Farm Watch -- The Ankiel On Pace for 54 HR/162 RBI!!! Thread

[bigboy1234]

Ankiel is pretty good defensively, and as we all know he has a pretty good arm out there. The reason Ankiel isn't getting the call out are a few reasons: 1) he has no options left, so if he struggles we would have to send him back down to the minors through the waiver process in which another team would without a doubt pick him up, 2) Ankiel isn't as a complete hitter as Shumaker and John Rodriguez, 3) Ankiel's on base percentage is horrible and once he gets to the bigs it will be even worse, 4) he has terrible plate discipline as of now, I think the Cards are doing the right thing by letting him mature as a hitter right now.

[mizzoupacers]

Three hits last night for Jarrett Hoffpauir at Memphis. He's gotten off to a fast start in Triple A, after doing well in half a season at Double A Springfield. Rapidly progressing through the farm system. And the Cardinals could sure use a good young second baseman. Verrrrry interesting.

http://firstinning.com/players/Jarrett-Hoffpauir-a

Also, Chris Narveson appears to be rehabbing at Palm Beach. His third game back was last night, and he went 5 innings and gave up 1 run. Other than Reyes, he is about the only hope of immediate starting pitching help in our system. Anyone know anything more about how Narveson is coming along?

[bigboy1234]

Our top pitching prospect, Jamie Garcia, has been shutdown for at least a couple weeks with pains in his pitching elbow.

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... -1/BLOGS01

[mizzoupacers]

Rick Ankiel hit his 29th home run yesterday. In 90 games played. That's almost a home run once every three games, on pace for 50+ HR for the season (assuming he could stay healthy enough to play more than 150 games).

I know his walk total is a joke and his OBP would probably be even worse in the majors, but I also look at his age and wonder if we can afford to let him stay in the minors much longer.

I lean toward thinking that somehow, some way, we need to call up Ankiel next year, find him regular playing time, and see what he can do. If he's as talented as people say, let him learn what he still needs to learn by facing real pitchers; maybe he'd even learn faster if he is forced to adapt to more skilled opponents. I'd hate to think the Cardinals would let the likes of Juan Encarnacion and the Ghost of Jim Edmonds block the development of a potential 30-HR guy with a cannon for an arm.

[pacerfan]

Nice article on Ankiel on the Post-Dispatch's Web site today.

link

Thanks for the hook up. Really wonderful article. I am pulling for Ankiel to land in the Cardinals outfield on a regular basis. That would make what is already a good story, a terrific story.

[bigboy1234]

Now that the Mexican League's season is over, the mystery man, Marti will get a shot at AA Springfield.

Chris Perez got promoted to AAA, and he may get a shot at a september callup.

[mizzoupacers]

And Marti homers and doubles in his Springfield debut. I don't care if he is 52 years old, I like him. He rode to the U.S. on the back of a shark, then ate the shark in one sitting and now wears its teeth for a necklace.

Rasmus went deep TWICE. Maybe he will break out of his slump and go on a tear for the rest of the season.

Sounds like an exciting day for the Cards' farm system. If Springfield's 12-8 win wasn't enough fireworks, then you've got Memphis beating Tacoma 16-13. Tacoma scored 10 runs in the second inning, and still lost! Ankiel had three hits, and Tagg Bozied had two HRs. Bozied has been some kinda hot lately. Too bad he is completely irrelevant; St. Louis already has a first baseman who is pretty good. Perez threw eight straight balls to start his Memphis debut, then settled down and closed out the ninth. Hawksworth was the guy getting torched for that ten-run inning. I don't know about him; he's been pretty awful for most of this season. Tacoma's starter was the late Memphis Redbirds great Tomo Ohka, he went five and a third and gave up eight runs. Which still rates him ahead of Mike Maroth on the 2007 list of Cardinals starting pitcher reclamation projects.

[mizzoupacers]

No Kyle Russell signing.

OK, I don't know how much he was asking for, and he had a ton of leverage since he only just finished his sophomore year of college. But geez, I'd like to know what the Cardinals are saving all their money for. I hope it's someone really good, because the NL Central can't possibly continue to stink this bad for too much longer, and that's the only thing keeping us afloat these days.

[bigboy1234]

He was asking for 1.5M and of course the Cards wouldn't give it to them because there stupid, it's more fun to give that money to Aaron Miles.

[bigboy1234]

God, Rasmus has been absolutely killing it lately. Tonight he finished off going 4-5 with a double and a homerun and a walk. The Cardinals have already said he's finishing the season in AA no matter what. Hopefully he starts off hot next year in AAA, and comes in and has a Braun-esque impact.

From the 2007 draft, Clayton Mortensen and Deryk/James Hooker have been impressive as hell. Also to go with those 2 Jess Todd and Steven Hill (1B) have been very impressive.

[mizzoupacers]

He was asking for 1.5M and of course the Cards wouldn't give it to them because there stupid, it's more fun to give that money to Miguel Cairo.

Fixed.

link



Nice to see Rasmus has it going again. He's been really hot and cold this season, maybe due to health issues. Like everyone I'm hoping he will turn out to be the real thing; a future outfield of Duncan/Rasmus/Ankiel just might produce a few home runs.

[Basketball Jesus]

Eddie! Ed-die! Eeeeeeddddiiiieeeeee!

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news ... &fext=.jsp


Enjoy it, boyos. This is probably as good as it gets for Rice pitchers.

[bigboy1234]

^Bout time, he was disappointing in High A for a little while there after absolutely killing Low A ball.

[bigboy1234]

Well with his HR tonight Rasmus now has a OPS over 1.400 in August. His overall OPS should be around .925 at the end of the night unless he hits another.

[mizzoupacers]

I guess Colby Rasmus has decided his day is not complete any more without a home run. Another one last night, and it seems like he's homered in every game for the last week. He's up to 27 on the season.

Rasmus won't be a September callup, but I hope that Amaury Marti is. He is hitting .321 at Springfield, with a slugging pct. of .595. I want to see the Mystery Man in St. Louis!!! The guy is 52 years old, we better move fast with him if he's going to have a career in the bigs.

[chatard5]

I am a huge Cards fan, but I live in Indy now, so I don't get to hear all the scoop. What's the deal with Mulder? I bought MLBTV for the rest of the Cards game, but that's pretty much all I get next to SportsCenter. I kept teling all my friends that the Cards would come back, and everyday it looks like they just might! Go RedBirds!

[SportsWorld]

I am a huge Cards fan, but I live in Indy now, so I don't get to hear all the scoop. What's the deal with Mulder? I bought MLBTV for the rest of the Cards game, but that's pretty much all I get next to SportsCenter. I kept teling all my friends that the Cards would come back, and everyday it looks like they just might! Go RedBirds!

Did you go to the final game of the World Series last year?

[bigboy1234]

Rasmus for the Hall of Fame? Jesus this kid is sick, another homer tonight, 4 straight games with a homer, 7 in the last 10 games, and 12 this month, so sick.

I can't help but mention if Colby didn't get the sinus infection and lost 10 pounds while still playing his numbers would be off the charts and he may have been in bigs tearing it up by now.

Colby is also going to the AFL this season so he may even be ready to start next season, but I would hope the Cards put him in AAA for at least a couple months. Also going to the AFL from the organization is Mather, Hoffpauir, Boggs, Pomeranz, Motte, and Perez.

Also, I believe Mulder is suppose to make a start in AAA soon if I heard correctly, then should be up with the Cardinals in early September, please don't rush him Cards.

[mizzoupacers]

August has been a very good year for Colby!

I read that Mulder is supposed to pitch for Memphis on Friday. I think it will be his third rehab game. My guess is he'll get at least one more after Friday's before he rejoins the team.

Who do you think the Cardinals will call up in September? Besides Mulder, I think we can pretty much count on seeing Schumaker, Cairo, Kelly Stinnett, and Brad Thompson again. Probably Todd Wellemeyer too, assuming he is healthy enough. Maybe Maroth. Who else? Maybe Tagg Bozied? The guy has 24 HR and a slugging pct. over .500, and Pujols is looking pretty gimpy (although if Albert ever gets a day off, probably we'd just play Duncan at first). Maybe Troy Cate? (although he has been struggling).

I'm not sure anyone else is really a possibility...I doubt we bring anyone up from Springfield (much as I'd like to see them do it with Marti). So in all, not a very exciting group (except for Mulder). But partly that's because we've already brought up Ankiel, Ryan, and Ludwick. With those three alone, the farm system has produced far more immediate help this year than probably anyone expected.

[bigboy1234]

I have no idea who they would bring up, it would be great if they brought up Marti though, but theres no chance in hell for that to happen.

Also the bust that is Chris Lambert is the one who will be sent to Detroit for the Maroth trade.