A couple of weeks ago, I broke down the Brewers’ system in the wake of their deal for one Mr. CC Sabathia. I’m hoping to make my way ever so slowly through the entire NL Central in the coming weeks; I thought I would continue on with the other divisional rival to make a big time deal at the trade deadline: the Chicago Cubs. Read the rest of this entry »

Most of you by now have heard that Brett Wallace has been called up to Springfield. Allen Craig hits the DL with lower back pain. Quad Cities is sliding out of the MWL Western Division race, while Springfield was tied for first in the TL North going into tonight, and in need of a powerful bat to replace Craig in the lineup. I think Wallace fits that bill. Yet another aggressive promotion.

Jon Jay also hit the 7 day DL. He’s had a shoulder problem that has dogged him since last year.

Derrick Goold revisits Baseball America’s Top 30 Cardinals, something he was pretty key in putting together and will be again in 2009. He is looking for some feedback, so be sure to drop by and give him your input. I would have to think Brett Wallace, Daryl Jones, Lance Lynn, Nico Vasquez, Fernando Salas, and Francisco Samuel should all have spots and that ranking, and maybe Ryde Rodriguez and Jon Edwards to name a couple more.

BA reports the Cardinals are in the right in the gooey center regarding how much each team spent on signing bonuses for its players selected in the top 10 rounds. They spent $4,893,000. That team across the state unbelievably spent over $10M, which leads the MLB. (Subscription required)

Ramon Delgado was named the NYPL “pitcher of the week”. Reynier Gonzalez received the same honor for the Appy League.

Only one win tonight in the system.

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(Photo credit: Mark Schiefelbein, Springfield News-leader)

I was able to catch up with Springfield 3B and Baseball America’s 15th ranked Cardinal prospect Allen Craig and ask him about hitting, defense, and the importance of winning at the minor league level.

Interview after the jump.

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A couple KLaw links to start off the DFR:

1. Keith breaks down the differences and nuances between major league and minor league deals.
2. He also has some reports for draftniks on the recent Under Armour game.

David Freese makes Kevin Goldstein’s ten pack.

Acquired from San Diego for what turned out to be a month’s worth of Jim Edmonds, Freese was a ninth-round pick in 2006 who was coming off of a solid .302/.400/.489 line at High-A. Scouts had consistently high praise for his bat, but at the same time they wondered what a 24-year-old was doing in the California League, and what that kind of production really proved.

I’ll admit to not getting David Freese. I didn’t see a major league swing while I was in Memphis. He’s hitting for power, average, taking walks . . . and I’m just not on the bandwagon. I wish I had some elaborate, well thought out reason but his numbers look really good especially for a) hitting in a severe pitcher’s park and b) skipping AA. Maybe I need to watch more video.

What am I missing?

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Mitchell Boggs was a football player. Where’s Darin Erstad when you need him? Inside are some comments about Boggs’ offspeed pitches, probably the single most important factor that’s going to determine whether he’s successful as a major league starter.

Tony La Russa, historian:

Perez is the team’s closer of the future, but manager Tony La Russa will not place that label on him. “Historically it’s been proven that that’s the worst thing you can do to a prospect,” La Russa said.

I’m not even sure how you would verify this claim. From now on I’m just going to say, “Historically it’s been proven . . .” before everything I say.

Also, I still have pictures and video from my Memphis trip coming. I hate it when life gets in the way of blogging. Just ain’t right. . .

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The obvious top story tonight was Adam Wainwright making another rehab start. Allen Vaughan of the News-Leader has his take. The talk a few weeks ago was a healthy Wainwright and Carpenter hopefully leading the Cardinals to the playoffs, and while they still might, I would be happy just to see both of them healthy to end the season.

It was a great night on the farm as the teams combine to go 5-1.  Check out all the details after the break.

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As previously rumored, Venezuelan OF Yorman Rodriguez has indeed signed with the Reds. I don’t know what amount he was signed for at the moment. It’s disappointing but I still applaud the Cardinals for opening the wallet to sign Roberto De La Cruz for a team record amount, and on top of that signing Santos Franco and Cesar Valera for large bonuses as well.

Since when do the Reds spend like sailors? First they give Juan Duran two mil. Then today they spend $6.55 mil on Yonder Alonso. Yorman was rumored to be asking $3.3M.  It’s a banner day to be a Reds fan, no matter how bad their team has been this year and how many of their stars they have traded away.

On the positive, there is an off chance the Cards could have an opportunity to draft Aaron Crow or Tanner Scheppers. Neither signed a contract tonight, meaning both will be back in next year’s draft pool. Not sure what the story is on Scheppers’ shoulder, we’ll see.

Jess Todd came in at number ten in Baseball America’s weekly Hot Sheet. He certainly had a good week. He started by throwing seven innings of one hit ball in what turned out being his last start in AA the Friday before, and then allowed one run on four hits in 6.2 innings in his AAA debut Wednesday. It seems his brief hiccup period is over and he’s returned to form. I’m still thinking his K/9 rate is just a tad low but he’s been extremely tough to hit and has demonstrated fantastic control.

With the signing deadline over by the time most of you will have read this, Derrick Goold says there will be no last minute deals for the Cardinals. I am a tad disappointed that the Cardinals will not be signing RHP Brett Bruening or LHP Danny Jimenez, but them’s the brakes. Once again, hats off to the Cardinals for signing their top picks quickly. I’m glad we’re not enduring the soap operas that a lot of team’s fans are.

Still no word on Venezuelan CF Yorman Rodriguez, who I thought turned sixteen 24 hours ago. I don’t know if that means negotiations are ongoing, or what exactly. He’s expected to receive a record bonus, either from the Reds, the Cardinals or maybe a mystery team we haven’t previously heard him tied to before. UPDATE: Yorman is a Red. That’s a punch in the gut. Huge day for the Reds signing Yonder and Yorman. Yargh.

It’s probably about time for a GCL update: Steve Hill, AKA the Nightmare from Nogadoches, is rehabbing with the GCL Cardinals, and swatted three homers in one game on Wednesday. He is 5-for-16 with those three HR and a double. Ryde Rodriguez is hitting .324/.371/.381 but is hitting the ball on the ground over 60% of the time. Anthony Ferrara struggled a bit over his past two starts but overall is doing okay; he has 25 K’s in 23 innings with 11 walks. Eric Fornataro was called up to Johnson City. He had a 1.74 ERA over 31 innings, but has not been missing many bats with only 19 K’s. However, he did happen to strike out five in his last 5 inning outing.

Late inning dramatics for Springfield. For the rest of the field, the name of the game was blow out or get blown out.

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Once again, you’ve probably all heard by now, but I will post the link to Team USA’s 7-0 victory over Netherlands. They play Cuba tonight.

Derrick Goold has some notes about Colby Rasmus‘ rehab and Josh Kinney’s intention to return to the team this season. Goold also posted this article about Rasmus and a whole lot of other minor league related notes.

Kevin Goldstein answered three Cardinals questions in his chat the other day. Since it isn’t a subscription piece, I don’t feel bad giving them to you here in their entirety (although you really should subscribe to BP and visit every day):

KCardinal (KC): With Daryl Jones turning his tools into performance this year, will he make your top 100?

Kevin Goldstein: I’m a big Daryl Jones supporter and he’s got a lot of tools, but Top 100 is pushing it.

MikeJordan23 (Brooklyn): I’ll keep asking until you answer: With Brett Wallace hitting abilities but lack of position should the Cardinals trade him to the AL when he’s eligible or find him a new position? And thoughts on Niko Vasquez?

Kevin Goldstein: Stop asking! You don’t really worry about any sort of logjam until you are forced to. The Cardinals right now have a valuable commodity in their minor league system, but there is no reason to start making any decisions on it. Thoughts on Vasquez? I’m a big, big fan.

Jason Motte (Memphis): Would my one-pitch repetoire hold up in the Majors right now?

Kevin Goldstein: Seriously, what’s up with all the Jason Motte questions? Is there a fan club or something? I love the guy, gotta give it up for any converted catcher who has 97 whiffs in 58.2 innings at Triple-A. That said, I think he’d get righties out right now, but his arm angle and lack of secondary stuff would give him trouble against lefties.

Action all over the system (and the globe) - all the details are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Around this time last year we were lamenting the Cardinals not signing 4th round pick Kyle Russell. You all know the story by now: Russell demanded a first round type of bonus. The Cardinals wouldn’t pay it. Russell went back to Texas and was unable to duplicate his insanely successful 2007 season, a season where he hit .336/.456/.807. This year he ended up being drafted by the Dodgers just one round higher and settled for a $410,000 bonus. I’m sure he has to be kicking himself because while the Cards were unwilling to give him a seven-figure bonus, I would at least hope that they would’ve paid him more than $400K. But so far, so good for Russell and the Dodgers, he’s hitting .302/.402/.537 for in the Pioneer league in 153 at bats. He’s also still the Russell we know with 53 punch-outs.

Mike Stutes was another one that got away. Stutes was drafted in the 9th round but opted to go back to Oregon State. Like Russell he regressed the following year and probably regretted his decision to go back to school. OSU had a rough season and Stutes had his worst season by far as a Beaver. He fell to the 11th round and was taken by the Phillies. Stutes has been dominant so far in the Phillies organization. He’s been pitched at two levels of A ball, and in his last two Sally League starts he has gone 7 full innings and has 18 K’s and no earned runs. In 53 total pro innings, Stutes has 61 K’s in 53 innings and has allowed only 5 earned runs.

So that brings me to this. The signing deadline is less then two days away and the Cardinals still have some unsigned picks out there. The Cardinals have done an excellent job this year getting their players signed and on the field. None of their top 10 picks have gone unsigned. The highest unsigned pick is senior Mitch Harris, who unfortunately for the Cardinals at least will have to continue on active duty with the Navy. Reading Derrick Goold’s latest blog entry, it sounds like the Cardinals still hope to work something out. As a senior, the deadline doesn’t apply to him.

Here’s a listing of the remaining unsigned picks:

13 395 Mitch Harris RHP
30 905 Brett Bruening RHP
31 935 Justin Leith LHP
35 1055 Shane Boras 2B
37 1115 Danny Jimenez LHP
45 1354 Chris Taylor C
46 1382 Brandon Sizemore 2B
47 1409 Ray Asaro OF
50 1490 Danny Miranda LHP

• 19 year old Brett Bruening had a rough season for Grand Junction CC but has a lot of characteristics scouts look for. He has a nice projectable frame at 6-6. He throws a fastball, sinker, changeup and a slider and uses a high leg kick which creates some deception. He fell to the 30th round because of some questions about his signability and probably because he just didn’t perform all that well against JUCO competition. I would not expect that he will sign but haven’t heard either way what his plans are.
• Justin Leith has elected to go to Florida International. He’s a high school lefty who throws in the high eighties and has a good changeup.
• Shane Boras is uber-agent Scott Boras’s son. And I’m sure dad “advised” his son to go to college. He’ll be a USC Trojan.
• LHP Danny Jimenez is from St. Charles North in IL. BA considered him to be the 2nd best high school pitching prospect in the state. He’s a big guy at 6-4, 205 lbs. and also played basketball. He was considered to be signable but apparently he’ll be attending Logan Junior College.
• C Chris Taylor. A senior who is taking his sweet time to sign.  He hit .349/.439/.660 with 19 homers for the season and was the Atlantic 10 co-player of the year.
• IF Brandon Sizemore is another senior. He was an excellent hitter in college, posting a .325/.388/.675 line his senior season, showing he has some raw power but his strike zone judgment isn’t great. I’m not sure what is keeping the two seniors from signing; maybe they have some job offers that were too good to pass up. I dunno. Last year Nick Peoples signed late, so you never know.
• OF Tony Asaro was a teammate of Scott Gorgen’s at UC Irvine. He hit .314/.374/.539 for the Anteaters but struggled to hit with wood in the Alaskan League. Looks like he’ll be back for his senior year.
• Danny Miranda is another HS lefty. He committed to U of Miami.

All in all, bravo to the Luhnow and the Cards for the job they have done in getting their signed relatively quickly. There’s always going to be a few that get away in every draft but it’s great that we’re not having to deal with some of the drama that other teams are going through right now.

There is one deadline that I am anxiously awaiting-Top Venezuelan prospect Yorman Rodriguez turns 16 tomorrow. What team he signed with could be announced around midnight tonight, and last we heard the Cards are in the running.