FSL notes: Cards' Woodford plays stalwart

Palm Beach's first-half title in the Florida State League South Division was built around a starting rotation packed with St. Louis Cardinals pitching prospects. Junior Fernandez was the most highly touted of the five, and Zac Gallen and Ryan Helsley both got off to impressive starts.
It was Jake Woodford, though, who pitched the clinching victory back in June, allowing four hits over 6 2/3 scoreless innings against Charlotte.

"Woody was unbelievable," Palm Beach manager Dann Bilardello told MiLB.com afterward. "He was a man on a mission from the get-go."
If the Cardinals are to have success in the playoffs, the 20-year-old right-hander will likely have to be at his best again. Fernandez is on the disabled list, and Gallen and Helsley are both now in Double-A. That puts the focus on the 6-foot-4 Woodford, the 39th overall pick in the 2015 Draft.
St. Louis' No. 16 prospect doesn't really look at it that way, though.
"We've still got a lot of good pitchers here," Woodford said. "We're all in the same situation. We're just trying to get better every time we go out there."

Connor Jones, a second-round pick in 2016, remains from the original rotation along with Woodford, and Mike O'Reilly has had success since his promotion from Class A Peoria.
St. Louis is well-stocked with young pitching prospects, and Palm Beach still has its share.
"It was exciting winning the first half, but that seems like a long time ago," Woodford said. "The second half seemed almost like a new year, and now the playoffs mean we will start over again. To me, it's just another chance to keep working on everything."
Woodford had a down July, going 0-3 with a 4.76 ERA and missing time with the flu. But he is 2-0 with a 2.96 ERA in August and allowed just one run in three straight starts, going eight innings in the last.
For the season, Woodford is 7-6 with a 3.27 ERA in 22 outings. He has just 65 strikeouts in 113 innings but isn't concerned about the low total.
"I try to attack the zone, command my pitches and let the defense do most of the work," he said. "I try not to waste too many pitches and my main goal is weak contact."
Pitching in the Florida State League gets Woodford, a graduate of Plant High School in Tampa, back close to home.
When Woodford allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings in a no-decision against the Tampa Yankees, he had more than two dozen family members and friends at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
"It was my first real home game since I signed," said Woodford, who was headed to the University of Florida before accepting a bonus of $1.8 million from St. Louis.
Plant High School is a baseball power, its list of Major Leaguers topped by Hall of Famer Wade Boggs. The Panthers, though, didn't win a state title with outfielder Kyle Tucker, taken fifth overall in 2015 by Houston, and Woodford.
"We got to the regionals as juniors, but that was it," Woodford said. "There is a lot of talent in Florida."
It won't be easy winning a Florida State League championship, either. But Palm Beach has something to play for in September, and Woodford is now the team ace even if he doesn't look at it that way.

In brief

No letup: Dunedin shortstop Bo Bichette, ranked No. 30 among MLB.com's top 100 prospects, was out of the lineup for nine days and returned just as hot at the plate as previously. Toronto's No. 2 prospect was 6-for-16 with a homer and five RBIs in his first four games, raising his slash line to .348/.401/.468 in 34 games with Dunedin. Bichette, 19, put together a .384/.448/.623 line over 70 games for Class A Lansing, winning Most Valuable Player in the Midwest League. He was a second-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2016 Draft. Bichette was promoted from Lansing with third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto's No. 1 prospect. Guerrero, 18, had a .333 average in his first 41 games for Dunedin.
T-Yanks' year: The Tampa Yankees went into the final week of the season assured of finishing with the best overall record in the Florida State League and were on the verge of claiming North Division titles in both the first and second half for the first time in franchise history. Tampa had to win its final seven games of the first half to edge out Clearwater but dominated the second half from the start. Part of the team's second-half success was a 16-game winning streak at home. The Yankees' team ERA of 2.86 leads the FSL and is second in the Minors behind the 2.79 of West Michigan in the Class A Midwest League. Tampa is 40-18 in the second half and 79-49 overall with eight games to play.
Back in form:Chris Paul, who was leading the FSL with a .351 average when he injured his left wrist May 30, finally made it back to the Fort Myers lineup Aug. 14. He had a nine-game hitting streak to start his return, and his .344 average would be leading the league by a wide margin if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. Paul, 24, was a sixth-round pick by Minnesota in the 2014 Draft out of the University of California and has played first base and the outfield for Fort Myers in addition to his regular third base. He had a .392 on-base percentage and .476 slugging mark in 58 games with the Miracle.
Quick pace: The FSL uses a 15-second pitch clock, rather than 20 seconds in the higher Minor Leagues, and the time of nine-inning games is about 2 hours and 35 minutes for the second straight season. That is 30 minutes shorter than Major League games and almost 10 minutes faster than any Triple-A or Double-A league. MLB mandated the 15-second clock for the FSL in 2016 as an experiment, and league president Ken Carson was concerned at first. "I thought we'd have a lot of problems," he said. "But everyone adjusted pretty quickly and it has worked out very well. Play is a lot quicker."