Highlights from Friday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games in Florida
Friday brought another camp day in Jupiter during which intersquad games were held. As always, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch shares game highlights. The raw data is his, with the comments mine.
Team summary: 5-1 was the operative score of the day, as Springfield beat their big brothers from Memphis (the ones that aren’t in Minneapolis) and Palm Beach topped Quad Cities. The Florida State League club clinched the best minor league record of the spring as Springfield evened their mark once again. Both of Saturday’s losers, Memphis and Quad Cities, will break camp with losing records this spring.
Combined records: The Cardinals records on the day were… you guessed it, 2-2. Spring totals are now 27-33-8 overall and 18-24-4 versus external competition.
My Pitcher of the Day: Shaun Garceau, pitching for Springfield, tossed six shutout innings at Memphis, scattering six hits and just one walk.
My Hitter of the Day: Palm Beach’s Xavier Scruggs (pictured) went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. His 59 RBI last season between Batavia and Quad Cities ranked ninth in the organization.
Saturday’s schedule: The final day of formal competition will occur as the three northern clubs prepare to break camp and head out for the regular season. Memphis and Quad Cities play their Marlins counterparts while Springfield and Palm Beach are apparently done with game action for the spring.
Springfield (6-6-3) defeated Memphis (4-8-3), 5-1 (in “7-ish” innings)
Memphis Pitching
Evan MacLane – 6.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s – Veteran lefty decided to return to the organization for 2010.
Memphis Hitting
Charles Cutler – 2-for-2 with a walk and RBI – Is he the best hitting catcher in the system? By how much?
Mark Shorey – 2-for-2 with a double, walk and run scored – Has been coming on strong lately.
Jon Jay – 2-for-3 – Here’s hoping he sees ample time in centerfield this season.
Springfield Pitching
Shaun Garceau – 6 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K – The Pitcher of the Day coming off a couple of less encouraging outings. Only pitched 30 1/3 innings in 2009.
Matt Meyer – 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Springfield Hitting
Jim Rapoport – 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and run scored
Andrew Brown – 2-for-4 with a double and run scored – Was very hot earlier in camp.
Daryl Jones – doubled and scored – Hope he will turn it on when the season begins.
Curt Smith – singled and walked – Led Palm Beach in all three Triple Crown categories last season.
Colt Sedbrook – singled and scored – Was fourth in walks (52) in the system in 2009.
Steven Hill – singled, scored and had an RBI – With Springfield last season, made 40 starts at catcher, 30 in the outfield and 25 at first base. Also spent part of 2008 in Double-A.
Palm Beach (8-6-1) defeated Quad Cities (5-9), 5-1
Palm Beach Pitching
Jared Bradford – 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s – What looks to be a very effective outing was almost good enough to make him Pitcher of the Day.
Mark Diapoules – 2 IP, 2 H, 2 K’s – Solid relief from both who followed Bradford.
Jason Buursma – 2 IP, 2 H, 1 K
Palm Beach Hitting
Xavier Scruggs – 3-for-4 with a double and RBI – Player of the Day. Good to see you, Xavier. Where have you been?
Tommy Pham – 2-for-3 with a double and run scored – Running out of superlatives to describe his spring with the bat.
Francisco Rivera – 2-for-3 with a run scored and RBI – A lot of 1B/3B love on this team today.
Roberto Espinoza – 2-for-4 – Catcher is a career .200 hitter in four professional seasons.
Chris Swauger – RBI double
Rich Racobaldo – singled and scored
Jermaine Curtis – singled, scored twice and had an RBI – Fifth-rounder in 2008 is another who hasn’t been a regular in these reports this spring.
Quad Cities Pitching
Aaron Terry – 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R
Daniel Calhoun – 4 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 K
Joe Kelly – 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s – Continuing to look good and is definitely a player to watch in 2010.
Quad Cities Hitting
Niko Vasquez – 2-for-4 with a double and run scored – Is he borrowing Tommy Pham’s bat? He has six hits in last three days including three doubles.
Matt Adams – 2-for-3 with an RBI – Two consecutive days here after having been quiet prior.
Jason Stidham – doubled
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Maybe somebody was reading the blog and was reminded Adams was on the team.
Pham must be hitting .500 or so. He’s been such a pathetic hitter his whole pro career I’m surprised he’s still around, shitty avg., lots of K’s. Have there been any explanations for his hitting this spring?
Impressive by Gaceau. Looks like he definitely will get a starting nod at AA. Still haven’t figured out why he doesn’t K more batters.
Pham upped his line drive rate significantly at PB last year (from about !1% in his minor league career to 21%) though he only improved modestly in reducing his K rate and upping his BB rate. Too bad these Spring stats don’t show his K’s. It might give us a clue if he’s been able to improve something there. We’ll see them soon enough as real games with real box scores for these guys are only about a week away.
bb, with Pham, its all about the teams to which the Cards have assigned him. Team assignment has a significant impact on performance.
The Pham story is a bit like that of Darryl Jones.
Jones was a 3rd round draft pick to whom the Cards gave a 2nd round bonus, $450K, to pass up going to Rice U. He spent 05 and 06 at Johnson City, and 07 at Quad Cities, where he struggled. Because a bonus baby who was not achieving a lot, some fans were discouraged about Jones. Yet in 2008, he excelled at a higher level, Palm Beach. This was surprising and raised expectations again.
Pham was a 16th rounder in 06 who got bonused like a 3rd rounder, $325K, to pass up a scholarship to Fullerton. The Cards have moved Pham aggressively (JC, Batavia, QC, PB). He has been improving, but the upward moves mask this. Now in 2010, both Jones and Pham may repeat a level. They both should improve hitting stats accordingly, and if either does not, it will disappoint or owe to injury.
Jones never had the K rates or the low LD rates Pham had. There is little comparison.
Pham had a longer swing and was trying to slug. As Pham progresses, he will learn to be shorter to the ball (or will need to find a new job). Given this choice, he will likely learn to shorten his swing. These are just young people and are learning and improving, many of them.
One similarity between pham and jones is neither is a sure fire ML player. But they have some tools and if they work hard and enjoy some good luck, they may make some ML money.
I’m confused where you are getting your info from Jumbo. What I’ve seen first hand (and confirmed by what I’ve read) is that Pham’s problem is not a long swing (in fact it is short, compact, and powerful) but pitch recognition. I thought jones’ swing was much longer than Pham’s when they were at the lower levels.
Sounds like Brian chickened out on the weather for nothing.
Maybe I brought the good weather luck.
I scored family points, too. As I noted in my article, it is a birthday weekend as we celebrated with my middle son. Six months (or more) of baseball ahead…