Highlights from Friday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games in Florida.
On Friday, the St. Louis Cardinals’ top four clubs once again faced each other as Memphis took on Springfield and Palm Beach opposed Quad Cities.
As always, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch shares game highlights. The raw data is his, with the comments mine.
Team summary: Memphis missed getting their second win of the spring as they tied Springfield in a shortened, five-inning game. As they should, Palm Beach defeated Quad Cities in the other intersquad contest behind 2009 top draft pick Shelby Miller and a big day from a pair of outfielders.
Combined records: The Cardinals records on the day were 1-1-2. Spring totals are now 13-23-6 overall and 7-18-2 versus external competition.
My Pitcher of the Day: Palm Beach’s Justin Edwards tossed a pair of perfect innings and added a strikeout as well.
My Hitter of the Day: Palm Beach’s Kyle Conley (pictured) had a double, home run and four RBI.
Saturday’s schedule: The Cardinals’ five squads are “home” as their Marlins counterparts take the short walk over from their side of the Jupiter complex.
Memphis (1-6-2) and Springfield (3-3-3) tied 1-1, 5 innings
Memphis Pitching
Matt Meyer – 0 2 IP, 1H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Rich Rundles – struck out the side
Matt Scherer – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s
Casey Mulligan – one scoreless inning with two walks
Memphis Hitting
Shane Robinson – doubled and scored a run
Jim Rapoport – RBI single – Led the system with 71 walks last year, but his OBP of .358 did not crack the top ten.
Daniel Descalso – singled and walked in two plate appearances
Springfield Pitching
Blake King – two hitless innings with a walk and a strikeout – Will this be the year he puts it together?
Jason Buursma – 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s
Adam Reifer – one perfect inning – This is very important to see. It will be very interesting to see who closes for both Memphis and Springfield this season as there are a number of candidates. Surely Reifer is among them.
Springfield Hitting
Adron Chambers – walked twice and HBP in his three plate appearances
Matt Carpenter – solo home run – A sort of under-the-radar prospect was pushed in his first season at 24. Wouldn’t be the first to struggle a bit at Palm Beach only to rebound.
Palm Beach (3-5-1) defeated Quad Cities (4-5), 7-4
Palm Beach Pitching
Shelby Miller – 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s – Touched by a solo home run. Other than that, he had what looks to be a good outing.
Justin Edwards – two perfect innings, 1 K – Allowed just one home run in 221 batters faced last season.
Pat Daugherty – 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 K
Jason Novak – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Palm Beach Hitting
Ryde Rodriguez – 3-for-4 with a run scored and RBI – Ryde, where have you been?
Kyle Conley – doubled, homered and had 4 RBIs – Ditto for you, Kyle. Great to see these two in the highlights. Conley was the organization’s Minor League Player of the Month last August.
Alex Castellanos – 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI – Continues to appear in these reports almost daily
Frederick Parejo – 2-run HR – Still just 19 years old. Very young for this level.
Jose Garcia – singled, walked and scored two runs – An organizational favorite is another under-the-radar guy.
Xavier Scruggs – RBI single and was HBP
Rich Racobaldo – singled and walked and had an RBI
Luis De La Cruz and Jason Stidham – singled, walked and scored – Last season, De La Cruz had a major league camp invite and was selected to the New York-Penn League All-Star Game. The 20-year-old needs to stay healthy to restore his prospect luster at a position that needs standouts.
Quad Cities Pitching
Scott McGregor – 2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s – Rough day for Scott.
Chris Notti – 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s
LaCurtis Mayes – 1 IP, 1 H – A guy to watch, especially if he can continue to keep the walks under control.
Miguel Tapia – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB
Quad Cities Hitting
Devin Shepherd – 2-run HR in his only AB
Niko Vasquez – solo HR (off Miller) – Former shortstop has seven minor league home runs in 704 career at-bats. Would be nice to see a third baseman with power.
Ted Obregon – singled in his only AB – Another shortstop to be considered among those at this position, deep at these levels.
Ivan Castro – 1-for-2 with a run scored
Releases and other news: On Friday, the Cardinals announced their second group of minor league player releases for the spring. The most prominent of the ten now ex-Cardinals is former second-round draft pick Brad Furnish. The others are pitchers Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres, Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez and Yoffri Martinez along with outfielders Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez. The Cardinal Nation subscribers can read up on all ten players here.
In addition, after their day off changing clubhouses, Tyler Greene and Jon Jay should be appearing in the Memphis highlights later this weekend as the two were cut from the big club on Friday.
The Roster Matrix is up to date on all players, though team assignments will not be changed until the full-season rosters are finalized around April 4. 287 players are currently under contract.
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Wanted to say again how helpful the comments are. Just a little blurb about some of the lower level guys goes a long way. Further info on the player page on the main site is just a couple click away. I pull up the appropriate roster and just click the player.
The identify of the final position player is one of the last mysteries. Its between Craig, Mather, and Stavinoha, two may make it, unless the Cards add another player via trade.
Some have suspected Mather has an inside track, owing to some ability to defend CF. But this could be contributed by Ludwick or Schumaker, with Felipe backfilling Skip. 2009 was a virtually lost year for Mather, owing to the effects of one or two injuries. He is unlikely to get better playing infrequently. For his benefit, the Cards could send Mather to Memphis to play everday and see if he can bounce back to his pre-injury abilities of 2008.
Mather’s bat has certainly not been impressing late this Spring. Certainly Craig and Stavinoha have been outhitting him.
Ottavino out pitched some guys who are still in big league camp.
Perhaps bb, but he has more work to do. His spring strikeout to walk ratio was 8-6.
Mather had a big year, IIRC, in 2007 at AA/AAA. He came up in 2008 and showed well, when he must have had a hamate injury, which can sap power. 2009 was a waste. The problem is he has not shown he has bounced back to pre-injury studliness. Probably the best thing for Mather would be to play at Memphis to demonstrate his abilities. Its hard to do that as a bench player, with few at bats, in the majors. Memphis could play Jay, Robinson, Mather, Henley in the OF.
Ottavino got Maertzed Brian, his hits/innings ratio was tops among all righties.
Bling, last spring, McClellan had a poor ERA, after finishing 2008 in a slump. He looked like a one year wonder. Once the season started, he turned out fine. Dunc would like to groom Boggs as backup closer, behind Franklin. Hawksworth did well last summer; he deserves a chance to pitch his way back to the minors. Once the bell rings, if anyone struggles, down he goes.
Anybody know exactly where Miller will start out the 2010 year? I see that he’s with the PB team. Also wondering if he will stick with Stock as his catcher like he was with the QC team in 09 and in 2010 Spring Training
I never heard of a minor leaguer bringing his cacher with him. Good question.
Shelby Miller and Stock will begin at Quad Cities. The Cards assign a lot of players to spring training teams one rung above their eventual assignment. Maybe this is to mentally prepare them for the idea they should aim high.
Actually, there is a good chance Miller will begin at Palm Beach, but Stock is most likely returning to QC. Nothing will be known for sure for another week.
Mr. Luhnow once predicted Pete Kozma would hit .340 at Johnson City. He also predicted Roberto De la cruz would begin his pro career at Johnson City and it turned out, Roberto began in the Gulf Coast and found it not a cakewalk.
Porcello has shown a high school grad can open in the FSL and be no worse for wear for the experience. So maybe Miller will also open in Florida. It is warmer than in the Midwest League in April, so perhaps Florida is a better place to look after a bonus baby.
If temperature is not an important factor, I would take it a step at a time. Still easy to hop a flight to Florida in a month.
Overly optimistic predictions made during the offseason are very different from assessments from coaches midway through spring camp. Still, it is certainly within your right to be skeptical, but at least please represent it as opinion rather than fact.
I for one would jolly well like to know some future facts.
Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter will make the Cardinals out of spring training.
I continue to be impressed with MM. It seems clear that Tony now has someone with a shared awareness concerning the “handling” of difficult challenges. I like what I’m seeing from Freese and Craig at this point which I attribute to a healthier environment…………….. Also, If Molina sees a number different than 8th in the batting order, someone should wear the “tar and feathers”.
Westie, MM is just a front-man for Ari Fleischer, the real batting guru.
Some ‘future facts’ which are not presented as mere personal opinions or predictions, but as absolute fact:
The Cards will be a mightly powerhouse in the National League, crushing all comers, and especially stomping the Cubs and Mets into little grease spots on the pavement.
The lineup will be fantastic, no, incredible, no, ludicrous. Yah, that good.
The rotation will be among the best ever.
Albert, Matt, Luddy will earn every penny and have career years.
Cys, MVPs, batting titles, HR titles, 20 game winners.