Motte Named Cards Minors Reliever of the Year

Right-hander Jason Motte is our Scout.com Relief Pitcher of the Year for the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system in 2008.

What better reference can one find than Jason Motte to epitomize the positive changes across the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system?

Left exposed but untaken in the Rule 5 draft less than two years ago, the weak-hitting catcher-turned fireballing reliever has now rocketed up the hierarchy to the point the organization reportedly would not consider trading him over the summer for much-needed major league relief help, albeit short-term, perhaps.

In recent years, the Cardinals organization had been savaged as being one of the worst in the game, allegedly lacking in major league prospects both quantity and quality. Yet on September 3, Motte joined ten other Cardinals prospects that had previously made their major league debuts this season.

They include pitchers Kyle McClellan, Mark Worrell, Chris Perez, Mitchell Boggs, Mike Parisi and Jaime Garcia, infielder Rico Washington, outfielders Joe Mather, Nick Stavinoha and Rule 5-pick up Brian Barton. The latter spent time in Memphis on a rehab assignment, joining nine of the ten that directly contributed to the 2008 Redbirds. Only McClellan jumped over Triple-A.

Including Barton, 22 of our top 42 Cardinals prospects from last winter spent time on the Memphis roster this season, including 14 of the top 21 and a most-impressive eight of the top 11.

Of them all, Motte, our #22-ranked Cardinals prospect coming into the season, stepped to the forefront, both at the Triple-A level and in the majors, leading to his selection as our Scout.com St. Louis Cardinals Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year for 2008.

The 26-year-old was previously named our Memphis Redbirds Reliever of the Year, as well.

The others

As a reminder, following is the full list of our 2008 Relievers of the Year at the various levels of the Cardinals system.

Scout.com subscribers can click on the players’ names to read the detailed articles on each, recapping their 2008 accomplishments, quotes and much more:

Memphis: Motte

Springfield: Fernando Salas

Palm Beach: Francisco Samuel

Quad Cities: Pete Parise

Batavia: Adam Reifer

Johnson City: Samuel Freeman

Gulf Coast League: David Carpenter

Dominican Summer League: Eduard Estalis

Venezuelan Summer League: David Brito

By the numbers

As with all system-wide awards, there was significant competition. Our own Leonda Markee assembled 2008 system-wide stats, both traditional and sabermetric, for Cardinals minor league relievers.

Qualifications: Jon Mikrut’s 82 IP led the relievers that pitched solely out of the bullpen. Having pitched at least half of that was required to qualify.

Earned Run Average
Rk	Player	Team	ERA	G	IP	ER
1	Mark Worrell	Mem	2.15	53	58.2	14
2	Pete Parise	PB/QC	2.24	47	64.1	16
3	Francisco Samuel	PB/QC	2.83	59	63.2	20
4	Eduardo Sanchez	QC	2.86	24	56.2	18
5	Kelvin Jimenez	Mem	2.92	46	52.1	17
DIPS Earned Run Average
Rk	Player	Team	G	dERA	dIP	dER
1	Jason Motte	Mem	63	2.47	73.6	20.2
2	Mark Worrell	Mem	53	2.60	60.4	17.4
3	Josh Dew	Sprf/PB	59	2.80	79.4	24.7
T-4	Eduardo Sanchez	QC	24	2.85	54.1	17.1
T-4	Jose Mateo	PB/JC	21	2.85	43.1	13.7
FIP
Rk	Player	Team	FIP	HR	BB	HB	SO
1	Jason Motte	Mem	2.28	6	26	1	110
2	Mark Worrell	Mem	2.55	2	31	1	80
3	Jose Mateo	PB/JC	2.80	1	10	1	31
4	Josh Dew	Sprf/PB	2.88	3	32	5	87
5	Justin Fiske	Sprf/PB/QC	3.01	5	35	2	96
WHIP
Rk	Player	Team	FIP	IP	H	BB	WHIP
1	Pete Parise	PB/QC	3.43	64.1	55	14	1.07
2	Fernando Salas	Sprf	3.34	74	65	16	1.09
3	John Wasdin	Mem	3.90	110.1	102	20	1.11
4	Eduardo Sanchez	QC	3.24	56.2	40	25	1.15
T-5	Luke Gregerson	Sprf	3.32	75.1	62	26	1.17
T-5	Jon Mikrut	Sprf/PB	4.72	82	72	24	1.17
Strikeouts-to-Walks Ratio
Rk	Player	Team	IP	BB	SO	K/BB
1	Jose Rada	GCL	45	4	37	9.3
2	Fernando Salas	Sprf	74	16	100	6.3
3	John Wasdin	Mem	110.1	20	97	4.9
4	Pete Parise	PB/QC	64.1	14	62	4.4
5	Jason Motte	Mem	66.2	26	110	4.2
The Flamethrowers
Rk	Player	Team	IP	SO	K/9 IP
1	Jason Motte	Mem	66.2	110	14.8
2	Francisco Samuel	PB/QC	63.2	94	13.3
3	Mark Worrell	Mem	58.2	80	12.3
4	Fernando Salas	Sprf	74	100	12.2
5	Josh Dew	Sprf/PB	76	87	10.3
The Control Artists
Rk	Player	Team	IP	BB	BB/9 IP
1	Jose Rada	GCL	45	4	0.8
2	John Wasdin	Mem	110.1	20	1.6
3	Fernando Salas	Sprf	74	16	1.9
4	Pete Parise	PB/QC	64.1	14	2.0
5	Kelvin Jimenez	Mem	52.1	12	2.1
Batting Average Against
Rk	Player	Team	IP	H	TBF	BAA
1	Francisco Samuel	PB/QC	63.2	43	286	0.191
2	Eduardo Sanchez	QC	56.2	40	233	0.209
3	Mark Worrell	Mem	58.2	45	249	0.210
4	Luke Gregerson	Sprf	75.1	62	312	0.221
5	Marco Gonzalez	Sprf/PB	72.1	59	301	0.226
Saves
Rk	Player	Team	G	SV	IP
1	Francisco Samuel	PB/QC	59	30	63.2
2	Fernando Salas	Sprf	60	25	74
3	Pete Parise	PB/QC	47	13	64.1
4	Kelvin Jimenez	Mem	46	12	52.1
5	Luke Gregerson	Sprf	57	10	75.1

 

Master article with all 2008 Scout.com Cardinals Minor League Players of the Year and the schedule for daily announcements: link. (This link is also permanently located at the lower left of The Birdhouse home page.)

If you missed our Players of the Year as they were unveiled, it’s not too late to catch up! Subscribe now to Scout.com and follow our countdown of the top Players and Pitchers of the Year at every level of the Cardinals minor league system. Next up will be Starting Pitcher and Player of the Year, before moving on to Top Rookies.

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