Highlights from Thursday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games from Jupiter, Florida.
On Thursday afternoon, the St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers had their first games against external competition. Their opponents were the Florida Marlins, their Jupiter, Florida complex co-habitants.
As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch is 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.
It was the first of ten spring dates in which all five clubs play, compared to just seven dates ahead in which there will be no fifth contest.
Team summary: The Cardinals bookended the Marlins as Memphis at the top won, their first “W” of the spring in two tries, and both Quad Cities teams took victories. Springfield and Palm Beach were defeated.
My Pitcher of the Day: Springfield’s Scott Gorgen – two perfect innings, two strikeouts.
My Hitter of the Day: Springfield’s Tommy Pham – 3-for-4 with a triple, HR and also walked. On base six times between Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday’s schedule: In a rematch of Wednesday’s action, the Cardinals’ top two minor league clubs, Memphis and Springfield will meet, as will Palm Beach and Quad Cities 1. Quad Cities 2 squad will face a traveling team, the Long Island Storm.
The Storm field travel teams of various age groups from the Long Island and New York City area. They compete in various invitational leagues and tournaments nationwide. Former Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year Reid Gorecki, now in the New York Yankees system, and his brother Ryan are among the Storm’s instructional staff.
New! Player links: For more player information, click on the highlighted player names to head over to TheCardinalNation.com. There, you can view the detailed player profile pages for each of these players and several hundred more Cardinals farmhands.
Who else’s Cardinals spring training report offers that kind of integration and depth?
Memphis (1-1) defeated New Orleans, 6-5
Memphis Pitching
Trey Hearne – 2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 K’s
Brandon Dickson – 2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K
Chuckie Fick – 2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K’s
Matt Meyer – one perfect inning. Meyer was taken from the Cleveland Indians in the Rule 5 draft. Because he was taken in the minor league phase, the Cardinals can roster him anywhere they choose and would have no motivation to return him.
Matt Scherer – earned the win with a scoreless inning, allowing one hit. Once highly-thought of enough in the organization to have been placed on the 40-man roster, Scherer’s fortunes dropped since. He did not even score an invite to big league camp as an NRI.
Rich Rundles – picked up the save with a scoreless 9th, allowing one hit with a strikeout. A professional since 1999, Rundles pitched for Springfield for part of the 2006 season. After that, he made his MLB debut with a total of nine appearances for the 2008 and 2009 Indians.
Memphis Hitting
Daniel Descalso – 2-for-5 with an RBI and run scored. Texas League All-Star, Team USA Olympian and Arizona Fall League invitee would have to do a lot this season to top his 2009.
Tyler Henley – 2-for-4 with a walk and run scored. One of my dark horses in the system will need another good season to fight through the crowded outfield scrum to start for Memphis.
Daryl Jones – singled, scored a run and had two walks. His 2009 was wrecked by injury. It is time to step forward. Drafted in the same 2005 class as Colby Rasmus.
Donovan Solano – 1-for-2 with a run scored and two RBIs. Quietly gets the job done.
Colt Sedbrook – singled and walked in his two plate appearances
Mark Hamilton – walked, scored a run and had an RBI. Waiting to see if he gets time in the outfield as first base is nowhere to play in this system.
Kevin Howard – walked and singled and made a key tough play at 3rd.
Amaury Cazana – go-ahead triple and walked. Will he play in Mexico for a third straight year? Nothing against him personally, but why do the Cardinals keep him around? He can hit, but they obviously don’t have much in the way of plans for the 30-something Cuban native.
Jose Martinez – 1-for-4. Nice to see the former top prospect back in action after a long period of personal tragedy followed by shoulder problems.
Springfield (1-1) lost to Jacksonville, 12-7
Springfield Pitching
Scott Gorgen – two perfect innings, two strikeouts. Didn’t set the 2009 Arizona Fall League on fire, but was one of the more inexperienced pros there.
Brad Furnish – 2 IP, 3 hits, 3 runs, 2 ER, 1 K
Arquimedes Nieto – 1.2 IP, 5 hits, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s
Blake King – 0.1 IP, 3 hits, 3 unearned runs, 2 BB, 0 K’s. Discouraging to see the walks return. Hopefully, it won’t become a 2010 pattern.
Yoffri Martinez – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K. Recent free agent signee was not lights out in his Cardinals debut. The 24-year-old had been released by Pittsburgh last August and has yet to reach Double-A.
Jason Buursma – two scoreless innings, one hit
Springfield Hitting
Adron Chambers – 2-for-5. Coming off a big 2009 and finished third in the Colombian Winter League in average (.365), first in triples (6), second in hits, and fourth in slugging (.529).
Curt Smith – 2-for-3 with a run scored. That makes him 4-for-6 in his first two days. Was the 2008 Applachian League Most Valuable Player.
Chris Swauger – homered
Tommy Pham – 3-for-4 with a triple, HR and also walked. On base six times between Wednesday and Thursday.
Francisco Rivera – singled, homered and two RBIs
Matt Arburr – hit a solo HR
Palm Beach (0-2) lost to Jupiter, 10-0
Palm Beach Pitching
Adam Veres – took the loss, 2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Jonathan Gonzalez – 0.2 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Pedro Rodriguez – 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 unearned run. His first outing as a Cardinal. The 22-year-old Venezuelan was signed in late October as a minor league free agent. The right-handed Tommy John veteran pitched in winter ball for Caribes and inked his first deal with the Red Sox as a 16-year-old in 2004.
Houston Summers – 2 IP, 1 H, 1 unearned run, 1 BB, 1 K. Another veteran free agent signee. The 22-year-old former catcher converted to pitching in 2007 and features the knuckleball, so I imagine there may have been a wild pitch or passed ball or perhaps some of both behind that unearned run.
Ramon Delgado – 2 IP, 1H, 1 ER, 2 K’s
Matt Frevert – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER
Palm Beach Hitting
Rich Racobaldo – 2-for-4 with a double. A 2009 Appalachian League All-Star with Johnson City.
Xavier Scruggs – doubled
Osvaldo Morales – 2-for-2 with a double
Jason Stidham – doubled
Ivan Castro and Frederick Parejo – singled. Parejo will be a player to watch this year after he followed up his solid 2008 (New York-Penn League All-Star) with a quiet 2009. Still just 19 years old.
Quad Cities #1 (2-0) defeated Greensboro, 5-0
QC1 Pitching
Five pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout.
Mike Blazek – 2 IP, 2 hits, 4 K’s
Deryk Hooker – 2 perfect IP, 2 K’s. Could have been pitcher of the day along with Gorgen, but I expect Hooker to be able to handle this level of play.
Chris Notti – 2 IP, 1 hit, 2 K’s
Zach Russell – 2 IP, 1 hit
Andres Rosales – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
QC1 Hitting
C.J. Beatty and Travis Tartamella – each doubled and scored a run. From what I hear, if Beatty is half as charismatic on the field as he is off, the Cardinals really have something here. Too early to tell on the field as he missed 70 percent of his games with Johnson City in 2009 due to elbow and wrist ailments.
Ross Smith – singled and walked in his two plate appearances
Travis Mitchell – singled and scored a run
Robert Stock and Devin Shepherd – RBI singles. Stock, the Cardinals’ second-rounder in 2009, was the All-Star catcher in the Appalachian League before his late-season promotion to Quad Cities.
Luis Mateo – bases-loaded walk
Niko Vasquez, Edwin Gomez, Yorbel Alcala – singled
Quad Cities #2 (1-0) defeated Marlins 5th team, 3-0
QC2 Pitching
Five pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout.
Reynier Gonzalez – 2 IP, 1 H, 1BB, 2 K’s
Pat Daugherty – 0.2 IP, 1 K
Randy Santos – 1.1 IP, 1 H
Kyle Heim – 2 IP, 2 H
Tyler Lavigne – 2 IP, 1 BB, 1 K
QC2 Hitting
Edgar Lara – 2-for-4 with a double and run scored. Ranked in the top ten in the 2009 Appy League in these categories: 1st in games (64), 7th in doubles (16), 5th in home runs (9), 10th in walks (26).
Hector Alvarez – 3-for-4 with a run scored
Rainel Rosario – singled and had two RBIs. Great bounceback candidate after missing half the 2009 season with Johnson City due to a blood clot or cyst above his right knee.
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I am looking for some feedback here. As you can see above, I devised a way to link the player names back to the full player profiles that I maintain at the main site, TheCardinalNation.com at Scout.com.
These profiles include for each player:
+ Links to every article and news item about him from the last five years
+ Links to current season (MiLB.com) and career stats (Baseball-Reference.com)
+ Full biographical information
+ Season-by-season highlights
+ Videos (when available)
These player profiles are free (though not all the articles are), yet I don’t think many people know they are there. This comprehensive level of detail on over 300 Cardinals minor leaguers does not exist anywhere.
I spend an unbelievable amount of time on these profiles each winter and want them used more.
My question: Is it worth the extra 20-30 minutes it will take me each night to include the links to each player page from these reports?
not for me, as I know how to access them easily from the other site but others who aren’t used to that might find it more difficult. It is easy for me as I know pretty much what team roster the player is listed under. If there was one page that had all 150+ names (in alphabetical order) with the player profile links you could simply link to that page. A one time investment in effort but wouldn’t require the extra time every day. It might come in useful later for other articles such as roster matrix articles, etc. might be able to use it at the Globe- Dem in some cases.
The links probably have a lot of good info and can help justify a subscription.
I doubt it is worth 30 minutes per night to link to player pages. Let the reader go digging, if he wants to learn more.
Andres Rosales is mentioned above. The Cards signed him in October 2004, out of Colombia. A couple of years back, he elicited excitement among some fans. He may provide an example of why it is good not too get excited about Latins on grounds of youth. They sign earlier, since school ends, so will be young. It is still a long upward climb. Tools and performance can be exciting, age less so, whether high or low.
CC, if I did it, I would do it for the entire system of 305 names, rather than the 150+ in minors spring training now, but I get your point. A single page is an interesting idea. I will ask Scout about it first before trying to create it myself.
It is a little dicey in that when a player changes levels, so does the last seven digits of the URL to his player page. The URL also changes each season. However, in a given season, the information presented on the page is the same, just the team name might be different. Still, as players move around, I wonder if that might be confusing.
Still worth looking into. Thanks for the feedback. Others?
I should use the profiles more to try to follow the various comments made on TCNB concerning minor leaguers. I’m sure the links will be very helpful in following the minor league ST notes. Maybe you could insert links in Jumbos posts for me. Of course, I would think that many of your readers already know who these guys are anyway.
Its not by chance the Cards find these knuckleballers, Zink and Summers this year, a southpaw at AAA a year or two back. They must scour the minor league free agents hunting for knucklers. If a guy can improve this pitch, the Cards must think he could have a chance. So far, however, it hasn’t happenned.
more important to me on the roster matrix. save yourself the daily chore.
i can always keep the matrix tab up, when reading any article, so i have a quick link to a player profile page.
Signing Amaury Cazana was about $30MM cheaper than Arnoldis Chapman. Amaury did not have a smart agent to keep him outside the US draft so he could land a higher bonus via a competitive market for his services. Maybe he can become a coach or scout for us.