think anthony reyes wants the hell out of triple a? he threw 8 shutout innings last night vs tacoma -- 3 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts; also hit a batter. he induced a whopping 21 swinging strikes -- a months' worth for some of the st louis starters. of the 105 pitches anthony threw, 77 were for strikes. but hold on: he only got 5 groundball outs, vs 11 fly balls. . . .
. . . . ah, hell. kid's got no future.
reyes' next start will likely be for the cardinals, day after memorial day, in what would normally be chris carpenter's turn. no official word on carp yet, but given the team's very careful approach with the #5 starter (ponson) when he had a little owie, i would be shocked (and disgusted) if they were to needlessly rush the ace back into the rotation. carpenter has had back pain on and off since last september; let him take three weeks off if he has to. perfect excuse to give reyes some innings and see what he can do.
reyes' performance was just one of four gems in the system last night, as the farmhands allowed just 3 runs in 36 innings. at double a, jordan pals and cory doyne combined to hold frisco to 1 run in springfield's 10-1 rout; at high a, mark michael threw a 2-hit complete game for palm beach.
but the really intriguing performance took place at quad cities, where a left-handed pitcher named jaime garcia shut out cedar rapids for 8 innings to earn a 1-0 victory. . i never heard of this guy until mikedallas23 mentioned garcia in a recent diary about the farm system. kid is only 20 years old, drafted last year in the 22d round but couldn't play for lack of a work visa -- he's a mexican citizen who only became eligible for the draft because he played high school ball in texas.
in april, his first month in professional baseball, garcia was named the organization's pitcher of the month. last night he beat a top-100 prospect named nick adenhart, who came into the game with a 7-0 record and a 1.56 era. garcia's season line now reads:
55.1 ip, 45 h, 14 w, 59 k, 0 hr, 2.28 era, 3-3 record
note the 0 hr -- opposing hitters are slugging below .300 against garcia this season. and he's the type of young pitcher even la russa and duncan can love, a groundball guy -- g/f ratio is right about 2.00. (data courtesy jeff sackmann's Minor League Splits Database.) another couple of good starts and he's a candidate to move up to high a. definitely somebody worth keeping an eye on.
derrick goold has a post about last night's four aces at his birdland blog today; also an article in the regular paper about minor-league starting pitchers whose future with the cardinals (if any) may lie in the bullpen. matt leach checks in with one guy who trod that path to the majors -- adam wainwright -- and finds him relaxed and happy in the bullpen.
read elsewhere: baseball analysts dh ross roley thinks baseball should start using instant replay, and he uses the don denkinger miscall as a case study. . . . . would-be cardinal reliever jeff nelson has resurfaced with the white sox . . . . last year's cardinals were the 2d-best small-ball team in the national league, behind the marlins.