Derrick Goold wrote:According to his original rehab schedule, Cardinals outfielder Juan Encarnacion was to have played his first games of the spring this past weekend. Instead, he met with team medical supervisor George Paletta to explore why he continues to feel pain in his surgically repaired wrist.
Paletta examined Encarnacion on Saturday and said there is a buildup of scar tissue in the outfielder's left wrist that is pinching when he swings at an inside pitch.
"He is behind a little bit from where we would like him ideally," Paletta said. "We'd like to get him in a game before we exit here. I hope we can get him some at-bats in the last week."
Encarnacion had a tendon repaired and its sheath tightened to prevent the slipping that caused him trouble last season. He has taken several days of live batting practice but said he'd like to work with a pitching machine to get comfortable on checked swings and inside pitches.
Closer Jason Isringhausen pitched a perfect first inning in his second game appearance of the spring, getting two groundouts and striking out Carlos Beltran to open Sunday's game against the Mets. Isringhausen threw 15 pitches, nine of which were strikes — one of which was a backdoor cutter that veered over the plate to freeze Beltran for strike three.
"I want to fine-tune everything before we get out of here and then go into the season knowing what my strengths are," he said.
Isringhausen will pitch Wednesday; then he would like to throw Friday and get in back-to-back games sometime in the final week of spring training.
The Cardinals made five cuts Sunday, including outfielder Rick Ankiel. He drove in the winning run with a broken-bat sacrifice fly after starting his day going two for three with a two doubles for Class AAA Memphis. He'll join the team permanently today.
Others optioned or reassigned to Memphis were lefty Randy Keisler, righthander Andy Cavazos and outfielders Ryan Ludwick and Miguel Negron.
RC21 wrote:That's a shame for Ludwick. He was lighting it up.
The AAA team should be good this year, though. It has a higher-than-normal amount of quad-A guys. Or at least it seems that way.
It seems that the last couple of years due to the lack of prospects have been a Quad-A haven. I mean its not the worst strategy because if someone gets hurt at the Major League level they can step in and provide replacement level play for a little while. Plus its not like they are taking playing time away from other prospects because the Cards dont have any prospects at that level. More and more across the majors players are making the Double A to Majors jump, so AAA has become a forgotten level.
RC21 wrote:That's a shame for Ludwick. He was lighting it up.
The AAA team should be good this year, though. It has a higher-than-normal amount of quad-A guys. Or at least it seems that way.
It seems that the last couple of years due to the lack of prospects have been a Quad-A haven. I mean its not the worst strategy because if someone gets hurt at the Major League level they can step in and provide replacement level play for a little while. Plus its not like they are taking playing time away from other prospects because the Cards dont have any prospects at that level. More and more across the majors players are making the Double A to Majors jump, so AAA has become a forgotten level.
It's been that way for a while with most teams, regardless of minor league talent level in the organization. AA is where the real prospects are. AAA is the testing ground for them to prove that they can do it against seasoned once-major leaguers. Think of the way Danny Haren was treated when here back in 2003 and 2004. That was the most typical way a legit prospect can be treated- a small test in AAA.
It's just that this year, the quad-A talent seems better than in past years to me. Ludwick and Bozeid, and probably Jolbert Cabrera, could all be contributors off of the bench for some decent teams. Maybe I'm just drawing blanks but I can't think of too many guys like that in the last few years. Kevin Cash, I guess.
RC21 wrote:It's just that this year, the quad-A talent seems better than in past years to me. Ludwick and Bozeid, and probably Jolbert Cabrera, could all be contributors off of the bench for some decent teams. Maybe I'm just drawing blanks but I can't think of too many guys like that in the last few years. Kevin Cash, I guess.
I'm a Scott Seabol fan, so I suppose I should post a here. The Cardinals have had a couple of other guys in that class recently, maybe Junior Spivey, Michel Hernandez and good ole John Gall. Actually getting Gall out of the way probably makes it a little easier to dig up somebody like Bozied.
I'd feel a tad better about the pitching if they had some quad-Aer like Gissell or Tankersley down at Memphis.
RC21 wrote:That's a shame for Ludwick. He was lighting it up.
The AAA team should be good this year, though. It has a higher-than-normal amount of quad-A guys. Or at least it seems that way.
It seems that the last couple of years due to the lack of prospects have been a Quad-A haven. I mean its not the worst strategy because if someone gets hurt at the Major League level they can step in and provide replacement level play for a little while. Plus its not like they are taking playing time away from other prospects because the Cards dont have any prospects at that level. More and more across the majors players are making the Double A to Majors jump, so AAA has become a forgotten level.
It's been that way for a while with most teams, regardless of minor league talent level in the organization. AA is where the real prospects are. AAA is the testing ground for them to prove that they can do it against seasoned once-major leaguers. Think of the way Danny Haren was treated when here back in 2003 and 2004. That was the most typical way a legit prospect can be treated- a small test in AAA.
It's just that this year, the quad-A talent seems better than in past years to me. Ludwick and Bozeid, and probably Jolbert Cabrera, could all be contributors off of the bench for some decent teams. Maybe I'm just drawing blanks but I can't think of too many guys like that in the last few years. Kevin Cash, I guess.
living where the wranglers play (for 1 more year), i did always find it interesting that most of the players the royals brought up where from their double a
RC21 wrote:It's been that way for a while with most teams, regardless of minor league talent level in the organization. AA is where the real prospects are. AAA is the testing ground for them to prove that they can do it against seasoned once-major leaguers. Think of the way Danny Haren was treated when here back in 2003 and 2004. That was the most typical way a legit prospect can be treated- a small test in AAA.
It's just that this year, the quad-A talent seems better than in past years to me. Ludwick and Bozeid, and probably Jolbert Cabrera, could all be contributors off of the bench for some decent teams. Maybe I'm just drawing blanks but I can't think of too many guys like that in the last few years. Kevin Cash, I guess.
Probably the last really good quad A player Memphis had was Kevin Witt in 2004. I never understood why he couldn’t catch on with any team.
RC21 wrote:It's been that way for a while with most teams, regardless of minor league talent level in the organization. AA is where the real prospects are. AAA is the testing ground for them to prove that they can do it against seasoned once-major leaguers. Think of the way Danny Haren was treated when here back in 2003 and 2004. That was the most typical way a legit prospect can be treated- a small test in AAA.
It's just that this year, the quad-A talent seems better than in past years to me. Ludwick and Bozeid, and probably Jolbert Cabrera, could all be contributors off of the bench for some decent teams. Maybe I'm just drawing blanks but I can't think of too many guys like that in the last few years. Kevin Cash, I guess.
Probably the last really good quad A player Memphis had was Kevin Witt in 2004. I never understood why he couldn’t catch on with any team.
Ah! Witt's what I meant, not Cash. Sorry about that.
here. The Cardinals have had a couple of other guys in that class recently, maybe Junior Spivey, Michel Hernandez and good ole John Gall. Actually getting Gall out of the way probably makes it a little easier to dig up somebody like Bozied.
