Randal Grichuk will make his first career start tonight for the Cardinals, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch tweets. Grichuk will start in center field, a position usually occupied by Peter Bourjos. The Cardinals acquired both players this offseason, dealing David Freese and Fernando Salas to the Angels in a bid to upgrade their defense. The Cardinals have gotten little from Bourjos and from right fielder Allen Craig so far this season, while Grichuk and the Cardinals’ other Triple-A outfielders have excelled, so the Cardinals promoted Grichuk on Sunday. Here are more notes from around the NL Central.
- Brewers prospect Johnny Hellweg had Tommy John surgery today, the Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt tweets. Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2014 ranked Hellweg the No. 4 prospect in a weak Brewers system. The 6-foot-9 righty walked 6.8 batters per nine in 126 Triple-A innings in 2013, and struggled badly with his control in 31 big-league innings. When healthy, however, he has an outstanding fastball, and gets plenty of outs on the ground.
- Reds closer Aroldis Chapman could make a rehab appearance in Dayton on Thursday, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. Chapman has been out since being hit in the face with a line drive in an ugly injury suffered in spring training.
I’ve loved reading about how weak the Brewers farm is, and has been over the last, what, five or six years? Meanwhile, in the real world, their system has produced more than a handful of solidly performing MLB players who either start, or will start on a very good Brewers team. Jonathan Lucroy. Wily Peralta. Tyler Thornburg. Scooter Gennett. Khris Davis. I would add Brandon Kintzler and Jim Henderson as great reclamation projects they developed. Nice pickup on Estrada as well. Yes, he was a prospect for Washington, but he’d been cast-off.
So their top picks haven’t panned out lately (though I feel Roache and Coulter could end the streak) that doesn’t make their minors a wasteland.
Clint Coulter? That guy has been a train wreck from day one in every way. He has a long long long way to go.
I like Tyrone Taylor and Victor Roache personally.
Train wreck? Not really, especially for a raw catching prospect who needed much refinement defensively.
He has been bad defensively and offensively so far…really bad.
Good thing is he has done pretty well so far this year(though a small sample size) and they don’t need him anytime soon.
I’m really not sure where your logic is on this one, since his bad offensive numbers are a smaller sample size than his good numbers in the minors. And it has been said since he was drafted that he’s a work in process defensively (with doubts he would stick at catcher), so defensive troubles really shouldn’t be surprising. Plus, his bat was always supposed to carry him, so I don’t think they’re expecting him to become an elite defender right off the bat.
All in all, not sure how you can call him a train wreck at this point, especially coming out of high school.
In 2013, Coulter had 20 passed balls in 49 games. So far in 12 games this year, zero passed balls. That’s progress. His bat is taking off as well.
I failed to mention Taylor… But I think you’re too quick to dismiss Coulter. He’s, what, 20? Another two to three years in their system, and his natural ability to hit will carry him to the Bigs.
I think they should just move him the the outfield now. Coulter will never devote enough effort to be an average catcher. Even he admits he is offensive minded and never has(or will) think too much about defense.
Though they aren’t rushing him so maybe he can figure it out, really a total toss up right now.
Coulter is a work in progress especially defensively, but progressing he his.
Khris Davis is hitting like .125 and struck out 4 times in one game the other day.
?? Khris Davis is hitting .247 (although his 4 strikeouts were pretty ugly though, even with his RBI triple in that game).
I forgot we’re judging guys based off of one game. I don’t believe Davis is an All-Star caliber player, but he’s hit everywhere he’s played.
Khris Davis has had the key hit (all for extra bases) in 3 Brewer extra inning wins this month. The game he fanned 4 times, he tripled in the winning run which set up the insurance tally as well. Last night he led off with a double in the 11th and scored the winning run. As AaronAngst said, he never was listed on any top prospect lists, nor were Lucroy or Gennett.
Its what is referred to as confirmation bias.
Grichuk looks pretty comfortable in CF. It looks like the Cardinals might give him the bulk of the playing time there for awhile in attempt to add some offense.
Pretty bold statement saying he is comfortable in CF. It has been 2 days.
….in the majors + Spring Training + Memphis.
Do you watch him in Memphis? I doubt it
MiLB.tv my friend. It’s glorious.
Big turnaround for Grichuk! I watched him play A ball with the Angels and he looked clueless at the dish absolutely zero zone judgement. He got lost in the Trout hype.
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What about Oscar Taveras?