With no major league action going for a few days except for the All-Star Game, it is time to look at some of the minor leaguers in the Cardinals organization that have been having a quietly, good season.

  Under the Radar: Chris Swauger –OF 

Swauger started the season at AAA and got off to a horrid start at.222 for the year. He was sent down to Springfield (AA) and has been on fire. He bats left and throws left from a corner outfield position. He is hitting .305 with 9 doubles, 3 triples, 8 home runs and 31 RBI’s in 213 at bats. His last ten games he is hitting .415 with 17 hits, 3 doubles, 1 triple and 3 home runs,

 

 

     Under the Radar: Mike O’Neill- OF

The 22-yr old outfielder bats left and throws left. He is a product of USC and currently plays in Class A Advanced Palm Beach. Currently, he is batting .361 with a 101 hits, 14 of them doubles. He is 15 for 22 in the stolen base department. In his last 10 games he has bat .457 with 16 hits, 4 doubles and a triple. He is hitting left-handed pitchers at a .401 clip

 

 

 

 Under the Radar: Eugenio Velez-2B 

Another second baseman caught our eye today is Eugenio Velez. He may have supplanted Pete Kozma on the depth chart for the Cardinals and certainly in Springfield. The 6’1” 170 lb’er from the Dominican Republic is a switch hitter and capable of playing 3 infield positions.  He is batting .281 in 82 games with 21 doubles, 2 triples and 11 homers and has batted in 42 runs for Springfield. He has also stolen 17 bases to lead the team. The issue for Velez making it back to the Major Leagues is that he just turned 30 yrs old May. He was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an amateur free agent in 2001. He has 259 major league games to his credit with the majority in a Giants uniform.

 

    Under the Radar: Cedric Hunter- CF

Hunter was picked up just before the season began from the Athletics. The speedy outfielder is hitting .284 with 16 doubles, 2 triples and 4 home runs with 34 runs batted in. He has stolen 4 bases in 7 attempts and is batting .361 in his last 10 games in Memphis (AAA). He bats left and throws left while hailing from Decatur, Georgia.

 

 

                                                                     Tomorrow: Under the Radar pitchers



By: on Jul 9th, 2012
Tagged as: Cardinals, Minor League Noise