Since the end of the regular season, I collected a series of links to stories with and/or about St. Louis Cardinals minor league players. The only common thread is that the articles usually originated from the player’s home paper, though I slipped in a few other interesting links as well.
They are provided without further introduction.
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/11/23/2997682/major-talent.html
http://rumbunter.com/2011/11/30/the-impact-1b-the-pittsburgh-pirates-need-was-ohhh-so-close/
Nick Martini
http://crystallake.patch.com/articles/prairie-ridge-grad-adjusting-to-life-in-pro-baseball
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/21/fick-to-represent-his-country-in-baseball/
Nick Gillung
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110922/BASEBALL03/309229906/-1/SPORTS1001
John Sickels on C.J. McElroy
Bonus: Matt Holliday’s hometown paper in Stillwater, OK caught up with him following the World Series.
Late addition: Skip Schumaker and Nick Punto attended a baseball conference near their Southern California homes.
http://missionviejo.patch.com/articles/world-series-champion-st-louis-cardinals-in-mission-viejo
Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Follow TCN on Google+.
Appreciate the articles. Only read Adams so far. I’ve been following his career because I remembered being impressed seeing him in a college summer league game.
You are welcome. I added a brief Skip/Punto article I saw this morning. Over on the main site, our annual top 40 prospect countdown begins on Monday. Have been busy pulling that together. Since we start at #40 and work our way down, it will be at least a month until Adams will make his appearance. Not surprisingly after the season he put together, Adams will be one of the biggest risers over last year.
Liked the link to LHP Nick Gillung, 19th rounder out of Mercyhurst College. This is a 4 year Catholic college up in the snow belt, Erie, PA. It takes kids from the Cleveland and Pennsylvania talent pools.
Mercyhurst has become an NCAA division 2 power, winning 42 games last year.
Gillung struck out 102 batters in 69 innings, impressive. Then he followed up and pitched well for Johnson City. This is not surprising, given how well he did in college ball.
Gillung seems like a smart draft pick by the Cards. Slugger Matt Adams was found even a few rounds lower in the draft, at Slippery Rock, also northwest Pennsylvania.
Nick Martini is another link. Martini played very well for Kansas State, becoming a 7th rounder, but then hit .169 for Batavia. This is a low average.
Is his situation hopeless? Not necessarily. Back in 2007, Antonio DeJesus, also a left swinging CF, from the Univ. of Kentucky, hit .186 when he began pro ball at Batavia. However just the next year, 2008, DeJesus hit .278, two rung higher up, at Palm Beach. DeJesus then became a 4th outfielder for Springfield for a couple of years. Not a bad minor league experience, DeJesus contributed for a few years helpfully.
Martini’s .169 is not necessarily a killer beginning. Lots of college players do not excel when introduced to pro ball in the NYPa league. We will see how Martini does at the A level in 2012. Since he excelled at Kansas State, he could improve.
A different comp for a hitter who struggles at Batavia. 1B Xavier Scruggs began pro ball at Batavia in 2008, after UNevada-LV. Scruggs averaged .219 with Ks. He had to stay at Batavia for 2009, until roster room could be found for him at the A level. The same kind of thing could happen with Martini in 2012. He might have to remain in Extended Spring Training and return to Batavia to demonstrate he is ready to step up to A level competition.
By the time Adams shows up for spring training he will know if he is going to be switched to a corner outfield spot. Would he learn a new position at AAA, or drop down for a little while?
I suspect it will be “tried” to start, not “switched”. They will have a month in spring training to see what they have. I would be very surprised if he does not begin the season with Memphis, wherever he plays in the field.
Yesterday was the deadline for players to accept arb and I can’t find a list of players who accepted. Any help? I was especially interested in Brewer’s Rodriguez.
Your date is off by a week.
Just testing you. Good job.
The market for closers is supposed to be a good buyers market, I hear, with more job seekers than jobs. So it wouldn’t be that surprising if Boras has Rodriguez accept the Brewers arb offer. That would put them in a pickle since Axford is their closer and they don’t need a $12M set up guy. The hope being that come March when the Brewers cut him to save the money, the market may look a lot better, with injuries and such. I assume Boris will find out if there is a multi-year $9-10M per deal out there next week at the GM meeting.
Rodriguez will likely get more than that in arbitration.
No arguement because I don’t know. Just using ballpark numbers to put forward the train of thought.
Carp and Holliday Brazil trip.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/deb-peterson/the-future-for-chris-carpenter-and-matt-holliday-sun-fish/article_05019f8e-1c68-11e1-871d-0019bb30f31a.html
I think that is the trip with Roy Halladay that was talked about during the NLDS.
haladay…not holiday
It’s both. Matt Holliday and Roy Halladay are going on the trip with Carpenter.
They are coming to visit me
Hope Carp doesn’t get caught by customs – $3000 is the limit of equipment he can bring into the country.