If the Brewers are willing to part with a top pitching prospect Will Inman for a middle reliever mediocrity like Scott Linebrink, what would teams be willing to shell out for Jason Isringhausen?
That trade is un-freakin’ believable. I’m starting to think Kevin Towers is an evil genius…except for that David Wells deal he made last year.
SELL! SELL! SELL!
The article by Matthew Leach on the Cardinals main site isn’t really about prospects but with Jaime Garcia hitting the DL, it’s something I want to comment on.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa defended the team’s medical staff on Tuesday amid criticism that it has received in recent days.
Good. TLR should defend the medical staff. No one is asking him to come out and crucify them but to act like the Cardinals have not had significant traumatic injuries to players requires you to bury your head pretty deeply in the sand.
A column in Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch raised the suggestion that the Cardinals should conduct a review of their medical staff, given the difficult times that several star players have endured in recent years. Most notably, Chris Carpenter missed 3 1/2 months with bone spurs in his elbow, then was discovered to have a ligament injury requiring reconstructive surgery.
That column being referred to is this one by Bernie Miklasz. I don’t always agree with Bernie, sometimes I vehemently disagree, but he is 100% dead-on right this time. It would behoove the Cardinals to do an internal review of the medical team not so they could hang someone (Dr. Paletta) out to dry but because they may find a serious flaw in the system. A flaw that is allowing catastrophic injuries to occur.
I think the Chris Carpenter example is the worst of the three recent ones to choose from. Carpenter was shut down almost immediately after experiencing pain. When rest and rehab didn’t work he had surgery. I don’t know what caused the tear in his ligament but it wasn’t a full rupture making it hard to diagnose. Far more clear were the horrendous collapses of Rolen in 2005 and Mulder in 2006. For months they looked like shells of themselves and yet they were continually put on the field. Rolen wound up needing a massive reconstruction of his shoulder and Mulder had serious rotator-cuff tears.
Are these avoidable? No, season ending injuries happen frequently in baseball. But these are three situations where core players of the Cardinals team have gone down for an extended time frame. The complete lack of transparency about what is occuring with these players is a creation of both the STL Cardinals and privacy laws. News of Carpenter’s surgery was withheld for days before it was finally made public. We, as fans, do not, in my opinion, have a “right” to know the intricate details of everything that occurs behind the scenes. Blatant attempts to withhold basic information or misguide us is plainly wrong though. (The AJ Burnett situation where Riccardi flat-out lied comes to mind. No one has gone that far with the Cardinals but I do think there has been a concerted effort to withhold some basic info about injuries.)
La Russa suggested an extensive release of medical records of injured players, which he argued would be illuminating and valuable.
Now Tony goes all crazy on us. He complains about the Post-Dispatch calling for a review of the medical situation and then says “Let’s show the files. Prove to everyone that I’m right and they are wrong.” If La Russa is ok with the idea of releasing this kind of information (with respect to all pertainable laws and CBA clauses) then why does he bristle at people asking for it?
“I recommend that we have a press conference, trot the players out there and produce the records,” La Russa said. “There would be no doubt in my mind that the public will see in each case, the quality of care these guys received.”
This is the part that distresses me the most. The resistance to an review based on individual opinions within the organization of the medical care. Frankly, if everyone has confidence in the medical staff, it would be a slick PR move for the front office to placate fans by HAVING A REVIEW. Personally, I think there is something systematic and inherently wrong with the handling of injuries within the organization. I’m not privy to 1/100th of the information that La Russa is and I realize that.
With Jaime Garcia headed to the DL, I’m reminded that as much as I fume about injuries at the big league level, information for erik and I to pass on to you is even more difficult to come across. Who is asking the tough questions about Allen Craig (sore back) or Jon Jay (shoulder)? What are their injuries and rehab like? Was it really a strained oblique that sidelined Narveson for 2 months? And when did Garcia start experiencing elbow pain? One start? Two? The last inning of his most recent start? How many pitches did he throw after telling the team about the pain?
If no privacy laws or clauses are violated, it would endear the organization to the fans if they were more open about injuries. Surely some people would rail about certain aspects of treatment, but at least other people could defend the organization against dubious claims. Right now, all we have is TLR ranting about non-disclosed files.
Get well soon, Jaime. I don’t really know what’s wrong with you and I’m fearing the worst. Get well soon.
The bad news today wasn’t unexpected, Jaime Garcia is hitting the DL. The good news is that P.J. Walters, uber-sleeper, received the call up from Palm Beach to AA. Walters started the season for the Swing where he went 6-1 with a 6.08 K/BB ratio and a 65% ground ball rate. He was promoted to Palm Beach where he continued his dominance, again putting up a near identical high strikeout rates and low walk rates, while getting ground balls by the truck load. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles AA, or perhaps I should say how AA handles him. So far tonight at least, not so good. We’ll get to that later.
Minor league pitching coordinator Mark Riggins was named the pitching coach of the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League. The season starts Oct. 9th. It’s at least a month away before the rosters are announced, but it’s easy to see Cody Haerther and Jon Jay on the team given all the time they’ve missed to the DL, as they did with Brendan Ryan last year. And don’t worry, we’ll have brief DPR’s of the games the Cardinal prospects are participating in.
Yet again I get the easy load tonight, as the GCL team had the day off and the Palm Beach game was postponed. Johnson City’s game was suspended after 5 innings. I had expected to see Kozma debuting tonight, but he wasn’t in JC’s lineup. Maybe things are just getting finalized, I could see him in a few games for the GCL team. In case you were wondering, Kozma signed for a bonus of $1,395,000, which was right at slot. (Hat tip to fewgoodcards for passing along that info)
Quad Cities played a noon game after the 6 hour marathon last night and got their revenge. Rick Ankiel went yard again. And the Springfield Cardinals pretty much got shut down. Let’s get into it…not in any particular order this time.
Now that the All-Star games are over, let’s have an All-Star list! (I told you this was coming.) Huzzah! A list of the top prospects at each position within the organization (I’m going to do 5 starters and 5 relievers for the pitchers). I’m leaving the definition of this list vague for a reason — these types of activities are universally subjective unless you just go by straight stats. I’m going to try and make this list without looking at any stats and just looking at the rosters which is part of the fun and I hope will lead to some interesting conversations. Things that matter to me: performance (I’m going by memory), age relative to level, projection. Let’s get started.
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!
Making my usual meanderings about the interweb on Monday when I stopped by Kary Booher’s blog and started cursing in my cubicle. Jaime Garcia has been shut down. He’s going to be shut down amid “growing concerns” over pain he’s experiencing in his elbow. What makes me worry the most about this is the ‘growing concerns’ portion. Meaning it was a concern, something happened and now that concern has gotten bigger. O Sh-t.
St. Louis pitching coordinator Mark Riggins on Sunday said Garcia recently underwent an MRI, and Springfield manager Pop Warner later noted that he would shift Garcia to the shelf until the organization’s medical team determines the seriousness of the injury.
Well, with the organization’s medical team on the job Garcia should be ready to pitch in what — a week? Of course shortly thereafter he’ll need major surgery. Derrick Goold ripped on the medical team in his Postcards entry on Friday. I don’t have a lot of faith in them. I’m sure they are all very bright people but I’m not a fan of the way this team handles injuries.
“The day I pitched, I felt some soreness in there. And then after I pitched and the day after,” said Garcia, who made his 18th start of the season last Wednesday in Tulsa, pitching six innings. “We’ll just wait to see what happens. I’ve worked real hard.”
Personally, when something causes me pain, I try to replicate that situation again as soon as possible. Seriously, WTF? If he had pain on pitching day that was uncharacteristic, STOP THROWING. For all I know, Garcia didn’t even tell Warner but this is not what I like to hear about a pitcher so I’m not sure where to assign the blame but there is plenty to go around.
* * * * * * * * * *
I’m not sure we gave this an entry but it deserves it. Kevin Goldstein ranked Mark Hamilton #9 1B hitting prospect in the minors. It’s behind the subscription window so just a bit of what he wrote:
A second-round pick out of Tulane last year, Hamilton’s power ranked with that anyone else in last year’s draft, and he was among the Florida State League home run leaders with 13 when he was pushed to Double-A, an aggressive assignment for a player in his first full year of play.
Hamilton did struggle once he got to Quad Cities last year posting a measly .680 OPS there. He was moved up to Palm Beach despite that where he and Allen Craig made a nice power tandem at the corners. Now in Springfield he seems to have found his groove as of late. The other note of interest in Goldstein’s article is someone we were touting a long time ago here at FR — Brandon Buckman. He’s someone Goldstein reccommends to keep an eye on, which we’ve already been doing:
[…] at six-foot-six and 210 pounds, he’s an eye-catching talent with plenty of power from the left side, but an approach that needs work.
I could have written those words myself. I harped on his plate discipline while drooling over the power stats and keeping an eye on his age (23) relative to the level. He’s been promoted to High-A where he’s hitting .281/.315/.388/.703. I actually find this line encouraging. The power will come; I was far more worried about his hitting for average. He still needs to work on his plate discipline but the .281 average is a good thing.
Not a lot of news to pass along, the big news happened yesterday with the Kozma signing. One of my main fears was quelled a bit after doing some digging around at BA. The thing that bothered me the most about the Kozma pick was Carlos Gomez‘s assessment of his rather um, “poopy” swing based on what he saw on is draft video at MLB.com. Those videos are done early in the year or the previous. More recently however, Derrick Goold reported:
The club dispatched several officials to Owasso, Okla., for an individual hitting session with the infielder. They came away from that convinced the swing would translate eagerly from aluminum to bat and resolved that Gossett had his personality pegged.
I still absolutely value Gomez’s assessment of his swing, I have to think he’s improved drastically in order to have several Cardinal officials convinced he hit well enough to merit a # 1 draft pick. And least I would like to think they know what they are talking about. As for Gomez, I won’t tolerate people calling him some hack at a computer. Gomez has a good track record (he nailed Tim Lincecum while scouts said he’s too small and profiles as more of a reliever) and has received some national acclaim from smart guys like Rob Neyer. He’s been nothing short of great to the readers here in answering our questions. If you don’t like what he has to say, then give solid logic as to why you don’t agree with him, don’t just sit and say he’s some yahoo with a computer. Gomez is a retired professional baseball player, and a scout. We should be grateful for the work he is doing, breaking down mechanics of hitters and pitchers who most of us have no clue at what we’re looking at. Previously, this was stuff that was insiders, guys with training talking behind closed doors. I’d like to see more of the type of work that he and Jeff Albert do, you don’t get that sort of stuff at these subscription sites, etc.
I didn’t pass this scouting report along before, but here’s PG Crosschecker’s scouting report of Kozma.
Measured strictly by tools, Kozma doesn’t warrant first-round consideration, but his ability to play the game raises him to that level for many scouts. He has an athletic presence and confidence to his style of play that works at the upper levels of the game. Kozma has excellent athletic balance and a very quick first step that plays better than his average speed underway. He is ultra-smooth at shortstop, and can make all the throws from all different angles with accuracy and strength. Offensively, Kozma is a line-drive, gap-to-gap hitter with surprising strength in his wrists and hands that gives him some extra juice in his bat. He hit at a .500-plus clip the last two years for Owasso High, and homered in the first inning of the Oklahoma 6-A championship game—and it stood up in a 1-0 win. Scouts have compared him to University of Mississippi shortstop Zack Cozart, particularly for his body type and defensive ability, but Kozma has more offensive potential at the same age. There are numerous high school shortstops who are being mentioned in the top 50 picks, and Kozma is among them.
I’m not real crazy about the pick, and I know last week I said I could care less if the Cardinals take a mulligan and take another shot next year with the new CBA rules in place. But he’s a Cardinal now, and I’ll gladly root for the laundry and focus on the good. And there is a lot of good, I never denied that. Just not what I thought I would’ve liked to see in the first round. But I’m probably wrong, many smart guys said he was the best shortstop in the draft. If so, that’s great. Time will tell all.
As for tonight’s action. Colby was back in the lineup, and was productive…Ankiel goes yard…Mike Ferris made his AAA debut…Cody Haerther and Mike Sillman started their rehab assignments…and Tony “don’t call me Arnoldi” continues to make us ask..who is this guy?
[Edit] One bit of news is the Cardinals have signed Gerard Haran. Haran is a 21 year old catcher out of the College of New Jersey. In 2006 he was the NCAA Division III player of the year, where he finished with an .807 slugging %. This year he hit .327/.447/.661 with 14 homers, and played in every game of the season. I like seeing them take flyers on these indy leaguers under the radar. Haran will start with the GCL team.
It’s been a little while, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a look at what some of the Cardinal affiliates in the Dominican and Venezuela are doing.
Before I do that, Scout.com has the scoop on the Cardinals July 2 international free agent signings.
…the Cardinals have signed ten players to 2008 contracts, have offers pending to several others and expect to land at least one more top prospect before the end of this signing period.
While bonus amounts were not divulged, Luhnow was quick to point out the Cardinals should be considered serious players in this process. “We made offers on several players that received top bonus amounts, including three players that ultimately signed with other teams. In all three cases, we were either the highest or the second highest bidder,” he said.
To cement the point, Luhnow closed with a general statement to reaffirm the organization’s commitment to remaining competitive in the July 2nd process. “We invested more money in Latin America this year than any year in the past.” It is worth noting this statement was made even prior to knowing if this year’s signings are complete.
That’s great news to see they are using their resources to pull from more of a wide pool. Romulo Ruiz and Frederick Parejo are a couple of the free agents signed from last year, they are the youngest players on the GCL Cardinals right now.
In a tough division, the DSL Cards are 20-19, 5 games back from the lead. As a team, they have a .222 batting average and are near the bottom of the pile in slugging %, with .274. Zounds. And I won’t get into their pitching, it’s pretty near the bottom of the pile in categories like K’s, ERA, and near the top in walks allowed.
19 year old SS Juan Mosquera is leading the league with a…get this….497 OBP. He’s walked 41 times, for a rate of 27.5% of his plate appearances. He only has 3 extra base hits in 108 at bats, though.
19 year old CF Edwin Gomez is leading the team in slugging % .431 and OPS .878. He also has a nifty .446 OBP.
19 year old RHP Angel Tapia RHP leads the team in K’s with 36 in 40 IP. He has a 2:1 K/BB ratio and a 2.00 ground out to fly out ratio. Opponents are hitting .211 against him.
19 year old RHP Arquimedes Nieto has the best name on the squad, and also has shown the best control with allowing only 6 walks in 32.2 IP. He has a 5:1 K/BB ratio.
It’s a pretty grizzly team, with few bright spots. The team record is 17-40, 2nd last in the league. As a team they have hit only 7 homers and a collective .284 slugging percentage. Their .225 team batting average and .617 OPS is dead last in the league.
17 year old RHP Richard Castillo is still the man, leading the league in ERA 1.20 and is 4th in WHIP with .93. He has 51 K’s in 52.2 innings.
On the offensive side, there’s not much to see. 18 year old lefty “third baseman” Kleininger Teran (of moniker madness fame) leads the team with a .763 OPS. He has a 16.8% walk rate and 40 walks to 30 K’s, which is nice and all. But he also has 26 errors in 57 games.
If you are looking for last night’s daily prospect report, it’s right here.
Lloyd: What are the chances of a guy like you and a girl like me… ending up together?
Mary: Well, that’s pretty difficult to say.
Lloyd: Hit me with it! I’ve come a long way to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I’d say more like one out of a million.
[pause]
Now Happy Lloyd: So you’re saying there’s a chance!—
Dumb and Dumber
I think the Birds have a better chance at signing Russell then Lloyd Christmas has with Mary Swanson, but from what the rumors we’ve been hearing Russell is supposed to be heading to Texas. Now with Kozma signed, the Cardinals can focus all their efforts on signing Russell. Luhnow is optimistic-
“I absolutely believe that there is a chance” to sign Russell, Luhnow said of a player widely speculated to be returning to college. “Any time a player is unsigned at this time, they have to make contingency plans, but I’m still very hopeful and optimistic.”
Luhnow said about negotiations, “It’s not a 100 percent match but we’ll try to bridge the gap. If you can get a player like that in the fourth round and get him signed, it’s a real plus.”
Please do bridge that gap. I’m almost thinking of starting up a collection here on this site.
The Swing picked up Jose Garcia from Batavia. Garcia played SS there so perhaps Kozma will take his spot. I wouldn’t have minded Kozma starting off at QC.
Rasmus gets a mental health day. Could someone find this kid the bat he was using in May?
July 27th is Harry Potter night at Autozone Park. When I went and saw the movie there were about a dozen 12 year old girls with Griffindor scarves on and capes. Isn’t it amazing how ingrained in modern culture Harry Potter has become in about 5 years. I could tell you who dies in the 7th book and a good portion of you would attempt to do me bodily harm. Just to test your self-control — here’s a spoiler site.
Chris Narveson get’s rocked. Bryan Anderson continues to hit. Johnson City blanks the opposition (kinda). It’s all here in the DPR-izzle.
We’ll have to wait and see on the $$$ and details. I’m glad that it’s done though. Get this kid in a league!!!
Love the pick or hate the pick, he’s a Cardinal prospect now and Future Redbirds wishes him the best!
Get lost Keanu, I’m not talking about you! And stop looking at me like that! Sheesh…
Er, ahem. I was wondering to see what has made Bryan Anderson such a successful hitter for average and therefore tinkering around at firstinning.com. Anderson is #2 in the Texas League batting race with a .317 average, and just last season for the Swing he hit .302 for the season earning him a pass go, go directly to AA card. One thing I immediately noticed was the seemingly lucky BABIPs. He had a .359 BABIP last season and this season he’s sporting a .368. High or low BABIPs are usually contributed to fortune, but in Anderson’s case I think it may be the way he hits the ball.
He’s been the anti-Colby in this respect. As a left handed hitter he’s hitting 44.1% percent of his balls to the opposite field, and about half of the balls he hits in the air are liners to the opposite field, true hallmarks of a pure contact hitter. Overall he shows the ability to hit the ball to all fields. Over the last two seasons, he’s also maintained a 19% line drive rate. The average LD % in A ball is 14%, in AA 15%.
The only thing I’ve seen is that he’s striking out more this month then usual, and his walk rate isn’t super-fantastic.
The only significant weakness I find with Anderson is the amount of passed balls he allows. But keep in mind that pitchers in the minors aren’t necessarily known for having tremendous command and plate blocking skills can take time to develop. Just see Molina, Yadier-
Passed balls+wild pitches per game
2004-.390
2005-.320
2006-.280
2007-.300
Brian McCann comes to mind when I think of what Anderson can become as a hitter, or even Michael Barrett sans the crappy defense, and minus the some of the power. Perhaps he’s somewhere between Jason Kendall and McCann, but does well at throwing out runners. OK. I give up! Who do you all think he compares with?
Amaury Marti is currently hitting .424/.509/.633 in 39 games for the Mexican Red Devils of the Mexican League, also known as Liga de Amaury Cazana. Bud Selig ordered the Cardinals to banish him to there, in fear of the major leagues losing competitive balance.
Amaury also refuses to accept the watch curse. He has the power to curse, and the power to bless.
FirstInning.com: St. Louis Cardinals Daily Report
Future Redbirds 