FR May Position Player and Pitcher of the Month

I can’t believe June is already here. That means it’s time to look back at May and who turned in great performances that month. Our panel has spoken, and there’s no disputing who belongs at the top this month.

Final Impressions from Jupiter, Part One

My week at Spring Training is over, but my sunburn should last another week or so. I wasn’t able to post as often as I would have liked due to my computer situation (borrowed) and my schedule (Mrs. roarke). Regardless, I have several hundred pictures of various Cardinals players and prospects – I’ll post some with my impressions after the jump.

First Impressions

My first day in Jupiter afforded me the opportunity to get a first hand look at some of the prospects we write about for the first time.  My first impressions are after the jump.

It was just one bad day, right?

Yesterday was an ugly day for the Cardinals, losing 20-6 to the Dodgers.  My man in Jupiter described the scene as “pathetic”.  The good news is that Brian Barton continues to make a strong case for making the team.  He went 2-3 yesterday with a triple.  Colby Rasmus (who really needs a good nickname, if you ask me) went 1-2 with a double and a run, and Joe Mather went 1-2 with an RBI single and a run scored. 

 On the pitching side of the prospect ledger, Mark Worrell went one inning and gave up two hits, one a homerun, and walked a man.  His spring ERA is now at 6.00, which puts a damper on my hopes that he would make the club out of Spring Training.  Blake Hawksworth gave up three runs in two innings of work, but struck out five Dodgers. 

 Today, Clayton Mortenson started because Anthony Reyes has flu-like symptoms.  I will be in Florida starting on Wednesday, so I will be reporting back on what I see with pictures and words.

Caravanning

The Cardinals Caravan has been making it’s way across the midwest, and some of the local papers have picked up on a few tidbits here and there.

Prospect Stew

A couple of items to mull over for you this Sunday.

A Q&A by Derrick Goold with Chris Perez and Joe Mather. The players are watching the changes in the front office as much as we are as fans:

Q: Do you guys pay attention to what seems like a change in direction in this organization? Chris you haven’t been around the organization as long, but Joe I think you know that three years ago maybe these opportunities aren’t there. Do you guys notice that?

Mather: Absolutely. I think more so probably at our level than the guys in the big leagues. It has a direct effect on that. Mozeliak is a great guy and we kind of came up with him as well. Same with a couple managers. … Definitely we keep tabs on what’s going on.

Q: So, do you see an opportunity that wasn’t there three years ago?

Mather: Yes. Absolutely. Just look at our Springfield team. Take that for example – how young we were there. I think that’s kind of going all the way up. Memphis will be young. Obviously, St. Louis will be young. It’s proven. The Brewers won. The D’backs won. It can work. I think it’s good for all of us in that sense.

Kary Booher has the coaching staffs for the farm system next year. A part of me wishes that Derrick May would have moved up with guys like Mather and Hoffpauir who give him a lot of credit for retooling their swings. Blake IIlsey moves up to Memphis from Springfield replacing Dyar Miller. Joe Almarez will be back coaching Johnson City again. I imagine he’ll still be scouting before the season and the amateur draft.

Jump over to Minor League Ball to read John Sickel’s take on PJ Walters. He has Walters fastball about 3mph faster than what I’ve heard it listed at. I’m just not going to be able to get on that bandwagon. He’s going to have to prove himself at every level given his reported velocity — 85mph fastballs don’t typically play in the majors.

A peak at peak translations, part 3

Finishing up with part three of the series, it’s been a pretty fun ride. According to the translations, we found out we have a future star CF, and future above average catcher in Anderson, a power hitting first baseman in Hamilton (trade bait), a possible future all star 3B in Craig, and a pretty fine SS in Jose Martinez. And we have at least an average 2B in Hoffpauir. Not too shabby. Of course there is always the “grain of salt” warning attached to all this, but it’s at least been entertaining. To wrap up, let’s look at some others of note:

Saturday AM bits and pieces

Per Bernie Miklasz, Joe Mather has been added to the 40 man roster. Congrats to Joe.

Mitch Boggs participated in the AFL Rising Stars Showcase game last night. The game is like the AFL All Star game, but rather then players being on teams for their performance, they are put on the team based more on their prospect status. I would assume the coaches and managers make that judgment of who makes the squads. Boggs came in in the 3rd inning for the East team. He induced a grounder to 2nd off the bat of Mike Costanzo. He allowed back to back line drive singles against Trevor Crowe and Dexter Fowler, then hit Matt Antonelli with a pitch. He then induced a ground ball to get a double play facing German Duran to get out of the inning unscathed. Here’s the box score.

Baseball America has it’s NL draft report cards up. (Subscription required) The highlights are:

• They like Beau Riportella‘s speed and overall athleticism.
• Steve Hill and Daniel Descalso are the “best pure hitters” of the draft. It’s notable to me that they don’t see Kozma as the best hitter the Cardinals took in the draft.
• They like Clayton Mortensen‘s sinker quite a bit, but for pure heat they like Adam Reifer.
• Brett Zawacki is their favorite late round pick out of a “deep group of sleepers”.

Later on in a chat, there was a question as what they saw for this draft in the future. Callis said he saw Todd setting up, Mortensen near the front of the rotation and Kozma starting at SS.

Sounds about right to me, but I’d bet there could be a few of the sleepers in the mix who could surprise. I like hearing Mort could be “near the front” of the rotation, versus at the back of it. I really am liking him quite a bit, that’s about where I see him too.

Lastly, I’m sure most of you have seen that it’s sounding more and more that the Cardinals are serious Antonetti, and Antonetti is serious about the Cardinals.  I mean, the guy is looking at neighborhoods with his wife serious. He totally fits with Luhnow, La Russa is saying the right things about working with a young GM and a young ball club. This is just all too right. I’m really, really, really happy about this.

Prospect Profile: Joe Mather

The Cardinals have been waiting for Joe Mather to break out a while and this past season their patience has paid off.

Texas League Top 20

Finally, BA gets to the cache of Cardinal prospects. Springfield was the hotbed for redbird talent and hopefully we can look back on this group in a few years as the force that revitalized the big league team. The Cardinals walk away with no less than 5 players on this top 20 list and I’ll recap them in reverse order (not that you should be in particular suspense about who was the best).

Daily Prospect Report 6/18/07

First of all, big news (sorta). Corresponding with the roster moves of Skip Schumaker and Troy Cate being promoted to the Show, Joe Mather has been promoted to Memphis and will join the team Tuesday. A well deserved promotion, Mather was hitting .303/.387/.607 with a league leading 18 home runs in 234 at bats. The thing that impresses me about Mather is not just the gains he has made in power this season, but the fact that he’s walked more then he has struck out, and he’s only struck out in 11.5% of his at bats. That’s showing some pretty good contact ability along with his power, a Pujolsian- like combo.

Rough night for the farm tonight.

Memphis 11, Iowa 14

• Suffice to say, the wind was blowing out at Principal Park.
• Blake Hawksworth got only 5 outs and 8 runs on 9 hits, including 3 homers.
• Rick Ankiel went 2 for 4 with a double and drew an intentional walk.
• Rico Washington with a double and a triple and 5 RBI.
• With Adam Kennedy hitting like garbage, and Aaron Miles being Aaron Miles, Edgar Gonzalez is begging for a call up. He went 3 for 4 with a HR, walk, stolen base and a strikeout. He’s now hitting .302/.367/.455.
• Tagg Bozied went 1 for 4 with a HR.
• To start the bottom of the 8th the Redbirds were up 11-8. Then Chris Lambert happened. He loaded the bases and allowed a grand slam to Micah Hoffpauir (I believe he’s Jarret of Springfield’s brother.) His ERA is now 7.92.
• Mark Worrell got into the action, serving up a 2 run homer.
• Bo Hart went 1 for 2…for the I Cubs. He lives.

Springfield 3, Arkansas 5

• Colby Rasmus had a three true outcome game. He walked, he homered, and he struck out, going 1 for 4 when it was all said and done.
• Mark Shorey went 3 for 3 with a walk and a HR. He’s off to a good start in the Texas League after being promoted from Quad Cities after Jon Jay and Cody Haerther went down, as he’s hitting .313/.365/.563 with 3 homers in 48 at bats.
• Mike Ferris went 1 for 4 with a double and 3 strikeouts.
• Jarrett Hoffpauir went 2 for 4.
• Eric Haberer allowed 4 runs off of 7 hits and 4 walks over 4 innings, striking out 4. It’s a foregone conclusion based on his numbers he’s not quite ready for the trip on Highway 44 to St. Louis. He’s more likely to be at home watching Fantastic 4 on DVD. For real. (Sorry, that was awful.)
• Matt Scherer and Jason Motte both pitched a perfect frame, striking out 2 apiece.

Daytona 11, Palm Beach 2

• Like the Iowa Cubs, the Daytona Cubs pasted Cardinal pitching around the park. Fernando Salas allowed FIVE HOME RUNS. He gave up a total of 7 runs over 4.1 innings.
• Trey Hearne come on in relief after being ousted from the rotation due to poor performance, and also stunk up the joint by allowing 4 runs over 1.2. Poor Trey, I really wonder what’s ailing him.
• AJ Van Slyke went 2 for 3 with a double and a HR.
• Mark Hamilton walked 3 times.
• Allen Craig and Nathan Southard both went 2 for 4.

Quad Cities was off.

The draftees were playing the past couple of days, both their teams advanced. 10th round pick Tyler Henley went 2 for 3 with 3 runs scored. He also walked, was hit by a pitch and stole a base. I’d call that a good day. Here’s the box score, if you are interested.

10th round pick Mike Stutes pitched very well against one of the top hitting college baseball programs in the country in Arizona State. Over 6 innings, he allowed 4 runs on 3 hits and 5 walks while striking out 4. He loaded the bases before being pulled in the 7th and his bullpen allowed the runners he inherited to score, otherwise his line might’ve looked a little better. Remember, ASU scored like 9 runs per game all season. I watched most his outing, he looked pretty good. He had a fastball that he threw in the 92 range, but as the game went on it lost some of it’s zip. He threw a straight change at 82, seemed rather average. His curve ball was a very nice pitch that he had decent command of and was able to keep down and get swings and misses on. By the 6th he looked gassed and his stuff lost effectiveness and he had trouble with his command. It should be mentioned that  4th round draft pick SS Darwin Barney (Cubs) made a few great plays, saving a couple of hits.

6/11/07 Daily Prospect Report

Mark Hamilton and Joe Mather were named offensive players of the week in their respective leagues. Hamilton was 9 for 25 last week, 5 of those hits were homers. Hamilton is tied for the FSL lead in RBI with 47 and is 2nd in the league in HR with 12. Joe Mather went 10 for 23 with 3 homers and 4 doubles. His performance has been a big reason the S-Cards have their division lead. Mather’s proving after a poor May his is no Mr. April. I’m really liking his peripherals right now. 13.1% walk rate, just a 11.2% strikeout rate and a .316 isolated power. He’s a slugger, but he’s a slugger that is patient and makes contact. And he’s got an arm in RF. He’s gone from being on no one’s radar to a pretty interesting prospect.

Memphis 1, Nashville 7 (Sorry, minor league splits and firstinning.com are having issues with their player linkers, so rather go and link each player one by one and take another half hour posting this thing, it’s coming to you raw like sushi.)

• Skip Schumaker scored the only run of the game, hitting a solo homer. He also walked and struck out twice.
• Brendan Ryan and Nick Stavinoha both went 2 for 4.
• Rick Ankiel went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.
• Mike Parisi allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, but only 1 of those runs was earned, which was a HR. He allowed 2 walks, struck out 3 and got 12 ground ball outs.
• Chris Lambert allowed 2 runs on 3 hits over 2 innings.
• Memphis batters struck out 17, count them 17 times tonight. Chris Oxspring and Dennis Sarfate got 16 of them, as they were dealing tonight.

Springfield 3, Arkansas 2

• I’m getting a little concerned for Colby Rasmus. He went 0 for 4 again with 2 K’s and his average dropped to .269 after starting the month hitting near the .300 mark.
• Sean Danielson went 2 for 4 with a HR.
• Bryan Anderson went 2 for 4.
• Joe Mather hit a double and was part of a double play with an assist from the outfield. An ex-third baseman, Mather has a strong throwing arm.
• Cory Rauschenberger allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in 6.1 innings while striking out 4 and getting 10 outs on the ground.
• Nick Webber pitched an inning and a third, not allowing a hit or walk and fanning 2.
• Chris Perez had another dominant save. 3 K’s, no walks, no hits.

Palm Beach 9, Brevard 12

• I think Trey Hearne has to be hurt. After being so successful last year, high A shouldn’t be proving such a tough challenge. He only got 2 outs tonight and allowed 7 runs on 6 hits. His ERA is now 6.32. A move to the bullpen or the DL may be in order.
• Donnie Smith didn’t provide much in way of relief. In 3.1 innings, he allowed 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, striking out 3.
• Allen Craig went 2 for 5 with a homer.
• Ian Church hit a grand slam for his only hit.
• Brandon Yarbrough also went yard for his only hit.
• James Rapoport and Jose Contreras both went 2 for 4 with doubles.

Quad Cities 3, Wisconsin 0

• Eddie Degerman struck out 8 over 6 innings, while only allowing a hit and 3 walks.
• Shaun Garceau allowed no runs in 3 innings, allowing 4 hits and a walk. He fanned 2.
• Kenny Maiques capped off the shutout with a perfect 9th. He struck out 2.
• Non-drafted free agent Jaime Landin hit 2 homers while striking out in his other 2 at bats. All or nothing, Jaime.
• Daryl Jones went 0 for 3 but drew a walk and stole his 12th base.

[updated]

Cardinal 9th round draftee Mike Stutes helped pitch is team OSU to the College World Series. Stutes allowed 2 runs on just 3 hits over 8 innings while striking out 9 and walking 1. I really hope they sign this guy.