For those interested in the starting rotations for the Cardinals’ four full-season minor league clubs, here you are:
| Memphis | Springfield | Palm Beach | Quad Cities | |
| Thursday, 4/9 | Boggs | Mura | Diapoules/Kulik | Veres/Nieto |
| Friday, 4/10 | Ottavino | Fiske | Broderick/Lynn | McGregor/Tapia |
| Saturday, 4/11 | Walters | Dickson | Kopp/Additon | Fick/Rosales * |
| Sunday, 4/12 | Hawksworth | Furnish | off | off |
| Monday, 4/13 | Mortensen | Herron | Garceau/Castillo | Brown/Daley |
| Tuesday, 4/14 | Cardenas/Thomas |
Memphis: As I noted elsewhere, I was given word that Mitchell Boggs and Adam Ottavino were each moved up one day and original opening day starter P.J. Walters was slid to Saturday based on a request from St. Louis. Though Clayton Mortensen has not been formally announced as Monday’s starter, he is the fifth member of the rotation.
Springfield: Not much to say as the order following Kyle Mura (pictured) is set. The other four members of the rotation are right-handers Brandon Dickson and Tyler Herron and lefties Justin Fiske and Brad Furnish.
Palm Beach: The most recent working roster I had listed nine starters. Thomas Eager seems to be the odd man out at least initially, as the club goes with a four-pair, eight-man tandem rotation.
Quad Cities: Here we have ten starters, paired as noted above. Hector Cardenas has some biceps soreness, but is expected to be ready to go on in the final pairing on Tuesday.
Update 4/10: With the 50-game suspension for Deryk Hooker, Andres Rosales has been added to the tandem rotation in his place. Miguel Tapia moves up one day with Rosales scheduled to make his 2009 QC debut on Saturday.
Note: The updated Roster Matrix of the entire minor league system has been posted, including those players placed on the disabled lists and in Extended Spring Training.
I like the tandem starting program, as a business tactic. The mission is to home-grow pitchers. The tandem approach at the A level increases the number of entrants you can test and cultivate. Instead of 10 starting pitchers at the A level, the Cards seemingly now have 18, though still only investing in the cost of running two teams.
If some become accomplished enough to play at a higher level there will be plenty of time for them to throw longer innings within a 5 man rotation.
The Cards use the tandem for the bottom 7 squads (PB, QC, Batavia, JC, GCL, Venezuela and Dominican). This enables us to give more pitchers a chance. Its a powerful approach.
That QC rotation is very interesting and I am really look forward to how it and the PB tandem play out.
Is this the first time the Cards have used 10 pitchers in the tandem rotation?
W/ regards to your Scout article, is it your impression that Hamilton is on the Springfield roster now?
I believe this is the first time that QC has used a 10 man tandem. I am interested to hear who will replace Hooker.
CC, no, Hamilton is just in EST and not on any roster’s DL at this time. I know it seems a bit odd, but that is the way it is.
Most teams make prompt decisions about Rule 5 players. The Giants, however, are dragging out Perdomo, maybe to trade him to another team or work out a deal with the Cards to keep him in their minors.
Andres Rosales is taking Hooker’s place. Tapia has been moved up to Friday with Rosales going as the second tandem on Saturday.