Highlights from Saturday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games in Florida.
“All good things must come to an end…”
Saturday provides the final day of spring play for St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers before they hop Sunday and Monday flights to their initial 2010 regular season assignments (except for the Palm Beach team and extended spring training players who remain in Jupiter, Florida).
In this, the last game report of the spring, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch shares daily highlights as he has all along. Special thanks are in order to him for all the work on our behalf. The raw data that follows is his, with the comments mine.
Once the regular season begins, check out our daily Cardinals Major League and Minor League Notebooks at TheCardinalNation.com, each returning for the new year.
Team summary: Memphis took another defeat while Springfield won against their Marlins counterparts. It is also fair to note a number of Triple-A players are in Minneapolis with the major league club. Quad Cities reversed the tables on Palm Beach after losing to them on Friday.
Combined records: The Cardinals records on the day were 2-2 once again. Final spring totals are 29-35-8 (.453) overall and 19-25-4 (.432) versus external competition.
My Pitcher of the Day: Reliever Casey Mulligan of Palm Beach (pictured) completed his fourth consecutive scoreless outing of one inning each.
My Hitter of the Day: Nine total bases for the repeat top hitter of the day, Palm Beach’s Xavier Scruggs. A double, triple, home run and two RBI on top of three hits on Friday is a big week for some.
Sunday’s schedule: Players will be boarding planes for Memphis, Springfield and Quad Cities for open house, meet the fans and similar events early in the week. While some versions of rosters are starting to appear, represented as season opening done-deals, don’t necessarily accept them as final because they are probably not. There may be changes between now and Thursday, when the minor league seasons open. Even so, later on Saturday, I will be posting the most recent working rosters on the main site for subscribers.
Memphis (4-9-3) lost to New Orleans, 6-4
Memphis Pitching
Lance Lynn – 5 IP, 9 H, 6 ER, 0 BB, 5 K’s – I hope the 2009 Pitcher of the Year in the system gets this out of his system in Florida.
Eduardo Sanchez – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB – Pitching every other day. Third straight scoreless outing after a rough game last Saturday.
Adam Reifer – 1 IP, 1 K – Also getting into a regular groove.
Pete Parise and Blake King – each threw a perfect inning with 1 K
Memphis Hitting
Ruben Gotay – 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI – His importance as insurance to the organization increased when Julio Lugo was dealt to Baltimore.
Jon Jay and Kevin Howard – RBI singles
Tyler Greene – doubled – Interesting that Donovan Solano went to Minneapolis and Greene did not.
Springfield (7-6-3) defeated Jacksonville, 7-4
Springfield Pitching
Nick Additon – 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K’s – Has a career ERA of 2.79 in three pro seasons.
David Kopp – 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s – Second-rounder in 2007 working to remain healthy and demonstrate his potential.
Ryan Kulik – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 K’s
Chuckie Fick – 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R
Thomas Eager – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K – Cards’ fifth-rounder in 2007 moved to relief last season. Tied for the Florida State League lead in holds with ten and was second with 52 appearances.
Springfield Hitting
Adron Chambers – 3 hits, including an RBI triple and scored 3 runs – Chambers’ 16 triples last season not only led the Cardinals system, it was tops in all of the minor leagues… and the major leagues, too! You can look it up!
Daryl Jones – home run and sacrifice fly
Andrew Brown – two hits, including a long 2-run HR – Getting hot again as camp closes.
Pete Kozma – doubled and tripled – Had 20 doubles and three triples among his 111 hits between Palm Beach and Quad Cities last season.
Quad Cities (6-9) defeated Palm Beach (8-7-1),
Palm Beach Pitching
Brian Broderick – 4 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K’s
Richard Castillo – 4 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K – Tough outing for our #18-ranked Cardinals prospect.
Casey Mulligan – 1 IP, 1 BB, 2 K’s – Four consecutive scoreless outings after a rough opener on the 20th allows me to tag a reliever as Pitcher of the Day..
Palm Beach Hitting
I swear this list is the same characters from the day before, including…
Xavier Scruggs – 3-for-4 with double, triple, HR and 2 RBIs – Second consecutive Player of the Day nod.
Luis DeLaCruz – 2-for-3 with a double
Osvaldo Morales – 2-for-4 with a double – Tied for third among Cardinals minor league hitters with 15 home runs last season and his 82 RBI was #2 in the system.
Rich Racobaldo – 2-for-4 with an RBI
Matt Carpenter – hit a solo HR – Had only two home runs in his 251 first professional at-bats.
Jose Garcia – doubled and walked – His 27 steals in 2009 was second in the system.
Tommy Pham – 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored – My unofficial Spring MVP.
Quad Cities Pitching
Eric Fornataro – 5 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s – Sixth-rounder in 2008 has career 3.03 ERA, including an 0-5, 5.24 introduction to Quad Cities last summer. Looks to improve on the latter numbers.
Chris Notti – 2 IP, 1 H, 2 BB
Chris Corrigan – 1 IP, 2 K’s – Poised to improve upon 28-to-22 strikeout-to-walk ratio with Batavia last season.
LaCurtis Mayes – 1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 K’s
Quad Cities Hitting
Frederick Parejo – doubled, homered and had 4 RBIs – Has a real case to the Player of the Day. Has just 62 career RBI in 666 at-bats.
Ryde Rodriguez – singled, homered and had 2 RBIs – Supposed power prospect has five home runs in 523 professional at-bats, all in 2009.
Devin Shepherd – 3-for-4 with two doubles – Did not play in 2009 and his only six extra base hits in 2008 were doubles.
Matt Adams and Robert Stock – each hit solo HR’s – Adams hit ten home runs in 245 at-bats in his first pro season last year while Stock had seven, all at Johnson City in 170 total ABs.
Ryan Jackson – doubled
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Muiiligan is not on the Springfield roster and has been pitching for PB. However, I can see no case for keeping him there.
Looks like you may be heading for further disappointment…
On a day with so many guys with the big club – a lot of guys appeared to be playing a level up from there assignment – Sanchez, Reifer, King for example in AAA. Yet Mulligan still threw for PB, makes it look like Mulligan is targeted for PB.
Surprised by Kary Booher’s blog saying Cruz was being sent to PB. As much time as he spent catching AAA this spring I thought that if Pagnozzi was need with the big club, that he might get a brief stint at AAA – yet it looks like he is headed the opposite direction.
Wonder if the Cruz move pushes someone back to QC and impacts Stock’s initial assignment.
I got to watch some of the Springfield game, no walks from the pitchers, a good sign.
Impressed with Chambers, very aggresive approach at the plate.
Mulligan pitching for PB rather than sitting out for Springfield could be just to get him some work. On the day Garcia made his last start prior to today, McClellan was scheduled to pitch in a minor league game (which was rained out), not because he was slotted for the minors, but to get the work. Something like that maybe. I should mention that I know nothing about Mulligan.
Adams and Pham make the Report (pronounced Repore).
Brian probably has the official assignment sheet but is holding out because of giving his word or some sort of professionalism stuff like that. His recent guesswork will most likely be curiously accurate though. :>
Adron Chambers is interesting because he’s a lefty with some speed, and a high OBP despite striking out quite a bit. Seems to be capable in CF which is good given his lack of size. I noticed he had 11 assists last year, 10 of them from center or right. Can anyone comment on his arm?
Thanks for the report, southeast.
bb, the newest working rosters as of today are now up for subscribers. As I mentioned above, none of the opening day rosters are final or official yet. Changes will occur between now and Thursday.
vegas, I have no inside information on this, but I would be very surprised if they took any risks with Stock’s development. He reached QC at the end of last season and it would be most surprising if he isn’t on a full-season club. All indications are that he will start for QC. For me, the question is what to do if say Stock clobbers MWL pitching and is ready for a 2H promo with Cruz still in PB. My guess is that the Hill/Cruz plan would compress back into the 2009 level again. In other words, I have to think Stock will get priority if ties need to be broken.
If I can go way off topic for a minute, I saw where Mike Cuellar passed away today. One of my first baseball memories was at a game where Cuellar pitched a complete game for the Cards. I don’t specifically remember that, but heard my dad and grandpa talk about it for years after, remembering it when he was a star for the Orioles, and asking me if I remembered that game. What I remember was sitting in the first row down the first base line where Mike Shannon was the right fielder right in front of me. A few days later I got to go again, and Bob Ueker hit a homer, which I do remember because my Grandpa swore it must have been a corked bat and got into a shoving match with some guy over it. That would have been at Sportsman’s Park.
It looks like the Cards have had a change in philosophy about pushing players quicker. I’d be interested if we can get that confirmed in an interview sometime. It appears there new philosophy is aplyer must have sustained success at a level before moving up. Even that doesn’t always seem to be enough (Mulligan, Swauger, and others can attest to this).
I hope they aren’t doing this as a reaction to the low minor league ratings and thinking they show the experts by not moving guys as fast so they’ll look better. I realize some of it is necessary due to the pipeline being full but at some point you have to decide which horses to bet on.
bb, since Cuellar only pitched one complete game as a Cardinal, it is easy to find. August 26, 1964.
P.S. Uecker’s home run was on September 1, 1964. No notation on whether or not his bat was corked.
cc, I don’t necessarily perceive that and it is unlikely anyone would admit it even if true. There are clearly numbers problems and at least as of yet, there haven’t been painful cuts. Maybe they are still to come, though…
Come to think of it, weren’t you the one who was convinced during the off-season that they would need to make an abnormally high number of releases this spring? So far, my perception is that there may have been fewer, but I admit I haven’t checked the actual YTY numbers.
I think if they had a change in philosophy about how fast they pushed guys they might acknowledge it – they did when they changed it to push them faster — they may not admit the real reason though.
I think it is obvious though that they are changing their methods. It may simply be the pipeline is full but like i said, at some point you have to choose and it seems they are not ready to do that yet. I’m not sure how guys repeating levels or playing at levels above their age level is going to help in that decision.
I’d agree they may not have cut as many this year. Of course in just the 4 teams listed they are 16 players over the limit.
CC, Brian, is it possible the cancelling of instructs has any relation to a possible change.
Brian, thanks for the links to the box scores. Wow, those would have been some games to remember just for the competition. Pirates with Clemente, Stargell, Mazuroski. Milwaukee with Aaron. Brock, who wasn’t the lead-off hitter then, getting thrown out at the plate trying for an inside the park homer. And the Pirates third baseman was named Freese. (CC, you should be ashamed for not seeing how the Commissioner set up this whole recurring Freese 3rd baseman thing, for reasons which will soon become clear).
I was shocked to see the attendance was only 9,000. At the beginning of Sept the Cards would be coming on strong in the pennant race. That was the “Phillies Phold” year when they blew a big lead and the Cards came from well back, passed up two or three teams, and won it by a game on the last day of the season. Some old-timers that used to hang around when I was younger, thought Musial, who retired after ’63, and had played for some mediocre teams for about 15 years, never really was able to come to grips with that.
The instructs angle is something I hadn’t thought about but I’m not sure how it plays only because almost none of the players involved (who should e higher or who would need to be cut to allow players to move higherywould have been at the instructs this past year.
Darn, the Pirates on in on it too.? I thought it was just the big money teams like BOS, N?Y, and STL. How could I not see that. I feel like such a dope!
The P-D reports that Pagnozzi and Anderson have been returned to Memphis as Molina and LaRue are improved.
Looks like Wallace didn’t make the Jays 40 man. Haven’t seen if Edmonds beats out Corey Hart, But Jimmy has a sore Hammy. If the Brewers end up signing Dye and trading Hart then Jimmy won’t start much I would think. If Hart ends up with the Nats then Dunc is that much further down the food chain. Ankiel starts in CF for the Royals, Glaus at first for the Braves.
Should be a good game tonight. My second son invited me over so we can sit in his Busch II seats and watch on his HD wide screen. He’s got the seats outside on the patio next to the grill, and the TV is just inside the patio door where its shaded and no glare. He’s got the mini fridge out there too with an extension cord, stocked up. We figure we’ll throw on the brats right before the anthem.
Put on a tofu dog for me BB. Sounds like a party.
The Wallace reality is another indication of some of the issues Oakland was facing last year. Cards too for that matter.
Our opening series with the Reds and Brewers will have us talking here I’ve have a feeling.
Pressure is going to land on 1/2/5 hitters. If they don’t produce there could be some trouble. I can’t imagine either the Reds or the Brewer’s going after AP or MH until they are forced.
What ever shape Carpenter is in, the guy is a warrior. Should he have issues, I’m sure it will be a challenging week.
I know someone who told me that wallace was happy as a clam going back out west. Three teams in 2 years.
This business can lead you on a very strange path.
Lineup for tomorrow is up already, Shu, Brendan, AP, MH, CR, Luddy, Yadi, Freese. Colby got his wish about getting out of the two spot, but I don;t guess he figured on 5th. He should clean up. The whole reason for that awesome development can be traced back to the winter warmup when somebody put a bug in Mo’s ear about it.
Well, southeast, playing for Las Vegas in the PCL might count for ‘out west’.
Tofu dogs, Westy? There’s no tofu in baseball. You’re right about this first series. The worst thing to happen would be for Carp or Wainy to get rooked out of a win by the closer. That would stir things up.
Is the horde of MM oriented media is assembling yet?
Just guessing, bb, but I imagine TLR doesn’t get a lot of lineup orders from the front office. Then again, I guess the GM does receive requests from the manager to add players now and then…
Things are a bit different at this point between TLR and Mo/BD. I believe they are letting Tony work at this point. It seems apparent that the 90 million with little criticism has encouraged them. It also appears that they realize the volatility and possible instability of this lineup. Developing collateral in so many of these young players is what they always hoped for.
Your right about Frankie BB. A blowout by him is not easily remedied at this point in the season.
I think the Reds are a threat………….if they get rolling. If they pitch around 3/4 and Colby flies out to center/ left center………………..duck. If their middle infield starts banging and develops a swagger, they could be tough.
During recent years, there was liberal promotion, because of room on minor league rosters. This has brought about more players for higher level teams. The 2009 squads at AAA and AA made the playoffs together. These teams were young. For 2010, there are more returning players and fewer openings. During the next few months, things will probably loosen up, enabling in-season promotions.
Quite an opening day. Thank you again to Arron Harrang. Colby’s OPO single and Albert’s good balance single were the hits of the day.
Albert, who has been fighting the “open too soon blues” finds comfort in the Reds ineptitude. Set up for a curve, AH throws a waist high fastball on the outside part of the plate to a startled AP who extends and takes it deeper because of the surprise element. Center/Left Center. Thank you very much AH………………… In case your not dialed in on how active Tony is in this battle, first pitch hit and run in the 7th………belt high fastball away, Albert just hitting behind the runner finds a pitch that he smokes for a double in the R/C ally………oops….backspin………kills a fan in the bleachers.
Colby’s Hr was a hanging change by the looks of it……thank you very much. Molina wins the game because without the 4 extra Franklin chokes it. Waino will need 4 or 5 and 7 strong to win on Wednesday.
As mentally challenged as Cinnci is, the Cardinals should have beaten them senseless. They exploited Skips weakness well enough. With a full count, he doesn’t take a chance away tempting Shu to do the right thing and go away………. he goes inside and Skip just rolls it into coverage. Lopez starts at 2nd or 3rd on Wednesday.
The way Albert leaned into the turn as he rounded third seemed tentative, and then he overcompensated with a too confidant Jose hand slap. He seemed to have resolved some issues by the time he rounded third in the seventh with textbook upper body lean and balance from the mid-torso, which was confirmed by the well executed hand slap with salami boy in the ninth. It’s going to be a great year.
I missed the salami boy slap BB. I did see the Cubs get righteously robbed though. Lets hope their wheels come off early. Freese got a big league welcome. He will be alright.
Speaking of the Cubs game, Billy Wagner sure looked good.
blingboy, I meant he was happy with the possibility of playing on a west coast big league team.
That didn’t last long though, Toronto is a long way from California.
Got it southeast, I thought you were making a joke about the fact that he has ended up with Toronto’s AAA team in Las Vegas, which is ‘out west’ but certainly not what he had in mind.