I can't stand any St. Louis management from the coach on up but I am enjoying this streak we are on. The Cards have no reason not to win this division or get into the WC. [Reply]
Reports are coming out that Angel Hernandez's retirement came out from a meeting with top MLB officials. Officials were questioning Hernandez's ability to see and comprehend correctly.
Angel got so worked up that he stormed out and slammed the door behind himself. It took Angel 10 minutes to realize he was in the closet...His announcement of retirement came soon after.:-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marco Polo:
I can't stand any St. Louis management from the coach on up but I am enjoying this streak we are on. The Cards have no reason not to win this division or get into the WC.
Butters is going to be jerking this team off even harder [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Guys that come straight over the top just don't exist anymore. And he looks like a bit of a drop and drive guy to boot (which is odd for a tallish RHer).
Yeah - there's just a lot of weird going on there. The stuff isn't exactly premier, it's just bizarre. Wonder how he'll progress as guys see him more.
I can't identify the first pitch. 2nd looks like a cutter (almost positive), 3rd a slider but it's moving pretty good - may have just overcooked the cutter a bit but I think that's probably a slider. And they'll all behave differently from that arm slot. First almost looks like a curve that backed up on him? Makes it look like a screwball but I think that's just a waaaaaay overhand curveball.
I guess it is a screwball.
You may be familiar with the screwball of @Cardinals Italian pitching prospect Ettore Giulianelli by now.
And you may not be surprised to know that he has registered a 69% whiff rate with it this year.
Man - it sure looks like he's pulling down on the right side of the ball, though. That's not a screwball. A true screwball turns your wrist inside; like turning a doorknob counterclockwise.
I can't pick it up perfectly because the resolution isn't sharp enough, but I swear as I frame by frame those, his fingers are pointing inside as he's coming over the top and then he releases straight down - that's just an overhand curve from a really severe angle that makes it dive down and in instead of down and away as it would from a 3/4 slot.
Wainwright's dropped straight down because he came pretty over the top. This kid gets his arm even further over his body and past the centerline, so it makes it dive towards a RH batter.
I just don't see anything to suggest that's a true screwball. With that arm angle, you'd see more armside run if it were.
When you look at it from the camera angle directly behind the mound, it's not running armside much. Its shape is exactly like a curveball just on a tilt. [Reply]
The Cardinals take a first baseman at the seventh overall pick in Baseball America's latest mock draft.
7. Cardinals — Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
I realize that I’ve now had Kurtz mocked to the Cardinals in each of the three in-season mock drafts I’ve done this year. Please don’t confuse that with some extreme confidence that I know Kurtz is their guy if he’s available. I don’t. But I do think they’d be excited about his fantastic lefthanded swing, raw power, batting eye and consistent top-end college production. He’s a career .313/.512/.732 hitter with Wake Forest with 61 home runs, a 16.4% strikeout rate and an absurd 24.1% walk rate.
It feels like Kurtz’ hitting chops are simply too good to fall this far in the draft, but someone has to. Unlike all the players in front of this pick—sans Cags—he is likely limited to first base. The track record for college first baseman in the first round isn’t great. Perhaps that and his injury history are enough to push him down into this range. [Reply]
7. Cardinals: Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas (No. 6)
Smith, currently holding an NCAA Division I record 17.5 K/9 rate, is the other college arm who could break into the group of top 5 college bats, so it shouldn’t shock anyone if he goes earlier than this. [Reply]
Thanks for sharing. I have to admit that unlike the NFL draft, I have no clue on the MLB draft so have to rely on analysis to tell me whether to like a pick or not. :-) [Reply]
7. St. Louis Cardinals
J.J. Wetherholt, SS, West Virginia
If you grade out Wetherholt vs. Bazzana, their tools aren't that different. Bazzana has had a spring for the ages, and Wetherholt missed much of West Virginia's season with a hamstring issue, but there are teams that think Wetherholt is the better option when you factor in the likely bonus price. There's a lot of buzz that Rainer is the leading option here; he just doesn't really fit with the Cardinals' draft history, so I couldn't project him with Wetherholt on the board. Montgomery also has been tied to the Cardinals. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
The Cardinals take a first baseman at the seventh overall pick in Baseball America's latest mock draft.
7. Cardinals — Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
I realize that I’ve now had Kurtz mocked to the Cardinals in each of the three in-season mock drafts I’ve done this year. Please don’t confuse that with some extreme confidence that I know Kurtz is their guy if he’s available. I don’t. But I do think they’d be excited about his fantastic lefthanded swing, raw power, batting eye and consistent top-end college production. He’s a career .313/.512/.732 hitter with Wake Forest with 61 home runs, a 16.4% strikeout rate and an absurd 24.1% walk rate.
It feels like Kurtz’ hitting chops are simply too good to fall this far in the draft, but someone has to. Unlike all the players in front of this pick—sans Cags—he is likely limited to first base. The track record for college first baseman in the first round isn’t great. Perhaps that and his injury history are enough to push him down into this range.
Bat only 1b don't often go top 5 in the draft so it's not impossible that Kurtz could fall that far.
I wonder how we'd manage to fuck him up.
Because god knows we will.
Y'all see that Jack Flaherty has a 3.46 ERA, WHIP of 1.00 and 90 strikeouts in 67 IP?
Every single person that leaves this organization gets better. The Cardinals make everything they touch worse. And by a LOT. You guys see that Jordan Hicks has accumulated 1.4 WAR in his 58 innings for the Giants? Guy totaled 1.2 WAR in FIVE YEARS in St. Louis.
This team turns everything they're involved with to shit. It's not just outfielders - it's pitchers, its infielders. Everyone. This organization doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground. [Reply]
7. Cardinals: Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas (No. 6)
Smith, currently holding an NCAA Division I record 17.5 K/9 rate, is the other college arm who could break into the group of top 5 college bats, so it shouldn’t shock anyone if he goes earlier than this.
There's a Cardinals pick. An advanced college arm? Lefty to boot? Oh yeah, Mozeliak will nut over that possibility.
He'll be spinning 4.35 ERAs in Springfield for us about 4 years from now. It'll be awesome. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Bat only 1b don't often go top 5 in the draft so it's not impossible that Kurtz could fall that far.
I wonder how we'd manage to **** him up.
Because god knows we will.
You better really believe in his bat if you take a 1B that high. He better be Mark Teixeira.
Spencer Torkelson and Andrew Vaughn, I can't imagine the Tigers and White Sox are loving those picks right now. And then there's the Pavin Smith/Evan White sort of college 1B that are Triple-A filler. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut: There's a Cardinals pick. An advanced college arm? Lefty to boot? Oh yeah, Mozeliak will nut over that possibility.
He'll be spinning 4.35 ERAs in Springfield for us about 4 years from now. It'll be awesome.
Speaking of Springfield, the Cardinals have kept their prospects there for a couple seasons now. When guys become household names in Springfield just for being there long isn't a good sign. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Ocotillo:
You better really believe in his bat if you take a 1B that high. He better be Mark Teixeira.
Spencer Torkelson and Andrew Vaughn, I can't imagine the Tigers and White Sox are loving those picks right now. And then there's the Pavin Smith/Evan White sort of college 1B that are Triple-A filler.
Yeah, it's failed more often than it hasn't.
But at this point I don't give a damn about gloves or speed. Give me someone that can be a plus plus hitter. If we go draft a guy expecting him to be a premier defender and average hitter, that's, what, Victor Scott's hopeful arc?
That doesn't get them closer to being genuinely good. It just raises their floor a bit.
So I don't really care that much about him being a bat only prospect. Because a polished power bat is what this franchise needs more than anything. [Reply]
