Highlights from Wednesday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games from Jupiter, Florida.
On Wednesday, the St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers had their first games. This was intersquad action before they take on the Florida Marlins Thursday in the first of 2 ½ weeks of spring game competition.
As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch will be sharing game highlights with this site and several others with interest in Cardinals prospects. As always, the raw data is his, but the comments mine.
Both lower-level clubs took close wins in day one as Quad Cities won on a grand slam.
My Pitcher of the Day: Jesse Simpson, Palm Beach
My Hitter of the Day: Xavier Scruggs, Palm Beach
Springfield (1-0) defeats Memphis (0-1), 5-4
Memphis pitching
Charlie Zink – 1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s. I watched Zink pitch BP the other morning and find his knuckleball release amazing. He barely strides toward the plate at all (see photo).
David Kopp – 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. The oft-injured righty has been rehabbing hard all winter. Someone to watch closely this spring.
Nick Additon – 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Thomas Eager – 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB
Adam Reifer – one perfect inning. Will his secondary offerings improve enough so hitters can’t sit on his fastball?
David Carpenter – one perfect inning with two K’s. The less-heralded of the former catcher-to-pitcher converts proved his durability last season. His 52 appearances for Quad Cities tied for seventh-most in the system and his 12 saves was sixth.
Memphis hitting
Kevin Howard – 1-for-3, 2 RBI’s. Veteran minor leaguer seems slated to play third for the Redbirds.
Jim Rapoport – 2 walks, scored a run. Continues to draw walks. His 71 free passes at Springfield last season was by far the most in the system as the next closest was 54 (Niko Vasquez).
Mark Shorey, Colt Sedbrook and Tony Cruz – 1-for-3
Mike Folli – 1-for-3, run scored, diving play on ground ball up the middle.
Springfield pitching
Richard Castillo – 2 IP, 0 hits, 1 BB, 1 K. A very encouraging start for a young man (age 20) from whom much is still expected.
Eric Fornataro – 1.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 runs, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Scott Schneider – 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 unearned run, 1 BB, 1 K
Miguel Tapia – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Joel Pichardo – one perfect inning
Springfield hitting
Pete Kozma – RBI single and scored. Ex-first-rounder had a cup of coffee in MLB camp earlier, going 0-for-2 with a stolen base and run scored.
Curt Smith – 2-for-3 with a HR and a walk. Great 2008 debut and now fighting to rise above considerable 1B competition (Arburr, Brown, Hamilton).
Blake Murphy – 2-for-2 with a double, walk and RBI
Tommy Pham – singled and walked
Rich Racobaldo – doubled, scored and was HBP
Charlie Cutler – singled in his only AB. Cutler’s .322 batting average last season between Quad Cities and Palm Beach was second in the entire system to Matt Adams (.355).
Quad Cities (1-0) defeated Palm Beach (0-1), 8-7
Palm Beach pitching
Joe Kelly – 2 IP, 0 hits, 2 BB, 2 K’s. Minor league pitching coordinator Dyar Miller has been among the coaches calling out the converted closer as a pitcher impressing early in camp.
Andrew Moss – 2 IP, 2 hits, 2 unearned runs, 1 BB, 1 K
Jesse Simpson – two perfect innings, 3 K’s. His 1.01 walks per nine innings last season was seventh-stingiest in the system. Simpson pitched at Batavia.
Justin Smith – 2 IP, 0 hits, 1 unearned run, 2 BB, 1 K
Josh Squatrito – took the loss, 1 IP, 4 hits, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s
Palm Beach hitting
Jose Garcia – 2-for-5, run scored, 2 RBIs. A player Jeff Luhnow told me could be one to step forward this season.
Xavier Scruggs – 2-for-4, 2 runs, HR, walk, 2 RBIs. Scruggs finished tied for eighth in the system in 2009 with 59 RBI between Batavia and Quad Cities.
Osvaldo Morales – 2-for-3
Ivan Castro – solo HR
D’Marcus Ingram – 1-for-4
Quad Cities pitching
Daniel Calhoun – 2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB
Angel DeJesus – 2 IP, 5 hits, 5 runs, 3 ER, 2 K’s
Anthony Ferrara – 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K’s
Keith Butler – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K’s
Jason Novak – winning pitcher with a perfect 8th inning
Hector Hernandez – struck out two in a perfect 9th inning for the save. Lefty was taken in the 10th round in 2009 and remained in the Gulf Coast League all summer.
Quad Cities hitting
Niko Vasquez – Grand Slam to cap a 5-run 9th inning. The shortstop-turned-third baseman has just seven career regular season home runs – four in 2008 and three last season.
CJ Beatty, Ted Obregon and Jonathan Rodriguez – all singled in the 9th to set up the heroics by Vasquez.
Devin Shepherd doubled. Back after a year away. Was taken in the 11th round in 2008, them played in the GCL that summer (.272/.346/.325). Haven’t seen him do anything more than take BP cuts this spring, but he has the look of a player (see photo).
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Shepherd has a ML body, but is a project. Good he is back. Cant succeed unless you try.
Thanks Brian, I’m glad these are back! The Memphis club projects to have next to no power outside of Mark Hamilton if Mather and Craig make the big club, thank goodness they should have some arms or it could make for a long year playing small ball vs all the HR’s in the PCL..
Where was Devin Shepherd last year? I must’ve missed that story.
It’s fun to see all these names again.
Lou, Shepherd was out of the game last season. Technically on the restricted list. I don’t have the details of his personal situation that was behind it.
M25, great point on the lack of power. It is really system-wide. It is on my long list of blog topics. Last season, only two players across the nine minor league clubs hit more than 15 home runs.
Matt Adams has some power potential. I take it he is not a big league fielder though.
Adams had a tremendous start offensively in short-season ball. If could maintain his power and somehow manage to continue to hit for average, too, it would be quite the combination. Those who do the former without the latter tend to fall by the wayside as they move up.
I’m curious about Kyle Conley. He had that rough start in QC, but then tore through the NY-P: .385/.452/.752, with 24 XBH in 29 games.
He’ll be 23 in May, so there isn’t any time to waste. It’ll be interesting to see if he can handle PB right away.
One player development staffer I spoke with is much higher on Conley’s potential than Ryde Rodriguez or even Jon Edwards, two players against whom he may be competing with for jobs at PB.
thanks for sharing the minor’s report !
You are welcome. There are many more where that came from. Check back each evening.
In addition, for TheCardinalNation.com subscribers, I am just in the process of posting the detailed minor league rosters with team designations, starters broken out from relievers and more. Of course, it is all subject to change… and it will!
Conley, Ryde-Rod, and Edwards……
Conley played at the U of Washington or Wash State. He red-shirted and played 3 years, so by age he turned pro as a senior, though he still had a year of eligibility. He’s a big lug who can pull for power, but is not clever like Craig in using the whole field. Someday, Conley might move to 1B; he is not as athletic an OF as Mather.
Coming out of the Pac-10, Conley should open at Palm Beach, as did Craig, who played 4 seasons at UCal Berkeley. Based on experience, Conley is developmentally ahead of Edwards and Ryde-Rod, still trying to make low A. If they improve their skills, they might surpass him someday, but right now, he is ahead of them.
Matt Adams could be a pleasant surprise. He was too big, 240 lbs, for catcher. He played at Division II Slippery Rock, so was no high pick. His value is in his bat. He will go as far as his bat will take him. His bat could be good. Shifted to 1B, Adams coule be useful. He could excel at Quad Cities. Big Matt Arburr better lift his game, lest Big Matt Adams elbow him aside.
I saw Matt Adams playing collegiate summer league ball a couple years ago. That Illinois league, whatever its called now. The ball really jumped. He had a really big swing though. He stood out against the competition. I’m sure it was the same guy.
I looked up Conley and will correct erroneous memories above. He played at the Univ. of Washington, on the baseball team for 4 seasons. Did not get a lot of at bats his first two years there. Had a fine junior season and a good senior 1, though his OPS declined. So the guy played PAC-10 elite college baseball.
Conley finished high school in 2005, a year before Jon Edwards. Conley is about 9 months older, born March 1987, Edwards in Jan 1988.
Conley went in the 16th round his junior year at Wash U, then was redrafted by the Cards after his senior year in round 7. Though he hit better as a junior, Conley went up in the draft the next year, go figure. Maybe teams figured he would return for his senior year, so discounted him as a junior.
The Cards have had luck with well trained college hitters like Stavinoha from LSU, Allen Craig from California-Berkeley, Freese from S Alabama, Steve Hill for Stephen Austin College. Conley is another of these bets.
Ryde Rodriguez is a month younger than Edwards, born Feb 1988.
Ryde’s upside is he is a switch-hitter. A drawback is it was unclear he played amateur ball in Cuba, so he was a diamond in the rough. Signing Ryde also cost $460K, since he had to be signed in a competitive labor market. Ryde was not a cost controlled college senior like Conley.
Because Conley was a year ahead in high school and went to a good college program, he can potentially slot into the Cards minor league system at a rung above Edwards and Ryde, who are both working to make the team at Quad Cities.
Some fans like signing athletes out of high school, such as Jon Edwards in 2006. 3.5 years later, he is working to become established at low A, illustrating the potential cost of developing a raw talent. It can easily take 7 years to go from high school to the majors, for many players. In contrast, college senior Allen Craig is a ML candidate in just 3.5 years. This is why the Cards like signing a few older collegiates, like Conley.