The Cardinal Nation blog » Batavia Muckdogs (SS)

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2012 spring training

Brian Walton — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:25:16 +0000

With the 2012 spring training camp invitations issued, it is time for another refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version reflects the changes made until 2012 spring training concludes and the regular season and extended spring training get underway. The previous matrix reflects the rosters as they evolved from the end of 2011 play until spring training invitations were issued.

If you are new to the blog and not familiar with the Cardinals organization roster matrix, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals had 266 players under contract from top to bottom, including 39 players on the 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his assigned level in the system at the conclusion of 2011 and by position. Spring training camp invitees are shown separately. This matrix is updated daily or whenever transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. It doesn’t signify anything.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

The short-season pitchers are broken out into returnees and summer 2011 signees.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 266 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles updated at The Cardinal Nation.com / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the nine team pages at The Cardinal Nation. You can also see rosters and player profiles back to 2004:

Full-season clubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs
Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals

Once on a team page, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page for that year. For example, here is Shelby Miller’s 2012 profile.

Looking ahead and back

Now that you’ve found this page once, remember one of three ways to get back here. Bookmark the page, type “Roster Matrix” in the dark blue search box at the upper right or use the dropdown menu at the top of the page: “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”.

For details behind past rosters and transactions, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010, Opening season 2010, First half 2010, Short-season 2010, 2010-11 Off-season, 2011 spring training, 2011 regular season, 2011 short-season, 2011-2012 off-season

Related resources

St. Louis Cardinals 2012 major league spring training schedule
St. Louis Cardinals 2012 minor league spring training schedule (subscriber article)

Transactions

01/24: New matrix. Organization total: 266 players.

02/06: SS Alex Cora signed to a minors deal with MLB spring camp invite. New total: 267 players.

02/08: Dominican RHP Andres Serrano signed (in October). New total: 268 players.

02/10: RHR Scott Linebrink signed to a minors deal with MLB spring camp invite. New total: 269 players.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 02/10/12)

25-man (NA)	40-man (39)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Boggs	Molina	Berkman	Schumaker	Furcal	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	T Cruz	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	M Carpenter	Jay
Westbrook	Sanchez	Anderson			Kozma	Cox	Craig
Wainwright	Motte						Robinson
Ja Garcia (L)	Rzepczynski (L)						Chambers
Dickson	Lynn						Komatsu (R5)
Cleto	Salas						Beltran
	Reifer
	Fick
	S Freeman (L)
	Romero (L)
	Ottavino

Non-roster invitees (21)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Gast (L)	Greenwood (L)	L DeLaCruz	Adams	Velez	R Jackson
Jenkins	Marte	Stock		Wong	Cora
Kelly	Swagerty	S Hill
S Miller	Swindle (L)	K Hill
Rosenthal	Linebrink	Stanley
Siegrist (L)

Early minors camp (24)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek	Wright (L)	A Perez	Scruggs	G Garcia	Gil		Conley
DeLeon		Klein		S Rodriguez	Peoples-Walls		Longmire
Ferrara (L)				B Valera			Taveras
Fornataro							Jeffries
H Hernamdez (L)							McElroy
Hooker							Tilson
Lyons (L)
C Martinez
Paulino

Memphis (10)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L)	Browning (L)	Derba					Cazana
Broderick	Rauschenberger
Hunt	Parise
	Todd
	Kopp

Springfield (14)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Thomas	Delgado	Tartamella		Jo Garcia		Curtis	Pham
Gorgen	Samuel						Swauger
McGregor	Schneider						Luna
	Rada
	Rondon

Palm Beach (11)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ri Castillo	Corrigan			Obregon		N Vasquez	Melker
	Reid					Ahmady	R Rosario
	Butler
	Calhoun (L)
	Simpson


Quad Cities (23)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Russell	Lucas	Espinoza	V Sanchez	Lu Mateo	Elkins	J Rodriguez	Edmondson
Whiting	Kiekhefer (L)	Teran		Bergman			Swinson
Bibona (L)	Maness	Keener		Walsh
Blair	De Jesus
Copeland (L)	Nazario (L)
Benes	Edwards (L)

Batavia (31+2)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Y Castillo	Miranda (L)	Rasmus	D Medina	Stienstra	Wittels	Patton	Martini
Almarante	Cole	J Castillo	R Ruiz		C Valera		Rbto Reyes
Daugherty (L)	T Miller	Lewis (TO)	Cerreto		Albitz		V Hill
R Martinez	Cornelius (L)						O’Neill
Mijares (L)	McInnis						Williams (SL)
S Watson (L)	Baker
	Bileckyj (L)
	Sherriff (L)
	Jacob
	Gaviglio
	Springer
Johnson City (32)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Pasen	Mills	Byrd	Washington	Rahmatulla	M Williams	R DeLaCruz	Apelian
Santana	Hald (L)	Montero			Pritchard		Ro Castillo
Canache	Gillung (L)				Martin		An Garcia
B Freeman (L)	Billbrough						S Ramos
Bautista	Creath						Bergin
Nuernberg	Wyatt
E Hiraldo	Rein (L)
J Lucas	Costantino
Revesz (L)	Melling (L)
Nadeau (L)

Gulf Coast (21)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Aguilar	B Watson	Velazco	Knox	Le Mateo		Tuivailala	Argenal
Brand		L Perez		Vargas			Dodd
Toribio		Ehrlich					Bryant
A Tapia							Deol
S Lopez
Villanueva (L)
Ulacio
B Martinez
Montanez

DSL (39+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Salazar	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez	Mejia	Rblys Reyes	Pina	Agustin	Araujo
Escudero	A Gonzalez (RL)	J Gomez			R Medina	R Garcia	Capellan
Perdomo	Ceballo	L Cruz			Barbuena		Celestino
S Garcia	F Gonzalez	Godoy			E Alvarez		J Pena
Paredes	F Flores						Torres
DeLosSantos	I Brito						D Diaz
Jh Polanco	D Rodriguez (L)						Acevedo
Negrette (L)	JC DeLaCruz
D Perez (L)	Gerdel
Serrano	Planchart
	Villegas

Unassigned (1)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)

Codes
(I): injured
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(MIL): military list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+MIL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Follow TCN on Google+.

Tweet This Post

Batavia Muckdogs sale reinforced by continued Rochester losses

Brian Walton — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:20:29 +0000

Rochester Community Baseball, owner of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings and operator of the Short-Season Class-A Batavia Muckdogs, has announced a loss of $117,000 for the 2011 fiscal year. It was the group’s third money-losing year in the last four.

One factor has been the inability to show a profit in running the Muckdogs. Since assuming control of the Batavia franchise in 2008, RCB has lost around $600,000 in total on the Muckdogs, according to an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Though not rendered explicit in the article, based on past disclosures, this would signal the Muckdogs lost in the area of $110,000 in 2011, up from their $92,000 deficit logged in 2010. That would represent the majority of the Rochester loss in 2011.

Comments from RCB officials no longer hold out hope for a turnaround in Batavia, but instead reflect a realization that sale of the team is inevitable.

“We plan to continue operating the Batavia franchise until it is sold,” RCB President/CEO/COO Naomi Silver told the paper. “Making money any season in Batavia is a tall order. We know that now. Batavia has an extremely loyal fan base but it isn’t large enough. But when the team is sold, we expect to make a considerable profit.”

Despite fielding competitive baseball teams, the Muckdogs have consistently remained among the bottom-dwellers of the New York-Penn League in attendance, drawing on average around 1,000 per game.

RCB’s operating agreement with the Batavia ownership includes five percent take of the eventual sale price of the team. This will be the fifth year of the arrangement, so RCB would receive 25 percent of the sale proceeds from the Muckdogs franchise. That should be over a million dollars and could be as much as $1.5 million.

“The going price for a team in the NY-P League is $5 to $6 million,” Silver said. “I believe it is inevitable that the Muckdogs will be sold. I get a call or two a week from potential buyers.”

The team has been on the market since at least the third quarter of 2010, but no timetable for a sale has been disclosed. The St. Louis Cardinals Player Development Contract with the Muckdogs runs through the 2012 season and at this point, it seems the team will play at least one more year in Batavia.

What happens after that is entirely up in the air.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Follow TCN on Google+.

Tweet This Post

The Binghamton Redbirds?

Brian Walton — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:43:47 +0000

The Binghamton Redbirds?

Several dominoes would need to fall for the St. Louis Cardinals’ New York-Penn League affiliate to end up in Binghamton, NY in 2013, but it could happen.

The story begins with a group in Ottawa, Canada having received encouragement to pursue membership in the Double-A Eastern League.

“All signs indicate Ottawa would become the new home of the Eastern League franchise currently in Binghamton, New York,” the Ottawa Citizen reported recently.

Ballpark Digest noted the same, stating the Ottawa group had been in serious negotiations to buy the Binghamton club and move it north. The club would become the Toronto Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate.

It gets even more interesting from there.

Based on conversations with “several MiLB team owners and brokers with knowledge of sales discussions,” Ballpark Digest suggests a second move could then be in the offing.

The scenario is that the Binghamton group, currently affiliated with the New York Mets, would remain in organized baseball and honor their stadium lease commitment currently running through 2016. The vehicle would be to drop down from Double-A to the short-season Class-A NYPL by purchasing the for-sale Batavia Muckdogs.

Batavia is heading into its sixth season affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. The club is always among the bottom dwellers of the NYPL in attendance, the physical facilities are less than state of the art and the franchise has perennially lost money.

Placed on the market by its local ownership well over a year ago, the Muckdogs are estimated by Ballpark Digest to be worth $5 million, about $7 million less than selling the Eastern League franchise might net. The Muckdogs would then be moved to Binghamton starting in 2013 with the new owners making a tidy profit from the sequence of moves, goes the storyline.

Not surprisingly, B-Mets ownership denies the rumors. After all, they must remain focused on their knitting – selling tickets to the 2012 EL season – at least publicly. Even if the moving plans are true, announcing a lame duck summer would hardly accomplish anything positive for fan interest.

The Cardinals player development contract with the Muckdogs franchise runs through the 2012 season, same as the Mets’ agreement with Binghamton. While the Cardinals’ NYPL affiliation has shifted homes twice since 2005, from New Jersey to State College to Batavia, the organization previously expressed a desire to remain in the NYPL over the long haul.

The open question seems to be their 2013 location. Stay tuned to see if this story develops further over the upcoming months.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.
Follow TCN on Google+.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2011-2012 off-season

Brian Walton — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:49:26 +0000

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the changes from the end of the 2011 World Series until the announcement of spring training invitations. It should now be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering 2012 spring training, click here.

With the 2011-2012 free agent period underway, it is time for another refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect the changes made from the conclusion of the World Series until 2012 spring training. The previous matrix reflects the rosters as they evolved from the start of short-season ball through the end of 2011 play.

If you are new to the blog and not familiar with the Cardinals organization roster matrix, here is quick summary:

After eight major league and seven minor leaguers declared free agency following the season, the St. Louis Cardinals had 278 players under contract from top to bottom, including 33 players on the 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system based on his placement at the end of the season as well as by position. It is kept updated daily or as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. It doesn’t signify anything.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

The short-season pitchers are broken out into returnees and summer 2011 signees.

At the end is a group of currently inactive and unassigned players.

Free agents are listed, but are not included in the system-wide totals. As they sign, their organization will be noted.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 278 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles updated at The Cardinal Nation.com / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to 2011 season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the nine team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs
Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Shelby Miller’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past rosters and transactions, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Transactions

11/9: New matrix. Organization total: 278 players. GCL RHR Richard Mendoza released. New total: 277 players.

11/11: Seven released: Mem RHP Bryan Augenstein, Spr OFs Jim Rapoport, D’Marcus Ingram, PB OF Edgar Lara, QC P Cale Johnson, Bat P Manuel De La Cruz, C Kevin Moscatel. New total: 270 players.

11/17: PB RHS Arquimedes Nieto released. New total: 269 players.

11/18: Three added to 40-man roster: RHS Adam Ottavino, RHR Chuckie Fick, LHR Sam Freeman.

11/27: JC 3B Hector Garcia released. New total: 268 players.

12/8: Rule 5 draft: OF Erik Komatsu (Was) onto 40-man. LHR Barret Browning (LAA), RHS Shooter Hunt (Min) to Mem. Taken were Spr C Charlie Cutler (Pit), PB SS Domnit Bolivar (Mil), Bat RHS Javier Avendano (Tor).

12/10: Free agent SS Rafael Furcal re-signs with StL. New total: 269 players.

12/12: IF Ryan Theriot non-tendered, becomes free agent. New total: 268 players.

12/15: LHR J.C. Romero signed to StL. New total: 269 players.

12/18: RHR Hector Corpas released. New total: 268 players.

12/21: LHR R.J. Swindle and 2B/OF Eugenio Velez signed to minor league deals. New total: 270 players.

12/22: Free agent OF Carlos Beltran came to terms on a two-year contract. New total: 271 players.

01/12: C Koyie Hill signed to minor league deal. New total: 272 players.

01/15: QC IF Jason Stidham retired. New total: 271 players.

01/23: PB P Justin Smith retired. Bat OF Victor Encarnacion released. RHP Cole Springer signed. C Adam Lewis invited to minors camp as a tryout player. Both assigned to Batavia on matrix.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 01/23/12)

25-man (NA)	40-man (39)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Boggs	Molina	Berkman	Schumaker	Furcal	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	T Cruz	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	M Carpenter	Jay
Westbrook	Sanchez	Anderson			Kozma	Cox	Craig
Wainwright	Motte						Beltran
Ja Garcia (L)	Rzepczynski (L)						Chambers
Dickson	Lynn						Komatsu (R5)
Cleto	Salas						Robinson
Ottavino	Reifer
	S Freeman (L)
	Fick
	Romero (L)

Free agents (15)	not incl in total
Majors (new org)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
E Jackson (Type B offered, declined)	Dotel (Type B Det)	Laird (Det)	Pujols (Type A LAA)		Furcal (StL)	Punto (Bos)	Patterson
	Rhodes (L Type B not offered)
Minors (new org)
	Rundles (L)			Bynum	Solano (Mia)		Stavinoha (Japan)
	Lyman			Duncan (KC)			Jones (Cin)


Memphis (16)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L)	Marte	Derba		Velez			Cazana
Broderick	Rauschenberger	S Hill
Blazek	Parise	K Hill
Hunt	Todd
	Kopp
	Browning (L)
	Swindle (L)

Springfield (23)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Gast (L)	Delgado	Tartamella	Adams	Jo Garcia	R Jackson	Curtis	Pham
Gorgen	Swagerty	A Perez					Swauger
McGregor	Greenwood (L)						Luna
S Miller	Samuel
Kelly	Schneider
Thomas	Rada
Hooker	Rondon


Palm Beach (22)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Fornataro	Corrigan	L DeLaCruz	Scruggs	Obregon		N Vasquez	Conley
Lyons (L)	Reid	Stock		G Garcia		Ahmady	R Rosario
C Martinez	Butler			S Rodriguez			Melker
Siegrist (L)	Calhoun (L)
Ri Castillo	Simpson
	Wright (L)


Quad Cities (32)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Russell	Lucas	Espinoza	V Sanchez	Lu Mateo	Gil	J Rodriguez	Longmire
Whiting	Kiekhefer (L)	Stanley		Bergman	Elkins		Edmondson
Bibona (L)	Maness	Klein		Walsh			Swinson
Blair	De Jesus	Teran		Wong			Taveras
A Ferrara (L)	Nazario (L)	Keener
Rosenthal	Edwards (L)
Copeland (L)
Benes
H Hernamdez (L)

Batavia (31+2)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Y Castillo	Miranda (L)	Rasmus	D Medina	Stienstra	Wittels	Patton	Martini
Almarante	Cole	J Castillo	R Ruiz		C Valera		Rbto Reyes
Daugherty (L)	Tra Miller	Lewis (TO)	Cerreto		Albitz		V Hill
R Martinez	Cornelius (L)						O’Neill
Mijares (L)	McInnis						Williams (SL)
S Watson (L)	Baker
	Bileckyj (L)
	Sherriff (L)
	Jacob
	Gaviglio
	Springer
Johnson City (36)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Jenkins	Mills	Byrd	Washington	Rahmatulla	M Williams	R DeLaCruz	Apelian
Pasen	Hald (L)	Montero		B Valera	Pritchard		Ro Castillo
Santana	Gillung (L)				Martin		An Garcia
Canache	Billbrough						S Ramos
B Freeman (L)	Creath						Bergin
Bautista	Wyatt						Tilson
Nuernberg	Rein (L)
E Hiraldo	Costantino
J Lucas	Melling (L)
Revesz (L)
Nadeau (L)
Paulino


Gulf Coast (25)
P	P(2011 added)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Aguilar	B Watson	Velazco	Knox	Le Mateo	Peoples-Walls	Tuivailala	Jeffries
Brand		L Perez		Vargas			Argenal
DeLeon		Ehrlich					McElroy
Toribio							Dodd
A Tapia							Bryant
S Lopez							Deol
Villanueva (L)
Ulacio
B Martinez
Montanez

DSL (38+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Salazar	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez	Mejia	Rblys Reyes	Pina	Agustin	Araujo
Escudero	A Gonzalez (RL)	J Gomez			R Medina	R Garcia	Capellan
Perdomo	Ceballo	L Cruz			Barbuena		Celestino
S Garcia	F Gonzalez	Godoy			E Alvarez		J Pena
Paredes	F Flores						Torres
DeLosSantos	I Brito						D Diaz
Jh Polanco	D Rodriguez (L)						Acevedo
Negrette (L)	JC DeLaCruz
D Perez (L)	Gerdel
	Planchart
	Villegas


Unassigned (6)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)		P Vasquez (RL)
Eager (RL)
Patterson (RL)
Novak (RL)
Mulligan (RL)

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Rochester to wait another year for Batavia sale

Brian Walton — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:01:53 +0000

Though the primary message was not surprising, there was still significance in an announcement made by Rochester Community Baseball (RCB) this week. CEO Naomi Silver told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that her organization will be back to operate the Batavia Muckdogs in 2012.

There was one important caveat, however. Silver’s pledge would only be binding if the St. Louis Cardinals’ New York-Penn League affiliate is not sold in the interim. While the money-losing Muckdogs have been on the market for over a year, it does not appear a sale is imminent.

The story is a bit different than it was back in January. At that time, RCB chairman Gary Larder told uneasy shareholders at the organization’s annual meeting that he expected 2011 to be their last season operating the Muckdogs. His view was that the team would change hands this year. Obviously, that has not happened.

Through 2008-10, their first three years operating the Muckdogs, RCB, owners of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, lost just under a half-million dollars in total. They have cut the deficit each successive season, and expect to have done so again this year. 2011 financial results have not yet been disclosed.

While the Muckdogs’ expenses may be under control, their revenues most likely aren’t growing substantially, if at all. Batavia held onto its unenviable position as the poorest-attended club in the 14-team league in 2011. Average attendance per game did increase very marginally this year, from 1,016 in 2010 to 1,057.

On the other side of the ledger, RCB’s nest egg continues to grow as the Muckdogs’ owners, the Genesee County Baseball Club, cedes equity each year to delay the inevitable loss of their team. RCB has gained five percent ownership of the Batavia franchise each season. Based on an estimated $6 million value of the Muckdogs, RCB’s potential return will grow to $1.5 million by the completion of the 2012 season.

The Cardinals’ Player Development Contract with Batavia is in place through next season as well, so barring a late sale to a buyer with a ready and waiting facility, it appears the Muckdogs may have dodged the executioner for one more year.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2011 short season

Brian Walton — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:21:18 +0000

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2011 changes from the start of short-season ball until the end of the 2011 World Series. It should now be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering the 2011-2012 off-season, click here.

With the short-season minor league schedule now underway, it is time for another refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect the changes made from the first week of 2011 short-season play. The previous matrix reflects the rosters as they evolved from the end of spring camp until then.

If you are new to the blog and not familiar with the Cardinals organization roster matrix, here is quick summary:

In the first week of 2011 short-season play, the St. Louis Cardinals had 288 players under contract from top to bottom, including a full 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system based on his placement at the end of last season as well as by position. It is kept updated daily or as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. It doesn’t signify anything.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

The short-season pitchers are broken out into returnees and summer 2011 signees. The latter group is either denoted by the round drafted or FA (for free agent).

At the end is a group of currently inactive and unassigned players. The final group, 2011 unsigned draftees, is not a part of the signed total.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 288 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated now at The Cardinal Nation.com / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the nine team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs
Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Shelby Miller’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past rosters and transactions, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Transactions

6/24: New matrix. Organization total: 288 players. LHR Iden Nazario from Bat to QC. LHR Justin Wright from QC to PB. RHR Francisco Samuel to PB DL. C Steven Hill from Spr to Mem. 1B Matt Adams off Spr DL.

6/25: C Nick Derba from Mem to Spr. 2B Kolten Wong (1st round) signed, assigned to QC. New total: 289 players.

6/26: LHR Justin Wright onto PB DL. RHR Arquimedes Nieto off PB DL. C Travis Tartamella onto Spr DL.

6/27: IF Nick Punto and 3B David Freese off StL DL. OF Andrew Brown and IF Pete Kozma from StL to Mem. OF Dutch Deol (17th round) signed, assigned to GCL. LHP Justin Edwards from Bat to QC. RHS Carlos Martinez and 2B Starlin Rodriguez from QC to PB. 2B Jose Garcia from Mem to Spr. IF Luis Mateo to PB DL. New total: 290 players.

6/28: RHP Richard Castillo from Spr to PB. IF Freddie Bynum to Mem DL. LHS John Gast from PB to Spr. RHR Eric Binder from JC to Bat.

6/29: RHR Aaron Terry released from PB. IF Domnit Bolivar from Spr to PB. IF Packy Elkins from PB to QC. IF Joey Bergman from QC to Bat. StL RHR Ryan Franklin released. OF Reggie Williams from Bat to GCL. New total: 288 players.

6/30: RHP Brandon Dickson added to 40-man and moved from Mem to StL. Contract of 23rd round RHP Kyle Deese voided (JC). LHR Rich Rundles re-signed to Mem.

7/1: C Cody Stanley onto QC DL. C Kleininger Teran off QC DL.

7/2: Five Latin American signees (DSL): LHPs Dewin Perez, Alirio Negrette, RHP Luis Arias (2012 contract), C Jose Godoy, SS Eliezer Alvarez. FA IF Garrett Wittels signed, assigned to Bat. New total: 294 players.

7/4: C Nick Derba onto Spr DL. C Travis Tartamella off Spr DL. FA LHP Matt Rein signed, assigned to JC. RHP Kevin Jacob (31st round) signed, assigned to Bat. New total: 296 players.

7/5: 1B Albert Pujols off StL DL. LHR Brian Tallet onto StL DL. LHR Ron Mahay, RHR Blaine Boyer signed to minor league contracts, assigned to Mem. SS Kenny Peoples-Walls (4th round) signed, assigned to GCL. New total: 299 players.

7/6: RHS Joe Kelly from PB to Spr. GCL rehab of PB RHR Jeff Lyman ends.

7/7: LHR Daniel Calhoun from PB to Spr. RHRs Jose Rada, Chase Reid onto Spr DL. C Gerald Laird off StL DL. RHP P. J. Walters from Mem to StL, onto 40-man. Mem RHP Bryan Augenstein DFAed. OF Daryl Jones from Mem to Spr. RHS Adam Ottavino, C Steven Hill onto Mem DL. RHP Brandon Dickson, 1B Mark Hamilton from StL to Mem. IF Freddie Bynum off Mem DL. RHP Mike Blazek, LHR Nick Greenwood from Spr to Mem. OF D’Marcus Ingram to Spr DL. C Cody Stanley off QC DL. C Kleininger Teran onto QC DL.

7/9: LHR Ron Mahay activated at PB.

7/11: RHS Blaine Boyer activated at PB. LHS Kevin Siegrist to PB DL. RHP Bryan Augenstein outrighted to Mem. RHS Mike Blazek and LHR Nick Greenwood from Mem to Spr.

7/14: LHR Ron Mahay from PB to Mem. OF Shane Robinson off Mem DL to Spr. C Travis Tartamella to PB DL. RHS Drew Benes from Bat to QC. RHP Javier Avendano to Bat DL.

7/15: RHR Hector Corpas to QC DL (retro 7/12).

7/16: RHR Scott Bittle from GCL to Bat. OF Mike O’Neill from Bat to QC, IF Jonathan Rodriguez, OF Nick Longmire to QC DL. IF Luis Mateo from PB DL to QC.

7/17: OF Kyle Conley off PB DL. OF Edgar Lara onto PB DL. C Nick Derba from Spr DL to Mem. 2B Freddie Bynum onto Mem DL.

7/18: RHS Adam Ottavino off Mem DL. LHS Nick Additon onto temp inactive list.

7/19: OF C.J. McElroy (3rd round) signed, assigned to GCL. New total: 300 players.

7/21: Spr RHR Brett Zawacki released. RHR Francisco Samuel from PB to Spr. LHR Justin Wright off PB DL. 1B Mark Hamilton to Mem DL. LHS Nick Additon off Mem TI list. New total: 299 players.

7/22: OF Shane Robinson from Spr to Mem. OF Jim Rapoport from Mem to Spr. IF Jonathan Rodriguez off QC DL. OF Mike O’Neill onto QC DL.

7/23: IF Hector Garcia from GCL to JC.

7/25: IF Luis Mateo onto QC DL. OF Nick Longmire off QC DL.

7/26: LHS Nick Additon from Mem to Spr. LHR Daniel Calhoun from Spr to PB. RHS Blaine Boyer from PB to Mem. Bat RHR Scott Bittle released. DSL Ps Carlos Oraa and Alberth Almeida released. RHP Norge Parades signed, assigned to DSL. New total: 297 players.

7/27: LHR Manuel De La Cruz from JC to Bat. OF Colby Rasmus, LHRs Trever Miller and Brian Tallet and RHR P.J. Walters traded to Toronto. RHS Edwin Jackson, LHR Mark Rzepczynski, RHR Octavio Dotel and OF Corey Patterson from Tor to StL.

7/28: LHR Raul Valdes from StL to Mem. LHS Kevin Siegrist off PB DL. RHR Jeff Lyman from PB to Spr.

7/29: IF Nick Punto to StL DL. IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. IF Freddie Bynum off Mem DL. RHP Kevin Thomas to Spr DL.

7/30: LHR Rich Rundles to Mem DL. DSL Ps Delvi Rodriguez and Jean Carlos De La Cruz off RL. OF Jose Martinez and P John De Aguas released from DSL. New total: 295 players.

7/31: SS Rafael Furcal acquired from LA Dodgers. Spr OF Alex Castellanos to LA. SS Tyler Greene from StL to Mem. RHR Eduardo Sanchez from 15- to 60-day DL.

8/1: OF Aaron Luna from Mem to Spr. IF/OF Edgar Lara off PB DL. LHP Kevin Siegrist onto PB DL.

8/3: IF Breyvic Valera from GCL to JC. OF Mike O’Neill off QC DL. 1B Victor Sanchez onto QC DL.

8/4: RHP Seth Blair onto QC DL. RHP Hector Corpas off QC DL. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. IF Donovan Solano from Mem to Spr.

8/5: LHR Manuel De La Cruz to Bat DL. IF/OF Phil Cerreto from PB DL to Bat. Spr RHR Casey Mulligan retired. Spr 2B Jose Garcia to DL.

8/9: RHS Seth Blair off QC DL.

8/10: RHR Lance Lynn onto StL DL. IF/OF Allen Craig off StL DL.

8/11: RHS Deryk Hooker from Spr DL to PB. RHR Joel Pichardo off PB DL and released. RHS Arquimedes Nieto onto PB TI list. RHP Manuel De La Cruz off Bat DL. RHP Sam Gaviglio (5th round) signed, assigned to Bat. OF Aaron Luna to Spr DL. Total remains 295 players.

8/12: 2B Kolten Wong, OF Michael Swinson to QC DL. RHR David Kopp Spr to Mem. RHR Jordan Swagerty PB to Spr. LHR Ron Mahay released from Mem. LHR Rich Rundles off Mem DL. 2B Joey Bergman Bat to QC. OF Edgar Lara PB to QC. LHR Raul Valdes DFA off 40-man, Mem 25-man. C Tony Cruz from StL to Mem. LHR Arthur Rhodes signed to StL. RHR Chase Reid off Spr DL to PB. LHS Kevin Siegrist off PB DL. New total still 295.

8/13: RHS Seth Blair back to QC active roster. RHP Chris Costantino (43rd) signed, assigned to JC. RHR Eric Binder released from Bat. RHS Blaine Boyer released from Mem. LHS Nick Additon from Spr to Mem. RHS Arquimedes Nieto off PB TI to Spr. 2B Jose Garcia off Spr DL. New total 294 players.

8/15: OF Charlie Tilson (2nd round) signed, assigned to GCL. RHR Francisco Samuel to Spr DL. RHS Kevin Thomas off Spr DL.

8/16: Spr RHS Shelby Miller suspended. C Nick Derba onto Mem DL. LHS Ryan Sherriff from JC to Bat. Mem LHR Raul Valdes claimed by NYY off waivers. New total 293 players.

8/17: RHR Ethan Cole signed, assigned to Bat. IF/OF Phil Cerreto to Bat DL. New total: 294 players.

8/18: RHS Seth Maness from Bat to PB. RHS Deryk Hooker from PB to Spr.

8/21: C Audry Perez onto Spr DL. C Travis Tartamella off Spr DL. OF Victor Encarnacion from GCL to Bat.

8/23: RHS Shelby Miller off Spr SL. RHS Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB. RHS Carlos Martinez onto PB DL.

8/24: OF Reggie Williams from GCL to Bat. RHP Juan Bautista from DSL to JC. LHP Jonathan Cornelius and OF Roberto Reyes onto Bat DL. RHS Seth Blair off QC DL. RHR Hector Corpas onto QC DL. Purchased contract of SS Vance Albitz from Lincoln of American Assoc and assigned to Bat. New total: 295 players.

8/25: OF Charlie Tilson from GCL to JC. LHR Manuel De La Cruz to Bat DL.

8/27: 1B Phil Cerreto off Bat DL.

8/28: 2B Kolten Wong off QC DL. OF Mike O’Neill from QC to GCL. RHS Carlos Martinez off PB DL. RHP Seth Maness from PB to QC. Ps Brandon Creath, Tyler Melling and Willy Paulino from GCL to JC.

8/30: OF Edgar Lara from QC to PB. OF Mike O’Neill from GCL to QC. RHP Cale Johnson from QC to JC. RHS Todd McInnis onto Bat DL.

8/31: IF Greg Garcia onto PB DL.

9/1: RHS Brandon Dickson from Mem to StL. C Nick Derba off Mem DL. RHS Mike Blazek from Spr to Mem. RHR Francisco Samuel off Spr DL. LHS Jonathan Cornelius off Bat DL. RHS Jose Almarante onto Bat DL.

9/2: OF Shane Robinson to 40-man roster, from Mem to StL. RHR Lance Lynn from 15- to 60-day DL.

9/3: RHP Maikel Cleto from Mem to StL.

9/5: LHS Hector Hernandez from Bat to QC.

9/6: C Tony Cruz, SS Tyler Greene, OF Adron Chambers from Mem to StL. IF Nick Punto off StL DL. RHS Seth Blair to QC SL. C Jonathan Keener from JC to QC. OF Mike O’Neill from QC to Bat.

9/13: RHR Eduardo Sanchez off 60-day DL. Spr RHR Francisco Samuel DFAed.

9/25: Contract of DSL RHP Luis Arias voided. New total 294.

10/9: RHR Lance Lynn off 60-day DL. OF Andrew Brown DFAed.

10/12: OF Andrew Brown claimed off outright waivers by COL. New organization total: 293 players.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 10/19/11)

25-man (33+1)	40-man (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Boggs	Molina	Pujols	Schumaker	Theriot	Freese	Holliday (I)
Lohse	McClellan (I)	Laird		Descalso	Furcal	Punto	Berkman
Westbrook	Sanchez (I)	T Cruz (I)			T Greene (I)		Patterson (I)
Wainwright (60DL)	Motte						Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Rzepcyznski (L)						Craig
E Jackson	Dotel						Robinson (I)
Dickson (I)	Lynn						Chambers
	Salas
	Rhodes (L)
(I) Inactive in WS	Cleto (I)
Memphis (20+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Marte	Anderson	Hamilton	Bynum	Kozma	M Carpenter	Stavinoha
Blazek	Rauschenberger	S Hill (DL)
Additon (L)	Parise	Derba
Ottavino	Reifer (DL)
	Todd
	Fick
	Augenstein
	Rundles (L)						Cazana (MX)
	Kopp


Springfield (24+8)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Gast (L)	Delgado (DL)	Cutler	Adams	Duncan	R Jackson	Cox	Pham (DL)
Gorgen (DL)	Lyman	A Perez (DL)		Jo Garcia	Solano	Curtis	Swauger
McGregor (DL)	Greenwood (L)	Tartamella					Rapoport
S Miller	Swagerty						Ingram (DL)
Kelly	Schneider						Jones
Hooker	S Freeman (L)						Luna (DL)
Thomas	Rada (DL)
	Rondon
	Samuel


Palm Beach (25+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Fornataro	Calhoun (L)	L DeLaCruz	Scruggs	S Rodriguez	Bolivar	N Vasquez	Conley
Lyons (L)	Corrigan	Stock		Obregon		Ahmady	R Rosario
Ri Castill0	Wright (L)			G Garcia (DL)			Melker
Siegrist (L)	Reid						Lara
C Martinez	Simpson
Nieto	J Smith
	Butler





Quad Cities (25+9)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Russell	Lucas	Espinoza (DL)	V Sanchez (DL)	Walsh	Gil	J Rodriguez	Longmire
Whiting	Corpas (DL)	Stanley		Stidham (DL)	Elkins		Edmondson
Bibona (L DL)	H Hernandez (L)	Klein		Wong (1)			Swinson (DL)
Blair (SL)	De Jesus	Teran (DL)		Lu Mateo (DL)			Taveras
A Ferrara (L)	Nazario (L)	Keener (32)		Bergman
Rosenthal	Edwards (L)
Copeland (L)	Kiekhefer (L)
Benes	Maness (11)


Batavia (29+6)
P	P (Draft round)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Y Castillo	Miranda (L 8th)	Ca Rasmus (36)	D Medina	Stienstra (12)	C Valero	Patton (38)	Martini (7)
Almarante (DL)	Cole (FA)	J Castillo	R Ruiz		Wittels (FA)		Rbto Reyes (DL)
Daugherty (L)	Tra Miller (16)	Moscatel	Cerreto		Albitz		V Hill
R Martinez	Cornelius (L 24)						Encarnacion
Mijares (L DL)	McInnis (25 DL)						Williams
Avendano (DL)	Baker (49)						O’Neill
S Watson (L)	Bileckyj (L FA)
M DeLaCruz (L DL)	Gaviglio (5)
	Jacob (31)
	Sherriff (L 28)

Johnson City (36+2)
P	P (Draft round)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Jenkins	Mills (9)	Byrd (13)	Washington	Rahmatulla (34)	M Williams (15)	R DeLaCruz	Apelian (27)
Pasen	Hald (L 18)	Montero		B Valera	Pritchard (FA)	H Garcia	Ro Castillo
Santana	Gillung (L 19)				Martin		An Garcia
Canache	Billbrough (FA)						S Ramos
B Freeman (L)	Costantino (43)						Bergin (30)
J Lucas	Wyatt (33)						Tilson (2)
Nuernberg	Rein (L FA)
E Hiraldo	Melling (L 39)
Nadeau (L DL)	Creath (44)
Revesz (L DL)
Bautista
Paulino
C Johnson

Gulf Coast (25)
P	P (Draft round)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Aguilar	B Watson (37)	Velazco	Knox (41)	Le Mateo	Peoples-Walls (4)	Tuivailala	Jeffries (10)
Brand		L Perez		Vargas			Argenal
DeLeon		Ehrlich (6)					Deol (17)
Toribio							Dodd
A Tapia							Bryant
S Lopez							McElroy (3)
Mendoza
Ulacio
B Martinez
Villanueva (L)




DSL (37+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Paredes	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez	Mejia	Rblys Reyes	Pina	Agustin	Araujo
Escudero	A Gonzalez (RL)	J Gomez			R Medina	R Garcia	Capellan
Perdomo	Ceballo	L Cruz			Barbuena		Celestino
S Garcia	F Gonzalez	Godoy			E Alvarez		J Pena
Salazar	F Flores						Torres
DeLosSantos	Villegas						D Diaz
Jh Polanco	I Brito						Acevedo
	Montanez (I)
	D Rodriguez (L)
	JC DeLaCruz
	Gerdel
D Perez (L)	Planchart
Negrette (L)



Unassigned (6)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)		P Vasquez (RL)
Eager (RL)
Patterson (RL)
Novak (RL)
Mulligan (RL)

Draft unsigned (15)
P (Draft round)	P (Draft round)	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Matulis (L 28)	Schmidt (47)	Ar Garcia (20)		Medrano (14)			Asher (48)
Kirsch (L 21)	Poarch (42)	Arnsberg (40)		Moseley (45)
Kamplain (L 22)	Madrigal (35) retired	Kaalekahi (46)		Sibley (50)
Graves (26)	Deese (23) failed physical

Codes
(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(I): injured and assigned to Extended Spring Training
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(MIL): military list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+MIL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2011 spring training

Brian Walton — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:31:08 +0000

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2011 spring training actions and should be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering the 2011 regular season, click here.

With the hot stove season wrapped up and players reporting to camp, it is time for another refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made from the start of 2011 spring training until the regular season gets underway. The previous matrix reflects the rosters at the conclusion of the 2010-11 off-season moves.

If you are new to the blog and not familiar with the Cardinals organization roster matrix, here is quick summary:

As the 2011 camp opened, the St. Louis Cardinals had 289 players under contract from top to bottom, including a full 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system based on his placement at the end of last season as well as by position. It is kept updated daily or as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order.

The players remaining in major league camp, whether on the 40-man roster or as non-roster invitees, are called out in bold.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 289 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated now at The Cardinal Nation.com / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the nine team pages at The Cardinal Nation, updated for 2011:

Full-season clubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs
Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Shelby Miller’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 and 2010 rosters and transactions, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Notice this time, the organization of the matrix is a bit different as I am highlighting the 40-man roster, the major league camp non-roster invitees, then those selected for regular minor league spring training. The latter group remains in their final 2010 locations.

In the middle is a group of currently inactive and unassigned players.

Following that, we have the 2010 short-season players not invited to regular spring training, but likely ticketed for extended spring training which starts in April, and finally the Dominican Summer League roster, temporarily swelled by the demise of the Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals in 2011.

There will be a new roster matrix once the regular season begins.

Transactions

2/25: New matrix. Organization total 289.

3/6: Nine players to minor league camp: Ps Kevin Thomas, Scott McGregor, Shelby Miller, Cs Nick Derba, Steven Hill, Audry Perez, Robert Stock, IFs Donovan Solano, Zack Cox. 52 remain in MLB camp – bolded names.

3/11: Seven players to minor league camp: Ps Adam Reifer, Francisco Samuel, Mikael Cleto, P.J. Walters, Adam Ottavino, David Kopp and SS Pete Kozma. 45 remain in MLB camp – bolded names.

3/15: NRI RHP Ian Snell retired. 44 remain in MLB camp – bolded names. New system total: 288 players.

3/17: Four players to minor league camp: C Bryan Anderson, OF Adron Chambers, OF Amaury Cazana, IF Ramon Vazquez. 40 remain in MLB camp.

3/19: P’s Mark Diapoules and Houston Summers released. New total: 286 players.

3/21: Ten players to minor league camp: C Tony Cruz, IF Matt Carpenter, Mark Hamilton, OF Shane Robinson, Ps Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, John Gast, Raul Valdes and Blake King. 30 remain in MLB camp.

3/22: RP Josh Squatrito released. RHP Fidencio Flores signed. New total: 286 players.

3/24: Six released: IFs Jose Martinez, Devin Goodwin, OFs Antonio DeJesus, C.J. Beatty, Ps Nick McCully, Charllan Jimenez. New total: 280 players.

3/25: RHP Adam Wainwright placed onto 60-day disabled list.

3/26: OF Amaury Cazana loaned to Minatitlan of the Mexican League.

3/28: LHP George Brown released. OF Nick Stavinoha reassigned to Memphis. RHRs Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas optioned out. Contract of RHR Miguel Batista purchased from Memphis. IF Nick Punto to 15-day DL. (Not all transactions have officially been executed, but all have been announced.) MLB roster now at 25. New system-wide total: 279 players.

3/29: RHP Miguel Tapia and OF Ross Smith released. New organization total: 277 players.

3/30: LHP Sean Watson signed to minor league contract. New total: 278.

3/31: 1B Francisco Rivera released. New total: 277.

4/1: DSL RHP Luis Perdomo signed. New total: 278.

4/2: 1B Curt Smith and C Ivan Castro released. New total: 276.

4/3: RHPs Jason Novak and Thomas Eager to restricted list.

4/5: Name change: Eduard Estalis to Jose Almarante.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 04/05/11): bold = major league roster

40-man (39+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	Molina	Pujols	Schumaker	Theriot	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	Punto (15DL)	Berkman
Westbrook	Boggs	Laird			Kozma	Cox	Rasmus
Wainwright (60DL)	Motte	T Cruz					Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Tallet (L)						Craig
Walters	T Miller (L)						Chambers
Cleto	Salas
Kopp	Sanchez
	Samuel
	Reifer
	King
	Augenstein
NRI (21)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn	Batista	S Hill		R Vazquez		Solano	Cazana (MX)
(Snell retired)		Derba				M Carpenter	Robinson
Dickson		Stock					Stavinoha
Ottavino		A Perez
Valdes (L)
Thomas
S Miller
Kelly
McGregor
Gast (L)

Early camp (19)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blair	Swagerty	L DeLaCruz	Adams	R Jackson			Pham
A Ferrara (L)	Wright (L)	Stanley		L Mateo			Luna
Rosenthal	Reid	Teran					A Castellanos
Jenkins							Longmire
C Martinez							Taveras

Reg camp (124)
Memphis (6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Fick				Bynum		Rapoport
	Norrick (L)
	Parise
	Rundles

Springfield (21)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L)	Delgado	Cutler	C Smith (released)	Jo Martinez1 (released)	Ramirez	Curtis	Ant. DeJesus (released)
Gorgen	Eager (RL)		A Brown	Jo Garcia			Swauger
Kulik (L)	Buursma		Scruggs				Jones
Mijares (L)	S Freeman (L)						Henley
	Frevert



Palm Beach (22)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Schneider	Mulligan	Espinoza	Rivera (released)		Bolivar	N Vasquez	Beatty (released)
G Brown (L released)	Bradford						Bogany
(Diapoules released)	Rauschenberger						R Rodriguez
Nieto	Simpson						Ingram
Ri Castillo	M Tapia (released)
Zawacki	Pichardo
Bittle
Hooker

Quad Cities (26)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Rondon	Novak (RL)	Castro (released)		Goodwin (released)		Ahmady	Lara
Fornataro	Calhoun (L)			Stidham			R Smith (released)
Bibona (L)	J Smith			Obregon			Swinson
Cardenas (L)	Corrigan			Walsh			R Rosario
	Rada						Parejo
	Terry						Conley
	Blazek
	Kiekhefer (L)
	Greenwood (L)
	Matos

Batavia (19)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ju Edwards (L)	Butler	Klein	V Sanchez	Bergman	Y Castillo	J Rodriguez	Biserta
Moss	(Squatrito released)	J Castillo		Valaika			O’Neill
McCully (released)	(Summers released)						Edmondson
Russell	Lyons (L)						Melker


Johnson City (25)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Copeland (L)	Benes	Tartamella	D Medina	S Rodriguez	Elkins	Cerreto	S Ramos
H Hernamdez (L)	Corpas				G Garcia	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Ang. De Jesus	A Lucas				R Ruiz		Williams
Daugherty (L)	Revesz (L)				C Valera
C Johnson
Jimenez (released)
Siegrist (L)
Nadeau (L)
Whiting

GCL (3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	R Martinez	Moscatel			Tuivailala

DSL (2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Almarante				Gil


Unassigned (3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)	Patterson (RL)	P Vasquez (RL)


EST (6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Avendano	A Garcia					Rbto Reyes
	Guzman
	Nazario (L)
	Watson (L)
GCL (22)
P	2010 P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
B Martinez	B Freeman (L)	Montero	Pimentel	W Perez	Martin	H Garcia	Bryant
A Castillo	Aguilar		Washington	Vargas			Dodd
Pasen	J Lucas			Vivas
Santana	Mendoza
Uribe (L)	M DeLaCruz (L)
	Brand
	Nuernberg

DSL (52+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez		Rblys Reyes	Agustin	B Hiraldo (RL)	Araujo
Paulino	A Gonzalez	L Perez			R Medina		Capellan
S Lopez	A Toribio				Barbuena		Celestino
F Gonzalez	Ceballo						Encarnacion
Perdomo	Bautista						J Pena
	DeLeon						Ro Castillo
	DeLosSantos						D Diaz
	E Hiraldo
	Segundo
	JC DeLaCruz (RL)
	P Pena (L RL)
	D Rodriguez (L RL)
	Rudecindo (RL)
	F Flores

SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Garcia	Almeida	Velazco		B Valera	Pina	R Garcia	Acevedo
Bier	Canache	J Gomez					Argenal
Montanez	I Brito						Jo Martinez2
Villanueva (L)	De Aguas (L)
Ulacio	Escudero
Oraa	Gerdel
	Jh Polanco
	Planchart
	Solarte
	Villegas

Codes
(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(MIL): military list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: remaining in major league camp
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+MIL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Rochester group cuts Batavia losses but says 2011 is it

Brian Walton — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:05:18 +0000

In the good news department, Rochester Community Baseball (RCB) reduced the amount of their loss incurred while operating the Batavia Muckdogs in 2010.

Now for the bad news. They still reported a $92,000 deficit for the year on gross revenues of roughly a half million dollars.

That compares to $250,000 in red ink from during their initial season providing business management of the club in 2008 and nearly $150,000 more lost the next year. The actual deficit over the three years is $488,917, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

The silver lining on the dark cloud is that RCB has accumulated five percent ownership of the Muckdogs franchise for each season of their deal, or a total of 20 percent by the end of this season. At an estimated sale price of $4 to $6 million, the Rochester group would seem destined to make an eventual profit, even with continued losses operating the team likely in 2011.

The Batavians are less fortunate, however, as their equity position in the team declines each year. For a good period of time last summer, it looked like 2010 would be the final year for New York-Penn League baseball in the upper New York town.

While they have staved off extinction for another year, the handwriting is on the wall. With continued losses and that erosion in their ownership stake each season, the franchise is slowly bleeding to death.

Last summer, the team was officially put on the market. RCB chairman Gary Larder reminded his anxious shareholders that their annual losses operating the club will end as time for baseball in Batavia runs out.

“The team is for sale,” Larder said. “We don’t expect to be doing it again next year. We expect they will be sold.”

Not surprisingly, the hometown Batavia Daily News painted a more hopeful picture about the situation while acknowledging the sale process is in full swing.

“We are working to find a buyer that will give us what we think is fair value for the team and keep the team in Batavia for another couple of years. That would be the ideal situation,” said RCB COO Naomi Silver.

“Because of our ability to get our (RCB) money out of it in the end, we are not in a desperate situation to find a buyer. We are going to find the right situation. In the last week, I’ve talked to six different parties, and I don’t know if any will come to fruition, but people are interested.”

2011 is potentially shaping up to be a lame-duck season for baseball in Batavia. As soon as possible, new ownership would most likely relocate the franchise to an area with a better facility, greater population draw and of course, a realistic chance to turn a profit that neither RCB nor the Batavia majority owners before them could achieve.

Apparently unconcerned by all this, the St. Louis Cardinals signed a two-year extension of their Player Development Contract with the Muckdogs last fall and are committed to provide players to the team in 2012 no matter where their home might be.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Batavia Muckdogs sign 2011 stadium lease

Brian Walton — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:00:04 +0000

Will 2011 be the last year professional baseball is played in Batavia, New York’s Dwyer Stadium?

The Batavia Muckdogs, the St. Louis Cardinals’ short-season class A affiliate, officially have a 2011 home. It is the same as the old one. A one-year lease has been approved by the Batavia City Council for the use of the town-owned Dwyer Stadium, reports The Batavian.

The facility has undergone minor improvements during the off-season at the demand of the New York-Penn League, unhappy with the condition of the field and locker rooms. The combination of the older ballpark and poor attendance has helped to generate a long stretch of red ink for the franchise, owned by the Genesee County Baseball Club.

An extension of the business management agreement for the Muckdogs this coming season was announced in October by Rochester Community Baseball, owners of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings.

The Rochester group accrues a five percent ownership stake in the Muckdogs each year of their operation with 2011 being their fourth season in charge. Officially for sale since last August, the Muckdogs may be worth as much as $5 million or more, reported the Batavia Daily News.

Without naming names, a follow-on story to the lease signing news in Ballpark Digest noted that there are definitely parties interested in purchasing the franchise, most likely with intent to relocate starting in 2012.

“That 2011 is a season of treading water for the Muckdogs is not up for debate: the team’s future clearly is not in Batavia, and we know of potential owners on the horizon,” the article divulged.

For their part, the Cardinals have supplied competitive teams including a league champion in 2008 and a playoff club in 2010. This past fall, St. Louis signed a two-year Player Development Contract to remain paired with the Batavia franchise.

If the team moves for 2012, the Cardinals would most likely follow, at least for the first season. A similar situation occurred in 2006 when the New Jersey Cardinals were sold. The new ownership group relocated the franchise to State College, PA. St. Louis honored the final year of the contract before State College chose to align with Pittsburgh instead. The Cardinals moved their affiliation to Batavia starting in 2007. The Muckdogs’ previous partners, the Philadelphia Phillies, had left Batavia just prior.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010-11 off-season

Brian Walton — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:14:51 +0000

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2010-11 off-season actions and should be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering 2011 spring training, click here.

The St. Louis Cardinals full system roster view reflects changes made during the entire 2010-11 off-season.

With the hot stove season upon us, it is once again time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made from the end of the 2010 regular season. The previous matrix reflects the rosters at the conclusion of last season.

If you are new to the blog and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

As the 2010 season came to its close, the St. Louis Cardinals had 320 players under contract from top to bottom, with 43 of them on the 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system based on his assignment the end of last season as well as by position. It is kept updated daily or as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 320 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated now at The Cardinal Nation.com / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs

St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs

Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 and 2010 rosters and transactions, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010, Opening season 2010, First half 2010, Short-season 2010

2010-2011 off-season transactions

10/4: New matrix. Organization total 320.

10/5: 14 releases: RHP Trey Hearne (Spr), OF Rich Racobaldo and IF Colt Sedbrook (PB), RHR LaCurtis Mayes and RHR Chris Notti (QC), OF Jon Edwards, RHP Matt North, RHR Travis Lawler, RHR David Kington (Bat), C Yorbel Alcala, LHS Moises Colorado, OF Anthony Fonseca, OF Alberto Rivero, OF Joe Babrick (GCL). New total 306.

10/6: Mem LHS Evan MacLane declared free agency. New total 305.

10/12: OF Shane Robinson outrighted to Mem.

10/13: RHP Bryan Augenstein claimed off waivers from Arizona. New total 306.

10/21: VSL releases: Marlon Sucre, Hayrich Martina, Lainer Bueno, Tharick Martines and Limbert Rivas. DSL releases: Jorge Lopez, Luis Polanco, Victor Ferreira and Christian Concepcion. New total 297.

11/1: Nine MLB free agents: Ps Brad Penny, Jake Westbrook, Jeff Suppan, Dennys Reyes, Mike MacDougal, C Jason LaRue, IFs Aaron Miles and Pedro Feliz and OF Randy Winn. New total 288.

11/3: OF Joe Mather (STL) claimed off waivers by ATL. New total 287.

11/4: C Matt Pagnozzi outrighted. Eligible for minor league free agency. New total 286.

11/6: Five minor league free agents: P’s Oneli Perez, Rich Rundles, Josh Kinney and Matt Scherer and IF Ruben Gotay. New total 281.

11/16: Free agent RHS Jake Westbrook signs 2-year deal with 3rd year option. New total 282.

11/17: Five players added to the 40-man roster: Ps David Kopp, Adam Reifer, Eduardo Sanchez, SS Pete Kozma and OF Adron Chambers.

11/19: Two players added to the 40-man roster: P Blake King, C Tony Cruz. Four players outrighted (off 40-man): P Adam Ottavino, C Steven Hill, OFs Nick Stavinoha and Daryl Jones.

11/23: LHP Raul Valdes signed to minor league contract with MLB spring training invite. New total 283.

11/30: IF Ryan Theriot acquired from LAD for P Blake Hawksworth. Signed FA LHP Brian Tallet. New total 284.

12/4: FA OF/1B Lance Berkman signed. New total 285.

12/9: Washington selects RHP Brian Broderick (Spr) in Rule 5 Draft. StL selects LHP Jean Mijares from Min.

12/12: Seattle acquires SS Brendan Ryan for RHP Mikael Cleto. Both on 40-man. Cleto to Spr for this document.

12/14: StL signs FA C Gerald Laird. New total 286.

01/14: FA RHPs Miguel Batista, Ian Snell sign minor league deals with spring camp invites. New total 288.

01/15: FA IF Ramon Vazquez signed to minor league contract with spring camp invite. New total 289.

01/16: FA IF/OF Freddie Bynum signed to minors deal. New total 290.

01/21: FA IF Nick Punto signed to major league contract. New total 291.

01/24: FA LHR Rich Rundles signed to minors deal. New total 292.

01/28: FA IF Ronald Ramirez signed to minors deal and assigned to Springfield. New total 293.

2/3: FA RHR Wilson Matos signed to minors deal and assigned to QC. New total 294.

2/4: FA OF Jim Edmonds signed to minors deal with spring camp invite. New total 295.

2/8: Dominican RHP Fernando Gonzalez signed. New total 296.

2/10: Dominican OF George Araujo and Venezuelan SS Leobaldo Pina signed. New total 298.

2/12: VSL LHP Angelo Echeverria released. DSL RHP Luis Mata and OF Andres Beras released. New total 295.

2/18: OF Jim Edmonds retired. New total 294.

2/23: VSL RHPs Kevin Cueto, Geudy Guerra, Jose Perez, Edubray Ramos and SS Kevin Gonzalez released. New total 289.

2/24: LHP John Gast and RHP Scott McGregor given NRIs to MLB spring camp.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 02/24/11)

* 21 non-roster major league camp invitees
+ 19 early minor league camp invitees

St. Louis (29)	40-man (40)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	Molina	Pujols	Schumaker	Theriot	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	Punto	Berkman
Westbrook	Boggs	Laird					Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Tallet (L)						Craig
Walters	T Miller (L)
	Salas



Memphis (22+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn *	Fick	T Cruz		R Vazquez *	Bynum	Solano *	Chambers
Augenstein	Sanchez	S Hill *					Cazana *
Dickson *	Samuel						Rapoport
Ottavino *	Parise (DL)						Robinson (DL) *
Valdes (L) *	Norrick (L)						Stavinoha *
Snell *	Reifer
	Batista *
	Rundles (L)


Springfield (25+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L)	Delgado	Derba *	C Smith (DL)	Jo Martinez1(DL GCL)	Kozma	Curtis	Ant. DeJesus
Kopp	Eager	L DeLaCruz +	A Brown	Jo Garcia	Ramirez	M Carpenter *	Swauger
Thomas *	King	Cutler (DL)	Scruggs				Jones
Kulik (L DL)	S Freeman (L DL)						Pham (DL) +
Mijares (L)	Frevert						Henley (DL)
McGregor *	Buursma						Luna +
Gorgen
Cleto






Palm Beach (20+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Schneider	Mulligan	Espinoza	Rivera (DL)	R Jackson +	Bolivar	N Vasquez	A Castellanos +
G Brown (L)	Bradford	P Vasquez (RL)					Beatty
Diapoules (DL)	Rauschenberger						R Rodriguez
Nieto	Simpson						Bogany
Ri Castillo	M Tapia (DL)						Ingram
Zawacki	Pichardo
Bittle (DL)
Hooker



Quad Cities (26+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Rondon	Novak (DL)	Stock *	Adams (DL) +	L Mateo +		Ahmady	Lara
Fornataro	Calhoun (L)	Castro		Goodwin			R Smith
Bibona (L)	J Smith	Stanley +		Stidham (DL)			Swinson
Kelly *	Corrigan			Obregon			R Rosario
S Miller *	Rada			Walsh			Parejo
Cardenas (L DL)	Terry						Conley (DL)
	Blazek
	Kiekhefer (L DL)
	Greenwood (L)
	Matos

Batavia (25+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ju Edwards (L)	Butler	Klein	V Sanchez	Bergman	Y Castillo	J Rodriguez	Biserta
Moss	Avendano	J Castillo		Valaika			O’Neill
Gast (L) *	Swagerty +	A Perez *					Edmondson
Russell	Wright (L) +						Longmire +
Blair +	Reid +						Melker (DL)
A Ferrara (L) +	Squatrito (DL)
McCully	Summers
	Lyons (L DL)



Johnson City (33+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Copeland (L)	Benes	Tartamella	D Medina	S Rodriguez	Elkins	Cerreto	V Hill
H Hernamdez (L)	Corpas	Teran +			G Garcia	R DeLaCruz	S Ramos
Ang. De Jesus	Guzman	A Garcia			R Ruiz		Williams
Daugherty (L)	A Lucas				C Valera		Taveras +
C Johnson	Nazario (L)						Rbto Reyes
Jimenez
Rosenthal +	Revesz (L)
Nadeau (L)	Patterson (RL)
Whiting
Siegrist (L)
Jenkins +

Unassigned (1)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)

GCL (26)
P	2010 P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
B Martinez	B Freeman (L)	Montero	Pimentel	W Perez	Tuivailala	Cox	Bryant
A Castillo	Aguilar	Moscatel	Washington	Vargas	Martin	H Garcia	Dodd
Pasen	J Lucas			Vivas
Santana	Mendoza
Uribe (L)	M DeLaCruz (L)
	Brand
	R Martinez
	Nuernberg


DSL (28+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez		Rblys Reyes	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Araujo
Paulino	A Gonzalez	L Perez			R Medina		Capellan
C Martinez +	A Toribio				Barbuena		Celestino
S Lopez	Ceballo				Agustin		Encarnacion
F Gonzalez	Bautista						J Pena
	D Rodriguez (L RL)						Ro Castillo
	DeLeon						D Diaz
	DeLosSantos
	E Hiraldo
	Estalis
	JC DeLaCruz (RL)

	Segundo
	P Pena (L RL)
	Rudecindo (RL)



VSL (22+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Garcia	Almeida	Velazco		B Valera	Pina	R Garcia	Acevedo
Bier	Canache	J Gomez					Argenal
Montanez	I Brito						Jo Martinez2
Villanueva (L)	De Aguas (L DL)
Ulacio	Escudero
Oraa (DL)	Gerdel
	Jh Polanco
	Planchart
	Solarte
	Villegas

Codes
(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(MIL): military list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+MIL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Limbo in Batavia continues

Brian Walton — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:14:51 +0000

Rochester is back to manage the still-for-sale Batavia Muckdogs for 2011, but none of the underlying financial problems have changed.

Seemingly out of the blue, a press release appeared on Tuesday, announcing that Rochester Community Baseball (RCB) has come to terms with owner Genesee County Baseball Club (GCBC) to operate the money-losing Batavia Muckdogs for a fourth season in 2011.

I say “out of the blue” because late-season comments by RCB chairman Naomi Silver made it clear that RCB, owner/operator of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, had reached the breaking point in losing money operating the Muckdogs.

“It truly breaks my heart to think about the people that will suffer in this loss,” said Silver in July. “…We cannot be expected to continue to take $100,000 losses. We’ve been left with no alternative.

“This is really serious,” said Silver. “We would love to stay, but we really need to see improvement in attendance numbers.”

Silver had already taken considerable heat from unhappy RCB stakeholders at their annual meeting about the financial drain caused by their management of the Muckdogs.

If anything changed attendance-wise since Silver’s July warning, it was only for the worse, despite the Cardinals having done their part by providing a playoff entrant for the second time in the last three years. Fans still remained home in droves.

Batavia’s 1,016 regular season average gate in 2010 was dead last in the 14-team New York-Penn League. In fact, the Muckdogs drew an embarrassing total of just 601 fans for what became their final game of the 2010 post-season.

In the same August release that announced the team was officially being put up for sale, GCBC’s president, Brian Paris, seemed resigned to the fact that RCB was planning to walk.

“We thank the Red Wings for these last three years, which included the memorable 2008 championship season,” Paris said. “They have indicated that they are probably going to move on, and we respect their decision.”

By September, Silver’s comments had moderated and here in October, she invoked civic duty as an explanation for remaining linked to the Muckdogs for another year.

So what might really have been behind the abrupt change in heart by RCB?

A wild guess. What else? Money.

One official with whom I spoke suggested the marriage continues because RCB needs to protect its ownership stake in the team until it can be sold.

RCB had reportedly accrued a 15 percent share of the Muckdogs, five percent for each of its first three years of operation, redeemable if/when the club is purchased.

The financial arrangement between RCB and GCBC going forward has not yet been announced, but The Batavia Daily News reports RCB’s ownership share is 20 percent and reminds the reader that if the Muckdogs’ franchise was to be revoked by the league, the equity in the team would be lost.

That last point is crucial. If the New York-Penn League saw the Muckdogs without a management structure in place for 2011, they may have had no choice but to pull the franchise. That would have left both owners high and dry. In RCB’s case, all they would have left to show for their efforts is three years of losses reportedly totaling a half million dollars.

With seemingly time running out to sell, move the team and still prepare for the 2011 season, Tuesday’s announcement by RCB does seem to signal that no changes are likely expected for next year. Not coincidentally, on Wednesday, the Muckdogs followed with the release of their 2011 schedule.

Publicly at least, Paris is still holding out hope that a benefactor who doesn’t mind pouring large amounts of money into a perennially-losing proposition will magically step forward and rescue the Muckdogs from fully sinking into their financial muck.

“Our hope is that a local sale will occur, or that an individual or company will step forward with an interest in spending substantial sponsorship dollars, allowing the financial picture to improve,” Paris said in the Tuesday release.

More realistically, the best RCB’s return can probably accomplish is to buy more time for a new owner to be found – one who would most likely move the club to an area with a better hope to draw customers and with an improved facility for fans and players alike. It looks like that will occur no sooner than the 2011-2012 off-season, however.

From an on-field perspective, there will be short-term continuity as well. The Cardinals recently signed a two-year extension of their Player Development Contract with the team, which will follow if ownership and/or the location of the club change.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals minor league attendance trending downward

Brian Walton — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:19:19 +0000

Despite solid play on the field, the St. Louis Cardinals’ top four minor league clubs had down attendance in 2010.

After noting that the Batavia Muckdogs drew just 601 fans on Thursday night for what became their final game of the 2010 post-season and perhaps their last game ever, it reminded me that I wanted to look at minor league attendance for the season across the St. Louis Cardinals system.

Turns out that I didn’t have to do the data collection work, as the folks at Baseball Digest already have. They collected attendance figures for 176 teams across minor league baseball.

Below, I extracted the information for the Cardinals top six farm clubs and added some year-to-year and in-league comparisons. Here are my major observations:

Despite all six clubs playing very good baseball, including five playoff entrants, only the lowest two rungs experienced an increase in attendance over 2009. Batavia and Johnson City’s increases are relatively small.
They’re not alone, as 104 of the 176 minor league clubs averaged fewer fans per game in 2010 compared to last year.
Palm Beach, Johnson City and Batavia remain within the bottom ten percent of the 176 teams tracked in average attendance.
Of the Cardinals affiliates, only Memphis and Springfield are not deeply lodged among the poorest-attended teams in their respective leagues.

2010 #	2009 #	Team	Lg	Total Att	G	2010 avg	2009	+/-	2010 Lg rank
23	17	Memphis Redbirds	PCL	462,041	71	6,507	6,981	-0.07	7 of 16
43	36	Springfield Cardinals	TL	357,336	67	5,333	5,835	-0.09	4 of 8
86	85	Quad Cities River Bandits	ML	224,128	64	3,502	3,693	-0.05	10 of 16
163	161	Palm Beach Cardinals	FSL	64,767	67	966	1,008	-0.04	10 of 12
159t	162	Batavia Muckdogs	NYP	36,601	36	1,016	962	0.06	14 of 14
173	172	Johnson City Cardinals	AppL	24,049	32	751	738	0.02	8 of 10

Update 9/15: Minor League Baseball announced overall attendance was down 1/2 of one percent this year, or -0.005 as represented on the above scale. In other words, the four Cardinals clubs’ declines of from four to nine percent were substantially greater than average.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

With the Muckdogs on the block, what might the Cardinals do?

Brian Walton — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:46:27 +0000

There are many uncertainties as the Batavia Muckdogs are for sale and their Player Development Contract with the St. Louis Cardinals is also up.

If anyone out there has $5-$6 million burning a hole in your pocket and have a desire to own a minor league team, I have news for you. The Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League are officially for sale.

The Genesee County Baseball Club (GCBC), the not-for-profit organization that owns the Muckdogs, issued a press release on Friday soliciting bidders for the team, long floundering under a sea of red ink.

Rochester Community Baseball (RCB), owner of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, has been operating the Muckdogs under contract with the GCBC for the last three seasons. As attendance remained at the bottom of the league, causing RCB to lose money in Batavia every year, they have made it clear they would not be back for 2011.

As reported here previously, RCB has accrued a 15 percent share of the Muckdogs, five percent for each year of operation. In a $6 million sale, they would receive $900,000, more than enough to offset the estimated $500,000 in losses that have mounted since they took over business management of the Muckdogs prior to the 2008 season. As a point of reference, another league team, the Oneonta Tigers, was sold and moved to Connecticut prior to the 2010 season, fetching $6 million on the open market.

The GCBC release did not provide a timeframe for a sale decision but stated a wish to locate investors willing to keep the team in Batavia. No mention was made of how prospective new operators might make money when the last two have failed.

Whether the team stays or goes, it is unclear how long necessary approvals from the league and Minor League Baseball would require following the naming of a winning bidder. Based on other sales, it seems quite possible that the uncertain status could extend deep into the off-season.

This situation also has potentially significant affect on the on-field operations of the team.

Likely before the ownership plans are settled, the St. Louis Cardinals will be faced with a decision as to their future affiliation with the franchise. Unlike the rookie Gulf Coast League and the Appalachian Leagues where all or most teams respectively, are owned by their major league parent organizations, 12 of the 14 NY-Penn League clubs are independently owned.

The Cardinals two-year Player Development Contract with Batavia expires at the end of this season. When I recently asked a organization official about their intentions going forward, he made no comment other than to note that until the season is up, they can do nothing about formally considering alternatives.

PDCs of 11 of the 12 independently-owned NY-Penn clubs also complete next month, so if the Cardinals want to explore moving their affiliation to one of the existing franchises, the option will be available for them to pursue during a brief window of time this fall.

In the past, the Cardinals organization has stated their desire to remain in the NY-Penn League. Further, they seem pleased with their decision to expand their US-based rookie short-season league presence to three teams via their 2007 re-entry into the Gulf Coast League.

Despite the NY-Penn League’s distance from the other organization’s affiliates, the only other circuit at the same level of play, the Northwest League, offers perhaps even greater logistical challenges.

As such, the Cardinals New York-Penn League plans, like the prospective sale of the Muckdogs, will bear watching this fall.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Batavia Muckdogs financial situation eroding

Brian Walton — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:50:10 +0000

Lack of attendance is killing the St. Louis Cardinals New York-Penn League affiliate, the Batavia Muckdogs.

Alanna Stage of the Batavia News wrote an article which outlines the lack of financial progress being made by the Batavia Muckdogs franchise.

Key factoids:

- With 1,024 fans per game, down from last season, the Muckdogs are last in attendance in the New York-Penn League. The next worst team averages over 1,400.

- The chairman and COO of Rochester Community Baseball (RCB), operator of the team, is threatening to make the decision to end their management agreement unless attendance improves, perhaps even before the season is out. RCB is only committed through the 2010 season.

- Remarks from the chairman of The Genessee County Baseball Club, owners of the team, support RCB’s concern over the low level of fan support.

From past articles: link

- Upon the club’s sale, RCB would pick up five percent ownership of the Muckdogs for each year they have operated the club. 2010 is their third season.

- RCB lost $400,000 running the Muckdogs during their first two years of operation, 2008 and 2009.

- The franchise may be worth from $3 million to $5 million on the open market. If sold, it would certainly be moved away from Batavia, likely forever.

I spoke with a senior Cardinals official who would only say that any negotiations for the organization to remain associated with the franchise would not be discussed until after the season ends. The Cardinals player development contract is up this fall.

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010 short season

Brian Walton — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:54:01 +0000

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2010 season-ending organization and should be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering the 2010-11 off-season, click here.

With the final opening day among the St. Louis Cardinals’ ten clubs on Tuesday, June 22, as the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League take the field, it is once again time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made through the end of the season. I plan to refresh the entire matrix at that time as we head into another off-season.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 321 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated daily as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order. Roster rotation order and tandem assignments are noted when applicable.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold. The round each signed 2010-drafted player was selected is listed following his name.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 321 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated for 2010 now at The Cardinal Nation / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs
Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010, Opening season 2010, First half 2010

Transactions

6/22: New matrix. Total 321.

6/24: RHP Trey Hearne off Mem DL to PB. RHP Pete Parise to Mem DL. RHP Eduardo Sanchez from Spr to Mem. LHP Tyler Norrick from PB to Spr. RHP Matt Frevert to PB DL. RHP Miguel Tapia off QC DL to PB. IF Luis Mateo off QC DL.

6/25: OF D’Marcus Ingram off QC DL. RHP Adam Ottavino from Mem to StL. RP Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. OF Mark Shorey off Mem DL. RHP David Kopp from Mem to Spr.

6/26: RHP David Kopp from Spr to Mem. LHR Rich Hill released from Mem. LHP Angelo Echeverria off VSL DL. New total 320.

6/28: OF D’Marcus Ingram from QC to PB. RHP Mike Blazek from PB to QC. RHP Mark Diapoules from Spr to PB. OF Rich Racobaldo onto PB DL. SS Kevin G0nzalez signed, assigned to VSL. New total 321.

6/29: 3B David Freese onto StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. 2B Jason Stidham to QC DL. LHP Dean Kiekhefer from JC to QC. RHP Charllan Jimenez from GCL to JC. RHP Juan Bautista signed to DSL. New total 322.

6/30: OF Steven Ramos from JC to GCL. OF Oscar Taveras from GCL to JC. 2B Daniel Descalso to Mem DL.

7/1: OF Tyler Henley to Spr DL. IF/OF Andrew Brown off Spr DL. RHP Mark Diapoules to PB DL. RHP Cory Rauschenberger signed and sent to PB. New total 323.

7/2: RP Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. SS Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. IF Mike Folli from Spr to Mem. RP Josh Kinney outrighted off 40-man. LHP Renyel Pinto signed, assigned to Mem. New total 324.

7/3: OF Ryan Ludwick to StL DL. OF Jon Jay from Mem to StL. OF Aaron Luna from Spr to Mem. IF Jermaine Curtis and OF Tommy Pham from PB to Spr. C Luis De La Cruz from Bat to PB. 3B Nkio Vasquez from QC to PB. IF Alan Ahmady from Bat to QC. C Roberto Espinoza off QC DL to Bat. 2B Colin Walsh from JC to Bat. OF Corderius Dodd (17th round) signed, assigned to GCL. New total 325.

7/4: C Robert Stock onto QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza returned to QC from Bat.

7/6: RHP Dyllon Nuernberg (23rd round) signed; assigned to GCL. New total 326.

7/7: OF Michael Swinson onto QC DL. OF Ross Smith from Bat to QC. RHP Adam Ottavino to StL DL. LHP Evan MacLane from Mem to StL. RHP Mike MacDougal signed, added to Mem. New total 327.

7/8: RHP Trey Hearne from PB to Spr. LHP John Gast (6th round) signed and assigned to Bat. New total 328.

7/10: RHP Matt Frevert off PB DL.

7/11: RHP Andrew Moye (50th round) did not sign. New total 327.

7/14: C Robert Stock off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza from QC to Bat.

7/15: OF Nick Stavinoha onto StL DL. OF ALlen Craig from Mem to StL. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. RP Andrew Brown onto Mem DL. OF Adron Chambers from Spr to Mem. OF Chris Swauger from PB to Spr.

7/16: OF Rich Racobaldo off PB DL. IF Manuel Marquez (DSL) released. New total 326.

7/18: LHP Evan MacLane from StL to Mem. RHP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. LHP Daniel Bibona (8th round) signed, sent to QC. New total 327.

7/19: RHP David Kopp from Mem to Spr. LHP Ryan Kulik from Spr to Mem.

7/20: RHP Bryan Martinez from DSL to GCL. OFs Tyler Bighames (GSL) and Devin Shepherd (PB) released. New total 325.

7/21: IF Ryan Jackson, OF Ryde Rodriguez from QC to PB. IF Ted Obregon from PB to QC. IF Oliver Marmol released from PB. OF Rainel Rosario from Bat to QC. New total 324.

7/22: P Gary Daley released from Spr. P Arquimedes Nieto from PB to Spr. LHP Kevin Siegrist from Bat to JC. RHP Deryk Hooker from QC to PB. New total 323.

7/23: RHP P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. RHP Shaun Garceau (Spr) and OF Joey Hage (JC) released. New total 321.

7/24: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. OF Ryan Ludwick off StL DL OF Mark Shorey released (Mem). New total 320.

7/25: C Roberto Espinoza from Bat to QC. LHP Anthony Ferrara to Bat 60-day DL. LHP Tyler Lyons (9th) signed, assigned to Bat. New total 321.

7/26: RHP Casey Mulligan off Spr DL to PB. 1B Xavier Scruggs from PB to Spr. 1B Curt Smith to Spr DL. Mem OF Adron Chambers to Temp Inactive List. OF Amaury Cazana to Mem.

7/27: LHS Evan MacLane onto Mem DL. 2B Daniel Descalso off Mem DL.

7/28: RHR Mike MacDougal from Mem to StL (added to 40-man). RHR Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. OF Aaron Luna from Mem to Spr. OF Adron Chambers off Mem TI list.

7/29: IF Jermaine Curtis from Spr to PB. C Ivan Castro to QC DL.

7/30: RHP Seth Blair (rd 1s) signs and sent to Bat. New total 322.

7/31: RHP Jake Westbrook (StL) and LHP Nick Greenwood (QC) acquired. OF Ryan Ludwick (StL) traded. RHP Brad Penny moved to 60-day DL. RHP Miguel Tapia to PB DL. LHP Daniel Bibona active at QC. RHP Jason Novak onto QC DL. C Ivan Castro off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza from QC to Bat.

8/1: SS Tyler Greene to StL DL. C Juan Castillo from JC to Bat.

8/2: LHS Nate Robertson signed, assigned to Mem. New total 324.

8/3: IF Mike Folli traded to Tampa Bay. OF Allen Craig Mem to StL. OF Nick Stavinoha StL to Mem. New total 323.

8/4: RP Jason Motte to StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. IF Alan Ahmady to QC DL. IF Colin Walsh from Bat to QC. LHP Tyler Lyons to Bat 60-day DL. OF Chris Edmondson from JC to Bat. RHR Francisco Samuel from Spr to Mem. RHR Ramon Delgado from PB to Spr. Spr P Kyle Mura released. DSL P Jefferson Segundo off RL. New total 322.

8/5: RP Jesse Simpson from QC to PB. RP Jose Rada from Bat to QC. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to Bat.

8/8: C Tony Cruz to Spr DL. C Charles Cutler from PB to Spr. C Kevin Moscatel from GCL to PB. IF Wilfred Vivas off GCL DL.

8/10: JC RHR Chris Patterson retired. New total 321.

8/11: RHS Jeff Suppan onto StL DL. C Steven Hill onto 40-man, to StL from Spr. C Luis De La Cruz from Bat to PB. C Nick Derba from PB to Spr. Bat Cs Audry Perez and Geoff Klein to the DL. LHP Justin Wright (47th) signs, assigned to Bat. New total 322.

8/13: C Jason LaRue to StL DL. OF Nick Stavinoha from Mem to StL. LHP Dean Kiekhefer to QC DL. RHP Tyrell Jenkins (1s) signs, assigned to JC. New total 323.

8/15: RHP Kyle Lohse off 60-day DL, activated by StL. RHR Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. 3B David Freese from 15- to 60-day DL. RHR LaCurtis Mayes from Bat to QC.

8/16: OF Tommy Pham onto Spr DL. 3B Zack Cox (1st round) signed, assigned to GCL. RHP Jordan Swagerty (2nd round) signed, assigned to Bat. New total 325.

8/17: LHS Evan MacLane off Mem DL. C Steven Hill StL to Mem. C Bryan Anderson Mem to StL. SS Tyler Greene off StL DL to Mem. RHP Adam Ottavino from StL 15-day DL to 60-day DL. Mem 1B Mark Hamilton to TI list. Mem RP Matt Scherer to PB (rehab?). IF Jermaine Curtis from PB to Spr.

8/18: OF C.J. Beatty from QC to PB. OF Ross Smith to QC DL. OF Michael Swinson, IF Alan Ahmady off QC DL. RHP Chris Notti suspended. RHP Chris Corrigan from Bat to QC.

8/19: 3B Pedro Feliz from Houston in return for PB RHR David Carpenter. C Jason LaRue from 15 to 60-day DL. RHR Andrew Brown released from Mem. OF Adron Chambers onto Mem DL. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem TI. Cs Geoff Klein and Audry Perez off Bat DL. New total 324.

8/20: OF Nick Stavinoha from StL to Mem.

8/21: Mem LHR Renyel Pinto released. New total 323.

8/22: Spr IF Jose Martinez begins rehab at GCL. C Roberto Espinoza from Bat to PB.

8/23: LHR Nate Robertson released. RHR Matt Scherer returned to Mem from PB rehab. New total 322.

8/24: LHR Dennys Reyes to StL DL. RHR Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. RHS Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB.

8/25: RHP Scott Gorgen off Spr DL. LHR Tyler Norrick from Spr to Mem.

8/26: OF Adron Chambers off Mem DL. IF Donovan Solano onto Mem DL. C Kevin Moscatel from PB to GCL. LHP George Brown off PB DL. OF Anthony Garcia, 2B Starlin Rodriguez and 3B Roberto De La Cruz from GCL to JC. LHP Anthony Ferrara off Bat DL.

8/27: OF Ross Smith off QC DL to Bat.

8/30: RHR Jason Motte off StL DL. OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. C Tony Cruz off Spr DL. C Nick Derba onto Spr temp inactive list. OF Steven Ramos from GCL to JC. DSL LHP Delvi Rodriguez and RHP Jean Carlos De La Cruz suspended 50 games for failed drug tests.

8/31: RHP Javier Avendano from GCL to Bat.

9/1: LHR Dennys Reyes, RHS Jeff Suppan off StL DL. OF Nick Stavinoha, C Matt Pagnozzi Mem to StL. C Tony Cruz Spr to Mem. C Nick Derba off Spr TI. OF Ross Smith from Bat to QC. 1B Matt Adams onto QC DL.

9/3: C Charles Cutler to Spr DL. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to Spr. C Geoff Klein from Bat to PB.

9/4: IF Kevin Howard onto Memphis suspended list. IF Donovan Solano off Mem DL.

9/5: RHR LaCurtis Mayes onto QC DL. C Cody Stanley from JC to QC.

9/6: C Geoff Klein from PB to Bat. RHR Adam Reifer from Spr to Mem. OF Adam Melker onto Bat DL (sometime between August 25-31).

9/7: IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. Mem IF Kevin Howard released. New total 321.

9/8: RHPs Kevin Thomas and Matt Frevert from PB to Spr. LHP Ryan Kulik onto Spr DL.

9/18: RHP P.J. Walters, 1B Mark Hamilton, OF Allen Craig, OF Joe Mather from Mem to StL. 2B Daniel Descalso from Mem to StL and added to 40-man roster. LHP Evan MacLane designated for assignment (off 40-man roster).

9/21: IF Felipe Lopez released. New total 320.

9/24: C Steven Hill from Mem to StL.

9/28: Name change – DSL P Carlos Matias to Carlos Martinez.

9/29: RHP Adam Ottavino off 60-day DL.

9/30: VSL SS Lainer Bueno suspended for first 30 games of 2011 for PED use.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (as of 09/30/10)

St. Louis (36+3)	40-man (40+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	Molina	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese (60 DL)	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	Feliz	Stavinoha
Westbrook	Boggs	S Hill		Miles			Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte	LaRue (60 DL)					Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Ottavino	Pagnozzi					Craig
Walters	T Miller (L)						Winn
Suppan	Salas						Mather
Penny (60 DL)	Hawksworth
	MacDougal
	Reyes (L)
Memphis (18+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 4	Fick	T Cruz		Gotay		Solano	Chambers
	Kinney						Rapoport
Dickson 3	Samuel						Cazana
MacLane (L)	Parise (DL)						Robinson (DL)
O Perez 5	Rundles (L)
	Sanchez
	Scherer
	Norrick (L)
	Reifer

Springfield (24+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Delgado	Derba	C Smith (DL)	Jo Martinez1(DL GCL)	Kozma	Curtis	Ant. DeJesus
Kopp 3	Eager	L DeLaCruz	A Brown1	Jo Garcia		M Carpenter	Swauger
Thomas	King	Cutler (DL)	Scruggs				Jones
Kulik (L DL)	S Freeman (L DL)						Pham (DL)
	Frevert						Henley (DL)
	Hearne						Luna
Broderick 4	Gorgen
McGregor 1	Buursma






Palm Beach (22+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Schneider 4	Mulligan	Espinoza	Rivera (DL)	R Jackson	Bolivar	N Vasquez	A Castellanos
G Brown (L)	Bradford	P Vasquez (RL)		Sedbrook			Beatty
Diapoules (DL)							R Rodriguez
	Simpson						Bogany
Ri Castillo 1							Ingram
Zawacki 2	Pichardo						Racobaldo
Bittle (DL)
Hooker 5	M Tapia (DL)
Nieto	Rauschenberger


Quad Cities (27+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Rondon 2	Novak (DL)	Stock	Adams (DL)	L Mateo		Ahmady	Lara
Fornataro 1	Calhoun (L)	Castro		Goodwin			R Smith
	J Smith	Stanley (4th)		Stidham (DL)			Swinson
Kelly 4	Mayes			Obregon			R Rosario
S Miller 5	Rada			Walsh (13th)
Cardenas (L DL)	Terry						Parejo
Bibona (L 8th) 3	Blazek						Conley (DL)
	Kiekhefer (L DL 36)
	Notti
	Corrigan
	Greenwood (L)
Batavia (29+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ju Edwards (L) 1	Butler	Klein (15th)	J Rodriguez	Bergman (33rd)	Y Castillo		Biserta (24th)
Moss 5	North	J Castillo	V Sanchez (26th)	Valaika (34th)			Jo Edwards
Gast (L 6th) 3	Swagerty (2nd)	A Perez					Edmondson (43rd)
	Wright (L 47th)						Longmire (5th)
	Lawler						Melker (44th DL)
A Ferrara (L)	Squatrito (DL)						O’Neill (31st)
McCully 4	Summers
Russell 2	Kington
Blair (1s)	Lyons (L 9th 60DL))
	Reid (41st)
	Avendano
Johnson City (33+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Copeland (L 32) T1	Benes (35th)	Tartamella	D Medina	S Rodriguez	Elkins (37th)	Cerreto (40th)	A Garcia
H Hernamdez (L) T1	Corpas				G Garcia (7th)	Teran	S Ramos (22nd)
Ang. De Jesus T2	Guzman				R Ruiz	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Daugherty (L) T2	A Lucas (27th)				C Valera		Taveras
C Johnson 3	Nazario (L 30th)						Rbto Reyes
Jimenez T4	Jenkins (1s)						Williams (10th)
Rosenthal	Revesz (L 49th)
Nadeau (L 38) T5	Patterson (RL 29th)
Whiting (18th) T5
Siegrist (L) T4

Unassigned (1)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)


GCL (31)
P	2010 P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	B Freeman (L 11)	Alcala	Pimentel	W Perez	Tuivailala (3rd)		Bryant (16th)
A Castillo	Aguilar (14th)	Moscatel	Washington	Vargas	Martin (20th)	H Garcia	Fonseca
	J Lucas (21st)	Montero		Vivas		Cox (1st)	Rivero
B Martinez	Mendoza (25th)						Babrick
Pasen	M DeLaCruz (L)
Santana	Brand (42nd)						Dodd (17th)
	R Martinez (FA)
Uribe (L)	Nuernberg (23rd)
	Colorado (L)

DSL (32+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia 2	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez	V Ferreira	Rblys Reyes	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Beras
	A Gonzalez	L Perez		J Lopez	R Medina		Capellan
C Martinez 1	A Toribio				Barbuena		Celestino
S Lopez 3	Ceballo				Agustin		Encarnacion
Paulino 5	L Polanco						J Pena
	D Rodriguez (L RL)						Ro Castillo
	DeLeon						D Diaz
	DeLosSantos
	E Hiraldo
	Estalis
	JC DeLaCruz (RL)
	L Mata
	Concepcion
	P Pena (L RL)
	Rudecindo (RL)
	Segundo
	Bautista

VSL (32+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Garcia 5	Almeida	Rivas		B Valera	Bueno	H Martina	Acevedo
Bier 1	Canache	J Gomez				R Garcia	Argenal
Montanez 2	Cueto	Velazco			K Gonzalez		Jo Martinez2
Villanueva (L) 4	De Aguas (L DL)						Sucre
Ulacio 3	E Ramos						Martines
	Echeverria (L)
	Escudero
	Gerdel
	Guerra
Oraa (DL)	I Brito
	J Perez
	Jh Polanco
	Planchart
	Solarte
	Villegas

Codes
(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010 regular season

Brian Walton — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:33:28 +0000

With the first in-season transactions of 2010 made on Wednesday, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made until the short-season clubs begin play in mid-June. I plan to refresh the entire matrix at that time.

The 2010 season-opening view will remain unchanged. You can see it here.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 287 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Along with the major league club and the four full-season rosters, the players participating in extended spring training camp are also included. 44 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

In a look ahead, the extended spring training players will either join full-season clubs as openings occur or will be augmented by this June’s draftees to staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs. A number are also likely to be released.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 287 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated for 2010 now at The Cardinal Nation / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs

St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs

Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Remember that at this point, there are not yet 2010 rosters for the short-season clubs, Batavia on down, so players are listed where they finished last season – where they will remain until there is a reason to move them.

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010, Opening season 2010

Transactions

4/14: C Jason LaRue onto StL DL. C Bryan Anderson from Mem to StL. C Nick Derba from PB to Mem. C Luis De La Cruz from EST to PB.

4/15: OF Chris Swauger onto PB DL. IF Jermaine Curtis off PB DL.

4/17: OF Kyle Conley to QC DL (in FL). 1B Jonathan Rodriguez from QC DL to EST. OF Edgar Lara from EST to QC.

4/21: SP Trey Hearne off Mem DL. RP Josh Kinney onto Mem DL, eff 4/19. RP Jason Buursma off PB DL. RP Ramon Delgado onto PB DL.

4/26: OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. IF Felipe Lopez onto StL DL. OF Jon Jay, IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. RP Josh Kinney off Mem DL. RP Pete Parise onto Mem DL.

4/27: C Bryan Anderson from StL to Mem. C Jason LaRue off StL DL. RP Kevin Thomas onto PB DL. RP Francisco Samuel from Spr DL to PB. IF Aaron Miles signed to minor league deal, assigned to EST. New total 288.

4/29: 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. C Nick Derba from Mem to PB. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to EST.

5/1: RHPs LaCurtis Mayes and Chris Corrigan from QC to EST with RHPs Justin Smith and Jason Novak from EST to QC.

5/4: RHP Chuckie Fick to Spr DL, RHP Francisco Samuel up to Spr from PB with RHP Ramon Delgado off PB DL. RHP P.J. Walters off the Mem TI list, LHP Tyler Norrick on Mem DL.

5/5: RHP Josh Dew released (Spr DL). New total 287.

5/7: 1B Francisco Rivera to PB DL, OF Devin Shepherd to QC DL, OF C.J. Beatty from EST to QC, OF Ross Smith from EST to PB.

5/9: OF Shane Robinson to Mem DL, OF Jim Rapoport from Spr to Mem, RP Francisco Samuel to Mem DL, RP Casey Mulligan from PB to Spr, RP Kevin Thomas off PB DL. OF Jarred Bogany from EST to PB.

5/10: 3B Matt Carpenter from PB to Spr. OF Michael Swinson from EST to QC. OF Frederick Parejo from QC to EST.

5/12: RHP Jason Buursma from PB to Spr. RHP Brett Zawacki from EST to PB. RHP Shaun Garceau to Spr temporary inactive list. IF Aaron Miles from EST to Spr. IF Colt Sedbrook from Spr to EST.

5/14: C Roberto Espinoza from EST to QC DL. SS Hector Alvarez released from EST. New total 286.

5/15: IF Colt Sedbrook from EST to PB. OF Devin Shepherd from QC DL to PB. 1B Osvaldo Morales released from PB. OF Ross Smith from PB to EST. New total 285.

5/16: 11 players added to EST. IF Alan Ahmady, OF Tyler Bighames from QC SL. From DSL: Ps Adriano Uribe, Bryan Martinez, Alejando Pinard and IF Luis Pimentel. From VSL: Ps Moises Colorado and Francisco Guzman, IFs Roberto Perez and Wilfred Vivas, OF Anthony Fonseca.

5/17: IF Felipe Lopez off StL DL. SS Tyler Greene from StL to Mem. OF Tyler Henley to Mem DL. Ps Carlos Oraa, Angelo Echeverria to VSL DL. DSL releases: Ramon Urena, Santo Sandoval, Keury Herrera. VSL releases: Sergio Nieves, Fernando Cedeno, Jose Weffer, Omar Viloria, Osmir Medina, Alexander Castellano. VSL signings: Ps Ismael Brito, Jose Perez, Douglas Planchart, Edubray Ramos, Kender Villegas; SS Lainer Bueno, Manuel Marquez, Breyvic Valera; OF Marlon Sucre’

5/20: OF Michael Swinson onto QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza off QC DL. RP Orlando Munoz released from EST. New total 284.

5/22: P Brad Penny to StL DL. P P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. RP Pete Parise off Mem DL.

5/24: P Trey Hearne onto Mem DL. RHR Andrew Brown acquired from Washington and assigned to Mem. New total 285.

5/27: SP Kyle Lohse onto StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to Stl (+40 man roster). P Tyler Norrick off Mem DL to PB. SP Scott Gorgen onto Spr DL. RP Kyle Mura off Spr DL. SP Brian Broderick from PB to Spr. SP Ryan Kulik from Spr to Mem.

5/28: OF Michael Swinson off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza onto QC DL.

5/29: RHP Adam Ottavino and LHP Evan MacLane from Mem to StL. MacLane added to 40-man. RP Fernando Salas and OF Joe Mather from StL to Mem. DSL SS Grabiel Hernandez now Ronny Gil and put on disqualified list. Signed RHPs Carlos Matias and Addelin Ceballo, SS Robelys Reyes and OF Domingo Diaz. Released P Juan Mercedes. New total 289.

5/30: OF Chris Swauger off PB DL. OF Devin Shepherd onto PB DL.

5/31: LHP Evan MacLane from StL to Mem. OF Allen Craig from Mem to StL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from PB to Spr. RHP Eduardo Sanchez onto Spr DL.

6/1: Infielder Alan Ahmady and outfielder Tyler Bighames off suspension. IF Aaron Miles from Spr to StL (added to 40-man). OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. 1B Mark Hamilton to Mem DL.

6/2: RHP Chuckie Fick off Spr DL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB. IF Jose Garcia from PB to Spr. LHP Dail Villanueva off VSL suspended list.

6/3: IF Luis Mateo onto QC DL. IF Ted Obregon to QC from EST. IF Devin Goodwin from EST to PB.

6/4: OF D’Marcus Ingram onto QC DL. OF Frederick Parejo from EST to QC.

6/5: OF Randy Winn signed by StL. OF Jon Jay from StL to Mem. SP Kyle Lohse from 15- to 60-day DL. New total 290.

6/6: OF Amaury Cazana loaned to a Mexican League club. P Kyle Mura onto Spr DL. P Francisco Samuel off Spr DL.

6/8: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. RHP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. OF Tyler Henley off Mem DL and moved to Spr. 1B Andrew Brown onto Spr DL.

6/11: LHP Tyler Norrick outrighted (off 40-man). Eight released from EST. RHPs Jose Calero, Luis Orozco, Alejandro Pinard, and Michael Thompson, LHPs John Durham and Kyle Heim, 1B Roberto Perez and 2b Gerardo Mambell. Signed P Roberto Canache for VSL. OFs Anthony Bryant and Corderius Dodd signed, assigned to GCL. New total 285.

6/13: C Tony Cruz from PB to Spr. C Charles Cutler from Spr to PB. 2B Ted Obregon from QC to PB. 2B Devin Goodwin from PB to QC.

6/14: SP Jeff Suppan signed to StL. SP Adam Ottavino from StL to Mem. New total 286.

6/15: C Nick Derba to PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from EST to PB. OF Corderius Dodd not signed (17th). NDFA RHP Ricky Martinez signed. LHP Anthony De La Cruz signed and assigned to DSL. 33 members of 2010 draft class signed. Will be placed when team assignments known. New total 320.

6/16: RHR Eduardo Sanchez off Spr DL. LHR Matt Meyer released. New total 319.

6/17: OF Mark Shorey onto Mem DL. P Ian Parry (39th rd) backed out of signing agreement to attend law school. Signed LHP Iden Nazario (30th). New total 319.

6/19: RHP Chase Reid (41st) signed and assigned to Bat. New total 320.

6/20: LHP Ryan Kulik from Mem to Spr. RP Casey Mulligan to Spr DL. OF Reggie Williams (10th) signed and assigned to JC. New total 321.

6/21: RP Matt Scherer to Mem DL. Ps David Kopp and Chuckie Fick from Spr to Mem. Ps Mark Diapoules and Scott McGregor from PB to Spr. P’s Scott Schneider and Mike Blazek from QC to PB.

6/22: C Nick Derba off PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from PB to JC.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 06/22/10)


St. Louis (25+2)	40-man (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse (60DL)	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny (DL)	Boggs			Miles			Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Winn
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
Suppan	T Miller (L)
	Reyes (L)
	Salas


Memphis (24+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	A Brown2	Pagnozzi	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney			Gotay		Howard	Cazana (Mexico)
Dickson 5	Fick	Anderson
Walters	Parise						Robinson (DL)
O Perez 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey (DL)
Kopp							Rapoport
Ottavino	Scherer (DL)						Mather
	R Hill (L)						Craig
	Hearne (DL)

Springfield (24+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Mulligan (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1(DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	T Cruz	A Brown1 (DL)	Jo Garcia			Chambers
Gorgen (DL)						M Carpenter	Jones
Diapoules	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau (TI)	King						Henley
Mura (DL)	Buursma
Broderick 4
McGregor
Kulik (L)	Reifer
	Samuel
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek	Norrick (L)	Cutler	Rivera (DL)	Marmol	Bolivar	Curtis	A Castellanos
G Brown (L DL)	Bradford	Derba	Scruggs	Obregon			Pham
Zawacki 2	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)		Sedbrook			Swauger
Nieto 5	Delgado						Racobaldo
Ri Castillo 3	Frevert						Shepherd (DL)
Schneider	Pichardo						Bogany
Bittle (DL)	Thomas




Quad Cities (23+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Novak	Stock	Adams	L Mateo (DL)	Stidham	N Vasquez	Lara
Fornataro 2	M Tapia (DL)	Castro		Goodwin	Jackson		Ingram (DL)
Hooker T4	J Smith	Espinoza (DL)					Swinson
Kelly T5	Notti						R Rodriguez
S Miller T4	Simpson						Beatty
	Terry						Parejo
Rondon T3							Conley (DL)
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)

M Harris (MIL)

Ext. spring (61+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina			Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez		R DeLaCruz	R Smith
Butler		A Garcia	J Rodriguez	Vargas		H Garcia	Bighames
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel	Ahmady	Vivas	R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero	Pimentel	S Rodriguez	C Valera
	Corrigan	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
	Jimenez	J Castillo					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	L DeLaCruz					Fonseca
Lawler							Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)
	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal						Hage (DL)
North	Santana
Mayes	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Uribe (L)	Colorado (L)
	Guzman

Batavia
Johnson City
GCL (36)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
R Martinez (FA)	Benes (35th)	Stanley (4th)	Sanchez (26th)	Walsh (13th)	Tuivailala (3rd)	Cerrato (40th)	Bryant (16th)
Freeman (L 11th)	Kiekhefer (L 36th)	Klein (15th)		Bergman (33rd)	G Garcia (7th)		Longmire (5th)
Aguilar (14th)	Nadeau (L 38th)			Valaika (34th)	Martin (20th)		Ramos (22nd)
Whiting (18th)	Nazario (L 30th)				Elkins (37th)		Biserta (24th)
J Lucas (21st)	Brand (42nd)						O’Neill (31st)
Mendoza (25th)	Revesz (L 49th)						Edmondson (43rd)
A Lucas (27th)	Moye (50th)						Melker (44th)
Patterson (29th)	Copeland (L 32nd)						Williams (10th)
Reid (41st)

DSL (33+5)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez			J Lopez	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Beras
Matias	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira		R Medina		Capellan
Ceballo	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata				R Reyes		J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez							Diaz
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L RL)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo (RL)
E Hiraldo	Segundo (RL)
A Toribio	A DeLaCruz (L)


VSL (31+2)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Almeida	Canache	Rivas			Bueno	H Martina	Sucre
Bier	Cueto				Marquez	R Garcia	Acevedo
S Garcia	De Aguas (L)	Velazco			B Valera		Argenal
Oraa (DL)	Echeverria (L DL)	J Gomez
Gerdel	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Guerra							Martines
	Jh Polanco
I Brito	Montanez
J Perez	Solarte
Planchart	Ulacio
E Ramos
Villegas	Villanueva (L)

Codes

(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+TO) players

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Season-opening update

Brian Walton — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:07:15 +0000

Note: This version has been superceded. It will continue to reflect 2010 season-opening assignments. To access the current matrix, click here.

With the end of spring training, the start of the major league season and the minor league season commencing on Thursday as well, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

In this update, the major scope is to highlight those selected for the major league club and the four full-season minor league affiliates. As of posting on Tuesday, April 6, these rosters are NOT YET FINAL. For example, there are still about 15 too-many players on the full-season rosters at this time.

In addition, the 68 players invited to the extended spring training camp, underway on April 6, are included. 47 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

For the remainder of the players, the rosters upon which they are listed reflect where they concluded last season. Don’t be concerned about the order of the players’ names within a team. They don’t signify anything other than often a rough approximation of alphabetical order. At the lower levels, starters are not yet broken out from relievers, let alone tandem rotation assignments. At this point, I don’t have confirmation of these roles.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

Full-season clubs

St. Louis Cardinals
Memphis Redbirds
Springfield Cardinals
Palm Beach Cardinals
Quad Cities River Bandits

Short-season clubs

Batavia Muckdogs
Johnson City Cardinals
Gulf Coast League Cardinals
Dominican Summer League Cardinals
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead

In the past, I updated this version of the rosters all summer long, which meant the season-opening view was quickly lost. Based on your feedback, this year, I will instead keep this version for posterity and start a new one to reflect all the in-season changes.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009, July 2009-February 2010, Spring camp 2010

Transactions

When they occur, they will be listed here and of course the matrix will reflect the updates.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 04/06/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	O Perez	Anderson	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
Dickson 5	Norrick (L)						Henley
Ottavino 4	Parise						Robinson
R Hill 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey
Walters (TI)	Salas
Hearne (DL)	Scherer



Springfield (24+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Dew (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1 (DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	Cutler		Sedbrook		A Brown	Chambers
Gorgen 4	Fick						Jones
Kopp 5	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau 1	King						Rapoport
	Kulik (L)
	Meyer (L)
	Mura (DL)
	Reifer
	Samuel (DL)
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ri Castillo 3	Mulligan	T Cruz	Rivera	Marmol	Bolivar	M Carpenter	A Castellanos
Broderick 1	Buursma (DL)	Derba	Scruggs	Jo Garcia		Curtis (DL)	Pham
McGregor 4	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)	Morales				Swauger
Bradford 2	Delgado						Racobaldo
Nieto 5	Frevert
	Pichardo
	Diapoules
	Thomas
Bittle (DL)
G Brown (L DL)

Quad Cities (25+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek T3	Notti	Stock	Adams	L Mateo	Stidham	N Vasquez	Conley
Fornataro 2	Corrigan	Castro	Ahmady (SL)		Jackson		Ingram
Hooker T1	M Tapia (DL)		J Rodriguez (DL)				Parejo
Kelly T5	Mayes						R Rodriguez
S Miller 4	Simpson						Shepherd
Schneider T1	Terry						Bighames (SL)
Rondon T3
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)
M Harris (mil)


Ext. spring (66+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina	Obregon	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez	Goodwin	R DeLaCruz	Beatty
Butler	Calero	A Garcia		Vargas	Mambell	H Garcia	Bogany
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel			R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero			Valera		Lara
Durham (L)	J Smith	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
Heim (L)	Jimenez	L DeLaCruz					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	Espinoza					R Smith
Lawler	Munoz						Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)	Orozco						Swinson
M Thompson	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal
North	Santana						Hage (DL)
Novak	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Zawacki


Batavia
Johnson City
GCL
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez	J Castillo	Pimentel	J Lopez	G Hernandez		Beras
Uribe (L)	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira	S Rodriguez	R Medina		Capellan
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
Herrera (L)	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata						J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Mercedes (L)						Sandoval
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo
E Hiraldo	Segundo (SL)
A Toribio	Urena


VSL (34+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Martina	A Castellano
Bier	Cueto	Viloria				R Garcia	Acevedo
Nieves	De Aguas (L)	Velazco					Argenal
Oraa	Echeverria (L)	J Gomez					Fonseca
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Guzman						Martines
S Garcia	Jh Polanco
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	Solarte
	Ulacio
	Weffer (L)
	Villanueva (L SL)

Codes

Follow me on Twitter.
Follow The Cardinal Nation Blog on Facebook.

Tweet This Post

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Pre-camp update

Brian Walton — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:58:35 +0000

The St. Louis Cardinals full system rosters are refreshed to reflect spring training camps, both major and minor league.

Welcome to first-time readers arriving here due to the first of my weekly Cardinals Minor League Notebook columns in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. With the start of major league spring training camp and minor leaguers reporting in less than two weeks, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 285 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Its major scope in this update is to highlight those invited to each of the two spring training camps. The rosters upon which the players are listed generally reflect where they concluded last season or the type of contract they signed and frankly mean very little at this stage.

The 38 players on the 40-man roster, who received automatic invites to major league camp, are called out in bold. They have been joined at spring training by 19 non-roster invitees, denoted in italics.

147 more players will arrive in minor league camp starting on March 8. Starting from the top of the matrix, those players include all those not in bold or italics down through Batavia. All of the 2009 Johnson City players with the exception of two, John Durham and Kleininger Teran, have also been invited.

The final group of minor league camp invitees consists of eight designated players from the 2009 Gulf Coast League team and one from last season’s Dominican Summer League squad. These JC, GCL and DSL players are broken out separately below. (Players noted on the suspended or restricted lists are excluded until reinstated.)

In a look ahead, the two Johnson City players, the remainder of the 2009 GCL roster and a good helping of the older players from the Dominican Summer League and Venezuelan Summer League will join the spring camp leftovers in extended spring training, starting in early April. Along with this June’s draftees, these players will staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs.

You may note that I separated the pitchers on the short-season rosters between 2009 draftees and returning pitchers. At this point, starting and relieving roles at the lower levels can and will change. There will also certainly be some positional adjustments coming.

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 285 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles now updated for 2010 at The Cardinal Nation / Scout.com. You can see bios, photos, videos, articles, news items, links to current season and career stats and much more – everything you need to know about a player in one place.

For example, this is the link to the 2010 roster page for Memphis. Click on an individual player’s name to be taken to his profile page. Here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

This will be the version of the roster matrix I will be updating the rest of the spring, so now that you’ve found this page once, remember one of three ways to get back here. Bookmark the page, type “Roster Matrix” in the dark blue search box at the upper right or use the dropdown menu at the top of the page: “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows.

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April 2009, May 2009, June 2009 July 2009-February 2010

Transactions

2/26: Signed IF Felipe Lopez. Signed 14 DSL players: C Fernando Baez, 2B Starlin Rodriguez, SS Rafael Medina, SS Junior Agustin, SS Daniel Barbuena, OF Amauris Capellan, OF Ronald Castillo, OF Eduardo Celestino, RHPs Ariel Gonzalez, Jean Carlos De La Cruz, Victor De Leon, Hansel De Los Santos, Eduardo Hiraldo and Arturo Toribio. Signed seven VSL players: C Jose Gomez, OF Jose Martinez (noted as Jo Martinez2 below), OF Jhohan Acevedo, RHPs Alberth Almeida, Silfredo Garcia, Anderson Gerdel and Geudy Guerra. New total 307.

3/17: C Paul Vazquez retired. OF Kaiser Inojosa released. New total 305.

3/18: Rule 5 pick LHP Ben Jukich returned to CIN after clearing outright waivers. New total 304.

3/23: Seven released. Ps Justin Fiske, Andres Rosales, Jonathan Gonzalez, Reynier Gonzalez and Marco Gonzalez, 1B Matt Arburr and C Blake Murphy. New total 297.

3/26: Ten released. Ps Brad Furnish, Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres, Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez and Yoffri Martinez, OFs Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez. New total 287.

3/31: SS Julio Lugo traded to Baltimore Orioles. New total 286. 40-man at 37.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 03/31/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	Kinney	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
McClellan	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24)	9 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
O Perez	Parise	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane	Salas	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
	Scherer						Shorey
Ottavino	Rundles (L)						Robinson
Ja Garcia (L)	Meyer (L)
R Hill	Norrick (L)
Walters




Springfield (30)	7 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn	Freeman (L)	S Hill	A Brown	Jo Garcia	Kozma	Folli	Jones
Hearne	Sanchez	T Cruz			Jo Martinez1		Henley
Gorgen	Samuel	Derba			Sedbrook		Ant. DeJesus
Dickson							Rapoport
Kulik (L)	Fick						Luna
Additon (L)	Dew
	King
	Summers
	Daley, Jr.
	Mura
	Mulligan






Palm Beach (22)	1 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Buursma	Cutler	Rivera	Marmol		M Carpenter	Chambers
Ri Castillo	Eager		C Smith	A Castellanos			Pham
Nieto	Bradford		Morales				Swauger
	Reifer
Diapoules	Garceau
G Brown (L)
Kopp
Bittle




Quad Cities (25+1)	2 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Miller	D Carpenter	Stock	Scruggs		Stidham	Curtis	Parejo
Fornataro	Delgado	Espinoza			Bolivar	Racobaldo	Ingram
Schneider	Pichardo						R Rodriguez
Thomas	McCully						Bogany
Cardenas (L)	M Tapia
Zawacki	Frevert
	McGregor

	Rondon
M Harris (mil)


Batavia (23+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Calhoun (L)	Blazek	L DeLaCruz	Adams		Jackson	N Vasquez	Swinson
Corrigan	Hooker	Castro	Ahmady (susp)		Goodwin
Ju Edwards (L)
Kelly	Mayes						Jo Edwards
	Siegrist (L)						Conley
Moss							Shepherd
Squatrito
J Smith
Simpson
Terry


Johnson City (29)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Johnson	A Ferrara (L)	Tartamella	J Rodriguez	L Mateo	Y Castillo		Beatty
Heim (L)	North	A Perez			Obregon		R Smith
Kington	Notti				R Ruiz		Lara
Lawler	Russell				Alvarez		R Rosario
Butler	Rada						Hage
Novak
Daugherty (L)	Ang. De Jesus
M Thompson


Extended spring
Durham (L)						Teran


GCL (19+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M DeLaCruz (L)	Calero		D Medina		Mambell		Babrick
	Avendano						Bighames (susp)
	A Castillo						Rivero
	Munoz
	Orozco
	Pasen


Regular spring
H Hernamdez (L)		A Garcia	Washington		Valera	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Rosenthal		Moscatel


DSL (46+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	Concepcion	J Castillo	Pimentel	W Perez	G Hernandez		Beras
Santana	L Mata	L Perez	V Ferreira	J Lopez	R Medina		Encarnacion
Jimenez	Rudecindo	Baez		S Rodriguez	Barbuena		J Pena
Uribe (L)	Urena				Agustin		R Reyes
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)						Sandoval
Herrera (L)	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
S Lopez	P Pena (L)						Capellan
	Paulino						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Segundo (susp)						Celestino
JC DeLaCruz	B Martinez
DeLeon	Estalis
DeLosSantos	L Polanco
E Hiraldo
A Toribio


Regular spring
		Alcala

VSL (39+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	Cueto	Viloria		Vargas		R Garcia	Martines
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco				H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Jh Polanco	Montero					Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio	J Gomez					A Castellano
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Solarte						Acevedo
S Garcia	Weffer (L)
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (susp L)

Codes
(i): injured – on the disabled list
(t): temporary inactive list
(susp): suspended list
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
italics: non-roster spring training camp invitee
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp) players

Follow me on Twitter.

Tweet This Post

Rochester group increases share of money-losing Batavia Muckdogs

Brian Walton — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:05:28 +0000

Each year Rochester Community Baseball operates the Batavia Muckdogs, they pick up five percent ownership – but there is a catch.

Batavia residents might have breathed a sigh of relief last week when the impending move of a New York-Penn League team to Norwalk, Connecticut for the 2010 season was finally announced and it wasn’t their Muckdogs packing their bags. Instead, the citizens of Oneonta, New York lost their minor league treasure, as the Tigers will be on the move.

Any euphoria in the upstate New York burg may have been extremely short-lived, however. On Saturday, at least one uneasy shareholder at the annual meeting of the Muckdogs’ funding source, Rochester Community Baseball (RCB), was asking tough questions about Batavia’s professional baseball future.

In their two years of operating the St. Louis Cardinals affiliate in Batavia, RCB has lost just under $400,000 in the venture, roughly $250,000 the first season and $150,000 in 2009. This has pulled the larger entity, which operates the Rochester Red Wings of the International League, into the red for the first time since 1997. While RCB leaders assure constituents the Triple-A franchise remains their priority, continued losses for both clubs will only increase the level of protest.

In a very interesting disclosure, RCB president Gary Larder explained that the Muckdogs’ owner, Genesee County Baseball Club, is ceding RCB five percent equity in the team for every season RCB operates it – if the team is sold. With a commitment already in place to operate the Muckdogs in 2010, the Rochester share of ownership will grow to 15 percent this year.

If one assumes the franchise is worth $4 million to $5 million, RCB could net $600,000 to $750,000 from a sale of the Muckdogs next winter. That would be enough to cover a potential third year of continued losses in 2010 and perhaps even allow for a small profit if the flow of red ink can be stemmed this season.

As reported by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Larder said the following. “We really don’t know what’s going to happen with Batavia.”

Apparently nobody does. There is no indication the Batavians want to sell their team anytime soon and unlock RCB’s slowly-growing share. At this rate, they will still own the majority of the team for six more years.

It is unclear what RCB gets if they decide to walk away before then. Are they essentially stuck in an arrangement that forces them to operate the team until they gain over 50 percent ownership before they could collect their ownership stake and get out? Would they and their shareholders be willing to endure potentially ten years of losses?

Apparently none of the shareholders posed these questions on Saturday.

Perhaps Genesee County Baseball Club remains satisfied to watch their share erode at the rate of five percent per year. Maybe the local community will get sufficiently behind the team that it finally makes money for RCB, alleviating some of their shareholder pressure.

Even if so, this arrangement seems only to be buying Batavia ownership time until the day finally comes when they can no longer live off their equity.

Follow me on Twitter.

Tweet This Post

Muckdogs holding Rochester in financial muck

Brian Walton — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:34:04 +0000

The Batavia Muckdogs lost less money in 2009 than in 2008, but the deficit still runs in six digits and their patron is hurting, too.

Named for “the rich Elba muck land” of the upper New York State region it calls home, the Batavia Muckdogs, the St. Louis Cardinals’ short-season Class A affiliate, continue to wallow in the financial muck – and they now have company.

On Monday, the New York-Penn League club’s operating parent, the Rochester Red Wings, announced the Muckdogs lost $143,495 during the fiscal year ending October 31. The total represented over 85 percent of the deficit reported by the combined entity, with the Wings also losing $24,349.

It was the second consecutive year under Rochester Community Baseball (RCB) that the Batavia franchise generated a six-figure deficit. In 2008, the Muckdogs lost $253,425. As such, an optimist might note that 2009 was less of a drain except for the fact that RCB had been profitable every year from 1995 until they took on the Muckdogs two years ago.

Prior to RCB stepping in, Batavia ownership had endured a series of losses, including another six-figure deficit in 2007. As a result, the locals were dangerously close to losing their franchise. Batavia had been a founding member of the New York-Penn League back in 1939.

There is not an immediate concern as the Red Wings already announced they will operate the Muckdogs for a third season in 2010. The plan beyond that is unclear as the negative effect on the Triple-A Rochester operation is evident.

When probed by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, RCB Chief Operating Officer Naomi Silver declined to label 2010 a “make-or-break” season in Batavia, but called it “a critical year. … We can’t sustain these losses indefinitely,” she said.

It is worth remembering from an earlier report that RCB will receive 10 percent of the proceeds if the Muckdogs are sold. Unless Batavia operations can finally turn a profit in 2010, it would seem RCB will have lost more than a sale of the club could provide them.

The Cardinals are not contractually committed to remain in Batavia after 2010. Average attendance has dropped below 1,000 fans per game and has declined each season during the Cardinals affiliation, despite the locals having been provided a league champion club in 2008.

Follow me on Twitter.

Tweet This Post

2010 Cardinals major and minor league schedules

Brian Walton — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:27:37 +0000

The title pretty much says it all – links to 2010 schedules for the St. Louis Cardinals and their top minor league affiliates.

Spent some time today working on a preliminary view of my spring travel plans, which include Florida and the first part of the 2010 major and minor league seasons.

In case some of you are equally industrious, I thought I would share the most important schedule links, which include the two top short-season clubs.

St. Louis Cardinals spring schedule

St. Louis Cardinals regular season schedule

Memphis Redbirds

Springfield Cardinals

Palm Beach Cardinals

Quad Cities River Bandits

Batavia Muckdogs

Johnson City Cardinals

Tweet This Post

How aggressive have Cardinals minor league player movements really been?

Brian Walton — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:35:54 +0000

“Aggressive player movement” is a phrase so commonly and casually thrown around in discussions of the St. Louis Cardinals minor league organization over the last few years that it is has become accepted as fact my many.

What does it really mean?

The words denote upward opportunity in the system addressed by promotions of players before more traditional and conservative measures of player evaluation may deem them ready. These openings might occur most often due to others’ injuries or departure from the organization due to poor performance or trades.

The subject came up right here recently in the context of evaluating the reasons why the Cardinals system dropped off in team wins and individual player recognition in 2009. Injuries, trades and aggressive player movement were each offered as theories for the slide in system-wide won-loss records as well as fewer all-star and best-of type selections.

How might player movement be measured?

After some thought and discussion, I am offering a method to determine how aggressive player movements within a season actually were – without undertaking the impossible task of accurately recreating and counting every individual transaction across the entire minor league system over multiple past seasons.

The data and the conclusions to be drawn from the process can either support or refute the perception of player movement having been a substantive factor in the system’s performance in a given year.

There are a finite number of active roster spots on every club. Each season at each level, some number of players suit up. This total will exceed the number of roster spots and system-wide, even the quantity of players under contract. This “double-counting” is entirely due to player movement between levels.

We can understand the comparative volume of player movement during a season simply by totaling the number of players that appeared on each roster up and down the system each year. Differences in the cross-system totals across years illustrate the relative quantity of player movement by season whether up or down.

To that end, I tallied the number of players that collected stats at the top six levels of the Cardinals system each season since 2004. I then calculated the year-to-year differences and the six-year average. With the methodology the same each year, these annual comparisons are completely valid, in my opinion.

Addressing potential questions

Knowing some will question the validity of the data simply because of the conclusions that can be drawn will make them feel uncomfortable, I decided to address several expected objections right up front.

First is the impact of rehab stints. When players from a higher level are in the recovery process from an injury, they often begin their playing return at a lower level of competition. This especially affects the Florida teams as many players that are not a true prospect at that level come and go during the season.

I addressed this by running two sets of numbers. The first includes all players that suited up while the second encompasses only those that saw ten or more games of action at that level. That factors out all those that did not accrue substantial playing time.

I can see why the smaller group might offer the reader a greater level of comfort with the data, but as you will see below, it doesn’t change the relative comparisons or the conclusions.

Here are the numbers:

Top six levels	6-Yr Avg	2009	YTY	2008	YTY	2007	YTY	2006	YTY	2005	YTY	2004
Players >10 G	223	228	-8	236	16	220	2	218	-9	227	17	210
All players	294	294	-9	303	13	290	17	273	-37	310	16	294

Another question might arise regarding the impact of the Cardinals Gulf Coast League affiliate. This creation of this new level in the system, added three seasons ago, might somehow alter the representation of this supposed aggressive player movement, I expect some will claim.

To deal with that potential concern up front, for the three years since the GCL team began, I ran the data for the top seven levels of the system in both flavors, with all players and excluding the under-ten games played subset.

Here are those stats:

Including GCL	3-Yr Avg	2009	YTY	2008	YTY	2007
Players >10 G	257	256	-9	265	15	250
All players	349	348	-4	352	6	346

The conclusions remain the same:

In 2009, in-season player movement across the Cardinals system was LESS aggressive than in 2008, despite the supposed high level of injuries, trades and the like this past season.

The 2009 level of movement was basically right on the system-wide six-year average (without GCL) and the three-year average since the GCL team began.

The results do not substantively change when the under-ten games players at each level are removed.

I close with this final observation:

2008 was the only recent year in which in-season minor league player movement was significantly higher than average. Yet that was also the year during this period when the Cardinals system posted their best collective won-loss record.

Might that mean more roster churn is good?

Certainly that is not the case unless the players being called upon to step up are actually ready to produce. Despite an average number of in-season moves, the Cardinals system as a whole delivered below-.500 results in 2009.

That is fact.

Tweet This Post

Muckdogs to remain in Batavia for third season in 2010

Brian Walton — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:56:13 +0000

The Rochester Red Wings released the following on Friday:

Batavia, NY – Today, Batavia Muckdogs General Manager Travis Sick announced that the Red Wings will continue to operate the Batavia Muckdogs for the 2010 season.

“We have been in discussions for several weeks regarding next season, and given the improved financials during the 2009 season, we feel encouraged that further improvement is possible. The Red Wings have decided to continue to support our operation here, and we’re eager to start planning for next year”, Sick said.

While the Batavia Muckdogs operation did sustain a loss, its revenues saw a slight improvement over the prior year. That, combined with strong efforts to hold expenses down enabled the Ballclub to have a better year. “We know that even with the more favorable financial results, continued increases in advertising and ticket sales will be necessary for this franchise to be a success over the long term. We need the community of both businesses and individuals alike to support the Muckdogs through advertising and attendance. This community is very fortunate to have a professional baseball franchise, and I think and hope that people want it to remain here for a long time to come. We’ll do everything this off-season to promote opportunities to support the Ballclub, and you can be sure we will be at our offices at Dwyer Stadium working hard to plan for the 2010 season.”

Naomi Silver, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the Rochester Red Wings and its affiliates stated “While it has been difficult for communities the size of Batavia to sustain a professional baseball franchise, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to have a franchise. The trend in sports has been for bigger cities to buy up small-town clubs, but I think small towns like Batavia need these ballclubs, maybe more than anyplace else. After all, what makes a community livable if not for wholesome entertainment like a professionally run baseball club? We just hope to do well enough through the support of our sponsors and fan base to make it work financially.”

Brian Paris, President of the Genesee County Baseball club added, “Batavia is very fortunate to have the Red Wings organization as a partner in our community. They continue to strive to make baseball in Batavia successful. The news of their return for a third season in 2010 is a true indication of their high level of integrity and persistence. I would ask all of our business leaders and citizens within Genesee County and the surrounding areas to support their efforts. The Batavia Muckdogs are a vital part of our historic and social fabric as a community. It is wonderful to be able to say I’ll see you at the ballpark in June!”

Muckdogs 2010 season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at Dwyer Stadium or by calling (585)343-5454.

Tweet This Post

Six years of Cardinals minor league all-stars

Brian Walton — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:20:06 +0000

Recent posts comparing the St. Louis Cardinals minor league won-loss records and all-stars by level over the last two years have generated a lot of interest and discussion both on and off the blog.

A follow-on action I outlined was to document the all-star selections over a longer period of time, thereby putting 2008 and 2009 into clearer perspective. In doing so, 2004 was about as far back as I could go to be sure of having an apples-to-apples comparison considering franchise and league changes.

This window allows a view of three seasons prior to Jeff Luhnow ascending to the farm director’s role, which occurred in September, 2006, and three after. He had assumed full responsibility for the Cardinals drafts starting in 2005.

The top six primary farm clubs are included in the following analysis.

Cardinals minor league all-stars, 2004-2009

All-Stars	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
Triple-A	1	1	2	1	3	2
Double-A	13	11	11	4	7	5
A-Advanced	3	7	8	5	2	7
A	1	3	6	8	6	6
Short-season A	3	6	3	3	5	1
Short-season R	3	1	0	1	0	2
	24	29	30	22	23	23

As the data indicates, the total level of all-stars was basically constant from 2004 through 2006. However, looking deeper, one can see the beginnings of growth in the short-season A New York-Penn League in 2005. That also marked the year considered by many to have been the first turnaround draft for the system.

In 2006, the yearly increases were taking root in A and A-Advanced and by 2007, the bulge arrived at Double-A along with continued growth at A-Advanced. The huge expansion in total all-stars that occurred in 2007 was almost totally fueled by the Double-A success.

Key names from the 2005 draft that helped drive the changes in the system in 2006 and 2007 were Colby Rasmus (first round), Bryan Anderson (fourth round) and Jaime Garcia (22^nd round). All three were all-stars in the 2006 Midwest League and in the Double-A Texas League the following season.

In terms of total all-stars and by-level distribution, 2008 remained consistent with the high-water point in 2007.

The second wave of multi-year all-stars that helped sustain that level, a year behind the aforementioned group, include 2006 draftees Allen Craig (pictured – eighth round) and Luke Gregerson (28^nd round). Both were A-Advanced all-stars in 2007 and Double-A stars in 2008.

This past summer’s overall decline in all-stars represented a return to the previous 2004-2006 level. The quantity of all-stars at the highest levels of the system was flat in 2009 compared to 2008, while there was a considerable drop at the class A levels. Players at those levels are younger, sourced from the most recent drafts.

Unless there is a significant turnaround in the quantity of 2010 all-stars, my feeling is that the 2007-2008 growth in total all-stars represented a spike from the strong 2005 draft and to a lesser extent 2006 that could not be sustained by later classes of Cardinals draftees.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals minors all-star representation down

Brian Walton — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:25:41 +0000

In the last post, we reviewed recent Cardinals system minor league won-loss records. Observations included a decline in winning in 2009 over 2008 from over 54 percent to under 49 percent with that latter rate being the second-worst across the system in the last five years.

Here, we will consider another indicator of farm system strength.

All-Star representation down 18%

Following is the quantity of league all-star selections for the nine Cardinals minor league clubs year-to-year. I also included two important elite squads, Team USA and the Futures Game participants, drawn from the same pool of players.

While not every all-star squad is selected in the exact same manner, common threads among voters are that they are those who see these players regularly – peer managers, coaches, league officials and media.

Like placement in top prospect lists, these measurements are certainly not absolute. Yet since their selection criteria are basically the same each year, an annual comparison can be relevant in my view, especially when there is a major difference year upon year.

Note that all-star teams are not the same size across leagues, so comparing the number of representatives between different levels is not valid.

Cardinals	2009			2008			YTY
All-Stars	Total	Mid-seas	Post-seas	Total	Mid-seas	Post-seas	Chg
Team USA	1			2			-1
Futures Game	3			5			-2
Pacific Coast	1	1	0	1	1	0	0
Texas	13	9	4	11	8	3	2
Florida State	3	3	0	7	6	1	-4
Midwest	1	1		3	3		-2
NY-Penn	3	3		6	6		-3
Appalachian	3		3	1		1	2
Gulf Coast	0		0	1		1	-1
Dominican	3	3		2	2		1
Venezuelan	1		1	0			1
Total	32			39			-7
							-18%

As the data indicates, 2009 Cardinals all-star representation was down considerably from 2008 – 18 percent in aggregate.

Does that mean the system as a whole is 18 percent worse than last year? Of course not, but the difference is significant enough that it seems that others are seeing an overall decline in top talent across the organization.

In 2009, four of the eleven categories saw an increase of all-stars, Double-A and short-season rookie levels in the USA and the two overseas academies in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Triple-A remained flat while the other six had a decline in Cardinals participation from as low as one to as many as four fewer selections than last year.

The core of the year-to-year falloff was in A-ball, with a total decline of nine all-stars from last year to this in the Florida State, Midwest and New York-Penn Leagues.

The Cardinals were shut out of the 2009 Gulf Coast League all-star team and had fewer invites to both Team USA and the Futures Game, despite the latter having been played in St. Louis and managed by a pair of Cardinals legends.

Seven of 71 mentions have been traded

While the Cardinals have been busy dealing prospects, it is interesting to note that only three names of traded players appeared a total of seven times among the 71 all-stars represented in the two years of data in the table above.

Jess Todd, dealt to Cleveland in the Mark DeRosa trade, was named four times, Shane Peterson, part of the Matt Holliday deal with Oakland, was a two-time all-star and Luke Gregerson was the other, sent to San Diego for Khalil Greene last winter.

In 2008, Todd was an anomaly in that he was all-star at two different levels and was also named to the Futures Game. The Cardinals had no such triple-category star in 2009.

As the Cardinals continued aggressive promotions in 2009, one might wonder if in-season moves hurt players’ all-star chances, yet it could be a factor every season.

If early performances are memorable enough, they are not forgotten. For example, Daniel Descalso (pictured) was both a mid-season and post-season Texas League all-star in 2009 despite having spent only the first half of the summer in Double-A.

The central point here being that while the Cardinals lost top-end talent via trades, it did not clean out all their best players. The bottom line is that fewer Cardinals minor league players were recognized by knowledgeable outside observers as having stepped up to an all-star level of play this season.

Instructional League canceled

In another less-than positive occurrence, last month the Cardinals announced the cancellation of their 2009 instructional program. The yearly fall camp is designed to help the youngest players in the system become more acclimated to professional play.

The Cardinals believe they can accomplish necessary development activities on an individual basis and made headway with 2009 draftees during the season using roving instructors. Yet coming on the heels of the backslide in winning across the system and the organization’s acknowledged relative youth at every level made this decision a real head-scratcher for me.

It is difficult to come to any conclusion other than that the cancellation was ultimately driven by a desire to cut expenses.

The move, made in concert with the Mets and Marlins that train near the Cardinals facility in Jupiter, Florida, is counter to the vast majority of MLB organizations. Others are putting more emphasis on “instructs”, not less.

The Nationals have sent 2009 number one overall draft pick Steven Strasburg to their Florida fall camp. In Arizona, a new semi-formal fall instructional league was recently founded among the growing number of clubs that train in the Cactus League.

Fewer top prospects?

On the Scout.com Cardinals message board, the yearly community top 50 Cardinals prospect voting is underway. My read is that while excitement over the system in whole remains, there seems to be fewer clear high-end and breakout prospects this season.

With further individual player advancement, another strong season like 2008 is possible next year. If not, the system may remain in its current sub-.500 team won-loss and lower individual recognition neighborhood in 2010.

Tweet This Post

Cardinals minors won-loss record backslides

Brian Walton — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:05:48 +0000

Just mentioning minor league team won-loss records can often elicit a response from player development types.

“The team records don’t matter,” they say. “It is all about building players’ skills and preparing them for the next level.”

This is especially what is heard when the standings don’t look so hot.

On the other hand, when a system has a good year as did the Cardinals in 2008, those same folks point out the winning baseball being played and take some deserved credit. Such was the case last season when the top six clubs in the St. Louis system all came home with winning records and in aggregate, finished 60 games over .500.

Nothing at all wrong with that, mind you. I believe there is a middle ground where establishing winning habits plays a significant role in complementing individual development.

Focusing on the positive is only natural.

This past week, I read a happy column from the Post-Dispatch’s Jeff Gordon that highlighted the churn that the Memphis Pacific Coast League champions (pictured) endured this season and equated it with having “a real farm system”, instead of having to rely on minor league veterans.

I got the lack of minor league vets but lost him in equating that to system-wide strength.

Minor league win percentage declines from 54% to 49%

Turning over the coin, it is only fair to note the records of these same highest six clubs in the Cardinals system in 2009 returned to a territory comparable to past years prior to 2008 – below .500.

Memphis (Triple-A), Springfield (Double-A), Palm Beach (A-Advanced), Quad Cities (A), Batavia (SS-A) and Johnson City (SS-R) in total lost 16 more regular season games than won for a winning mark of .489.

That is the system’s second-lowest mark in the last five years – the Jeff Luhnow years. Only the 2007 clubs finished worse in aggregate (.481) since the current farm director took over.

	2009				2008			YTY
	Win	Loss	Pct.	Playoffs	Win	Loss	Pct.	Pct.
Memphis	77	67	0.535	yes	75	67	0.528	improve
Springfield	71	69	0.507	yes	76	63	0.547	decline
Palm Beach	61	77	0.442	no	75	62	0.547	decline
Quad Cities	61	78	0.439	no	68	66	0.507	decline
Batavia	37	39	0.487	no	46	28	0.622	decline
Johnson City	37	30	0.552	no	36	30	0.545	improve
Top six	344	360	0.489		376	316	0.543	decline

2007					337	364	0.481
2006					348	349	0.499
2005					347	358	0.492

This year’s decline occurred in the middle levels of the system as all four of those clubs dropped in win percentage this season compared to 2008. Of the quartet, only Springfield delivered a winning record in 2009. While they made the Texas League post-season, the S-Cards were swept in the first round.

The Double-A club was the only one of the declining group that reached the playoffs, and that was entirely due to a strong start. During the second half, Springfield tied for last place, though they were only four games out of first. Had the Texas League used full-season standings, Springfield would not have made the post-season.

The other three mid-tier clubs, Palm Beach, Quad Cities and Batavia, not only had the largest year-to-year declines, they also posted the poorest 2009 records.

The two clubs showing year-to-year improvement, Memphis and Johnson City, are organizational bookends representing the highest and lowest rungs, respectively. Before one celebrates too boisterously, it is worth noting that in total, they won just three more regular-season games than in 2008.

It is not all gloomy, as Memphis’ first post-season appearance and first league championship in nine years is noteworthy and deserving of praise as Gordon dished out in generous portions. In addition, the Cardinals clubs are among the youngest, if not the youngest at most every level.

Not loading up the Triple-A club with going-nowhere Quad-A players was a change I fully supported from the start. Still, Memphis was able to supply reinforcements to St. Louis when called upon this season.

While the organization made some high-visibility trades of top prospects this summer, they came from the top of the system. In fact, almost all were sourced from Memphis. Yet because of the sheer number of good players at the upper levels of the organization, replacements were often available from Double-A without having to rush players up before they seemed ready.

When there weren’t ready arms, the Cardinals went outside the organization for what ended up being 2/5 of the Memphis rotation. During the season, they added independent leaguer Oneli Perez and minor league veteran Evan MacLane, a trade acquisition from the Arizona organization.

There didn’t seem to be ready answers for the struggling middle levels of the Cardinals system.

It only stands to reason that when players are called up to Triple-A, Springfield would then require quality reinforcements from Palm Beach and so on down the line. This is how all minor league systems work, or at least should. In-season churn is inevitable and is planned for.

Yet I read that Springfield’s downturn has been attributed by some to the loss of players upward whose productivity could not be replaced. Add to that the fact that the three clubs immediately below Double-A experienced the biggest yearly decline in wins in the system and there seems a hole.

It is also worth noting that the act of adding minor league veterans is usually restricted to Triple-A, and to a lesser extent, Double-A. The lower levels are almost exclusively staffed by home-grown players. Other than A-Advanced all-star outfielder Shane Peterson, part of the Matt Holliday trade with Oakland, the Cardinals traded away no players below Triple-A this season.

I find myself wondering from where the next groups of standout players will come as each set looks to move up in 2010. For example, does the core of returning Springfield players plus the best from Palm Beach equate to a playoff-caliber Double-A team in 2010? Same questions on down the line.

To sustain winning baseball year after year, the pipeline needs to flow without interruption yet the jury remains out on many of the top players from the most recent drafts.

With a strong core of returning players, Memphis should again be competitive in 2010. Beyond that, I am not so sure.

Tweet This Post

Batavia franchise may be nearing its end

Brian Walton — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:13:55 +0000

It seems time to admit that the New York-Penn League’s Batavia Muckdogs aren’t going to draw enough fans to survive.

Deep in six-digit debt two years ago, local ownership brought in the successful management team from the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings in a noble attempt to breathe some life back into the founding member of the league back in 1939.

Last season, the parent St. Louis Cardinals more than did their part, providing the players and coaches that brought the town exciting, winning baseball, culminating in their first NY-Penn championship since 1963.

While the result of the field was good, the result on the books was just the opposite – a quarter of a million dollar loss was absorbed by the Red Wings for 2008 operations of the Muckdogs franchise.

Here in 2009, the situation seems to be deteriorating. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ran a somber news item on Tuesday, likely with information sourced from a member of the Rochester Community Baseball organization. The message is that RCB has not yet decided their future involvement with the money-losing Muckdogs following this season, at least publicly.

Though it was in the sports section, not with the obituaries, the end seems near.

Despite coming off their championship season, the Muckdogs are averaging only 988 fans over their first 29 home games here in 2009. That ranks them 13^th in the 14-team NY-Penn League, a league in which the average attendance is three-and-a-half times higher, 3,616. That average rises to 3,818 if Batavia is excluded.

The 988 average attendance figure is down from 1,199 last year and 1,230 in 2007, reports the Democrat and Chronicle. In what seems more like gallows humor than anything, The Batavian labeled the Rochester report “idle speculation” and gamely observes that the 2009 figure is not apples and oranges since it reflects the actual attendance, not an inflated figure as in past years.

No matter how you cut it, the signals are bad.

What clinched the deal for me was a line in the Rochester news article that Rochester Community Baseball will receive 10 percent of the proceeds if the Muckdogs are sold. I had not seen that factoid before, but its inclusion brings the situation into focus.

Let’s do the simple math.

How many years of losing $250,000 per year can be covered by a 10 percent stake of a franchise likely worth in the range of $3 million to $5 million?

Two years times $250,000 equals a half-million dollars lost. Ten percent of $5 million is half-a-million dollars gain. Hmmm…

Rochester Community Baseball did not sign up to run the Batavia Muckdogs as a charity exercise. Assuming they can see no end to the continued flow of red ink, as intelligent businesspeople, what choice would they have other than to cut their losses?

If RCB cannot succeed running the team and the locals already failed in their attempts, who else would see any potential in coming in to make a third try in 2010 and beyond?

The logical and obvious conclusion, as painful as it is for the Batavia faithful, is the sale and relocation of the Muckdogs.

If that happens, the Cardinals affiliation would move with the team. St. Louis is contractually committed to the Muckdogs franchise via their Player Development Contract that runs through the 2010 season.

If Batavia fans want to ensure they catch their team in action, time is running out. The club has only nine home dates remaining in the 2009 season. Beyond that, we shall see.

Tweet This Post

Minor league affiliates are miles away

Brian Walton — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:42:04 +0000

Since this blog and the main site are all about “The Cardinal Nation”, I thought this post I ran across the other day would be worthy of a few seconds of your time. A writer from the minor league-focused blog called “Bus Leagues Baseball” calculated the distance in miles from each Major League to their top six affiliates.

Here is the NL Central roll call, listed in order from closest to farthest away in average miles:

Pittsburgh: 374 miles

St. Louis: 546 miles

Cincinnati: 695 miles

Chicago: 943 miles

Houston: 953 miles

Milwaukee: 970 miles

Closest Cardinals affiliate: Springfield Cardinals (AA), 217 miles from St. Louis

Farthest Cardinals affiliate: Palm Beach Cardinals (A+): 1,136 miles from St. Louis

Closest NL Central affiliate: Dayton Dragons (A), just 49 miles from Cincinnati

Farthest NL Central affiliate: Arizona Brewers (Rookie): 1,790 miles from Milwaukee

The details by club with links to other divisions as well can be accessed here.

Tweet This Post

Jason Stidham to sign with Cardinals

Brian Walton — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:58:33 +0000

Jason Stidham was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth round of the Major League First-Year Player Draft earlier this month. There was apparently enough confidence in his signing that he was listed on a preliminary Batavia roster before the New York-Penn League season began.

But the expected announcement did not occur. It is coming, but a few days later than thought.

“Jason is signing today if he hasn’t already,” Mike Martin, Florida State University’s head baseball coach told the Talahassee Democrat on Wednesday. “The last couple of days I hadn’t gotten my hopes up that he might come back. I kind of figured he would sign.”

The second-team All-ACC infielder led FSU this season with 24 doubles. Stidham hit .363 and started all 63 games. The junior added 12 home runs for the FSU squad that had reached the NCAA super regionals before falling.

“The hard thing is replacing a player with his experience and a player who was a clutch guy for three years,” Martin said. “When you needed a big hit, Jason got it done. He was an outstanding leader.”

Tweet This Post