“The Cardinals have traditionally done away with the piggyback system around mid-season, and I think the personnel on this pitching staff lent itself to doing so a bit earlier this year.”

He is correct in timing in that in 2008, the move away from the piggyback starting system in its third season of usage occurred at the break in mid-June. Palm Beach also recently ended their use of the tandem arrangement approximately three weeks sooner than in 2008.

The five Quad Cities starters going forward are Gary Daley, Brett Zawacki (pictured), Kevin Thomas, Hector Cardenas and Arquimedes Nieto. Adam Veres and Scott McGregor head to the pen. Andres Rosales had already been assigned there, but was kept in the starting mix due to a roster that has been in considerable flux.

Other starters unavailable include Josh Wilson, who apparently abruptly retired again, suspended Deryk Hooker and injured starters Jared Bradford and Jonny Bravo, both on the seven-day disabled list.

All the rotation turnover has to be a contributor to the River Bandits’ uneven season to date. Despite a 2009 home record that includes six home series victories against just two losses, the club is scuffling along with a 22-24 record overall.

They are currently carrying a season-long five-game losing streak with a 2-8 mark over their last ten games. The Bandits have struggled on the road all season long, with no series wins, four losses and two splits away from Modern Woodmen Park in 2009.

Some of the Quad Cities hitters have been ice cold, including shortstop Niko Vasquez, having gone just nine for his last 76 (.118), and key RBI man Osvaldo Morales. Since driving in 33 runs in his first 33 games, the big first baseman has just one RBI in his last ten contests and is batting 3-for-25 (.120) over his last eight.

Another factor behind the club’s struggles is their porous defense. The River Bandits have committed 19 errors in their last 11 games, leading to 19 unearned runs. They are tied with Clinton for last in the 14-team Midwest League in fielding percentage (.957).

The Bandits are 13th in errors with 73 and also 13th in total double plays turned (30). They are 13-19 this season when committing at least one error in a game, compared to a 9-5 record in their 14 error-free contests. Vasquez alone has ten miscues in his last 20 games.

After three games at Lansing this weekend, Quad Cities will wrap up their ten-game road stretch with a four-game commuter series against the Burlington Bees that runs Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.

The new-old five-man rotation starts Sunday with Daley taking the hill in Lansing. The other four will cover the Burlington series in this order: Zawacki, Thomas, Cardenas and Nieto. I plan to be there Friday to check out Nieto’s outing.

As always, for current rosters and the most up-to-date transactions at all levels of the Cardinals minor league system, don’t forget to check out the Roster Matrix.

After starting the season with five pairs of tandem starting pitchers, the St. Louis Cardinals’ A-level club, the Quad Cities River Bandits, have dropped the pairings down to four, effective this weekend.

In the process, the Midwest League club moved one pitcher down to Extended Spring Training, George Brown, and slid two others into the bullpen. They are Miguel Tapia and Andres Rosales. In addition, 2008 River Bandit then surprise retiree Josh Wilson is back, promoted from Extended Spring Training to take Brown’s place.

Bravo was promoted from EST one week ago when Chuckie Fick was bumped up to Palm Beach. With the arrival of Wilson, that tandem pairing has both Quad Cities newbies.

These pairings remained the same:

Adam Veres and Gary Daley

Kevin Thomas (pictured) and Hector Cardenas

These changed:

From Jonny Bravo and George Brown

To Bravo and Josh Wilson

From Miguel Tapia and Scott McGregor

And Andres Rosales and Arquimedes Nieto

To McGregor and Nieto

With Tapia and Rosales to relief

Wilson was to have his first tandem start of the season following Bravo on Friday, but the game was suspended in the second inning due to rain, to be resumed on Saturday. Veres/Daley take the hill for Saturday’s regularly-scheduled contest, then Thomas/Cardenas go on Sunday, the first pair to come off three days rest. In the previous five-pairing system, the latter turn would instead have been taken by Rosales/Nieto.

After a day off on Monday, Tuesday’s double-header at Peoria is driving a very minor adjustment, with both tandems getting a start. McGregor will take the mound in game one while his tandem partner, Nieto, will start in game two. The normal four-man rotation of Wilson/Bravo and so on will follow.

Following are the stats for the Quad Cities starters this season coming into Friday’s game ordered by ERA. “T1” etc. shows the new tandem pairings in order, with “BP” denoting those shifted to relief. “PB” is for Palm Beach and “EST” is for extended spring training.

2009 QC starters		W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	HB	BB	SO	WHIP
Adam Veres	T4	2	0	0.54	6	3	0	16.2	12	4	1	0	0	12	20	1.44
Kevin Thomas	T1	2	0	1.31	7	2	1	20.2	12	4	3	0	0	5	13	0.82
Arquimedes Nieto	T2	0	2	3.26	6	2	0	19.1	17	9	7	1	3	6	23	1.19
Andres Rosales	BP	2	1	4.08	6	2	0	17.2	14	8	8	2	3	11	18	1.42
Chuckie Fick	PB	0	2	4.24	4	3	0	17	21	9	8	1	0	4	13	1.47
Miguel Tapia	BP	0	2	5.03	7	3	0	19.2	20	13	11	2	0	9	21	1.47
Hector Cardenas	T1	2	1	5.40	5	3	1	18.1	21	17	11	1	0	5	14	1.42
George Brown	EST	0	2	6.16	8	3	0	19	21	16	13	1	1	10	14	1.63
Scott McGregor	T2	1	1	6.75	6	3	0	18.2	26	17	14	1	0	5	18	1.66
Gary Daley	T4	2	0	10.54	7	2	0	13.2	20	19	16	3	0	12	19	2.34
Jonny Bravo	T3	0	0	36.00	1	0	0	1	1	4	4	0	0	6	3	7.00
Josh Wilson	T3

For current rosters and up-to-date transactions at all levels of the Cardinals minor league system, don’t forget to check out the Roster Matrix.