I’m hard at work on my own (several days late) top seven prospects, because it’s what all the cool kids are doing, but in the interest of breaking up my usual two month gap between posts: a roundup.
Over at Future Redbirds Erik brings a new Cardinal signing to our attention. Is it a raw burner from the Dominican? Well, no. A whirling Japanese pitching prospect? Whoa, whoa, closer, but too organized. Step back a little.
Is it 24-year-old Frontier Leaguer pitcher Ryan Bird, the 2008 Brian Tollberg award winner? It certainly is. This is not a signing to get excited about, but if any team is aware of the value of indie leaguers it’s the one who discovered the namesake of the Frontier League’s Jason Simontacchi Rookie of the Year award. For what it’s worth, then, Ryan Bird just got finished tearing the Frontier League in two. Here’s his numbers, compared with Simontacchi’s way back in 1999:
AGE GS IP K BB HR K/9 K:BB
SIMO-MAN 24 16 110 92 21 14 7.53 4.38
BIRD-MAN 24 20 123 152 45 4 11.10 3.38
Even in the bush leagues Simontacchi was primarily a control pitcher. It’s a pitcher’s league, but Bird was simply way too good for the Frontier League this year, right down to the Maddux-ian home run rate. It’ll be interesting to see what overpowering unaffiliated ballplayers translates to in, say, AA. Over at FR Erik has excerpted a scouting report that mentions a 90 mph fastball, so at least this might be more interesting than the Trey Hearne experience. Also, if I may hazard a guess: between not allowing any home runs and the interest the Cardinals have shown in him, I’m willing to guess that Mr. Bird is something of a ground-ball pitcher. Dave Duncan take heart.
At Fungoes Pip exposes the flaws of the thirty-blown-save trope. I’ll admit it: I’ve more or less taken this broadcast meme at face value over the course of the season, mainly to make myself feel better about the way that La Russa and the Cardinals somehow seemed to assume going in that Ryan Franklin would continue to maintain a 4:1 K:BB ratio, but Pip’s determined that the issue comes down to the Cardinals’ early leads and extreme reliever substitution.
Finally, I got an e-mail from Alex at Baseball-Intellect letting me know that he’s done a breakdown of Cardinals draftee Nico Vasquez’s swing. One of my favorite internet baseball developments since I started and immediately began neglecting this blog has been the explosion of video analysis. The elevation of baseball discussion has been great, too, but starting with Carlos Gomez’s pitching work the internet baseball community has really broken new ground. Who would’ve thought, even three or four years ago, that we’d be breaking down a recent draftee’s swing on independent websites like this?
As for Vasquez himself, I haven’t been talking him up as much as Erik and co. but suffice it to say that I am very excited. As someone who’s watched the last several Cardinals teams in great quantities I think I’m just about ready for an offensive presence in the middle infield. Or even just someone standing in the middle infield. Do we even play anybody there right now?
