Following are the highlights from the ninth day of St. Louis Cardinals minor league games in spring 2011, on Thursday, March 24. The Cardinals and Mets faced off. Memphis and Springfield rosters took the bus ride to Port St. Lucie, while Palm Beach and Quad Cities entertained their New York counterparts at home in Jupiter.
After the 2-1-1 day, the Cardinals system is a combined 18-13-6 this spring, including a 12-7-2 mark against external competition.
Today’s photo is of Player of the Day, Nick Longmire. The outfielder struck a bases-loaded double for three RBI with Palm Beach.
On Friday, the players on the Cardinals’ five rosters will walk over to the Florida Marlins 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 (3-2-3) 2, Buffalo 2 (tie)
Memphis pitching
Lance Lynn, fresh from an extended look in major league camp, allowed eight baserunners and two earned runs over 4 1/3 innings. He fanned one.
Veteran lefty Raul Valdes, who spent part of 2010 with Buffalo, was dealing. He punched out six in 2 1/3 innings. Valdes allowed one hit and one walk.
Blake King, also down from St. Louis, had a typical outing. The right-hander struck out two while allowing a pair of baserunners as well in his lone inning.
Adam Reifer walked one and fanned one to finish up and protect the tie.
Memphis hitting
Donovan Solano, who would later appear in the MLB game, had two singles in two at-bats.
Nick Stavinoha also suited up for St. Louis, but in this game had two hits in three at-bats. He also scored once.
Mark Hamilton was on base three times in five plate appearances on a single, walk and hit by pitch.
Andrew Brown, the day after starting for St. Louis, showed a good eye. He drew three walks and singled in five plate appearances.
Adron Chambers walked and had a tying two-out RBI single in the final inning. He would have also plated the lead run, but the runner was thrown out at the plate.
Binghamton 6, Springfield (3-2-3) 5
Springfield pitching
Brett Zawacki yielded two runs, one earned in 1 2/3 innings. He game up two hits and struck out one.
Lefty Nick Greenwood scattered three hits over two scoreless innings. He fanned one.
Matt Frevert allowed four baserunners in his two innings, but kept them off home plate.
Sam Freeman was the victim of three errors, as two unearned runs crossed the plate in his 2/3 of an inning. The lefty, who missed 2010, yielded just one hit.
Twos were not kind to Casey Mulligan as he was touched for two runs in 2/3 inning on two hits and two walks.
Springfield hitting
Niko Vasquez (RBI) and minor league free agent signee Ronald Ramirez (2 RBI) each went 3-for-4.
Aaron Luna singled and tripled in four at-bats.
Alex Castellanos doubled and scored twice.
Steven Hill smacked a solo home run, just like in his brief MLB debut last season.
Palm Beach (7-2) 7, St. Lucie 3
Palm Beach pitching
John Gast pitched well, striking out seven in three innings and picked off another runner. Unfortunately, Jaime Garcia tried that move in the major league game and was called for a balk.
Palm Beach hitting
Edgar Lara singled twice in four at-bats and scored.
Nick Longmire stroked a bases-loaded double good for three RBI.
Curt Smith singled and doubled in four at-bats. He drove in one and scored.
Ivan Castro had two singles in two chances.
Luis Mateo tripled in three at-bats.
Quad Cities (3-6) 7, Savannah 5
Quad Cities pitching
Zach Russell yielded two runs in three innings on three hits and three walks. He fanned two.
Anthony Ferrara allowed a pair of runs in four innings. He allowed five baserunners. Tryout lefty Sean Watson gave up one run in one frame.
Aaron Terry kept the Mets club off the board on one hit in his inning of work.
Quad Cities hitting
Jonathan Rodriguez had three singles and an RBI in four at-bats.
Victor Sanchez singled and doubled in four at-bats. He drove in two and scored.
Frederick Parejo and Ronny Gil both scored twice and went 1-for-3 at the plate.
Virgil Hill was on base via a triple and walk and scored both times. He also collected an RBI.
Cody Stanley singled and walked.
Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Two comments:
The Memphis bullpen should be pretty stacked. Finishing a game with King, Reifer, and Sanchez is pretty nasty for the minors (especially if King can push his walks down).
Secondly, regarding Gast’s pickoff move and Garcia’s balk, I believe lefties balk all the time on their pickoff moves. Those who develop reputations for excellent moves almost always stretch the boundaries. If the front foot crosses the back leg or the plant foot breaks 45 degrees and the pitcher goes to first, it is a balk. It is supposed to be automatic. But it is almost never called.
It’s been called twice in ST, once against Gast and once against Garcia.
Point of emphasis this year?
I wasn’t emphasizing it just pointing it out. It might not be called much this year, or it might be called more. I don’t know. I just know it was called against both Gast and Garcia within days of each other. Maybe the umps heard about the Gast move and are scrutinizing it more.
I was asking (rhetorically I guess) if it was an umpiring point of emphasis this year. If too many front office people complained about inconsistent (or non-existent) balk calls on pick-offs, MLB might have reminded the umpires of the book rule and instructed them to give it more considerations this year.
Good question. I guess we will have to see. Garcia was called for only one balk in his 179 regular season innings previously.
Maybe. Though I do know that much was made in the St. Louis media of the Gast pickoff move and that it was being taught to Garcia. I imagine umps read newspapers too. It seems odd to me that Gast got away with it, until the media talked it up and then the next time he did it it was called a balk. Then it was called a balk against Garcia a few days later. When it was called a balk against Gast it was clearly not a balk to my eyes (and to the eyes of both broadcasters that day). It was less clear when Garcia did it.
Another interesting thing too is that when Joe Torre was hired by MLB it was emphasized that he was being tasked with “reigning in umpires”. There must have been a lot of complaints in the last few years about umpires creating controversy, which it seems like they have been doing more frequently. Joe West and Angel Hernandez were both criticized heavily last year for some of their antics. I am not necessarily suggesting a connection here with the balk calls it just makes light bulbs go off in my head.
Perhaps MLB told the umpires they should have called a balk on Gast and the point of emphasis started there…so they did the next time.
I saw that game too, it was on FSMW. The broadcasters were saying that they used to paint a line on the mound that indicated a balk if the pitcher crossed it. They also surmised that when a pitcher picks off the runner as easily as Gast did, the ump is gonna call a balk, even through the consideration should be how the “balk” is seen by the batter.
That may be the intent but that is not the rule. The rule is that a lefty pitcher’s right foot may not cross his left leg and he may not plant his foot outside of 45 degrees if he throws to first. Either move is, by rule, an intent to throw to the plate.
Saw the game on TV this evening. First one I’ve seen this spring. My first thought was ‘two sub-Mendoxa hitters batting #1, #2′. But its ST, I get it. The next thing was Freese hitting 5th, the job Mo paid Berkman $8M to do, with Lance dropping to 6th. Wonder what that’s about. Theriot looks even more inept at the plate and he’s still leading off.
Less than a week until the opener. Is it realistic to think Theriot and Berkman will round into form and be offensive contributors by then? If not, will they nevertheless be ensconsed in the #1 and #5 spots, no matter the results?
Generally, a pretty limp offensive effort. Lohse looks good.
Jack Clark and Chris Duncan news.
Jack and John Marecek will have a mostly baseball talk show weeknights 10pm-11pm on KTRS 550 AM. Starts next Thursday.
Chris Duncan, Jason Simontacchi and Andy Van Slyke will rotate on ‘St. Louis Baseball Tonight’ 6pm-7pm weeknights on WXOS 101.1 FM. Starts next Teusday.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/dan-caesar/article_6379f4b9-a13c-50c2-a0c9-81bcbdba5e64.html