Following are the highlights from the sixth day of St. Louis Cardinals minor league games in spring 2011, on Monday, March 21. The top two teams played in Jupiter against their New York Mets counterparts while Palm Beach and Quad Cities boarded the buses to travel to Port St. Lucie.
In addition, the Cardinals Quad Cities #2 squad played their annual game against the Gildea’s Raiders traveling team, defeating them on a five-inning no hitter for the 20th time in 21 years, avenging a 2010 loss. After the 4-1 day, the Cardinals system is a combined 11-8-5 this spring.
Today’s photo is of Player of the Day Trevor Rosenthal. The right-hander struck out nine of his 12 batters retired over four perfect innings. If there is an emerging prospect I missed last winter, it is Rosenthal. Look for our interview coming for The Cardinal Nation subscribers.
On Tuesday, the Cardinals face the Marlins in five games on the home side of the Jupiter complex. For the full state of minor league spring training schedules, The Cardinal Nation subscribers can click here.
As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals farm director John Vuch is sharing game highlights with this site and several others with interest in Cardinals prospects. As always, the raw data is his, with the comments mine.
Memphis (2-1-2) 2, Buffalo 0
Memphis pitching
Pitching was the name of the game. Shaking off the likely disappointment of getting just one “A” game appearance in spring camp, P.J. Walters tossed six scoreless innings. He allowed five baserunners and fanned five.
Nick Additon fanned one in two scoreless.
Jason Buursma allowed one hit in one inning, but he was erased on a double-play grounder.
Memphis hitting
Yesterday’s Player of the Day Andrew Brown doubled twice and scored in three at-bats.
Bryan Anderson stroked a bases-empty home run.
Tommy Pham and Ramon Vazquez each doubled.
Springfield (2-0-3) 3, Binghamton 2
Springfield Pitching
Deryk Hooker fanned one in two scoreless innings. Pitching coordinator Dyar Miller told me that Hooker was throwing especially well in early camp.
Brett Zawacki yielded a pair of runs in two innings, though only one was earned. He allowed three hits and fanned two.
Ryan Kulik allowed two hits and fanned one in two clean frames.
Jesse Simpson, Samuel Freeman and Casey Mulligan finished up with a scoreless inning each.
Springfield hitting
D’Marcus Ingram singled, doubled, stole a base, scored twice, including the winning run on a wild pitch in four at-bats.
Ryan Jackson singled, tripled, scored, and drove in one in four at-bats.
Palm Beach (4-2) 6, St. Lucie 3
Palm Beach pitching
Maikel Cleto went 2 2/3 on just one hit and two walks. The 40-man roster hurler allowed one run and fanned four.
Jorge Rondon yielded just one run on two hits and two walks in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out three.
Chris Corrigan gave up one run in 1 1/3 innings despite giving up just one hit. He fanned one.
Justin Wright (1 K), Chase Reid (2 K’s) and Matt Frevert (1 K) covered the final 2 2/3 shutout innings.
Palm Beach hitting
Edgar Lara singled and homered with two RBIs in two at-bats.
C.J. Beatty was on base all four times with two singles and two walks. He scored and drove in two. It was a good enough performance to earn Player of the Day honors most days.
Travis Tartamella singled, doubled and scored twice.
Devin Goodwin singled and drove in two.
Frederick Parejo tripled.
Francisco Rivera doubled.
Savannah 14, Quad Cities (2-4) 5
Quad Cities #1 pitching
Heralded prospect Carlos Martinez is human. He allowed one run in 2 1/3 innings on four hits and a walk. The 19-year-old struck out two.
Two runs scored against Nick McCully over two innings, but only one was earned. He struck out three.
Ricky Martinez allowed five baserunners and two runs in 1 2/3 innings. Palm Beach pitching coach Dennis Martinez’ son fanned one.
Drew Benes had a very rough day at the office, allowing five runs in just 1/3 inning as the close game got away.
Cale Johnson also struggled, getting touched for four runs in 2/3 of an inning.
Quad Cities #1 hitting
Jonathan Rodriguez doubled, homered and scored twice in four at-bats.
Cody Stanley singled, doubled, and drove in two in three at-bats.
Victor Sanchez and Chris Edmondson doubled.
Quad Cities #2 (1-1) 4, Gildea’s Raiders 0 (5 innings)
Quad Cities #2 pitching
Trevor Rosenthal fanned nine in four perfect innings.
Aidan Lucas walked a batter during his inning and fanned two.
Quad Cities #2 hitting
Roberto DeLaCruz singled twice in three at-bats.
Starlin Rodriguez singled, walked, was hit by a pitch and scored three runs.
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Rosenthal spent one year at Cowley Community, the college that produced former ML 2Bman Junior Spivey. The Cards drafted Spivey, but could not sign him. Spivey later signed with the Diamondbacks.
Rosenthal was available in the 21st round 2009 because just a year out of high school. Good arm, but a long-term development project. Good he is making progress.
Cowley also produced Travis Hafner.
Rosenthal should have easily been drafted in rounds 3 to 5. He had some issues off the field that were blown out of proportion (chewing tobacco believe it or not). The misperception typecast him as a character risk. 21st round had nothing to do with his talent level or how far out of high school he was.
Welcome, rchiii. Good info. Thanks for sharing.
If chewing tobacco, in baseball no less, is truly enough to consider someone an off-field problem, then thank goodness the benefactor of my college academic scholarship (it was for math and science but also had an honor clause) didn’t find out. I might have been labeled a contraband dealer. Possession with intent to distribute. Yikes.
Sorry, occifer. This is Cope, not coke.
Sometimes we fans don’t look at both sides, up and down, regarding our favorite prospects. Here’s a couple things Baseball Prospectus has to say on the down side.
Carpenter:
Carpenter is a below-average third baseman with poor footwork, and his arm is merely average. He’s a slow runner, and it’s unlikely he’ll develop the kind of power normally associated with his position.
Cox:
Beyond his hitting ability, Cox’s tools fail to impress. He’s a slow, bad-bodied player with below-average range.
Ouch
Except in the case of Carpenter much of what is in that report has been refuted by his performance (and first hand reports) this Spring.
Not a lot of 3Bmen are speedy.
Wade Boggs did not develop a lot of power for 3B, not was he fast, but Boggs played in the majors for a lot of years. Carpenter has enough arm and has been improving defensive footwork. By hitting for average and having a good OBP, he could grow into a ML starter.
Any idea why Rosenthal got the call for QC2 against a pretty weak amateur team? Was it simply his turn in the rotation and they wanted Martinez to pitch the better competition or could he really be at the back end of consideration for the QC 6 man rotation?
Is there any way Rosenthal gets sent to EST?
There can’t be…right?
At this point in camp, the working rosters have about eight starters each. Yes, Martinez and Rosenthal have been throwing on the same day, but I don’t think that should be interpreted to mean one or the other. As you probably do as well, I expect that barring injury, both will be among QC’s starting six. (Competition is going to be fierce, though.)
I do expect so. I sure hope so.
Injuries and ineffectiveness have a way of shaking these things out. A month more in EST wouldn’t be the end of the world in the broader scheme of things if that’s the way they go.
FWIW, the last working rosters I saw had Rosenthal and Martinez in working group #3, not #4. The guys in #4 would be the ones most at risk to remain in EST as the domino effect of starters cut from St. Louis occurs.
No edit function here?
Darn…any way to remove my last sentence above? I am not sure I want to post that.
Sorry, no user edit function in this WordPress theme – at least not that I have figured out. Not restricting it purposely. Anyway, I made the requested change.
Thanks, Brian.
The Cardinals released right-handed pitcher Josh Squatrito today.