Todd called up to Cards

JESS TODD "The call" finally came for Jess Todd on Wednesday night.

In fact, it interrupted dinner. But dinner became secondary, once Jess got the news.

"The call," of course, was from the St. Louis Cardinals, the Major League Baseball team that drafted the Kilgore native in 2007. Todd, a pitcher for the Cardinals' organization most recently at their Triple-A franchise in Memphis, Tenn., received a call during a late, postgame dinner on Wednesday night from his Memphis head coach telling him he needed to be in St. Louis on Thursday morning. The Kilgore News Herald broke the story online at kilgorenewsherald.com early Thursday.

The Cardinals did have to make room for the young East Texan. They did so by designating relief pitcher Blaine Boyer for assignment.

Todd, who will wear No. 30, spent his first day as an official member of the Cardinals in the air between Memphis and St. Louis, filling out paperwork, and then watching new teammate Chris Carpenter throw a complete game win on Thursday night.

Jess' mom Kim Todd confirmed the news earlier Thursday, and then members of the Todd family were making the trek to St. Louis on Friday to watch possibly Jess's major league debut this weekend against the Colorado Rockies. Friday's game was still in progress at the deadline for this edition of the News Herald.

File photo courtesy of stlcardinals.com ALONG THE WAY — Jess Todd (above) made a few stops between Kilgore and St. Louis — one of them was the Cardinals' affiliate in Springfield. Less than two years after he was drafted, the 2004 Kilgore High graduate joined the St. Louis Cardinals big-league team on Thursday. "It's really a shock to us," said Kim Todd, who said she had hoped Jess would be called up this year, but was thinking it might happen later in the season. "...We know that one of their starting pitchers has been hurt. ...Like I said, we're kind of in shock. It's a good shock, though."

The Cardinals, who fell to the Cincinnati Reds in St. Louis on Wednesday, picked up a 3-1 win over the Reds Thursday in Todd's first game in uniform. St. Louis is now 31- 23 on the season and host the Rockies in a three-game series this weekend. Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa has a habit, it seems, for putting recently-called prospects into the major league game quickly — it's very possible Todd will debut sometime this weekend on the mound.

The franchise's website, stlcardinals.com, reported the news of Todd's call-up on Friday, and on Thursday, the site reported that starting pitcher Kyle Lohse experienced tightness in his right forearm on Wednesday night after leaving the team's loss to Cincinnati. Lohse was being put back into the lineup after being out with a similar injury since May 23, suffered against the Kansas City Royals.

It's likely that Lohse's injury forced the Cardinals to go ahead and bring up Todd, who has developed almost a folk following with the Cardinals' fans, as any very good young prospect often does.

Jess is a 2004 graduate of Kilgore High School who won rave reviews pitching at Navarro College, then at the University of Arkansas. The Cardinals drafted Jess in the second round — the 82nd pick, to be exact — in the 2007 draft. He has risen very, very quickly through the Cards' minor-league system, with stops in New York and Florida, among other places, and had become a very effective closer for the Memphis Redbirds. He picked up his 10th and 11th saves this week. He's 3-1 on the season with an ERA of 2.96 in 24 1/3 innings pitched (over 20 games). He's walked only seven batters this year, and has 32 strikeouts.

Jess called his fiancee and asked her to pack things in preparation for a trip to St. Louis.

"But he's not giving up his apartment in Memphis," Kim Todd said. "He's just playing a wait-and-see game right now. That's kind of the mode we're all in."

Here's how mlb.com, Major League Baseball's website, chronicled Todd's first day in St. Louis.

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Jess Todd has been a fast riser since joining the Cardinals organization, but even he didn't see this coming.

Todd, drafted in 2007, was called up to the Major Leagues on Thursday, and he'll be hoping to make his Cardinals debut on Friday night against the Rockies. The righthander is the first 2007 draftee to make the Majors for St. Louis, and he'll be the sixth player to make his big league debut for the Redbirds in '09.

"It definitely surprised me," Todd said. "You think about this when you're little, pitching up here. To actually have the dream come true, it doesn't happen very often."

The latest promotion comes thanks in large part to a change in role this spring. Drafted as a starter, he breezed through his pro debut in the short-season New York- Penn League in '07. Last year, he started at high Class A Palm Beach and ended the year at Triple-A Memphis, forcing his way onto the organizational radar.

But in spring training this year, he was converted to relief, and the change has taken very well. He has made 20 relief appearances for Memphis, racking up 32 strikeouts against seven walks in 24 1/3 innings.

"I feel good the way I'm throwing the ball," he said. "There's always room for improvement. I don't have anything completely mastered. No pitcher does. I like pitching out of the bullpen."

Todd joined the Cardinals in the midst of an innings crunch after an injury knocked out starter Kyle Lohse after two innings on Wednesday. Chris Carpenter pitched a complete game on Thursday, though, so things are a little less dire.

Still, manager Tony La Russa has a tendency to want to make sure his new arrivals get their feet wet quickly, so if there's an opportunity, Todd has a good chance to pitch.

If it happens quickly, it'll fit right in line with Todd's professional history.

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Continue to follow this story right here on kilgorenewsherald.com and in the sports section as things develop. Also, follow the News Herald on twitter.com, keyword "kilgorenews."