Left Field:Problem Solved

Okay, not really. The Cardinals purchased the minor league contract of Timo Perez from the Cincinnati Reds. According to his Baseball Reference page, he's a lifetime .263/.302/.374 hitter. His page is sponsored by a baseball equipment company, which asks the question- "Timo uses Akadema gear… do you?" I'm sure Akadema is a fine producer of batting gloves and bats, but dropping Timo's name in order to sell your equipment is like dropping William Hung's name in order to sell your dance lesson videos.

Meanwhile, John Gall keeps hitting in Memphis. The Cardinals have a total of 2 pinch-hits all season, and with Taguchi still struggling and Schumaker regulated to the role of a late-game defensive replacement, what are the Cardinals waiting for?

Down in AA today, Chris Lambert had a good outing, striking out 9 in 6 innings while allowing 2 hits, 2 walks and no runs. Springfield Cory Doyne pitched two innings to close the game and didn't allow a run. Doyne hasn't allowed a run in all 7 of his appearances.

Cardinal Draft Retrospect (and a Max Scherzer update)

Max is still out indefinetly with arm troubles, though he still should still go very high in the draft, and some are speculating the Royals will take him. Speaking of the draft, the order was announced yesterday. The Cardinals have first round picks #30 and #42. I have no idea who they will take, but I thought it might be fun to take a look at previous Cardinal 1st round draft picks and how they are now faring.

• Tyler Greene, SS, 1st round, 30th overall 2005. The Georgia Tech standout drew comparisons to Derek Jeter by scouts, though the results thus far aren't much to write home about, but it's still very early. Last season in short season New Jersey Tyler batted .261/.352/.370 in 138 at bats. He was promoted to Palm Beach (A+) where in 85 at bats, he hit .271/.326/.388. Greene is currently struggling at Palm Beach, hitting .154 in 39 at bats. It should also be noted that in his short minor league career thus far, Greene has been an excellent basestealer, swiping 21 bags and only getting caught once. VERDICT: I'd like to seem him get it going at the plate, but the tools certainly are all there.  
• Colby Rasmus, OF, 1st Round, 28th overall, 2005. Had a very strong debut in Johnson City (R) last year, hitting .296/.362/.514, including 7 homeruns and 13 stolen bases. He's currently playing for the Swing. (A-)After starting going only 2 for 28, Rasmus is 8 for 24 with 5 doubles and 2 walks. VERDICT: At only 19, Rasmus has plenty of time for growth, but so far his future looks very bright. Could be Jimmy's heir as the next great Cardinal center fielder, though I'm sure the Cardinals will take their time with him. Needs to cut down K's.  
• Mark McCormick, RHP, 1st Round, 43rd overall, 2005. I was able to see him pitch last year when the Swing visited the Cedar Rapids Kernels late last season. His fastball was consistently hitting 96 and 97 on the stadium scoreboard, and once hit 99. He also displayed a good curve. Unfortunately, he looked Ricky Vaughn wild.  Well, maybe not that wild, but he was still rough, allowing 5.91 walks per 9 in around 43 inning last year. That's on par for what he averaged in college. VERDICT: Because of his heat and his wildness, he's drawn comparisons to White Sox closer Bobby Jenks, only  big Bobby looks like he could swallow McCormick whole and chase him down with a tall can of Amstel Light. I'm no scout, but I'm guessing his future lies as a closer if he can ever harness his control. Or he could end up selling insurance in a few years, I dunno. Until then, he's back with the Swing, and thus far in 2 starts he's pitched 10 innings, walked 9 and struck out 14. Yep, still wild.

Reyes Update

I'm dubbing Anthony Reyes the A-Train, and yes I know the moniker isn't very original, let me know if you can come up with something better.

The A Train had a solid game last night against the AAA Washington affiliate, allowing only 3 hits in 6 innings, striking out 7 and walking none. In case you were wondering about the other 11 outs he got-6 on the ground 5 in the air. So perhaps he's learning to curb the flyballs like a good soldier. In his previous game, Anthony got a bit roughed up, allowing 9 hits in 6 innings including a homerun, but his groundouts to flyouts were 11 to 3. Altogether he's k'd 10 in 12 innings, with a 2.25 ERA and no walks.

Other Memphites of note, John Gall is hitting .379 in 29 AB's, 4 of those hits for extra bases. After a red hot spring, Chris Duncan's bat has cooled to .214/.267/.250. in 28 AB's. And Junior Spivey is hitting only .240, but his OBP is .406 is in 25 AB's. He also has 2 fielding errors.

Sickels Ranks Cardinal Prospects

Check out the Top 20 list here.

Over at vivaelbirdos lboros poses the question on which prospect is most intriguing to you? lboros likes Cody Haerther, and I agree, he is very intriguing. He hit well in AA last year, and I could see him making it to the show pretty soon. Sickels ranks him very high, #3 on the list behind Reyes and Colby Rasmus and gives him a B+. His minor league line is a solid .316/.373./.488

But the prospect that intrigues me the most is Nick Stavinoha. I thought I was getting overly giddy about him, but Sickels has him #7 on his list, and gives Stavinoha a B-. That’s quite a bit higher than what Baseball America or Scout.com ranked him.

Stavinoha was drafted out of college last season in the 7th round. He was quite the slugger at LSU last season, hitting 18 homeruns with a batting average of .370 and an OPS of 1.085. His success carried over in Low Class A Quad Cities, hitting .344/.962 with 14 home runs. That’s a heck of a year when combining both college and pro.  What’s also an outstanding number combined between LSU and Quad Cities is his low K totals. In 507 AB’s, Stavinoha only fanned 45 times.

Minor Stuff

LBoros at VEB takes an interesting look at our minor league system, aided by some interesting numbers. A few weeks ago, I happened stumble past some interesting ratings of the Cardinal system over at On Deck Baseball. The ratings are formulated with basic hitting stats like ab’s runs, hits, doubles,triples, homeruns, rbi’s, walks, and stolen bases for hitters. and for pitchers innings,hits,earned runs,walks,and k’s. Then it factors in the players age and what level they are at. You can find the full explanation here.According to the system, our top ten hitters came out to be-
(Min 120 AB’s)1. Bryan Anderson, C, Johnson City 202.44
2. Jose Martinez, 2B, Johnson City 177.59
3. Colby Rasmus, CF, Johnson City 177.53
4. Cody Haerther, LF, Springfield 152.02
5. Nick Stavinoha, RF, Quad Cities 129.75
6. Chuck Carter, LF, Johnson City 116.62
7. Donovan Solano, SS, Johnson City 112.54
8. Chris Duncan, 1B, Memphis 111.54
9. Chad Gabriel, RF, New Jersey 111.22
10. Tyler Greene, SS, New Jersey 111.00The system doesn’t mean necessarily that the prospect is the best player in the system, it just shows who was producing. Of course 1st round pick Tyler Greene is likely a much better player Chad Gabriel or Chuck Carter. One thing the list does tell you-Bryan Anderson is definetly worth a following.One guy I really like is Stavinoha. I got to watch him when the Swing came into town in August. He stung everything he hit, including a screaming line drive homer over the left field wall.

Another point of interest, Travis Hanson, ranked our 7th best prospect by Baseball America, was only 17th on the list. Highly regarded shortstop Brendan Ryan finished 22nd.Here are the pitchers-
(Minimum 40 IP)
1.

Anthony Reyes, RHP, Memphis 195.40
2. Nick Webber, RHP, New Jersey 172.79
3. Stuart Pomeranz, RHP, Springfield 168.77
4. Adam Wainwright, RHP, Memphis 166.32
5. Phillip Andersen, RHP, Quad Cities 165.40
6. Joshua Wilson, RHP, Johnson City 164.65
7. Zach Zuercher, LHP, New Jersey 157.68
8. Tyler Herron, RHP, Johnson City 155.14
9. Michael Parisi, RHP, Quad Cities 151.95
10. Mark Michael, RHP, Palm Beach 150.79To no suprise, Anthony Reyes tops the list. Nick Webber and Josh Wilson were high draft picks, Webber a college pick and Wilson a high school pick. One guy that I’m keen on is Zach Zuercher, mainly because he’s gotta funky name. He led Rhode Island to finish 1st in the Atlantic 10, k’ing over 11 per 9. Ranking 11th on the list is Chris Lambert and 14th is the fireballing Mark McCormick. These 2 ranked our 4th and 5th best prospects by Baseball America. So it further proves the system is not a perfect judge of talent, but it does show who produced. (Baseball America isn’t a perfect judge of talent, either. Far from it.) Anyway, take them for what you will.If I were to rank the top prospects, just off the hip my top ten would be-

1. Anthony Reyes
2. Cody Haerther
3. Colby Rasmus
4. Stuart Pomeranz
5. Chris Lambert
6. Adam Wainwright
7. Tyler Greene
8. Nick Webber
9. Mark McCormick
10. Brian Anderson

And I’d put Stavinoha right at #11, barely missing the list.