2008 Cards Minors Rookie Reliever of the Year

By a dominating professional debut with the New York-Penn League champion Batavia Muckdogs, Adam Reifer is our Scout.com 2008 St. Louis Cardinals Minor League Rookie Reliever of the Year.

Adam Reifer’s dominance in his professional debut helped earn his team a championship and him our inaugural Scout.com St. Louis Cardinals Minor League Rookie Reliever of the Year Award. Serving as the closer for the Batavia Muckdogs, Reifer saved two games in the post-season, including a 1.2 inning save in the New York-Penn League championship game.

The 22-year-old led all Cardinals organization rookie relievers in WHIP and saves. His 23 saves were the second-best mark in the New York-Penn League and the third best in the entire St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. The opposition managed only a .162 average against him which was not only stingiest of any rookie reliever but was tops among all relievers who qualified.

The flame-throwing right-hander finished second in K/9 with 12.2. The University of California-Riverside product showed excellent command, averaging 2.7 strikeouts for every base on balls.

Honorable Mention

32nd round pick Samuel Freeman opened plenty of eyes with his excellent debut pitching out of the Johnson City and later, Palm Beach bullpens. The southpaw led all the rookie relievers by averaging 13 K/9 IP. Freeman led the first-year relievers in FIP.

The former Kansas Jayhawk showed excellent command with a 2.9-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio while allowing the opposition only a .235 batting average.

After finishing up his Louisiana State career in Omaha at the College World Series, Jared Bradford held his own against the hitters of the Midwest League. Bradford was masterful with his control while toeing the rubber for the Quad Cities.

The former Bayou Bengal struck out four batters for every one he walked, which comes out to a 1.6 walks per nine innings average, both tops among this group. He finished second to Reifer in WHIP and third in FIP.

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 first-year Cardinals minor league relief pitchers.

Earned Run Average
Rk	Player	Team	ERA	G	IP	ER
1	David Carpenter	JC/GCL	1.84	15	14.2	3
2	Jason Buursma	Bat	2.35	25	23	6
3	Matt Frevert	QC/JC	2.70	24	23.1	7
DIPS Earned Run Average
Rk	Player	Team	G	dERA	dIP	dER
1	Santo Maertz	JC	17	2.74	20.7	6.3
2	Samuel Freeman	PB/JC	21	2.93	27.9	9.1
3	Adam Reifer	Bat	32	2.94	30.9	10.1
FIP
Rk	Player	Team	FIP	HR	BB	HB	SO
1	Samuel Freeman	PB/JC	2.89	2	13	1	38
2	Santo Maertz	JC	2.95	0	13	2	25
3	Jared Bradford	QC	2.97	2	7	0	28
WHIP
Rk	Player	Team	FIP	IP	H	BB	WHIP
1	Adam Reifer	Bat	3.13	30.1	18	15	1.09
2	Jared Bradford	QC	2.97	39.1	42	7	1.25
3	Matt Frevert	QC/JC	3.50	23.1	22	9	1.33
Strikeouts-to-Walks Ratio
Rk	Player	Team	IP	BB	SO	K/BB
1	Jared Bradford	QC	39.1	7	28	4.0
2	Samuel Freeman	PB/JC	26.1	13	38	2.9
3	Adam Reifer	Bat	30.1	32	41	2.7
The Flamethrowers
Rk	Player	Team	IP	SO	K/9 IP
1	Samuel Freeman	PB/JC	26.1	38	13.0
2	Adam Reifer	Bat	30.1	41	12.2
3	Santo Maertz	JC	20	25	11.3
The Control Artists
Rk	Player	Team	IP	BB	BB/9 IP
1	Jared Bradford	QC	39.1	7	1.6
2	Jose Calero	GCL	33.2	12	3.2
3	Jorge Rondon	QC/JC	30.2	11	3.2
Batting Average Against
Rk	Player	Team	IP	H	TBF	BAA
1	Adam Reifer	Bat	30.1	18	130	0.162
2	Samuel Freeman	PB/JC	26.1	23	115	0.235
3	Daniel Richardson	Bat	18.1	17	92	0.250
Saves
Rk	Player	Team	G	SV	IP
1	Adam Reifer	Bat	32	22	30.1
2	Jorge Rondon	QC/JC	29	6	30.2
3	David Carpenter	JC/GCL	15	3	14.2

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.)

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