2006 Scouting Report

Swing of the Quad Cities

• John O'Donnell Stadium, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois.
• Affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.
• Manager: Keith Mitchell.
• Coaches: Steve Dillard, Bryan Eversgerd (pitching).

This page profiles the 2006 Swing of the Quad Cities, a Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and a member of the Midwest League.

• History: MWLguide.com

Profile

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics on this page are through September 4, 2006.

Season Summary

• Second Half: 42-27, .609 (1st place, 3.5 ahead)
• First Half: 34-34, .500 (5th place, 6.5 behind)
• Pitching: 76-61, 3.45, 30 saves, 4 complete games, 1034 strikeouts
• Hitting: .272, 694 runs scored, 90 HR, 146 steals (67% success)
• Defense: 158 errors (1.15 per game)
• April: 10-12 (.455)
• May: 12-16 (.429)
• June: 16-11 (.593)
• July: 17-11 (.607)
• August-September: 21-11 (.656)
• Playoff Round 1: 1-2 (.333)

• Position Players used: 27
• Pitchers used: 23
• Pitchers per game: 3.6

Leading Players

• Best Player on the Team: First Baseman Randy Roth

• Best Starting Pitcher: Trey Hearne (2.25, 12-3, 106 Ks)
• Bullpen Stopper: Christopher Perez (1.84, 2-0, 12 saves, no holds, 32 Ks)
• Strikeout Pitchers: Jaime Garcia, Mark McCormick, Danny Borne, Adam Ottavino, Matt Trent
• Control Pitchers: Jaime Garcia, Trey Hearne, Victor Moreno

• Best Hitter: Randy Roth (.307, 18 HR, 67 RBI)
• Home Run Leader: Randy Roth (18)
• High Batting Average: Randy Roth (.307), Colby Rasmus (.310), Bryan Anderson (.302), Jonathon Jay (.342)
• High On Base Percentage: Jonathon Jay (.416)
• High Slugging Percentage: Colby Rasmus (.512), Randy Roth (.523), Tyler Greene (.552), Jonathon Jay (.462)
• Notable Baserunners: Colby Rasmus, Tyler Green, Dan Nelson, Shane Robinson, Casey Rowlett
• Notable Batting Eye: Jonathon Jay, Shane Robinson

Mid-July Profile

QC's team brings a good offense to the game, and a more or less average MWL pitching staff. That seems like it should result in more wins than they've managed.

Randy Roth's fine season continues, and at this point I rather expect he'll be the MWL's Most Valuable Player selection; in the longer run, OF Colby Rasmus seems like an excellent prospect. There's a lot of talent throughout this lineup.

The Cards have promoted Jaime Garcia & Cory Meacham, which weakens the rotation significantly. Although Trey Hearne's pitched well enough to fill one of those holes, that's weakened an already-weak relief staff. Jon Mikrut's developing nicely in middle relief, and Danny Borne's been pitching well from the pen all season.

May Profile

The Swing have scored 227 runs while permitting 230; you'd expect that to lead to a .500 record but they've done a bit worse than that, perhaps because they play terrible defense. Neither the hitting nor the pitching staffs are, all in all, particularly remarkable.

Starting pitcher Jaime Garcia's the best pitching talent, but this is a staff which otherwise has neither strengths nor weaknesses. Scott Vander Weg, the nominal closer, hasn't really shown any talent in that role.

Infielder Randy Roth remains a marginal MVP candidate, though he really needs to step up the slugging. He's a fine all-'round player with a wide range of skills. Catcher Bryan Anderson and outfielder Colby Rasmus are also well-rounded talents who show lots of potential; Anderson would make a good leadoff hitter if he played another position, and Rasmus has all the earmarks of a budding star. AJ Van Slyke, so far, has been a disappointment; one hopes he solves whatever's been causing the problems.

April Profile

The Swing have a pretty good offense, but no depth, fairly weak pitching, and a truly atrocious defense are doing them in.

Starting pitcher Jaime Garcia looks like the real deal, while rotation-mates Trey Hearne and Mark McCormick have had solid outings. There are a couple bright spots in the pen; in particular, both Danny Borne and Scott Vender Weg's abilities are probably being wasted in inning-an-outing appearances.

Infielder Randy Roth will be an MVP candidate if he keeps this up. Catchers Bryan Anderson and Brandon Yarborough are both hitting extremely well; infielder AJ Van Slyke and outfielders Colby Rasmus and Matt Wilkerson are also making contributions.

Pre-Season Profile

Manager

This is Keith Mitchell's first manager position.

First Round Draft Selections

• Colby Rasmus (30th pick overall)
• Mark McCormick (sandwich pic; 43rd overall)

Team Age Information

• Average Team Age: 22.0
• Pitchers: 22.2
• Hitters: 21.9

• Oldest Player on the Team: Randy Roth (born 3/5/1982)
• Youngest Player on the Team: Bryan Anderson (born 12/16/1986)

The average player in the Midwest League this season is 21.9 years old. This information is based on opening day rosters as published on the team website and will not be updated.

Where they played last season

This summary is based on the team's opening day roster and will not be revised to reflect roster changes.

This year's QC nine is based on last summer's New Jersey roster, with a few holdovers and some contribution from the Johnson City squad. The Cards have always been pretty much an "up or out" organization....

Team            League             W/L     Place    Hitters Pitchers
                                          (Teams)
Palm Beach      Florida State (A+) 69/71   6(12)       1       0
Quad Cities     Midwest (A)        72/67  4T(14)       4       6
New Jersey      New York-Penn (A-) 37/39   7(14)       8       9
Johnson City    Appalachian (R+)   28/39   8(10)       5       4

With just one exception, these guys played in the low minors for the Cards last season; the exception didn't play professionally for anyone last summer. Many of these folks appeared on two rosters and are counted twice in this table.