Highlights from Tuesday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games in Jupiter, Florida.
On Tuesday, it was a camp day as the St. Louis Cardinals’ Memphis and Springfield clubs were scheduled to face off while the Palm Beach and Quad Cities 1 clubs worked out but did not play.
In addition, Quad Cities 2 had external competition in Gildea’s Raiders. Gildea’s is a traveling team that regularly makes the rounds of Florida spring camps. They have visited the Cardinals yearly for at least the last decade.
Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch continues to share game highlights. As always, the raw data is his, but the comments mine.
Team summary: Springfield’s hitters got healthy, but it was at the expense of Memphis’ staff. Quad Cities 2 were victims of the traveling Raiders.
Combined records: Records on the day were 1-2. Spring totals are now 9-17-2.
My Pitcher of the Day: Quad Cities 2’s Hector Hernandez spun two perfect innings, striking out three.
My Hitter of the Day: Springfield’s Curt Smith (pictured) drove in six runs on three hits, including a grand slam. What? No triple?
Wednesday’s schedule: The Cardinals’ five clubs have a walking road trip over to the Marlins’ side of the Roger Dean Stadium complex.
Memphis (1-4-1) lost to Springfield (3-2-1), 15-4
(this game went 11 ½ innings to enable all scheduled pitchers to get their work in)
Memphis Pitching
Evan MacLane – 3 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K’s – First outing in minor league camp since being sent down. Allowed four runs on 4 2/3 innings with St. Louis and a rough “B” game outing.
Gary Daley – 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K – Continues to exhibit steady progress and was the only Memphis hurler on the day to put a zero on the scoreboard.
Trey Hearne – 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Santo Maertz – 0.2 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 2 BB
Matt Meyer – 1 IP, 2H, 1 ER, 1 K
Matt Scherer – 1 IP, 3H, 2 ER, 2 K’s
Rich Rundles – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 unearned run
Adam Reifer – 0.2 IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 2 BB – Rough outing for our 20th-ranked Cardinals prospect. Also had an up and down Arizona Fall League stint in which his control was shaky and his ERA was 7.59.
Memphis Hitting
Steven Hill – 2-for-2, HR, 2 RBIs – Can’t do much better than that, but where could he play defensively for a Memphis roster that appears set at his positions?
Kevin Howard and Colt Sedbrook – doubled
Bryan Anderson – RBI single
Springfield Pitching
Shaun Garceau – 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K – The comeback continues…
Mark Diapoules – 3 IP, 3 H, 1 ER
Kevin Thomas – 3 IP, no hits, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K – Has walked 50 in 153 1/3 professional innings in 2008 and 2009.
LaCurtis Mayes – 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB – 21-year-old reliever fanned 33 and walked 13 in 25 1/3 Batavia innings last summer.
Jason Buursma – 1 IP, 1 K
Springfield Hitting
Tommy Pham – 3-for-4 with triple, RBI, two runs, two walks – Extending his strong hitting this spring.
Curt Smith – three hits including 2-run double, grand slam = 6 RBI – Player of the Day!
Andrew Brown – 2-for-5 with double, two walks, two runs, RBI – Continues to produce and will be especially intriguing if third base experiment is successful.
Charlie Cutler – two doubles in 3 ABs, 4 RBI – All the catcher does is hit, but has Pags, Anderson, Hill and Cruz blocking him.
Matt Carpenter – double – 24-year-old 3B slowed considerably after mid-season arrival in Palm Beach. It was his third level in 2009.
Pete Kozma – single and two walks – Stole a base and scored a run in major league camp despite getting just one official at-bat.
Palm Beach (2-4) and Quad Cities 1 (2-4)
Both clubs worked out Tuesday, but did not play a game.
Quad Cities #2 (2-5) lost to Gildea’s Raiders, 8-3
(this game went 12 innings to enable all scheduled pitchers to get their work in)
Quad Cities #2 Pitching
Hector Hernandez – 2 perfect innings with 3 K’s – Pitcher of the Day
Travis Lawler – 2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 K’s
Trevor Rosenthal – 2 IP, 3 H, an unearned run, 2 K’s – Fanned 26 in 24 innings in pro debut in Gulf Coast League pen in 2009.
Cale Johnson – 2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s
Pitching then combined for four perfect innings with 10 K’s to finish the game.
Jason Novak – 1 IP, 2 K’s
Miguel Tapia – 1 IP, 2 K’s
Casey Mulligan and Blake King – each struck out the side in their inning of work – I don’t know about you, but I think these two are definitely ringers!
Quad Cities #2 Hitting
Jason Stidham – 2-for-2 with double, two walks, run – Middle infielder posted a .700 OPS with Quad Cities in his professional debut in 2009. Was the Cards’ eighth-round pick.
Romulo Ruiz – two-run double
Cesar Valera – double, run
Jesus Montero – double – 18-year-old making first US appearance after two VSL and one DSL seasons. Challenge is .605 career OPS.
Edgar Lara – single, walk, run – Starting fifth year in the system and should contend for Quad Cities after two seasons with Johnson City.
Anthony Garcia – RBI single in only AB – Puerto Rican catcher was taken in the 18th round last June. Batted .235 in 51 GCL at-bats.
Releases: Earlier in the day, the Cardinals released seven minor leaguers, pitchers Justin Fiske, Andres Rosales, Jonathan Gonzalez, Reynier Gonzalez and Marco Gonzalez, first baseman Matt Arburr and catcher Blake Murphy.
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Good to see Hernendez come back after a poor outing last time.
McLane may not make it to Memphis.
Mayes has definitely been flying under the radar.
Can they keep Pham out of Springfield if he continues to tear it up?
Mayes is definitely a guy I am watching. They are going to have some tough decisions in the outfield for Memphis and Springfield. Pham is clearly making it tougher. Good for him!
This week’s column is up at the Globe-Democrat. The primary topic is problems in the Dominican and the possibility of an international draft.
Nice article. The main problem with the Dominican is that there are no reliable stats for the MIT wonks. Need more cigar chompers on the ground.
The article mentions age fraud. I have heard some talk on the radio regarding the reliability of Albert’s age. I guess it would matter if he’s 33 or whatever rather than 30 when you are talking about 8+/200+. I can see where the number crunchers would be dissatisfied with the current situation.
“It is almost like a crime syndicate”?
Money…………fraud…………..organized crime…………Everyone has to pass a drug test right?..
Its the money, that’s the issues. The perception that the Dominican society must come clean seems naive.. Its seems to me instead of giving these kids millions, they should give scholarships to American schools and evaluate them here once they have a met minimum educational requirement. If they all had to go through such a program, we we know allot more about them and if they fail, they would have something to show for it. Citizenship maybe? A diploma? Any team signing them in a subsequent draft then pays back MLB for a start. If it was mandatory, all problems solved. The only people you deny are the gangsters. A league rule makes it simple………………and right! This is about regulating competitive advantages. How much off-shore money, completely unregulated is actually involved here?
Nice tie Brian.
I’m for letting the Domicans run their own country, including what if any regulation there should be of kids playing ball and signing contracts. Free market capitalism is perfectly capable of dealing with the necessary risk assessment.
BB, it not about their country………its about this baseball league. Its not this way with players from any other region…………….because they have laws. Our system is creating (encouraging) lawlessness there. You can bet we are only seeing the surface activity. Why is it that you feel the Cardinals would ever come out on top in this situation. Hate to say it, but what about kids playing for the love of the game, without some crook handing out money for a better diet, and oh yeah, a needle in the butt will just get things going. Who do you think is supplying the Juice?
“Free market capitalism is perfectly capable of dealing with the necessary risk assessment.”
What are you thinking?
Pham, signed for $325K, like Darryl Jones at $425K?, is one of the Cards handful of what Luhnow in his lingo calls a premium prospect, whom the minor league system aims to cultivate. If in 6 or 7 years of pro ball, Pham can develop into a ML candidate, it will not be an utter surprise, on the principle, luck is the residue of design.
Its a newish phenomenon, the Cards having minor league players like Smith, Cutler, Hill, Brown, etc., blocked behind higher ups. It may be frustrating for them individually, but its also one sign of improved system depth.
Also blockage challenges each to bolster his skills by improving defensively. Anderson and Cutler can hit for average; what will hold them down is insufficient defense at a premium defensive position. Hill tries at catcher because its hard to rise at 1B/LF, given all the other good hitters at these positions. Ditto Brown trying 3B.
Re the Dominican……
Dominicans see reasons to try to fool teams via PEDs and by lying about being younger. These are eternal challenges and not only confined to the Dominican. Its just the Dominicans are smart and maybe birth records not too sophisticated.
The buscones owe to the absence of amateur baseball via educational institutions. If there are not high schools and colleges that provide kids with baseball opportunities, buscones fill the gap. This is an issue for the Dominican Republic to change or retain.
To some degree, an international draft is a non-sequiter solution to the perceived “problems” of age misrepresntation and PED use. Yet these problems will persist in the Dominican, regardless of a draft. How could implementing a draft stop the Dominican kids from taking PEDs? Only PED tests and suspensions can impede this! Or how could a draft allocating amateurs among teams on a monopoly basis somehow produce better birth certificates? There is no linkage.
Instead, the main function of a Dominican draft would be just as in the US to hold down signing bonus competition for amateurs, to save teams money. Owners dislike a competitive labor market, for good reason. Just like buscones, owners can be smart. They use complaints about PEDs and birth certificates as “cover stories” for holding down the costs of signing bonuses.
I agree with Bling that guessing Albert’s true age could be a consideration for DeWitt on a long-term deal. Its a little hard to believe Pujols is not one or two years older than reported.
Yet since the Cards acted as if they believed Amaury Cazana Marti was 28 in 2006, the team can also act as if Pujols is the age he has claimed.
Dominican society does not place great impotance on cataloging and documenting every new citizen. This causes some non-dominicans annoyance and so we think it is not good. We think educational systems and schools should administer sports infrastructure (and record stats). Is it bad that they don’t think that? Buscones are small businesses, spending their own money on risky propositions trying to make a profit providing supply to meet a demand. We think such persons whould be regulated, licensed and monitored.(and taxed. and taxed more, and then hit up for campaign contributions) Dominican doesn’t do it that way. I don’t see a problem. It annoys us, that is the only problem. Lets send baseball missionairies so they can be saved.
Appreciate your thoughts on economics and comments of respect for other cultures, Bling. Competition among teams, not available in the US, helps Dominican youths and their families. It would be nifty to see a repeal of MLB’s amateur draft in the States, so American lads and their families could similarly benefit from a competitive labor market, as well as American buscones, typically called agents in this country. The Cards used to do well at signing talent, before advent of the draft.
Leave it to Westie to find an international financial conspiracy in the middle of this issue!
“The perception that the Dominican society must come clean seems naive..”
Talk about naivety! So you want to take kids from their social environment and put them in a country and school with a different language and culture? Yeah, that’s a ticket for success for them and Major League Baseball. Even if successful, how does that get the gangsters out of it? Who is going to pimp these guys for scholarships? The same people!
You guys are sweet. How about post high school…………….oh, they can’t read or write in their own language either…….. Lets just give them a jackpot wad and an apartment in NY or Miami…..no problems there… yikes. I’m happy to see some of you guys come out of the closet………………….. A-Rod uses…….he is sniffing around Canada for a legal “edge”. Barry loves it………..Balco says,”we can get you through”. ……… How many of the local agents are working with the “chemists” already? Noticing a promising genetic specimen and fooling around a bit at age 10 or 12………just coasting them into the formative years a bit. How about just testing on kids to see if they pass the test. ……………wouldn’t be any profit in that for anyone. I could go on and on and actually “know” that this is the case.
We define what this competition is about……………..let the league do that. Make it less exploitative of the uneducated…………………… spend some of that luxury tax money on worthy causes…………………. their own language…………..give me a break bench boy. We have a nice multilingual program here in the states………every found a kid in Europe that didn’t speak three languages? There is some, “poor kids dreaming of America” crap going on here ……..its not the case in reality is it. America is about Al Pacino as Scarface. Any of you seen how they live down there after they’ve made it? ……………. Education is the only solution to these problems.
The exploiting the uneducated is pretty cliche but still good. Can’t read or write…good. Dreaming of America crap, powerful. Education the only solution, that’s kinda boilerplate, goes without saying. But how could you fail to use ‘proletariat’? And ‘fat cats’? Che would not be pleased, Westy. You need some re-education through work. Spend a week down there with Sally Struthers throwing bags of food out the door of a Unicef chopper.
The MLB rep will show up with instructions from Bud and the owners. What do you suppose those are BB?
Westie, Bling lives in eastern Montana. He’s one of my philosophical amigos. Bling seems to like you, Westie, despite the occasional error of your ways. He must be a nice guy, even nicer than me.
If you come out to Big Sky country, we will try to be gracious to a stranger. JumboShrimp will recognize you more than a few miles away by your strange citified ways.
Funny Jumbo, but I don’t think my scooter would be a hit there. And I don’t have any guns I don’t want the government to find out about.
Westy, the owners want to spend as little as possible in the Dominican. Their rep would be tasked with accomplishing that. It will be sold as helping the dominicans some how. Then the owners can all pat themselves on the back for saving Pablo from all the bad stuff that would have happened if he’d gotten a pile of their money, split with the buscone of course.
Maybe all that is true BB……………….you sound like maybe a collusionist…………….. all that grease and influence washing across a beautiful, folksy, emerald green society…………all for the love of baseball.
Sandy Alderson served a tour of duty as a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam, then went to Harvard Law, 1976. He has had a varied career. Hes a good guy for working on MLBs relations with Latin America. IIRC, he had a prior tour in this role. He probably likes the challenge.
Luhnow made an interesting comparison, comparing buscones to evolution. They evolve their games and invent new tricks to get around new safeguards invented by teams. Its kind of like drug smuggling. The authorities stop a channel for smuggling drugs, so the smugglers find new ones.
The buscone for Wagner Mateo runs a casino, IIRC. He is not one of the nun buscones, obviously. Must be very worldly, rather than other worldly. The top buscones are going to be smart businessmen who find, develop, and supply what MLB teams want.
Westy, the one in a million chance that some barefoot kid can one day go home to the shanty and hand mammasita a check for a million dollars is a beautiful thing. Many, many people would put an end to it because some rapacious buscone gets a third, and because the family next door gets nothing. The owners would love to use that sentiment to advantage, to keep their money in their pocket. An international draft would accomplish that.
Bling wrote, ” And I don’t have any guns I don’t want the government to find out about.”
Color me confused, are you saying you have some illegal weaponry? Or that you don’t have any guns at all?
Either way this is bad medicine Bling. What do you guys give each other at Christmas time? Without guns we here in Alabama would exchange apples and oranges like they did back in the day. I gave my boys 45′s for Christmas this year. And then it sounds like the battle of the bighorn in the neighborhood for 10 days until they shoot up all of the ammo.
And no automatic weapons??? Good grief!! In the rare case of someone trying to break in to your humble abode, one must have plenty of automatic fire to ward off the intruders. Bling, I can loan you some firearms if you are in dire straights. Let me know
Just advise the young men to keep the guns out of the clubhouse, please. I don’t want to see the penalty for asking stupid questions to go up. Then again, it might be effective in clearing out some of the competition…
Two of my brothers have all of the major North American trophy’s hanging on their walls, save for the Grizzly and Polar bears. Suffice to say I understand the origins of phallic augmentation. I still get some pleasure form holding a 300 Weatherby. When I think about its usage, the word chicken sh-t comes to mind. Along with vulgar and unfair advantage. I can tolerate a bow hunter who eats what he kill. They have sworn it off save for their meat hunt. I respect that.
Thanks for the offer RC. I’m not a gun person, and have very little skill or experience in that area. A Mossberg autoloader should give me a chance in a gunfight though, wouldn’t you think?. Not that I think it will ever come to that, but I wouldn’t want to let the second amendment go to waste.
I’m pretty much sick of spring training, lets get the party started.
The gun for you BB is the “Stage Coach”. They make it in Brazil now so CC can send it to you. Double Barrel three inch magnums……….18″ inch……..titanium pellets. It resolve most conflict’s …………………………………….with a nuclear precison.
Now you’re talking Westy. With those kind of tail feathers, we’d stand tall out there in Jumbo-land. I could put a side car on my scooter for you. Mounting the gun rack would be a challenge, but nothing a couple of real men couldn’t handle.
I guess Albert and Yadi are keeping each other company in the trainer’s room. That got me thinking about catcher prospects. How far down the Cards’ system do you have to go to find a catcher with real big league potential, defensively and offensively?
BDW must have digested the Mauer contract. No use having Mo talking about that sort of thing with a sore back singles slapper filled with inner conflict. Let him snap out of it first, if he can.
WC, I feel you in regards to the killing of animals with guns. I’ve killed a couple nice bucks with a gun but it just didn’t give me a rush. I found myself feeling sorry for the poor thing as I approached it and saw the eyes open and the tongue hanging out. Bow hunting is still hunting in my book but killing animals with guns is like shooting fish in a barrel and I’m not a fan. If you grow up in the south you must own numerous camo outfits and the more guns you own the more popular you are while growing up.
Now I will blast a squirrel into oblivion if I catch one on my bird feeders but most other animals are safe. I actually have some nice pics of a troop of raccoons on my facebook page who systematically cleaned me out of some pretty rare and expensive chickens. And I chose not to remove them from this planet, which is a sign of old age approaching I figure. My boys tell me daily that I’m getting soft.
But there is a certain power one feels as you unload 13 big fat bullets out of a Glock 45 in 5 or 6 seconds. We shoot for fun and at targets unless you walk up on one of my 20 bird feeders in my front yard. You do that and its on
The “Stage Coach” huh? Sounds like something I would like to hang on my wall. My prize possession is my McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle. That thing will blow a car in half.
Anything short of fully automatic, high powered (long range), with armor piercing bullets is a kids gun down here — and trust me, there are plenty of s toting guns here.
“….kids toting guns here”