Chat Session with Memphis Redbirds Organization - Chad Renning 05/17/08

BleacherBum593 · 05-19-2008, 11:18 AM

Following is the edited chat room session of Saturday, May 17, 2008. The guest was Mr. Chad Renning from the Media Relations Department of the Memphis Redbirds, the triple A farm club of the St Louis Cardinals. The chat on Saturday is part of a series of regularly scheduled chat sessions with members of the Memphis Redbirds organization. The chats will be held on Saturday’s at 10AM at FanHome.com and is sponsored by Rockin’ the Red.

Rockin' the Red is a blog based on the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise and was created as a place to discuss and debate Cardinals baseball. Rockin’ the Red is an Official Sponsor of the Cardinal Board at Fanhome.com

All of this is prior to Saturday’s game against Oklahoma…

It’s a good time for the Redbirds. The team is currently 20-21 (as of 5/16) and just a game out of first place in the American Southern Division in the PCL. They are on a two-game winning streak and just returned from their first winning road trip of the year, going 5-3 between two four-game series in Las Vegas and Tucson. Nick Stavinoha is currently fifth in the PCL in batting average at .374. Last night they beat the Oklahoma RedHawks 6-4 in 12 innings on a Joe Mather two-run homer.

It is also exciting because four of the Cardinals top five prospected are in Memphis (Colby Rasmus, Bryan Anderson, Mitchell Boggs and Jaime Garcia). The Redbirds also have last year’s organization pitcher of the year in PJ Walters. There is a ton of young talent in Memphis.

This week coming up…. The Redbirds are in the middle of a four-game series with Oklahoma, highlighted by Sunday’s Paint the Park Pink. The Redbirds will be wearing pink uniforms and the entire organization will be celebrating breast cancer survivors and raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation (similar to MLB’s Mother’s Day Celebration). The team will have cancer survivors on the field before the game to make a giant pink ribbon. Saturday’s game at 6:05, Sunday 1:35. The team then travels to Nashville for a four-game set before coming back to Memphis to play four more against the Sound. May 24th is Memphis Chicks retro shirt giveaway.

You can get tickets for all Redbird home games at the the Memphis Redbirds website or by calling (901) 721-6000. Hope to see you there!

Now, on to the Chat Session……

Chad Renning hey guys

Mike Hobson Good morning Chad!

Coop Good morning Chad. Thank you for stopping by today!

Mike Hobson Don't know if word has trickled down to Memphis yet, but the Post is reporting that Mulder is headed back down to start his 2nd rehab session. He should be scheduled to pitch on Tuesday

Chad Renning I had not heard about Mulder

Mike Hobson Memphis closer Chris Perez was added to the roster to replace the injured Jason Isringhausen. In his first appearance last night, Perez looked decent in his one inning of work. Allowed only 1 base runner due to an error by Pujols.

Mike Hobson Cards got to start hitting with RISP or it's going to be a very long season, no matter how well the pitching staff is going

Coop Did Perez really throw that 100 MPH?

Mike Hobson I doubt it. (100 mph). He seemed to be in the mid 90's at best last night

Coop I did see that in the PD. I guess I see Boggs again tomorrow afternoon (at Memphis).

Chad Renning (Jason) Motte was real good last night (at Memphis).

Coop Knocked my eyes out. That was fun.

Mike Hobson How good was Jason last night?

Chad Renning That was the best I'd seen him pitch all year...he was throwing hard and he had tons of movement

Chad Renning I don’t think anyone touched him

Mike Hobson I saw JM pitch last year at Springfield and I was more impressed by him than Perez.

Mike Hobson Course that was a small sample size- 3 games

Mike Hobson Does Jason still sprint to the mound from the bullpen?

Chad Renning I’ve been impressed with him all year, but last night was one of those times that I think everything was working for him.

Chad Renning No, he'll run in, but nothing noticeable

Coop I wasn't noticing a sprint between innings.

Mike Hobson The times I saw him last year, when he got the call to come in, he sprinted to the mound. Very noticeable when you compared it to everyone else just jogging in

Coop Worrell had the low underhand rising right and the sidearm sinking. Th batters weren't able to do much with it.

Chad Renning He was also pretty good last night.....the pair went 3 innings with 6 K'S AND NO HITS

Coop I liked all those K's on the LF board.

Chad Renning Yeah, it was like 13 last night (K’s) ....always fun

Mike Hobson And shocked me this morning when I looked up the standings and Memphis was finally at .500 plus they were in a tie for first. Kind of sneaked up on me

Chad Renning It definitely a nice thing....they really have the talent to do great things.....I really like the rotation now

Coop With the Bar B Que downtown, I was pleased with a good crowd. They were into the game all the way. Saw a good game.

Chad RenningThe crowd was great. We just need to get more out there

Chad Renning the lineup is also pretty stacked

Mike Hobson Rotation - how would you rank them 1-5?

Chad Renning I have not seen (Jaime) Garcia pitch live, but everything I’ve heard has been real good

Mike Hobson Would you rank him #1 based on his line/reputation?

Chad Renning Not yet, because he's only 2 starts in.....

Chad Renning That’s what’s kind of tough about that question....they're all still pretty new to AAA

Chad Renning Walters looked great in his first couple, but last night he got hit around a bit...
Coop I'm hoping to see him soon. Nashville gets the next time

Mike Hobson Personally - I'd rank them in the following order - Garcia, Boggs, Walters and Hawksworth rounds it out. Though I'm tempted to pencil in Castellanos ahead of the Hawk at this point

Chad Renning yeah, hopefully when the sound come back next week

Chad Renning I’ve seen the most of Boggs and have been really impressed....I've also liked Walters a ton, I think last night was just one of those nights, he was around the plate and making some good pitches, they just came out hot in the 1st

Coop Walters got 2 strikes a lot, but seemed to let down. He plunked Mayberry for the start of a rally. Then lots of 2 strike stuff in holes.

Chad Renning good call Coop

Chad Renning he was always ahead of hitters

Mike Hobson Offensively, Nick Stavinoha continues to rake. Hitting .368 with a .400+ OBP

Chad Renning yeah Stavinoha is on fire, I think he's got a base hit in something like 22 of his last 26

Mike Hobson I know Nick has a knock on him defensively, but how much longer can they keep his bat down at Memphis?

Chad Renning so is Phelps and Barden.....Phelps had 5 RBI’s last night and has been really hitting it hard every where,....Barden had 3 hits and picked up where he left off in Tucson...oh yeah and Mather has homered in 4 straight games.

Coop I didn't think Phelps hit his as hard as he did. That was a blast.

Chad Renning Yeah, the only ones that were farther this year were Freese hit the YMCA building and Rasmus reached the bridge in right

Chad Renning Phelps got all of it

Coop They moved Rasmus down. That was needed

Mike Hobson Good to hear. I remember a few weeks ago we were talking about Phelps and he witting sub .200. He's now upped his average to .286. A nice ride for him the last couple of weeks
Mike Hobson CR - off hand, do you know the Memphis consecutive game HR record?

Chad Renning I don’t, I can look it up later today...

Mike Hobson Mather has got to be closing in on it. Would be nice to know. If you can look it up and forward it to me, I'll put it in the wrap-up you sent me

Chad Renning I’ll check it out

Mike Hobson thanks

Chad Renning Phelps has been swinging it more of the way I expected him to coming into this season

Mike Hobson His past record shows that it would hit. Just took him some time to adjust. Which all professional hitters seem to do eventually.

Chad Renning True

Mike Hobson And speaking of adjusting. How is Colby handling his very slow start Is he hitting into "hard" outs or are the pitchers starting to carve him out on a routine basis?

Mike Hobson Does he need to take a step back (to Springrield) to get his stroke going? I hate to see what happened to Travis Hanson happen to him

Chad Renning i think its one of those slumps and he needs just get through it, he catching some bad breaks and just trying to make adjustments to AAA pitching

Chad Renning I think hell be fine.....he's trying like heck to get out of the funk

Chad Renning I think he’s too good offensively for this to last long

Mike Hobson I agree. And it could turn around with just 1 good AB. I'm sure he's getting a lot of suggestions on how to break out. My suggestion would be to bunt for a hit.

Chad Renning Did you guys say Perez got an appearance last night? I haven’t had a chance to check on him?

Mike Hobson Perez got into the game about the 6th if my memory is right. Maybe the 7th. Pitched 1 inning, no hits. The only base runner got on due to a Pujols error
Coop He was humming it

Chad Renning That’s what really impressed me Thurs night...he (Rasmus) had a great bunt to start off the 10th(?), Metcalf from OK just made a phenominal play to throw him out

Chad Renning his control was good?

Coop Perez got the 7th

Tulcard Hello all....control was good. I'm sure he had the butterflies going.

Mike Hobson Went deep into the counts - but was throwing 94-95 on the gun. Though I saw 1 98mph and there was talk that he hit the century mark once

Mike Hobson But I didn't see it

Chad Renning wow, good to hear, he was always very personable down here and hope he sticks there

Tulcard Starting Longoria off with 2 breaking pitches for strikes allowed Perez to own him in that AB.

Coop Tony didn't want to talk about the 100 MPH

Tulcard I think TLR ought to let him close now....

Mike Hobson Neither did Perez. He attributed it to the bat coming off the bat

Tulcard The 100 MPH was a mirage....Perez even admitted so.

Mike Hobson I agree Tully. He's been groomed as a closer all of his career. Put him into the situation that he's been trained for. Don't throw something new at him

Mike Hobson Bernie M said the same thing in his column this morning

Tulcard Bernie is a wise man....

Tulcard Looks like Lohse will be starting tomorrow as Parisi went 2IP....hope TLR knows what he is doing.

Mike Hobson Gentlemen - its been fun, but I need to duck out to catch my ride down to the park for the Rays-Cards game. Tully can bring it the rest of the way home.
Tulcard How did Ron flores do this week?

Chad Renning what was Parisi's line from last night?

Tulcard OK Bleacher....game starts in an hour.

Coop There not any word on Reyes trade front, is there?

Chad Renning Flores threw 2 innings of shut out ball Thursday night

Chad Renning I haven’t heard any Reyes trade talk

TulcardParisi - 2 IP, 2 Hits, 0 BB, 0 Runs and 3 K's....pretty impressive. I would tend to believe that if the SP falters he will get his opportunity in that role.

Chad Renning good to hear about him too

Tulcard The reason I ask about Flores is that I really have never thought much of Villone

Tulcard ....and quite possibly we may need a Left Hander out of the pen before long.

Chad Renning Flores has been good all season, he had a stretch recently where he gave up some runs, but his ERA is still in the 2.00's

Tulcard I am sure that his efforts are being recognized....especially since T. Johnson is out for the year.

Chad Renning anything else fellas? I have to get to work...

Coop Thank you, Chad

Tulcard How is Brad Thompson doing? Rehabbing yet?

Chad Renning have not seen him in Memphis and haven’t heard

Tulcard Thanks Chad....have a great week!

Chad Renning thanks for having me...you too

Chad Renning later

If you have any follow-up questions from today’s chat session, please post them on this thread and I’ll contact Chad to get the answer. Thanks for reading today’s chat transcript.

Stay tuned. The Cards board will be chatting with members of the Memphis Redbirds every Saturday at 10 AM throughout the 2008 season. Stop by and join in the fun!

Links to previous chat sessions:

2008 Season:

- May 3 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger
- April 26 Chat Session with Chad Renning
- April 12 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger

2007 Season:

– John Vuch
- John Vuch (followup questions)
– Cody Haerther
- Mike Lindskog
- Kyle McClellan
- Dave Chase
- David Kelly
- Steve Selby

Copyright © 2008 FanHome.com LLC. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All rights reserved.

05-19-2008, 11:18 AM	#1 (permalink)
BleacherBum593 Moderator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: St Louis (LF Bleachers) Posts: 1,903	Chat Session with Memphis Redbirds Organization - Chad Renning 05/17/08 Following is the edited chat room session of Saturday, May 17, 2008. The guest was Mr. Chad Renning from the Media Relations Department of the Memphis Redbirds, the triple A farm club of the St Louis Cardinals. The chat on Saturday is part of a series of regularly scheduled chat sessions with members of the Memphis Redbirds organization. The chats will be held on Saturday’s at 10AM at FanHome.com and is sponsored by Rockin’ the Red. Rockin' the Red is a blog based on the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise and was created as a place to discuss and debate Cardinals baseball. Rockin’ the Red is an Official Sponsor of the Cardinal Board at Fanhome.com All of this is prior to Saturday’s game against Oklahoma… It’s a good time for the Redbirds. The team is currently 20-21 (as of 5/16) and just a game out of first place in the American Southern Division in the PCL. They are on a two-game winning streak and just returned from their first winning road trip of the year, going 5-3 between two four-game series in Las Vegas and Tucson. Nick Stavinoha is currently fifth in the PCL in batting average at .374. Last night they beat the Oklahoma RedHawks 6-4 in 12 innings on a Joe Mather two-run homer. It is also exciting because four of the Cardinals top five prospected are in Memphis (Colby Rasmus, Bryan Anderson, Mitchell Boggs and Jaime Garcia). The Redbirds also have last year’s organization pitcher of the year in PJ Walters. There is a ton of young talent in Memphis. This week coming up…. The Redbirds are in the middle of a four-game series with Oklahoma, highlighted by Sunday’s Paint the Park Pink. The Redbirds will be wearing pink uniforms and the entire organization will be celebrating breast cancer survivors and raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation (similar to MLB’s Mother’s Day Celebration). The team will have cancer survivors on the field before the game to make a giant pink ribbon. Saturday’s game at 6:05, Sunday 1:35. The team then travels to Nashville for a four-game set before coming back to Memphis to play four more against the Sound. May 24th is Memphis Chicks retro shirt giveaway. You can get tickets for all Redbird home games at the the Memphis Redbirds website or by calling (901) 721-6000. Hope to see you there! Now, on to the Chat Session…… Chad Renning hey guys Mike Hobson Good morning Chad! Coop Good morning Chad. Thank you for stopping by today! Mike Hobson Don't know if word has trickled down to Memphis yet, but the Post is reporting that Mulder is headed back down to start his 2nd rehab session. He should be scheduled to pitch on Tuesday Chad Renning I had not heard about Mulder Mike Hobson Memphis closer Chris Perez was added to the roster to replace the injured Jason Isringhausen. In his first appearance last night, Perez looked decent in his one inning of work. Allowed only 1 base runner due to an error by Pujols. Mike Hobson Cards got to start hitting with RISP or it's going to be a very long season, no matter how well the pitching staff is going Coop Did Perez really throw that 100 MPH? Mike Hobson I doubt it. (100 mph). He seemed to be in the mid 90's at best last night Coop I did see that in the PD. I guess I see Boggs again tomorrow afternoon (at Memphis). Chad Renning (Jason) Motte was real good last night (at Memphis). Coop Knocked my eyes out. That was fun. Mike Hobson How good was Jason last night? Chad Renning That was the best I'd seen him pitch all year...he was throwing hard and he had tons of movement Chad Renning I don’t think anyone touched him Mike Hobson I saw JM pitch last year at Springfield and I was more impressed by him than Perez. Mike Hobson Course that was a small sample size- 3 games Mike Hobson Does Jason still sprint to the mound from the bullpen? Chad Renning I’ve been impressed with him all year, but last night was one of those times that I think everything was working for him. Chad Renning No, he'll run in, but nothing noticeable Coop I wasn't noticing a sprint between innings. Mike Hobson The times I saw him last year, when he got the call to come in, he sprinted to the mound. Very noticeable when you compared it to everyone else just jogging in Coop Worrell had the low underhand rising right and the sidearm sinking. Th batters weren't able to do much with it. Chad Renning He was also pretty good last night.....the pair went 3 innings with 6 K'S AND NO HITS Coop I liked all those K's on the LF board. Chad Renning Yeah, it was like 13 last night (K’s) ....always fun Mike Hobson And shocked me this morning when I looked up the standings and Memphis was finally at .500 plus they were in a tie for first. Kind of sneaked up on me Chad Renning It definitely a nice thing....they really have the talent to do great things.....I really like the rotation now Coop With the Bar B Que downtown, I was pleased with a good crowd. They were into the game all the way. Saw a good game. Chad RenningThe crowd was great. We just need to get more out there Chad Renning the lineup is also pretty stacked Mike Hobson Rotation - how would you rank them 1-5? Chad Renning I have not seen (Jaime) Garcia pitch live, but everything I’ve heard has been real good Mike Hobson Would you rank him #1 based on his line/reputation? Chad Renning Not yet, because he's only 2 starts in..... Chad Renning That’s what’s kind of tough about that question....they're all still pretty new to AAA Chad Renning Walters looked great in his first couple, but last night he got hit around a bit... Coop I'm hoping to see him soon. Nashville gets the next time Mike Hobson Personally - I'd rank them in the following order - Garcia, Boggs, Walters and Hawksworth rounds it out. Though I'm tempted to pencil in Castellanos ahead of the Hawk at this point Chad Renning yeah, hopefully when the sound come back next week Chad Renning I’ve seen the most of Boggs and have been really impressed....I've also liked Walters a ton, I think last night was just one of those nights, he was around the plate and making some good pitches, they just came out hot in the 1st Coop Walters got 2 strikes a lot, but seemed to let down. He plunked Mayberry for the start of a rally. Then lots of 2 strike stuff in holes. Chad Renning good call Coop Chad Renning he was always ahead of hitters Mike Hobson Offensively, Nick Stavinoha continues to rake. Hitting .368 with a .400+ OBP Chad Renning yeah Stavinoha is on fire, I think he's got a base hit in something like 22 of his last 26 Mike Hobson I know Nick has a knock on him defensively, but how much longer can they keep his bat down at Memphis? Chad Renning so is Phelps and Barden.....Phelps had 5 RBI’s last night and has been really hitting it hard every where,....Barden had 3 hits and picked up where he left off in Tucson...oh yeah and Mather has homered in 4 straight games. Coop I didn't think Phelps hit his as hard as he did. That was a blast. Chad Renning Yeah, the only ones that were farther this year were Freese hit the YMCA building and Rasmus reached the bridge in right Chad Renning Phelps got all of it Coop They moved Rasmus down. That was needed Mike Hobson Good to hear. I remember a few weeks ago we were talking about Phelps and he witting sub .200. He's now upped his average to .286. A nice ride for him the last couple of weeks Mike Hobson CR - off hand, do you know the Memphis consecutive game HR record? Chad Renning I don’t, I can look it up later today... Mike Hobson Mather has got to be closing in on it. Would be nice to know. If you can look it up and forward it to me, I'll put it in the wrap-up you sent me Chad Renning I’ll check it out Mike Hobson thanks Chad Renning Phelps has been swinging it more of the way I expected him to coming into this season Mike Hobson His past record shows that it would hit. Just took him some time to adjust. Which all professional hitters seem to do eventually. Chad Renning True Mike Hobson And speaking of adjusting. How is Colby handling his very slow start Is he hitting into "hard" outs or are the pitchers starting to carve him out on a routine basis? Mike Hobson Does he need to take a step back (to Springrield) to get his stroke going? I hate to see what happened to Travis Hanson happen to him Chad Renning i think its one of those slumps and he needs just get through it, he catching some bad breaks and just trying to make adjustments to AAA pitching Chad Renning I think hell be fine.....he's trying like heck to get out of the funk Chad Renning I think he’s too good offensively for this to last long Mike Hobson I agree. And it could turn around with just 1 good AB. I'm sure he's getting a lot of suggestions on how to break out. My suggestion would be to bunt for a hit. Chad Renning Did you guys say Perez got an appearance last night? I haven’t had a chance to check on him? Mike Hobson Perez got into the game about the 6th if my memory is right. Maybe the 7th. Pitched 1 inning, no hits. The only base runner got on due to a Pujols error Coop He was humming it Chad Renning That’s what really impressed me Thurs night...he (Rasmus) had a great bunt to start off the 10th(?), Metcalf from OK just made a phenominal play to throw him out Chad Renning his control was good? Coop Perez got the 7th Tulcard Hello all....control was good. I'm sure he had the butterflies going. Mike Hobson Went deep into the counts - but was throwing 94-95 on the gun. Though I saw 1 98mph and there was talk that he hit the century mark once Mike Hobson But I didn't see it Chad Renning wow, good to hear, he was always very personable down here and hope he sticks there Tulcard Starting Longoria off with 2 breaking pitches for strikes allowed Perez to own him in that AB. Coop Tony didn't want to talk about the 100 MPH Tulcard I think TLR ought to let him close now.... Mike Hobson Neither did Perez. He attributed it to the bat coming off the bat Tulcard The 100 MPH was a mirage....Perez even admitted so. Mike Hobson I agree Tully. He's been groomed as a closer all of his career. Put him into the situation that he's been trained for. Don't throw something new at him Mike Hobson Bernie M said the same thing in his column this morning Tulcard Bernie is a wise man.... Tulcard Looks like Lohse will be starting tomorrow as Parisi went 2IP....hope TLR knows what he is doing. Mike Hobson Gentlemen - its been fun, but I need to duck out to catch my ride down to the park for the Rays-Cards game. Tully can bring it the rest of the way home. Tulcard How did Ron flores do this week? Chad Renning what was Parisi's line from last night? Tulcard OK Bleacher....game starts in an hour. Coop There not any word on Reyes trade front, is there? Chad Renning Flores threw 2 innings of shut out ball Thursday night Chad Renning I haven’t heard any Reyes trade talk TulcardParisi - 2 IP, 2 Hits, 0 BB, 0 Runs and 3 K's....pretty impressive. I would tend to believe that if the SP falters he will get his opportunity in that role. Chad Renning good to hear about him too Tulcard The reason I ask about Flores is that I really have never thought much of Villone Tulcard ....and quite possibly we may need a Left Hander out of the pen before long. Chad Renning Flores has been good all season, he had a stretch recently where he gave up some runs, but his ERA is still in the 2.00's Tulcard I am sure that his efforts are being recognized....especially since T. Johnson is out for the year. Chad Renning anything else fellas? I have to get to work... Coop Thank you, Chad Tulcard How is Brad Thompson doing? Rehabbing yet? Chad Renning have not seen him in Memphis and haven’t heard Tulcard Thanks Chad....have a great week! Chad Renning thanks for having me...you too Chad Renning later If you have any follow-up questions from today’s chat session, please post them on this thread and I’ll contact Chad to get the answer. Thanks for reading today’s chat transcript. Stay tuned. The Cards board will be chatting with members of the Memphis Redbirds every Saturday at 10 AM throughout the 2008 season. Stop by and join in the fun! Links to previous chat sessions: 2008 Season: - May 3 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger - April 26 Chat Session with Chad Renning - April 12 Chat Session with Chad Renning & Eric Berger 2007 Season: – John Vuch - John Vuch (followup questions) – Cody Haerther - Mike Lindskog - Kyle McClellan - Dave Chase - David Kelly - Steve Selby Copyright © 2008 FanHome.com LLC. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. All rights reserved. __________________ "Build it and they will come"