I’m sure most of you have heard the tragic news regarding ex-Cardinal Mike Coolbaugh by now. He was expecting a baby, his 3rd child. Very sad news indeed. John Sickels weighs in, and I agree with him, those guys should be probably wearing helmets. Coolbaugh bounced around several organizations, and in 2002 he hit 29 homers in 411 at bats for Memphis, earning him a call up. He played in 5 games for St. Louis. FR offers it’s condolences to his family, friends and the Tulsa Drillers. Kevin Goldstein has the info on a memorial benefit set up for the family. Springfield’s game against Arkansas was postponed due to the tragic events. Arkansas was the team playing the Drillers when the event happened.
Over at the team’s official site, Daniel Berk profiles Christopher Perez-
“It’s all about mental makeup,” Perez said. “It was probably good that happened to me so early. You have to have strong makeup to make it as a closer. If you blow one or give up some runs, you’d better come back the next day like you’re the man.”
Since that frustrating day in early April, Perez has converted on 25 straight save opportunities and has struck out 59 in just 37 1/3 innings over 35 appearances. Perez, out of the University of Miami, is 2-0 with a 2.58 ERA and has limited opponents to just a .133 average.
I probably like Perez more then my compadre AZ. No, I’m not completely crazy of the notion of drafting college closers and fast-tracking them to the bigs. For every Chad Cordero there’s a David Aardsma or Ryan Wagner. Curbing the walks and staying healthy are the obvious key to him unlocking his big league potential…or him ending up just being an Aardsma. But I love his upside.
Mike Schellinger was the co-named of the Midwest League Pitcher of the Week. In his past 5 outings, he struck out 19 in 12.2 innings with a 0.71 ERA.
Osvaldo Morales of the GCL Cardinals was mentioned in BA’s Hot Sheet this week:
Morales just turned 20 and is raking his way through the GCL. In 92 at-bats, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound right-handed hitter is batting .304/.402/.565 with six homers and 20 RBIs.
The Giants Tim Alderson was the first first round draftee to sign above slot…and just barely. While no word on Kozma’s bonus yet, it was not believed to be above slot according to BA. Only five players in the whole draft have believed to be signed above slot, let’s hope it will soon be six. This is very odd how this is all playing out, but I’m still hopeful.
Getting to last night’s action. Adam Ottavino was dominating. Jarret Hoffpauir continues to rake. And the Swing played an ugly, never-ending marathon of doom which saw two position players pitch. Meanwhile, the GCL’s game was postponed along with Springfield, and the Muckdogs were off. Giddyup!
- Jarrett Hoffpauir went 2 for 4.
- Tagg Bozied hit a 2 run homer, his 15th this season.
- Randy Keisler allowed just one run despite giving up 7 hits and 3 walks over 7 innings. The Memphis defense helped bail him out with 4 DP’s turned for the game.
- Adam Ottavino allowed 1 earned run on 7 hits and a walk while striking out 7.
- Isaias Garcia went 3 for 4 with a homer and a triple.
- A.J. Van Slyke went 2 for 3 with a 2 steals.
- Dan Nelson went 3 for 5.
- Brandon Buckman and Brandon Yarbrough both had doubles.
Quad Cities 10, Lansing 11 in 16 innings
I watched most of this game on local cable access, mostly saw the ugly parts. Why, I don’t know. I guess I’m a masochist. There were 10 errors in the game, 28 hits, bugs flying all over, and it just kept on going. And going. And going. And going. I did see the man, the myth, the legend Arni Cruz. The announcers called him Tony Cruz, but Arnoldi is just more fun. He only got 1 single and looked pretty smallish, but athletic. Nice swing overall; dunno what else to say.
- Tyler Herron allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6.
- Kyle Mura allowed 3 runs and only recorded 1 out.
- Kenny Maiques (pronounced My-kuhs) was completely betrayed by his defense but I came away very impressed. Good fastball, great slider that had lots of late, downward break. The movement on it was similar to the slider Jeremy Bonderman throws. He overthrew at times, leading to walks and a wild pitch. If this guy can stay healthy, he’ll be an asset in the big league bullpen. He struck out 3 in 1.2 IP while allowing a hit and walking a couple.
- Tim Dorn , yes Tim Dorn the first baseman, struck out 2 and walked 5 in 3 innings, while allowing 2 runs. To his credit, he kept his team in the game. He was all smiles, seemed like he was having the time of his life out there.
- Antone DeJesus walked 4 times and stole a base.
- Infielder-turned-rent-a-reliever Jose Garcia gave up the winning HR. Raul Barron was the guy who hit the homer and was jawing at him all the way, probably because Garcia buzzed him the pitch before. It was real bush league stuff, to say the least.
- Nick Derba nearly ended it earlier with a walk off homer, he missed it by 5 feet, settling for a double off the wall.
- Jared Schweitzer went 3 for 6 with a homer.
Johnson City 3, Elizabethtown 0 (Completed early due to rain, 6 innings)
- Dognnt Bolivar went 2 for 2 with a steal and picked up his 14th (!) error.
- Wilmer Alvarado and Adron Chambers both doubled.
- Brian Broderick allowed just 2 hits over 5 IP, inducing 10 ground outs and 2 K’s.
Future Redbirds 
I don’t mind drafting a closer high and trying to fast-track him, because I think spending $10 million a season on a closer is a much worse move. Let’s say Perez makes the bigs mid-next year as a middle reliever, replaces Izzy in ’09, is a league-average closer and then for some reason loses effectiveness after his 3rd full season. You’ve still saved $25-30 million in payroll vs. paying the going rate on the free agent market for a closer, that’s a pretty good draft choice in my book.
The problem with that is consistency.
If Springfield is any indication, Perez is going to ba an Izzy type of closer with lots of baserunners to make us nervous before he finally closes the deal.
I’m surprised Morales is still with the GCL team as he is almost our oldest player there and he’s been pretty good all year.
baseball america has pete kozma’s signing bonus up, he signed for $1.395 million which should be exactly slot.
I would have loved to be privy to those negotiations.
azru, it doesn’t sound like there were many negotiations going on. from the newspaper reports the cardinals made an initial offer that was declined and then didn’t talk to his agents again until last week. my guess is they originially offered him a couple hundred thousand under slot and he said no. they then came back and said alright we’ll give you slot if you sign now and he took it.
color me skeptical. perhaps it was that simple but I doubt it.
(even if that was the case, I’d still have been interested in the conversations. just one day tailing jocketty, that’s all i ask)