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Daily Farm Report – 7/10/08

Erik chiming in here with a quick update: Friend of the blog Keith Law will be on with Jeff Gordon on 590 The Fan at 12:30pm today.

This is old, but I had not seen it before. The Hardball Times analyzes the top draft picks, including scouting video. The bit on Brett Wallace is interesting, comparing his swing to Prince Fielder’s.

The Cardinals finally gave in and put Colby on the DL with his groin injury. Groin injuries seem to linger – I strained mine a couple of years ago and it wouldn’t go away until I finally stopped doing anything for two weeks.

All the teams were in action today and finished 2-4 on the night.  All the details are after the jump.

Q and A with Ben Chiswick

Ben Chiswick is the director of broadcasting and media relations for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He handles the play-by-play which you can catch for free at the River Bandits site. Some of you may have also read his post game recaps at milb.com, which provide some much needed color to the box scores, and I wish I could say all the affiliates provided the same. I asked Ben to if he’d be up for some Q and A regarding the River Bandits and some of their players seeing that he gets to watch them play everyday, and he graciously agreed. Here are his responses.

Daily Farm Report – 7/9/08

Kevin Goldstein’s Future Shock [subscription only] series hit the NL Central today and he gave an update on what his Top 11 Cardinals prospects have been up to. I know that no matter what he does, someone will complain – and it is nice that he covered a lot of ground, talking about more prospects for the Cardinals than the other clubs, but the one sentence summary for each player really left me a bit unsatisfied.

Kary Booher has a profile of Justin Fiske. Interesting story – left handed relievers are a weak point in the Cardinals organization, so it is nice that they were able to pluck a successful one from the Independent League.

Springfield was off and Johnson City played a double header, so the system had five teams playing six games and they went 2-4. All the details are after the jump.

Minor Improvements

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe my interest in the minor league system has arisen over the last year and so I figure everyone else’s has too even though they haven’t. But I’m guessing that’s not the case. . . There are several factors that can be attributed to the growing interest in minor leaguers from St. Louisans.

Daily Farm Report 7/8/08

I have to think the Cardinals could have surpassed the Cubs offer for Rich Harden and still not lost any of their top four or five prospects. I’m not saying necessarily that they should have; Harden is a ticking time bomb. I just hope Mo doesn’t feel any extra pressure to do anything crazy. Anderson for AJ Burnett would be a trade I could probably live with, but like Harden, Burnett is injury prone. I believe JP Ricciardi would jump all over that, considering they’ve had a revolving door at the C position for a while now.

Derrick Goold says Jeff Luhnow still believes there a chance the Cardinals can get Venezuelan OF Yorman Rodriguez. It’s been rumored he’s already agreed to sign with the Reds. What the Cardinals have done already this year in Latin America has already been outstanding…to add Yorman on top of that …that would be epic. Yorman can’t sign until he turns 16, which is next month. He’s drawn some comparisons to Carlos Beltran.

Chris Lambert scoffs at our earlier dismissals of him as a prospect. Scoffs, I say. In a little over 100 innings now, and Lambert has a sparkling 3.30 FIP for the Mudhens. The night before last he threw a 1 run-3 hit complete game.

The ever-insightful Larry Borowsky took us on his own tour of the farm, and it’s followed by some interesting conversation amongst VEB readers.

Only three teams played tonight in yet another abbreviated DFR.

The ever dangerous mid-season prospect ranking

I call it dangerous because I’m sure I may end up looking back on these and think to myself “what was I smoking?”. I have a love-hate relationship with prospect rankings. It’s just that they can so debatable, which makes them fun and also makes them mind-numbing. And I think some sites out there just throw together rankings all too willy-nilly, because people like discussing lists and it’s a cheap way to get people to visit and talk about your site. I don’t want to do that. But I have been thinking about this for a while…there have been some players who have had some serious helium-Jess Todd and Daryl Jones for example-and other players have fallen out of the picture. And there also was a draft this past June, in case you haven’t heard. So therefore, I figure my personal rankings could use an update. I’m not going to go as far as 25 like I do in the winter; we’ll just go with 15 for right now w/mini-snippets on why they are there.

Daily Farm Report 7/7/08

I don’t want to be John Mozeliak right now either [/lying] but if Rasmus is traded, I’ll be collecting donations for bail.

Meet the future catchers — Bryan Anderson is first up.

Slow news day — let’s get right to it. Palm Beach was postponed & Johnson City had the day off so it’s an abbreviated DFR today.

A quick look at Josh Wilson

One of you asked if we can take a look at RHP Josh Wilson of the QC. Ask and ye shall receive.

Daily Farm Report 7/6/08

Off topic: Went and saw the movie Hancock tonight starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman and the stunning Charlize Theron. The movie was ok — I’d suggest just waiting for it to come out on DVD — but I have to issue a warning. You may remember that when I went to “see” Cloverfield (I think I wrote about that on VEB) I was basically forced to sit with my head between my knees because of motion sickness. Well, Hancock has the same wobbly camera hijinks but more subtle. I had to leave the theater for a while because I was feeling ill, unsure of what was causing it. When I came back in, I immediately noticed the type of can’t-quite-hold-this-still camera technique that makes me have motion sickness. I was able to tough it out because it wasn’t as bad as Cloverfield but if you have the same problem I do, consider yourself warned.

Maybe I missed it but John Sickels offered some thoughts on Jaime Garcia earlier in the week. My thoughts lineup with his on balance.

Danup makes a (too) rare appearance and plays with translations.

Couldn’t agree more Pop. Also in the Kary Booher piece a check up on Francisco Samuel who still walks too many guys for me to begin supporting.

Kary Booher also takes a look at Daryl Jones. He makes a good point that we sometimes gloss over — the ballparks (with the exception of Hammons Field) are typically pitchers parks up and down the Cardinals system. Jones is excelling in a field that’s going to dramatically suppress his power numbers.

Daily Farm Report – 7/5/08

[erik update: Recently I was approached by the folks at the Batavian and was asked to provide a who's who on the Muckdogs roster. It's not for pay or anything, so here's the link.]

Here is a profile of Andrew Brown from Kary Booher. Brown has come on strong this season, hitting for power and average at three stops. It will be interesting to see how he progresses at the higher levels. There was also a short profile of Brett Wallace on the Quad Cities Times website.

Colby was in the pre-game lineup, but did not play tonight, and Joe Mather was out of the starting lineup, giving Cody Haerther a start. As with the big club, there is a glut of outfielders at Memphis with Rasmus, Mather, Stavinoha and Robinson all warranting playing time. The glut could be alleviated by taking away playing time from Josh Phelps and allowing Mather and/or Stavinoha to play some 1B or DH.

All the teams were in action today and the system went 2-3-1 (the Johnson City game was suspended while tied). All the details are after the jump.

Luhnow on the July 2 signings

I asked Jeff Luhnow if he could provide us with details on the new Latin American signees, and he was kind enough to oblige. Here are his words on the newest Cardinals: