Good to see some great looking prospects. Wallace, Lynn, and Vazquez have some great potential.

What a great job by Luhnow and the rest of the organization to pick up the Walrus. This guy might just turn out to be the best pure hitter in the draft, its great to hear that he will be ready to start his journey to the Majors.

Nice job by Mulder last night. He threw strikes and dominated both sides of the plate. His velocity was good. I beleive his fastball was in the 90-92 range. The most encouraging part was that he felt fine after his inning of work. So excited to see him back where he belongs. I think the next step is to deterine whether or not he is a reliever or a starter. I know going from the rotation to the pen is a big move, but if he is only throwing to a couple of batters a game that would remove some of the stress his arm would receive if he were starting.

I know this is a little off subject, but……

I read this morning that the Cardinals are one of the clubs interested pursuing Matt Holiday. To be honest I think Holliday is overrated. Look at his home/away splits for his career: a 75/38 home to away homerun ratio, and the other stat that jumps out is the fact that he is hitting .362 in his career at Coors Field opposed to a pedestrian .277 BA away from his home park.

Obviously this guy has in large part made a living hitting at Coors Field! Also do we really need another outfielder? Raz should be ready for the majors by September and Mighty Joe is crushing the ball, and I’m really excited as I watch Jon Jay climb.

Derrick -

Re: Aaron Luna … I’m a Rice alum, and had season tickets for several years prior to recently relocating out of Houston. While history has shown that it may be more difficult to sign high school seniors committed to Rice - I’m not sure that you can say the same thing re: college juniors deciding whether to return to Rice for a potential senior year (which you suggest in the blog).

In Luna’s case, his power numbers were down a bit this season after an early season bout with a bad contact prescription … so I can see him assuming some performance/draft standing upside to returning for his senior year. That being said - college seniors obviously have much less leverage.

Mixed emotions … would like to see him in the Cardinals system - but would also like to see him back at Rice next year.

Looking at Shane Peterson’s build I would like to see the organization give him a shot at second base. I might be looking ahead into the future a little bit to much here, but the Birds are already loaded with talent in the outfield within the organiation. I’m guessing that Peterson will be a better part of three years away from being ready for the show. Right now I think the biggest need for the Cards is hitting in the middle infield. What are you’re thoughts, DG?

Guessing you meant Shane Robinson…Peterson is L/L. I agree, why not send him to instructional camp this Fall and see if he can stick at 2B. He is athletic enough and you know at some point in HS he played SS b/c of how good of an athlete he is.

Luna will be a tough sign, Rice has a chance to win it all next year and he was projected to go in the 3rd to 5th round range before a power zapped JR campaign.

Cards bucked up and gave Henley enough to buy him out…guessing they do the same with Luna. Who by all acounts is a better prospect, especially if he can make the transition back to 2B.

As for the signings..seems like both Leith and Miranda are going to college….that only leaves Jiminez as the last HS LHP we can sign. He is willing to sign according to the paper, but wants much more then his slot or will head to John Logan CC.

If your the Cards…I think you gotta throw some money at the kid. Tall LHP’s who can throw 88 to 90mph at the age of 18..dont grown on tree’s!

Great stuff as always Derrick!…..pass along on how the Walrus looked in the uni tonight and in BP!

Picklefork,

Yep. I had just finished looking at the link for Shane “Peterson”, and I meant Robinson.

As a QC and Cardinal fan I hope they send us some help soon.The Bandits could use some bats and arms to make a 2nd half run espcially pitching they gave up 9 and 17 runs in 2 of 4 games vs. Clinton last weekend

The Cardinals expect to sign Aaron Luna, I was told today. He is represented by the same group that Wallace has (that Albert Pujols has, that Jason Isringhausen has, etc. …).

Wallace wore a jersey with the No. 08 on the back. He had a couple wood bats with his name on them — hooked up by a friend in the minor leagues. He looked nervous at first. Hit a couple out during his turns in the cage, which drew quite a crowd of Cardinals brass, from John Mozeliak to John Abbamondi to chairman Bill DeWitt and manager Tony La Russa. The first player to welcome Wallace to the fold: Rick Ankiel. Many others followed.

Their advice, Wallace said, was for him not to start thinking about how long it should take to get to the majors but to “focus on being sure I’m ready when I get here.”

dg
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Great stuff Derrick.

I hope they do plan on using Luna at 2B. Any personal observations on Wallace in the limited time you got to see him in the cage and at 3B?

You can only go by what you hear and read…its nice to have actual eyes on reports.

Thanks!~

Seems a little unfair to judge a player on a few swings during a batting practice — his first batting practice at a big-league ballpark, no less. Ditto when it comes to fielding. He took some groundballs. He got to meet some guys who the Cardinals hope will be his future teammates. See how he does at Quad Cities. That’s when everyone will get a good feel for how the bat translates, how the glove improves and where the combo will take him.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if they got Luna signed and sent him to QC. Luna, Kozma and Wallace around the horn.

I don’t understand how you can say “Rice players are hard to sign.” Let’s review the last two drafts. Joe Savery, drafted #1 by Phillies as a junior, signed. Bobby Bramhall signed as a junior last year. So did Kyle Gunderson and Craig Crow did in 2006. This year, Jonathon Runnels, Lucas Luetge, Matt LAngwell, and Bryan Price all signed as juniors. Word is that catcher Adam Zornes, a junior, is also close to signing.

Now if you wantto talk about drafted high school players being tough to sign, that’s another ballgame altogether.

The better question is, “Why would a player from Rice want to stay?” Coach Wayne Graham does a great job bringing out the best in each player, and there is a camraderie about the Rice team that many don’t experience elsewhere.

I recommend that you do a little better research, Derrick. The facts don’t back you up.

2×2…I don’t know for sure, but I took DG’s comment about them being tough to sign more about the money…as in asking more than slot. I don’t think that he meant that they haven’t historically signed. Just tougher to meet their demands.

I’ve enjoyed the discussion and the dissection of one little line in this entry, and the research on Rice picks and how they signed is fantastic. I’m afraid too much has been read into one sentence, and that I did not do a good enough job to convey the inside nature of that phrase. It is a nod to a saying that seemed prominent around and on draft day, at least in the post-pick comments coming from pundits and officials alike, as they referred to Rice players and Rice commitments as “tough to sign.” The phrase “hard to sign players out of Rice” got a lot of play.

Or, at least I thought it did. Maybe it just felt that way to me.

But good stuff. If only all sentences spurred such dialogue.

dg
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