Down On The Farm. With Bo.

We get email at Cards Diaspora. 

Most of the time it’s cut rate Cialis offers for Fresh WC. But we get email.

Every now and again, we get some good email. And today happened to be one of those days. Friend of the site Bo sent over his farm report culled from several sources and complied here for your enjoyment. So in lieu of actually coming up with something for ourselves, we’re going to rip it off and post it here, give it a little graphic, and not compensate him at all. He lives in Denver, anyway. So what can he do.

With Zack Cox shipped out, I was curious what the Cards had left to work with at 3B – considering 3 of their top 6 picks in this past draft played the position. Here’s an update on some Cards draft picks from 2012.

RHP, Michael Wacha. Enough has been written about this kid’s 5K performance the other day with Cards’ scouting director, Dan Kantrovitz, tweeting that his fastball sat at 95 mph and touched 97. Mozeiak was on hand too.

OF, James Ramsey, the Florida State version of Tim Tebow, was the Cardinals 1st round pick, 23rd overall. Many considered this selection a reach and thought the Cards could have nabbed him at 36th overall. But Ramsey signed below slot and maybe that was the plan with the new CBA rules in place, which fine teams for over-spending on draft picks. Ramsey hit .364 his senior year and drove in 67 in 65 games. He made the jump directly to the Cards’ High-A affiliate in Palm Beach. In 27 games there he is hitting .266 with 9 RBI and 35 Ks.

3B, Steven Piscotty, selected in the supplemental round, with pick number 36, started off up at Quad Cities, the Cards’ class-A affiliate. The 3B prospect has appeared in 25 games with 1 HR and 11 RBI while posting a .309 average and a .387 OBP. Piscotty played at Stanford with infamous Pirates first-round selection Mark Appel who elected not to sign and return for his final year in school. A curious play at 3B, Piscotty only hit 12 HRs in 172 career games at Stanford. He did post a .340 career average and 132 career RBI, but he has a distinct lack of power for a position you’d typically expect more from.

3B, Patrick Wisdom, the Cards’ supplemental round pick, number 52 overall out of St. Mary’s in California, has batted .277 in 35 games at the hot corner in Batavia. So far, 3 HRs, 15 RBI.  But he has shown some patience at the plate for a 20 year old taking his first professional cuts. He has drawn a team-high 17 BBs vs. 23 Ks to give him a .371 OBP.

C, Steve Bean was the Cards’ supplemental round selection at #59 overall, out of Rockwell HS, Texas. He was a “premier North Texas catching prospect with a solid bat and outstanding arm.” He got off to a rough start at Johnson City, batting only .125 in 24 games with 1 HR and 5 RBI. He’s since been moved down to the Cards’ Gulf Coast League affiliate where he has appeared in 2 games, collecting 1 hit in 8 ABs for a, you guessed it, .125 BA. But keep in mind, Mr. Bean is still shy of his 19th birthday.

3B, Carson Kelly, out of Westview High School, Oregon, was selected in the 2nd round, 86th overall. It took nearly triple slot value to pry him away from the Univ. of Oregon – Kelly signed for $1.6m. Only a couple weeks past his 18th birthday, the 6’2″ 200 lb Kelly has already belted 7 HRs in 32 games at Johnson City. However, he is only batting .240 with 5 BBs for a .275 OBP. Give this kid some time and we could see big things out of him.

A couple late rounders having noteworthy starts:

Tulane catcher Jeremy Schaffer was taken in the 18th round 570th overall. Cards moved him to 1B. He finished his senior year at Tulane so he’ll already turn 23 next January.  In 35 games at Johnson City he’s hit 6 HRs and collected 31 RBI while posting a .299 average. He has K’d 26 times however to only 6 BBs.

RHP Mariano Dixon Llorens out of Miami Dade CC South was taken in the 25th round 780th overall. This 19-year-old right-hander impressed down in Johnson City. He appeared out of the bullpen 8 times, collecting 2 saves and did not allow a run. In 15.2 innings he struck out 28 batters and walked only 6. But Llorens was moved up to Quad Cities and his first appearance, August 1, was ugly. He came on in the 9th to protect a 10-8 lead. The result? 1.0 IP, 2 2Bs, 1 HRs, 3 ERs, 27.00 ERA, and an 11-10 loss. 

Thanks again, Bo. 738 words. Not a single fact we checked. Hopefully you weren’t making this up.