Scout.com 2007 Cards Minors Reliever of Year

Palm Beach Cardinals right-handed closer Luke Gregerson has been selected as the St. Louis Cardinals’ top minor league relief pitcher for 2007 by The Birdhouse and Scout.com.

It is time to announce Scout.com’s Relief Pitcher of the Year for the 2007 season from the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league system. This performance-based award is presented to the pitcher having the best overall season on the mound as a reliever.

To be considered, pitchers had to meet the following criteria:
- Retained minor league eligibility status (not too much Major League experience)
- Be on an active roster in the Cardinals’ system at season’s end
- More than half of game appearances coming as a reliever

The 2007 performances of that group were then sliced and diced using both defense-independent statistics such as strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed and more team-oriented ones like Earned Run Average and WHIP. In addition, this year, another category has been added – FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching – those factors deemed directly under the control of the man on the mound. Weight was given to both the level at which the pitcher competed and the time period over which the pitcher competed.

2007 marks our first-ever Scout.com Cardinals Reliever of the Year Award. In the past, we had lumped all pitchers together, but have since decided that from here on out, the non-starters will receive their own recognition. And our 2007 winner is….

Luke Gregerson – Right-Handed Closer – Palm Beach Cardinals/Springfield Cardinals

Luke Gregerson’s 2007 season is judged to have been the best overall relief pitching performance in the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league system. After being selected in the 28th round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, Gregerson built upon his solid rookie campaign between Johnson City and State College.

This year, the 23-year-old was honored throughout the season, snaring our Top Relief Pitcher of the Month in May and the Cardinals organization’s own Reliever of the Month nod in August.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Illinois native made the jump to the Double-A Springfield Cardinals of the Texas League on September 1. Prior to that at the A-Advanced level with Palm Beach, Gregerson was magnificent. Gregerson made 53 of his 54 2007 appearances out of Palm Beach’s pen, saving 29 games for the Florida State League club. Overall, he posted a stellar 1.94 ERA, striking out 72 and walking 20 in 65 innings. Opposing batters managed to hit just .189 against him.

Gregerson was recognized as one of the very best in the FSL, being named to both their 2007 All-Star teams – mid-season and post-season.

When compared to the rest of the qualifying relief group, Gregerson’s 2007 performance stood out in a wide variety of categories. He led all the candidates in dERA, FIP and ground out-to-fly out ratio. He was third in saves, fourth in strikeout rate and fifth in batting average against and WHIP.

Following the regular season, the Cardinals rewarded Gregerson with an invitation to play in the prestigious Arizona Fall League. He joined at mid-season, competing against players more experienced than he. Though he scuffled a bit initially, his ERA was 2.35 after his first outing and he fanned ten in 7 2/3 Arizona innings.

The Birdhouse staff congratulates Luke Gregerson on his fine 2007 season.

Honorable Mentions -
Josh Dew – Right-Handed Closer – Batavia Muckdogs
Justin Fiske – Right-Handed Reliever – Batavia Muckdogs
The three finalists were Gregerson, Josh Dew and Justin Fiske. Although Fiske had more first-place finishes than did Gregerson, the latter pitched more than twice as many innings, did it at much higher levels and is a closer. Since the closer is usually the best reliever on the staff, being a closer is one of the higher-weighted categories for Reliever of the Year. Also, Fiske and Gregerson are within a few months of each other in age.

Still, Fiske having this kind of success after having been signed from an independent league team is most admirable and 2007 14th-rounder Dew has the pedigree to perhaps eventually go the farthest of the three. He was our Cardinals Reliever of the Month for August.

Congratulations to both Josh Dew and Justin Fiske on excellent 2007 seasons.

Stats section

For those interested in the numbers behind the story, following are the 2007 results posted by the top qualifiers by statistical category by team. It is worth noting that all categories are not treated equally.

Here’s how we apply the data. The top five players in each category plus any other team leaders are logged. We then sort by the number of ranked categories, with the finalists being those ranked most often. Next, we look at the categories themselves, with the most weight given to dERA, FIP, BAA and WHIP. Tie-breakers include age, level and prior professional experience.

It should be noted that when Gregerson ranked in the top five, he was counted as Palm Beach’s team leader although he did pitch one inning in Springfield at season’s end.

Earned Run Average

Rk	Player	ERA	G	IP	ER	Team
1	Fiske, Justin	1.03	15	26.1	3	Batavia
2	Pichardo, Joel	1.23	21	29.1	4	JC/GCL
3	Gonzalez, Marco	1.44	18	25	4	QC/Batavia
4	Maiques, Kenny	1.53	52	53	9	Quad Cities
5	Mura, Kyle	1.66	45	59.2	11	Quad Cities
TL	McClellan, Kyle	1.81	40	59.2	12	Sp/PB
TL	Mikrut, Jon	2.91	53	68	22	Palm Beach
TL	Perez, Chris	2.96	54	54.2	18	Memphis/Sp

DIPS Earned Run Average

Rk	Player	G	dERA	dIP	dER	Team
T1	Gregerson, Luke	54	1.95	64.2	13.9	Sp/PB
T1	Dew, Josh	24	1.95	24.6	5.3	Batavia
3	Fiske, Justin	15	2.10	25.2	5.9	Batavia
4	McClellan, Kyle	40	2.39	57.4	15.2	Sp/PB
5	Mura, Kyle	45	2.59	58.5	16.8	Quad Cities
TL	Falkenborg, Brian	51	2.61	57.3	16.6	Memphis
TL	Pichardo, Joel	21	4.44	29.6	14.6	JC/GCL

FIP

Rk	Player	FIP	HR	BB	HB	SO	Team
1	Gregerson, Luke	1.95	0	20	1	72	Sp/PB
2	Fiske, Justin	2.02	1	4	0	28	Batavia
3	Dew, Josh	2.12	1	6	2	32	Batavia
4	McClellan, Kyle	2.43	2	10	2	54	Sp/PB
5	Falkenborg, Brian	2.46	2	17	0	58	Memphis
TL	Mura, Kyle	2.56	2	13	1	53	Quad Cities
TL	Pichardo, Joel	4.50	3	11	2	20	JC/GCL

WHIP

Rk	Player	ERA	G	IP	H	BB	WHIP	Team
T1	Fiske, Justin	1.03	15	26.1	17	4	0.80	Batavia
T1	Dew, Josh	1.80	24	25	14	6	0.80	Batavia
3	McClellan, Kyle	1.81	40	59.2	46	10	0.94	Sp/PB
4	Mura, Kyle	1.66	45	59.2	44	13	0.96	Quad Cities
5	Gregerson, Luke	1.94	54	65	43	20	0.97	Sp/PB
TL	Perez, Chris	2.96	54	54.2	23	41	1.17	Memphis/Sp
TL	Pichardo, Joel	1.23	21	29.1	28	11	1.33	JC/GCL

Strike-Outs-to-Walks Ratio

Rk	Player	IP	BB	SO	K/BB	Team
1	Fiske, Justin	26.1	4	28	7.00	Batavia
2	McClellan, Kyle	59.2	10	54	5.40	Sp/PB
3	Dew, Josh	25	6	32	5.33	Batavia
4	Mura, Kyle	59.2	13	53	4.08	Quad Cities
5	Vander Weg, Scott	63.1	10	40	4.00	Palm Beach
TL	Falkenborg, Brian	52.2	17	58	3.41	Memphis
TL	Pichardo, Joel	29.1	11	20	1.82	JC/GCL

The Flamethrowers

Rk	Player	IP	SO	K/9 IP	Team
1	Perez, Chris	54.2	77	12.7	Memphis/Sp
2	Dew, Josh	25	32	11.5	Batavia
3	Motte, Jason	59	69	10.5	Springfield
4	Gregerson, Luke	65	72	10.0	Sp/PB
5	Falkenborg, Brian	52.2	58	9.9	Memphis
TL	Maiques, Kenny	53	57	9.7	Quad Cities
TL	Pichardo, Joel	29.1	20	6.1	JC/GCL

The Control Artists

Rk	Player	IP	BB	BB/9 IP	Team
1	Fiske, Justin	26.1	4	1.37	Batavia
2	Vander Weg, Scott	63.1	10	1.42	Palm Beach
3	McClellan, Kyle	59.2	10	1.5	Sp/PB
4	Mura, Kyle	59.2	13	2.0	Quad Cities
5	Dew, Josh	25	6	2.2	Batavia
TL	Falkenborg, Brian	52.2	17	2.9	Memphis
TL	Pichardo, Joel	29.1	11	3.4	JC/GCL

Lowest Batting Average Against

Rk	Player	IP	H	TBF	BAA	Team
1	Perez, Chris	54.2	23	230	0.130	Memphis/Sp
2	Dew, Josh	25	14	97	0.159	Batavia
3	Fiske, Justin	26.1	17	97	0.185	Batavia
4	Maiques, Kenny	53	34	208	0.186	Quad Cities
5	Gregerson, Luke	65	43	255	0.189	Sp/PB
TL	Motte, Jason	59	43	238	0.206	Sp/PB
TL	Pichardo, Joel	29.1	28	129	0.243	JC/GCL

No ‘Flies’ on Me - Best GO/AO Ratio

Rk	Player	IP	GO	FO	SO	GO/AO	Team
1	Gregerson, Luke	65	92	35	72	2.63	Sp/PB
2	Fick, Chuckie	39	63	25	25	2.52	QC/JC
3	Carrasco, Armando	53.1	72	33	49	2.18	Quad Cities
4	Castellanos, Hugo	67.2	100	46	42	2.17	Memphis/Sp
5	McClellan, Kyle	59.2	80	43	54	1.86	Sp/PB
TL	Bilardello, Davis	30.1	43	26	18	1.65	Batavia
TL	Pichardo, Joel	29.1	34	34	18	1.00	JC/GCL

Saves

Rk	Player	G	SV	IP	Team
1	Perez, Chris	54	35	54.2	Memphis/Sp
2	Maiques, Kenny	52	31	53	Quad Cities
3	Gregerson, Luke	54	29	65	Sp/PB
4	Falkenborg, Brian	51	23	52.2	Memphis
5	Dew, Josh	24	15	25	Batavia
TL	Motte, Jason	53	11	59	Sp/PB

2007 Cardinals Minor League Awards

Scout.com	Position Player	Starting Pitcher	Relief Pitcher
Cards Players
of the Year			Luke Gregerson
Memphis (AAA)	Rick Ankiel	Mike Parisi	Mark Worrell
Springfield (AA)	Colby Rasmus	Mitchell Boggs	Jason Motte
Palm Beach (A+)	Allen Craig	Adam Ottavino	Luke Gregerson
Quad Cities (A)	Jared Schweitzer	Brandon Dickson	Kenny Maiques
Batavia (SS)	Steven Hill	Jess Todd	Josh Dew
Johnson City (SS)	Beau Riportella	Brian Broderick	Eduardo Sanchez
Gulf Coast (SS)	D’Marcus Ingram	Carlos Gonzalez	Reynier Gonzalez
Domincan (SS)	Juan Mosquera	Arquimedes Nieto	Angel Tapia
Venezuelan (SS)	Ismael Cardona	Richard Castillo	Carlos Oraa

(Click on the name highlighted above to be taken to that detailed article.)

Next up: Scout.com’s 2007 Cardinals Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year.

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