Jones. Daryl is someone I can relate to–he likes playing Halo and Madden. Madden is good stuff, however it’s pretty much been the exact same game the last 5 or 6 years, sans roster updates. Halo is fun but I stink at it. My two brothers-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law and even my wife are much better than me. It’s gotten to the point where I renamed my character “Freekill”. Stupid sniper rifles; oh how I loathe them. Daryl also likes hip hop and jazz, but when goes he goes with jazz he goes with…um…Kenny G. That’s just blech. Daryl, if you’re gonna do jazz and you like the sax, then you got to go with Coltrane all the way, particularly his earlier stuff with Miles and Monk.

The farm goes 3 for 5 tonight counting the Venezuelan squad, who have found themselves a little coverage in the DFR’s lately.

Chris Perez called up

It’s official. Perez up, Izzy to the DL, down with Charlie Brown’s Disease. Hat tip to cardsfan1, who called this last weekend.  I usually save transactions like this for the DFR’s, but Perez to St. Louis is a relatively big deal.

Daily Farm Report - 5/15/08

This article indicates that the Cardinals will either be putting Isringhausen on the DL or possibly designating him for assignment. I would imagine that he would clear waivers at this point and his comments seem to indicate that he would accept a minor league stint to find a cure for what ails him. The corresponding roster move would almost certainly be to bring Chris Perez to St. Louis for his first major league experience, since that was the plan for about a half an hour a few days ago before minds were changed. I am sad to see Izzy struggle, because he has given us some good times, but I am really excited to see Perez in The Show.

As mentioned in the comments, Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus had some nice things to say about Jess Todd in an article today. The article is subscriber only, but I’m not sure about this audio interview on BP with John Abbamondi, Cardinals AGM. Elsewhere, Kary Booher has the details of the Cory Rauchenberger retirement and Mark McCormick’s promotion to Springfield.

The system went 4-1 on the night, with Springfield’s seventh loss in a row as the only blemish on the evening. All the details are after the jump.

Draft dish

A few news and notes around the Internet concerning some of the draft prospects I thought were worth mulling over a little bit.

Daily Farm Report - 5/14/2008

Today was an off day for Memphis and a travel day for me. I am a bit out of the loop on what has been going on since I have been out of town since Saturday (which is ironic since I was actually in St. Louis). From the looks of things, though, Springfield is really missing Jaime Garcia and Bryan Anderson, as they lost their sixth in a row this evening. Palm Beach and Quad Cities save the day, though, as the system goes 3-2 on the day (counting the VSL). All the details are after the jump.

Three up, three down

Joe Mather is on a tear as of late, and what the heck is going on with Kenny Maiques?

Daily Farm Report 5/13/08

J.J. Cooper puts together the Indy League All Star team, a compilation of independent leaguers who either began their careers in the indy leagues or were found in indy ball after being released from A ball or below. The reason it make mention of it is current Cardinal Josh Kinney and former Cardinal Jason Simontacchi both made the team, and only the Red Sox and Angels had more than one member on the “team”. It is too bad about Kinney suffering his set back after TJ surgery, I’m afraid his baseball life is taking a turn down the Mike Lincoln career path. It seems like every year there are several players from indy ball in the system, right now only QC closer Pete Parise comes to mind. You also have to tip your cap to the Mariner scout who discovered George Sherrill, who is now the closer for the Orioles and came over in the Erik Bedard deal.

Amaury Marti has been placed on the DL. Amaury Marti…injured..that…that can’t be. What could his kryptonite be?

The farm goes 2 for 3 tonight. Oh, and the Venezuelan Summer League started yesterday.

A very early ranking of prospects

The next edition of “Three up, three down” should be up tomorrow. I’ve been a little busy lately so I haven’t really had time to put together any midday post ideas. So when in doubt, why not do a prospect ranking? The lazy bloggers’ way out! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve taken some time and really thought this through. When doing my rankings, I put my amateur GM hat on and just rank them in the order I’d want them in a trade. We’re about 40 games in; there’s been some moving and shaking. I don’t want to too heavily weigh early returns, but some prospects have gone splat (Maiques), while some are moving quickly through the system, which has to be taken into account. So for what it’s worth, here ya go:

Daily Prospect Report 5/12/08

I don’t think I’ve seen this posted before but Keith Law unveiled his top 60 prospects in the upcoming draft. He noted that it’s not a projection but simply who he thinks the best 60 players are.

Shane Robinson was the Texas League position player of the week. He was also discussed in Goldstein’s Monday Morning 10 Pack:

In 32 games, Robinson is hitting a back-to-college-esque .434/.469/.628, but he’ll have to keep it up for a while before scouts are able to look past the five-foot-nine, 160-pound frame, little power, and a weak arm.

David-Eckstein-in-the-outfield suffers from the same kind of skepticism that PJ Walters and his 85mph fastball shake off at every level.

Not a good night for the farm system although Memphis is currently tied so there’s still hope. . .

But there is no joy in Mudville — the system foes 0-for-4.

College Monday wrap-up 5/12

We are only 3 weekends away from the draft, so the guys are running out of time to impress. The top of the draft has been locked in for a while, but there are some new names popping up in the late first round. One of those guys stretched it out a little this weekend. Tanner Scheppers and Zach Putnam, two big time righties that are on the Cardinals’ radar didn’t pitch this weekend, but I haven’t heard why just yet. Check out those that did play and impressed inside.

Daily Farm Report 5/11/08

Shaun Garceau takes over Tyler Herron’s spot in the Palm Beach rotation. Daryl Jones is one of Palm Beach’s most eligible bachelors. Also, it seems that Dr. Suess is an licensing Nazi.

Kary Booher takes a look at Allen Craig as he begins to heat up at the plate. Personally, I love cold weather but Craig isn’t a fan:

“Here, when it’s freezing, you don’t want to sit down for two minutes because you might turn into a popsicle,” Craig joked the other day in the clubhouse. “But it’s starting to heat up.”

Craig and Springfield hitting coach Derrick May, whom Joe Mather and Jarrett Hoffpauir have given credit to in the past, are still working on some elements of Craig’s approach at the plate:

Through 33 games, he had six home runs, 10 doubles and 28 RBIs, and has begun to lay off bad pitches — a point of emphasis from hitting coach Derrick May.

“With him, I’m just trying to have him use the middle of the field and shorten his swing. He’s doing a good job of that,” May said. “Most of all, it’s pitch selection. He’s swinging at better pitches. He’s giving himself a chance.”

While this isn’t minors related, I think it’s awesome that the Padres’ Front Office has started a blog, which appears to be written by Paul DePodesta. The Cardinal’s Front Office has been very accomodating with regards to interviews and they seem to be catching on to modernizing their operations but I’d be a little surprised to see them try something like this. Frankly, the whole thing could go down in flames once the crazies find it and start commenting. Still, it’s an amazing chance to connect with a lot of dedicated, hard-core fans.

Just one game to report tonight. Quad Cities was rained out and both the Springfield and Palm Beach clubs had the day off. Fortunately, I have good news from Memphis. Not only did the team win but someone important had a good night. Care to wager a guess who?

Daily Farm Report 5/10/08

Happy Mother’s day. Sorry for the delayed post, WordPress had some maintenance issues last night.

Moves confirmed: Isaias Garcia and Steve Hill were sent to AA, Luke Gorsett, Josh Dew and AJ Van Slyke are on their way down to Palm Beach.

How’s Trey Hearne been doing in Mexico? Well, tonight he threw 7 innings of one hit ball. He struck out 8 and walked 4. In 41 innings, he has 43 K’s and is yet to allow a HR. He has a 3.29 ERA and allowed 28 hits. Uncharacteristically, he’s walked 24 (5.27 per 9 innings). So what does that mean? They say the Mexican League is a AAA league, but my understanding is the competition is more like somewhere between A+ and AA. Clay Davenport included the Mexican League in his translations, Hearne’s translated Peripheral ERA is 3.22, for whatever it may be worth.

The farm bounces back tonight, going 3 for 4.