All posts by Brian Walton

Brian Walton runs The Cardinal Nation, covering the St. Louis Cardinals and minor league system.

Cardinals Minor League Spring Training Notebook: 03/18

March 19, 2011 Brian Walton

Following are the highlights from the third day of St. Louis Cardinals minor league games in spring 2011, on Friday, March 18. After the 1-2-1 day, the Cardinals system is a combined 4-5-3 this spring.

Today’s photo is of Player of the Day Tyler Henley, who was on base four times.

On Saturday, the Cardinals’ top two teams will not play due to the major league split squad games. Quad Cities is being divided into two squads. Those clubs plus Palm Beach remain at home in Jupiter but move to the Marlins’ side of the complex to take on their Florida counterparts. For the full state of minor league spring training schedules, The Cardinal Nation subscribers can click here.

As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals farm director John Vuch is sharing game highlights with this site and several others with interest in Cardinals prospects. As always, the raw data is his, but the comments mine.

Memphis 7, Buffalo 3

Memphis Pitching

After Nick Additon opened with two scoreless innings with just two baserunners, Deryk Hooker struggled. He allowed all three earned runs in 1 2/3 frames.

Cory Rauschenberger (1 1/3 IP), Sam Freeman (1 IP), Ryan Kulik (2 IP) and Tyler Norrick (1 IP) held Buffalo scoreless the remainder of the way on just two hits, while fanning five.

Memphis Hitting

Tyler Henley was the hitting star, reaching base four times with three singles, a walk and two runs batted in. Henley missed much of the 2010 season due to Tommy John surgery. Look for an upcoming interview at The Cardinal Nation.

RBIs: Jose Garcia, Andrew Brown, Xavier Scruggs, Steven Hill (two)

Runs scored: Garcia, Brown (twice), Jim Rapoport, Freddie Bynum, Daryl Jones

Doubles: Garcia, Brown, Rapoport, Jones

Two hits: Garcia

Springfield 5, Binghamton 5

Springfield Pitching

Ten hits were allowed

Arquimedes Nieto, Jorge Rondon and Chris Corrigan each went two innings, yielding one run each.

George Brown followed, giving up two earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Jesse Simpson finished up with 1 1/3 shutout innings.

Springfield Hitting

Curt Smith and Jermaine Curtis each hit solo home runs.

Ryde Rodriguez singled and doubled in two plate appearances.

Zack Cox had two singles in two at-bats.

Antonio DeJesus tripled.

St. Lucie 7, Palm Beach 6

Palm Beach Pitching

Justin Wright and Keith Butler split the first four innings. Each allowed one earned run, Wright fanned four.

Ryan Copeland followed and was charged with three earned runs in 2 IP.

Kevin Siegrist and Ricky Martinez each registered scoreless innings.

Charllan Jimenez had a rocky inning, giving up the final two St. Lucie runs.

Palm Beach Hitting

Rainel Rosario singled and had a 3-run home run in four at-bats.

Edgar Lara had two singles and an RBI in two appearances.

Travis Tartamella also went 2-for-2.

Alan Ahmady singled, walked and scored twice.

Francisco Rivera doubled and walked in his two appearances.

Nick Longmire doubled.

Savannah 4, Quad Cities 2

Quad Cities Pitching

Houston Summers allowed five baserunners in two innings, but only one scored.

Angel DeJesus and Bob Revesz each tossed two scoreless.

Tyler Lyons fanned three in his pair of innings, though one unearned run scored.

Nick McCully pitched the final inning with the two winning runs scoring on a 2-out, 2-run double.

Quad Cities Hitting

Adam Melker had three hits in four at-bats and scored once.

Mike O’Neill singled and walked twice in four PAs. He also scored.

Victor Sanchez had two singles in four at-bats.

Oscar Taveras doubled.

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John Hart and Harold Reynolds answer Cardinals questions

March 18, 2011 Brian Walton

The St. Louis Cardinals episode of MLB Network’s Spring Training series 30 Clubs in 30 Days will debut Friday, March 18 at 7:00 P.M. CDT. The hour-long episode, hosted by Ahmed Fareed, will feature interviews with players, reporting from Lisa Kerney and analysis from John Hart and Harold Reynolds. It will re-air on Saturday, March 19 at 6 and 10 A.M. CDT.

In support of 30 Clubs, former Cleveland general manager Hart and ex-major league second baseman Reynolds were kind enough to answer a series of my questions, providing their view of a number of Cardinals-related subjects. The details follow.

Q&A with Harold Reynolds

Brian Walton: As a former middle infielder, how do you rank the Cardinals starting pair of Skip Schumaker and Ryan Theriot offensively and defensively in comparison to the other teams in the NL Central?

Harold Reynolds: Skip Schumaker and Ryan Theriot do not make for one of the top middle infield combinations in the NL Central. They both will make the routine play, but you won’t get anything spectacular out of them. Offensively, it depends on where they hit in the lineup. If Theriot hits in the one or two hole, he should have no problem scoring over 100 runs, with Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols hitting in the middle. But think about the middle infields in the NL Central. Every team has at least one middle infielder that is a star or can be a star. Brandon Phillips and Rickie Weeks are All-Stars. Neil Walker and Starlin Castro can potentially be All-Stars. I don’t think you can say the same for St. Louis. But Schumaker and Theriot will not make or break the Cardinals’ season.

BW: Do you agree with the Cardinals not running ahead of Albert Pujols, knowing an open first base could mean an intentional walk with Matt Holliday next? Why or why not?

HR: I think your personnel dictates whether or not you’re going to run with Albert at the plate. If it’s Vince Coleman or Ozzie Smith standing on first base, trust me, they’re running, no matter what. I don’t know if it’s as much by design as it is the personnel on the team.

BW: With a catcher like Yadier Molina behind the plate, how did you change your baserunning strategy?

HR: When you got a great catcher like Yadier Molina, your biggest fear as a base runner is getting picked off by the catcher, and not necessarily being thrown out trying to steal a base. As a result, your secondary lead changes. When the pitch is thrown, the base runner won’t have a big lead because if he gets too far off the base, the catcher is going to throw behind the runner. Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez and Benito Santiago were great at throwing behind the runner. Molina is the same way because he puts fear in runners.

BW: Compared to other catchers you have seen, how do you rank Molina in terms of throwing and game calling?

HR: He’s one of the best catchers in the game. How many catchers can both hit and play solid defense? You can count them on one hand. Runners are just flat out not going to run on Yadier Molina. The combination of intelligence, ability and durability makes him one of the top defensive catchers in baseball. He also can hold his own at the plate. He’s a positive for St. Louis, and I don’t think he’s going to stop winning Gold Glove Awards anytime soon.

BW: What does Colby Rasmus need to do to become an elite centerfielder?

HR: He’s on the right track. He’s got the right swing and approach. It may sound silly, but a kid with his ability just needs to keep playing every day. You learn more and more playing every day. There aren’t too many good centerfielders in the National League right now. Colby has the chance to be right up there at the top soon.

Q&A with John Hart

BW: What are some of the considerations in being a seller at the deadline and how do you weigh them? (fan support, player support, etc.)

John Hart: The contract status of the player you might be moving is important when you’re thinking about dealing him. You also have to think about if the player fits on your club next year. If you don’t think so, you ultimately try to maximize his value by getting the type of players he’s worth. You also have to think of the circumstances around the club. If the team has been bogged down with injuries, then you may want to stick with the core of the club for another year.

BW: With Adam Wainwright out, if the Cardinals stumble this season, would you consider trading Chris Carpenter at the deadline? Why or why not?

JH: I think the Cardinals, who are perennial contenders, will be more inclined to stick with Carpenter in 2011. If the team struggles out of the gate, St. Louis will most likely explore the trade possibilities. But just because Wainwright is out, I don’t think St. Louis feels they’re out of this division. If Jaime Garcia improves and Kyle McClellan can step in, St. Louis should still be right there. Milwaukee and Cincinnati aren’t powerhouse clubs. Look, if St. Louis falters, you can consider dealing him, but what about 2012? If Pujols comes back, aren’t you going to have championship aspirations? With Wainwright’s health still unknown, you’re going to need an ace-type pitcher in the rotation. I think Wainwright’s health is an important key to Chris Carpenter’s place on the team.

BW: Do you think Lance Berkman was wise to sign with an NL club and were the Cardinals wise to sign him?

JH: I think St. Louis wanted to thicken the lineup when they signed Berkman. He knows the NL Central and St. Louis didn’t have to go out on a limb to get this guy. If he gets enough plate appearances, he should have a pretty good offensive year. The big question is how he’ll do defensively, and will his body be able to take the rigors of playing the outfield. Lance obviously thinks he can handle it. He’s going to need some time off and I think St. Louis knows that. For a short term fix, and the fact that St. Louis didn’t tie up a lot of years and money, it wasn’t a bad move for a club looking to win a Championship.

BW: Do you think the Cardinals could have locked Albert Pujols up contractually before the 2010 season had they pushed harder or do you think Pujols’ demands may have been too high? What would be the max in years and AAV you would give Pujols and why?

JH: That’s a smart baseball group over there. These contract negotiations didn’t take them by surprise. It just gets more difficult to sign a player when they get closer to free agency. Look, you’re talking about a dominating player who has been with St. Louis since day one. My instincts tell me that he’s going to stay in St. Louis. I think the key, more so than dollars, will be how many years St. Louis is willing to invest in Pujols.

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Cardinals Minor League Spring Training Notebook: 03/17

March 17, 2011 Brian Walton

Following are the highlights from the second day of St. Louis Cardinals minor league games in 2011. Once again, a pair of intersquad games were held on Thursday in preparation for Friday’s initial contests against external competition.

Today’s photo is of Player of the Day Carlos Martinez, who excelled for Group #3. The Cardinal Nation subscribers should look for my exclusive interview with Martinez to be posted on Friday morning.

On Friday, the Mets’ top two teams will host Groups 1 and 2 in Port St. Lucie, while Groups 3 and 4 remain at home in Jupiter to take on their Mets counterparts. For the full state of minor league spring training schedules, The Cardinal Nation subscribers can click here.

Working Group #1 1, Working Group #2 1 (tie)

Group 1 pitchers

Adam Ottavino started and yielded the one run on three hits. He fanned a pair.

Scott Schneider followed and posted an impressive two frames on just one hit. He struck out four.

Chuckie Fick and Ramon Delgado each tossed a perfect inning

Jason Buursma followed with a feast or famine frame, albeit scoreless. He allowed three baserunners on two hits and a walk and also striking out two.

Casey Mulligan finished up with a hit and a strikeout in his scoreless inning.

Group 1 hitters

Jarred Bogany picked up the only RBI on a single.

Two-base hits were collected by Pete Kozma, Aaron Luna, Nick Derba and Charles Cutler.

Xavier Scruggs was on base twice with a single and a walk plus he scored the lone run.

Group 2 pitchers

Mike Blazek and Daniel Calhoun each went two innings, allowing a pair of baserunners each, but none crossed the plate.

40-man roster righty Maikel Cleto fanned three in two perfect innings.

Eric Fornataro also went two innings, yielding a run, but also fanning three.

Brett Zawacki struck out the side in his lone inning.

Group 2 hitters

D’Marcus Ingram singled and tripled in three plate appearances.

Rainel Rosario’s sacrifice fly scored Ingram with the only run.

Working Group #3 1, Working Group #4 0 (seven innings)

Group #4 has yet to cross the plate in 17 spring innings while facing their more advanced pitching counterparts. Group #3 pitchers tossed five 1-2-3 innings in an impressive showing that included just two hits and a walk allowed.

Group 3 pitchers

Ho hum. Carlos Martinez threw a pair of perfect innings, with four of his six outs coming on strikeouts and the other two being grounders. In other words, the ball didn’t get out of the infield. Oh yeah, he struck out the side to end his day.

Cale Johnson fanned three in his pair of scoreless frames. He allowed three baserunners.

Nick Greenwood (two) and Hector Corpas (one) finished the game with a total of three perfect innings, making a nice bookend to Martinez.

Group 3 hitters

Jonathan Rodriguez tripled in two at-bats.

Alan Ahmady’s sacrifice fly plated Rodriguez for the game’s only run.

Kyle Conley and Nick Longmire each doubled in two plate appearances, but didn’t reach home.

Group 4 Pitchers

Trevor Rosenthal took the hard-luck loss, having yielded just two baserunners in two innings. He fanned three. Look for an upcoming Rosenthal interview at The Cardinal Nation.

Jose Rada (two innings), Aaron Terry and Drew Benes combined for four shutout frames.

Tryout player, 6-foot-9 Sean Watson struck out the side in his one inning.

Group 4 hitters

Packy Elkins and Pat Biserta doubled.

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Cardinals Minor League Spring Training Notebook: 03/16

March 16, 2011 Brian Walton

Following are the highlights from the first minor league games of 2011. A pair of intersquad games were held on Wednesday in preparation for Friday’s initial contests against external competition. Another pair of intersquad matchups will occur on Thursday.

As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals farm director John Vuch will be sharing game highlights with this site and several others with interest in Cardinals prospects. As always, the raw data is his, but the comments mine.

Lineups for the day were previously posted here.

Working Group #2 9, Working Group #1 5

I spoke with P.J. Walters after his start, about which he was not particularly pleased. His fastball was up and he lacked control of his secondary pitches, which made for a rough outing. He allowed six runs, five earned on eight hits and a walk in four innings. Walters fanned four.

His 6-foot-8 younger brother Eric threw for the Cardinals on Wednesday, two days after having done so for Washington, but P.J. said Eric must go through the draft and is ineligible to sign at this time.

Other Group #1 Pitchers

Kevin Thomas, down from major league camp, yielded just one hit in two innings and fanned three.

Tyler Norrick completed an inning on eight pitches, including a strikeout

Ryan Kulik allowed three baserunners on a pair of hits and a walk with two runners scoring, one earned over his inning of work.

Cory Rauschenberger, back for a second stint as a minor leaguer after having retired once, surrendered three hits and one run in his mound inning.

Andrew Brown was batting third and playing third base (at least until Matt Carpenter appears, if he does), with Zack Cox batting cleanup in Group #2. Brown was on base all three times with a single, double, and a walk. He drove in one and scored once.

Other Group #1 Hitters

Donovan Solano flashed rare extra-base talent, with a double and triple in three plate appearances. He also had and RBI and a run scored.

Charles Cutler plated three on a home run.

Steven Hill was on base twice, with a single and walk.

Xavier Scruggs doubled and scored.

Aaron Luna, Ryan Jackson and Jose Martinez each had just one at-bat, but made the best of it, with singles.

Shelby Miller allowed three baserunners on a pair of hits and a walk, but none crossed the plate in two innings. He fanned a pair. Not surprisingly, #30 drew a large crowd of onlookers.

Other Group #2 Pitchers

The next three pitchers that followed Miller all allowed Group #1 to increase their scoring.

Scott McGregor allowed three baserunners in his inning and one came home.

Richard Castillo and Mark Diapoules went a pair of innings each and each allowed two runs. They totaled five strikeouts, three by Castillo.

Matt Frevert and Dean Kiekhefer each tossed shutout innings. The lefty Kiekhefer allowed two baserunners, but also fanned two.

Edgar Lara had three hits in four at-bats and scored twice to pace the Group #2 offense.

Other Group #2 Hitters

Greg Garcia singled and doubled in two plate appearances.

Frederick Parejo had a pair of extra base hits as he doubled and homered.

Zack Cox shot a solo home run to right field. Though the wind was not especially strong, if anything, he had that wind behind him. I didn’t see it, so I don’t know how hard it was stroked.

Roberto Espinoza and Ivan Castro each singled and walked

Working Group #3 2, Working Group #4 0 (10 innings)

The length of the game was decided by the pitchers that needed to see work as both runs were scored in the first inning.

Group #3 Pitchers

When I asked Vuch who made a good impression, the first name he mentioned was Seth Blair. It was the second-rounder’s first semi-official mound appearance as he did not pitch after signing last summer. He had two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Blair’s former Arizona State teammate Jordan Swagerty (pictured) followed with a pair of shutout frames of his own. He also fanned two, but also yielded two hits. After relieving in college, Swagerty is listed among the starters this spring.

Others who shared in the combined shutout: Andrew Moss (two innings) along with one-inning hurlers George Brown, Jesse Simpson, Kevin Siegrist (two strikeouts) and Scott Bittle.

The Cardinal Nation subscribers should look for an interview with Bittle, coming back from shoulder surgery, in the upcoming days. He has yet to pitch in an official game despite having been drafted in 2009.

Group #3 Hitters

Jonathan Rodriguez was the game’s hitting star as his bases-loaded single scored the game’s only runs. He did it with a two-strike count.

Yunier Castillo had a pair of hits.

Knuckleballer Houston Summers is listed among the Group #4 starters early in camp, but for rehab purposes as much as anything. There is no clear mandate that he will be changing roles in 2011. He allowed two runs, one earned, in two innings.

Other Group #4 Pitchers

Justin Edwards struck out three of the six straight batters faced and retired.

Justin Smith allowed four baserunners over two innings, but kept them off home plate. He fanned a pair.

Chase Reid, Nick McCully (two strikeouts), Charllan Jimenez and Ricky Martinez finished up with a scoreless inning each.

Group #4 Hitters

Colin Walsh’s double was the only extra base hit. No one in Group #4 had two or more hits.

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Cardinals first-game minor league lineups

March 16, 2011 Brian Walton

Today, Wednesday, March 16 is an important day for the over 140 players in St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training camp. After a week of seemingly endless drills, bullpens, more drills and more bullpens, this is the first day of game competition.

The rosters that will become the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds and Double-A Springfield Cardinals, denoted below as Groups 1 and 2, will play each other at 1:00 P.M. on the back fields of the Jupiter, Fla. complex. Groups 3 and 4, which will morph into the A-Advanced Palm Beach Cardinals and Class A Quad Cities River Bandits will oppose each other.

While the starting lineups are listed below, the full working rosters of all players at all four levels can be found at TheCardinalNation.com for subscribers. Of course, those rosters can and will change as players are moved around. The minor league groups are expected to pick up the official team names following the next cuts from major league camp, likely occurring following the split-squad day Saturday

Details on the status of 13 injured minor league players are also available for subscribers.

Pitchers are listed below with the approximate number of innings they are expected to work, with an inning roughly estimated to be 20 pitches.

	Group 1			Group 2
1	Bynum	SS	1	Ramirez	SS
2	Solano	2B	2	Parejo	LF
3	Brown	3B	3	Curtis	2B
4	Adams	1B	4	Cox	3B
5	Hill	C	5	Smith	1B
6	Henley	DH	6	Rodriguez	RF
7	Bogany	RF	7	Lara	DH
8	Swauger	LF	8	DeJesus	CF
9	Rapoport	CF	9	Castro	C

	Walters 4	P		Miller 2	P
	Thomas 2			McGregor 2
	Norrick 1			Castillo 2
	Kulik 1			Diapoules 2
	Rauschenberger 1			Frevert 1

	Group 3			Group 4
1	Swinson	RF	1	O’Neill	CF
2	Taveras	LF	2	Melker	LF
3	Longmire	CF	3	Tartamella	C
4	Stanley	DH	4	Medina	1B
5	J. Rodriguez	3B	5	Ruiz	DH/3B
6	Conley	DH	6	R DeLaCruz	3B/DH
7	Stock	C	7	Smith	RF
8	Cerreto	1B	8	Walsh	2B
9	Castillo	SS	9	Tuivailala	DH/3B
	S. Rodriguez	2B		Valera	SS

	Blair 2	P		Summers 2	P
	Swagerty 2			Edwards 2
	Moss 2			Smith 2
	Brown 1			Reid 1
	Simpson 1			McCully 1
	Siegrist 1			Jimenez 1
	Bittle 1			R. Martinez 1
	Kiekhefer 1

I found it interesting that the leadoff man and shortstop for both of the two highest level clubs are minor league free agent signees, Freddie Bynum and Ronald Ramirez.

The first minor league spring training contests against external competition start tomorrow, Thursday. The full slate of games each day, again provided for subscribers, can be found at TheCardinalNation.com.

As every spring, check back here at TheCardinalNationBlog.com for recaps of all the minor league spring training contests supplied daily by Cardinals farm director John Vuch.

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Nationals moving interest putting pressure on Cardinals

March 15, 2011 Brian Walton

Though I won’t be making the trip north from Jupiter to Viera’s Space Coast Stadium on Friday when the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Washington Nationals, the park and its lease have been on my mind.

As I have mentioned a number of times, baseball on the Atlantic coast of Florida is approaching extinction. After departures of the Dodgers, Orioles and Yankees, only St. Louis, Florida, the Mets and Washington remain.

Expanding the aperture to include Orlando pulls Atlanta and Houston into the mix, but it also means a drive of almost three hours from the Cardinals home in Jupiter.

That is an additional hour over the trip to Viera, already considered too far for minor leaguers to travel. Lost camp time is at least as important to opposing clubs as the additional transportation, meals and lodging expense.

This past weekend, I read an article about the situation in Viera entitled “Baseball’s uncertain future on Space Coast.” From it, I picked up several interesting tidbits.

Last year, the Nationals officially informed Brevard County officials of their interest in relocating prior to the conclusion of their 2017 lease expiration. Possible destinations include Orlando, the Gulf Coast or perhaps Arizona.

The Nats were reportedly wooed by Mesa, Arizona officials as a fall-back had the Cubs not agreed to stay. Shortly after, the funding for the Cubs’ new park was approved by voters. Chicago was using Naples, Fla. as leverage.

Fort Myers apparently has been pushing for Washington to move to Florida’s West Coast.

Though the Astros are committed to Kissimmee through 2016, they and the Nats have also been in discussions with Osceola County. A new complex that could house both teams is under construction near DisneyWorld.

With little to no hope of these towns luring new teams to the vacated East Coast locations, the Cardinals are running out of opponents to face. No matter how good their next lease offer might be, the distance factor could cloud their future in Jupiter beyond 2017.

The Cardinals and Marlins are angling to use a potential Washington move as leverage with their Palm Beach County landlord. The forecast for East Coast Florida baseball remains uncertain.

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Could Daniel Descalso win a job by survival?

March 14, 2011 Brian Walton

When my wife and I searched for our current house, we struggled mightily to make a selection from a wide variety of homes, after seeing over 60 of them. As we listed pros and cons of each, they all fell short of our ideal in various ways.

Out of time and forced to make a decision, we reluctantly put three on our short list, but couldn’t choose. I suggested a compromise to make our pick. We would each eliminate one from the list and the final one left standing would become our new dwelling. It was agreed.

The house that I liked best, she hated. I too was against her favorite. The one for which we both had the fewest serious objections became the winner by survival.

I wonder if the selection process the St. Louis Cardinals follow for their utility infielder to replace injured Nick Punto could take a similar path. Perhaps manager Tony La Russa and general manager John Mozeliak will play the roles of the opposing decision-makers.

Let’s look at the three combatants.

Matt Carpenter has yet to play a game above Double-A, yet was the organization’s Player of the Year in 2010. The third baseman has been very effective in the first two weeks of spring training.

Ramon Vazquez is an older, well-traveled veteran who does not hit much, but can play major league-quality defense at three positions. The latter virtues are much like Punto.

Daniel Descalso is in between. He has a little MLB experience, can play two of the three positions adequately and is likely a better hitter than Vazquez.

Here is a summary of some of the key factors.

Hitting	Spring	MLB	Minors
Carpenter	Excellent	No experience	Good
Descalso	Good	Limited good	Good
Vazquez	Poor	Below average	Fair

LH/RH
Carpenter	LHH
Descalso	LHH
Vazquez	LHH

Defense	2B	SS	3B
Carpenter	No	No	Yes
Descalso	Yes	No	Yes
Vazquez	Yes	Yes	Yes

Roster	40-man
Carpenter	No
Descalso	Yes
Vazquez	No

All three are left-handed hitters, so there is no benefit to any one of the three.

While La Russa’s glowing comments about Carpenter on Saturday were widely reported, he also said about Carpenter, “If he gets sent out, he has still had a great camp.” The manager also noted, “He may be ready and doesn’t fit our club,” a reference to multi-positional needs.

In the same conversation, I asked the manager what Vazquez would have to do to make the team. La Russa said they know what the “solid player” can do. He noted that when others go to the minors, the vets get their at-bats over the final ten days of camp, perhaps said as a reminder that it is still early.

Descalso? No one said anything. Daniel is quietly hitting .304 with a .385 on-base percentage and added a pair of stolen bases.

Descalso has one advantage in that he is the only one to have a place on the organization’s 40-man roster. This is a potential issue for the other two, but not an insurmountable problem.

Descalso has option years remaining as well so could easily be moved back and forth between St. Louis and Memphis as necessary. What to do with Vazquez when Punto returns could be an issue. Starting Carpenter’s option years one season earlier than planned could be a minor concern, coupled to the 40-man issue noted above.

While there is a lot of baseball to be played, could Descalso end up being the easiest alternative, just as was my house selection? As La Russa noted, it may be just a one-month decision.

[poll id=”70″]

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Former Cardinals hitting coach Mitchell Page dies at 59

March 13, 2011 Brian Walton

Former St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach Mitchell Page passed away in his sleep at the age of 59. The news was first reported via Twitter by ESPN’s Baseball Tonight analyst and former St. Louis Cardinals player Eduardo Perez and later confirmed by the Cardinals.

After several years away from the game following a stint as Washington Nationals hitting coach, Page returned to the Cardinals as Single-A Quad Cities hitting coach last spring. He left the job in early May, however. I last saw Page in November when he stopped by the Cardinals’ Arizona Fall League camp to offer instruction to several prospects. (Page is center in the photo, with Mark DeJohn and Derrick May.)

After serving as the Nats organization’s minor league hitting instructor in 2005, Page was named as Washington’s major league hitting coach for 2006. After the season and in the midst of a managerial change, the club first announced Page would be returning to his previous minor league role for 2007 before reversing field three weeks later, keeping him with the big club.

That wouldn’t last long. In May 2007, early in his second season with the major league club, Page left his job for what was described as “undisclosed personal reasons” and was replaced by Lenny Harris. The underpowered Nationals were last in the National League in batting average and runs scored at the time.

Page was the Cardinals Major League hitting coach from mid-2001 through 2004, including during their “MV3” heyday. He left the Cardinals after the 2004 World Series and entered an alcohol treatment facility. Page was replaced by Hal McRae, since dumped in favor of Mark McGwire. Prior to that, Page served as minor league hitting coordinator for the Cardinals and he was the hitting coach at Triple-A Memphis for one season, 1998.

Prior to joining the Cardinals, Page was the Kansas City Royals’ first base coach for the 1995-97 seasons. From 1992-94, he was the hitting instructor and first base coach for Triple-A Tacoma. A member of the Oakland A’s organization at that time, Page worked with Tony La Russa and Walt Jocketty. He played in the major leagues from 1977-84.

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64 former Cardinals in big league spring camps

March 12, 2011 Brian Walton

One of Josh Jones’ projects each spring is to comb the spring training rosters of all of the other 29 MLB organizations and locate all of the former Cardinals in major league camps. His 2011 census follows.

This year, there are 30 ex-Cards players currently on MLB 40-man rosters. That includes several players that actually never appeared with St. Louis, including Rule 5 pitcher Brian Broderick. The former Springfield hurler must stick with Washington or be placed on waivers and could potentially return to the Cardinals organization.

In addition, 34 other former Cardinals players are in spring training camps, trying to make their new clubs as non-roster invitees. Both lists follow.

40-Man Roster		Non-Roster Invitees
Rick Ankiel	Nationals	Brian Barden	Rangers
Daric Barton	Athletics	Ron Belliard	Yankees
Brian Broderick	Nationals	Blaine Boyer	Mets
Miguel Cairo	Reds	Tagg Bozied	Phillies
David Carpenter	Astros	Russell Branyan	Diamondbacks
Coco Crisp	Athletics	Brian Esposito	Astros
Mark DeRosa	Giants	Terry Evans	Giants
J.D. Drew	Red Sox	Pedro Feliz	Royals
Luke Gregerson	Padres	Randy Flores	Padres
Dan Haren	Angels	Ruben Gotay	Marlins
Blake Hawksworth	Dodgers	Michel Hernandez	Orioles
Jarrett Hoffpauir	Padres	Rich Hill	Red Sox
Cesar Izturis	Orioles	Jason Isringhausen	Mets
Ryan Ludwick	Padres	Adam Kennedy	Mariners
Jason Marquis	Nationals	Josh Kinney	White Sox
Joe Mather	Braves	Braden Looper	Cubs
Mike McCoy	Blue Jays	Felipe Lopez	Rays
Clayton Mortensen	Rockies	Hector Luna	Red Sox
Chris Narveson	Brewers	Mike MacDougal	Dodgers
Darren Oliver	Rangers	Matt Meyer	Angels
Brad Penny	Tigers	Aaron Miles	Dodgers
Chris Perez	Indians	Matt Pagnozzi	Rockies
Joel Pineiro	Angels	Luis Perdomo	Padres
Placido Polanco	Phillies	Anthony Reyes	Indians
Edgar Renteria	Reds	Dennys Reyes	Red Sox
Scott Rolen	Reds	Royce Ring	Mariners
Brendan Ryan	Mariners	Nate Robertson	Mariners
Jess Todd	Indians	Jeff Suppan	Giants
Brett Wallace	Astros	Joe Thurston	Marlins
Jack Wilson	Mariners	Brett Tomko	Rangers
		Todd Wellemeyer	Cubs
		Randy Winn	Orioles
		Mark Worrell	Orioles
		Jamey Wright	Mariners

If readers don’t know about Josh, you are missing out. For several years, he has covered the St. Louis Cardinals Latin American beat for The Cardinal Nation as well as runs his own site, Cardinals Best News Links. You can find links to all the important Cardinals and Latin American ball-related stories there in one place each day. There is also a permanent link to his site in the blogroll below. Follow Josh on Twitter.

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Can Ramon Vazquez become Abraham Nunez?

March 11, 2011 Brian Walton

I am having a case of déjà vu – St. Louis Cardinals spring training déjà vu.

Based on a combination of factors, including untimely surgery for Nick Punto and a long recovery for oft-injured David Freese, third baseman Matt Carpenter has received more playing time than expected in the first ten games of spring training.

The non-roster invitee, yet to play even a single regular-season game at the Triple-A level, has delivered in the early going. Carpenter has tallied a hit in the last seven games in which he has played. Carpenter is batting a team leading .455 (10-for-22), with two doublse and two triples and is tied for second on the club with six RBI.

It is not as if this is a fluke. Carpenter has a pedigree as a very good player. After all, based on his 2010 season with Double-A Springfield, he was named both The Cardinal Nation Player of the Year and later, the Cardinals followed with their top award as well.

As a result, a group of excited fans are not only penciling Carpenter onto the Cardinals opening day roster – a major feat in itself – some are leaping into projecting him as a platoon partner for Freese. Due to ongoing ankle concerns, Freese is expected to play only two of every three games in 2011 even if he can remain off the disabled list.

With roughly two-thirds of spring training ahead, all I can think of is this: “What would Tony do?”

We have no way of knowing if the manager:

a)     Will value another third baseman more than a utility player.
b)     Will prefer the biggest/hottest bat he can find.
c)     Will want major league experience given a bench that is already projected to include youngsters Tyler Greene, Allen Craig and Jon Jay.

While we don’t know what he WILL do, we know what he will NOT do. The manager will not declare winners for any open jobs at this early juncture.

If you have any doubt, just go back two years ago. Freese would make his first opening day roster, but before that could happen, he had to be recalled from minor league camp. He had sent out in early March because of a slow recovery from foot injuries suffered in an automobile accident over the winter.

While that was clearly an unusual situation, there are other players in competition to cover for Punto besides Carpenter.

Another non-roster infielder has received nearly as many spring plate appearances as Carpenter so far, though he hasn’t done nearly as much with them. Along with Greene and Daniel Descalso, the group is likely competing for two reserve infield roster spots to open the season. It would likely drop to one job as soon as Punto is ready, perhaps as much as two months into the season.

Who is this other NRI infielder?

Ramon Vazquez.

Hardly an exciting name, the left-handed hitter will celebrate his 35^th birthday before the regular season opens. The native of Puerto Rico is well-traveled, having played for six different major league clubs, most recently the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Vazquez has also bounced around the minors as well and in fact didn’t have a single at bat in the majors last season. His career MLB average is .254, but in his last big league action, he batted just .230 for the 2009 Bucs.

He does offer infield versatility and steady defense such as Punto was signed to provide. Vazquez has logged between 165 and 275 major league games at second base, shortstop and third base.

Vazquez has started this spring slowly, at 2-for-16 (.125) with a single and a double though he has also walked three times.

So where’s the déjà vu, you ask?

Back in 2005, another generally anonymous utility infielder who also had previously been discarded by the Pirates, Abraham Nunez, made the Cardinals out of camp as an NRI. The primary assets of the Dominican Republic native were his ability to play three infield positions and switch hit.

Nunez has the same defensive profile as Vazquez, with from between 258 and 293 major league contests at each of the positions of second, short and third. His career batting average when invited to 2005 spring training was an uninspiring .238 and in 2004, he also batted exactly .238 for the Bucs.

In other words, Nunez hardly came into Cardinals camp on a high note.

He batted a surprising .315 that spring, beating out former phenom-for-a-month Bo Hart and ex-major leaguer Wilton Guerrero among others and joined Hector Luna as infield reserves to open the 2005 season.

It wasn’t long after having made the team before Nunez was thrust into the spotlight. When starting third baseman Scott Rolen went down due to injury, large segments of the Cardinal Nation cursed their luck as well as the choice of the man to step in for the star third sacker, who was coming off his MV3 season of 2004.

Nunez ended up receiving 467 plate appearances in 2005. He delivered solid defense and career-bests in nearly every offensive category. A .285 batting average, five home runs and 44 RBI were among his highlights.

In 2006, he translated that into a nice, two-year deal with Philadelphia, where he promptly reverted to the pre-Cardinals Nunez. He is now a baseball vagabond, but that isn’t the point.

I have always believed that one can look back at the Cardinals past and gain insight into what might happen in the future.

Don’t get me wrong.

I am not throwing water on the candidacies of Greene, Descalso and Carpenter. Further, I am not predicting Vazquez will make the 2011 Cardinals, let alone suggesting he will pull a 2005-vintage Nunez season out of his cap.

On the other hand, at this point of the spring, I am not yet discounting Vazquez’ chances of getting hot and at least coming north with the team, either.

Wherever he is now, I bet Abe Nunez agrees.

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How many Cardinals minor league cuts may be coming?

March 10, 2011 Brian Walton

As many St. Louis Cardinals fans may already know, the organization has suspended play in the Venezuelan Summer League in 2011. I broke that story at The Cardinal Nation on February 2.

While organization officials say mass releases would not occur as a result of the decision, the system will still face a numbers crunch this spring and summer that may be even more acute than in recent years.

This post will make some rough approximations of the number of players potentially involved in future releases during 2011.

To do this, some assumptions have to be made.

I will make each roster full to its allowable league limit. Above the maximum roster size at each level, I will assign five players to the disabled list or inactive list, shown below as “Inactive.” This count is based on what the Cardinals have done in previous years. Some might wonder if this is overly aggressive, but my intent is to come up with a reasonable estimate of the number of players to be released.

Further, we will assume no free agent additions will occur and 45 players will be signed from the June 2011 draft. The last point is a bit tricky to assess timing-wise as the top players often hold off signing until the mid-August deadline. For that reason, in this roster exercise, I will use only 40 of the projected 45 signed players.

Timing-wise, there are two key inflection points. One is at the start of April when minor league rosters must be set. Those players not on one of four full-season squads will either be released or retained for extended spring training camp.

Within about ten days following the conclusion of the June draft, the Cardinals’ four short-season clubs will begin play. At that point, the music stops and everyone signed to a contract must have a chair.

I am going to break this analysis into what I am calling “Sources” and “Uses.” The former is where the players come from and the latter is where they are going.

Starting with sources, you can see from the Roster Matrix that the Cardinals currently have 289 players under contract, including the major league club. Add to that 40 players signed from the June draft and you have 329 players to be rostered somewhere.

Sources
Under contract	289
June draft	40
Total	329

Here is the “Uses” view. The league maximum roster sizes are listed along with an allocation of five for inactive players.

Uses
Major League	Active	Inactive	Total
St. Louis	25	5

Full-season
Memphis	24	5
Springfield	24	5
Palm Beach	25	5
Quad Cities	25	5

Short-season
Batavia	30	5
Johnson City	35	5
Gulf Coast	35	5
Dominican	35	5

Total	258	45	303

As you can tell from a quick comparison, even with 45 players inactive, the Cardinals would have to release at least 26 players (329 minus 303) between now and this summer.

One might argue the actual number of cuts could prove to be even higher. We shall see over the upcoming months.

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Will La Russa use underdog status as a motivator?

March 9, 2011 Brian Walton

About three weeks ago, I took a look at the betting lines to see what those putting their money down had to say about the St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series chances in 2011.

As training camp opened, the Cardinals had slipped from an opening line of 14/1 to 20/1. Since then, of course, the Nick Punto groin surgery occurred, setting off panic among early bettors.

Ok, some might argue that actually helped matters, but in all seriousness, the club losing ace pitcher Adam Wainwright for the entire season was a tough blow to take. As a result, the Cardinals are now not only at 30/1, they are tied for third among National League Central Division clubs with Chicago.

Think about that.

World Series Odds	Opening	Early Feb	Current
St. Louis Cardinals	14/1	20/1	30/1

Milwaukee leads the way in the division at 15/1, but that does not yet take into account new ace Zack Greinke’s basketball-induced rib injuries announced on Tuesday. Dusty Baker’s Cincinnati club is at 25/1, according to betting site thespread.com. The Phillies sit on top at 2/1, though ongoing concerns over the knee of second baseman Chase Utley could erode that position.

Further, the over-under on St. Louis wins this season sits at just 83. As recent points of comparison, the Cardinals won 86 in their disappointing 2010 season after claiming 91 victories in 2009.

Perhaps going from the favorite to a decided underdog is just what manager Tony La Russa will call upon to motivate a Cardinals team that seemed to lack the requisite drive last year. The 2010 club suffered through a dismal 9-21 stretch from mid-August to mid-September that doomed their playoff hopes.

The surprising and resilient Reds took the NL Central crown with a five game cushion that would have been much greater had the Cardinals not finished with a 9-2 record during what was essentially garbage time.

[poll id=”69″]

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Learning from past Cardinals minor league spring transaction dates

March 8, 2011 Brian Walton

The other day, I looked at last year’s major league spring training transactions by the St. Louis Cardinals as a method of suggesting a rough time frame when similar moves might occur in 2011.

While there is less apparent action within minor league camp compared to the reassignment of players there from major league camp, there is plenty of churn still. Rosters are purposely written in pencil and players are shuttled between minor league games as needed. Some are even called back to help fill in during major league games.

Still, there are a couple of inflection points each spring when groups of minor league player releases occurred previously. With roughly half the camp games of the major leaguers, the minor league instructors and coaches have to make their decisions relatively quickly.

For example, in 2010, the Cardinals had 30 spring games, while the minor leaguers had 18 days of games in camp, including intrasquad contests every third day. This is due to the schedule imbalance created by the fact that only the Mets and Marlins are within a two hour drive of Cardinals camp in Jupiter, Fla.

Last spring, the Cardinals announced their big groups of player releases on March 23 and 26, at spring games seven and ten, respectively. A total of 17 players were given their release. After at least a week of games, the coaches can determine which players are not competitive enough to either make one of the four full-season rosters or remain behind for extended spring training camp.

In 2009, the organization also released two waves of players on the 23^rd and 26^th, but added a third group on March 31, as well. 21 players became ex-Cardinals through those moves.

These spring releases have been especially focused on clearing out the pitching ranks. 28 of these 38 releases during the last two camps were hurlers.

Even so, a large quantity of pitchers remain. In recent seasons, the Cardinals have begun the regular season at Palm Beach and Quad Cities using the tandem or piggy-back rotation. In that arrangement, instead of five starters, two pairs of four starting pitchers take turns starting and relieving every fourth day. That allows the use of eight starters rather than the traditional five. Often by Memorial Day, a combination of performance results and injuries thin the ranks and regular five-man rotations are implemented.

St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training transactions – 2009-10

Date	Game	Cardinals minor league camp transactions
2010	(of 18)

23-Mar	#7	Seven released. Ps Justin Fiske, Andres Rosales, Jonathan Gonzalez,
		Reynier Gonzalez, Marco Gonzalez, 1B Matt Arburr, C Blake Murphy.

26-Mar	#10	Ten released. Ps Brad Furnish, Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres,
		Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez, Yoffri Martinez,
		OFs Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez.

Date	Game	Cardinals minor league camp transactions
2009	(of 17)

23-Mar	#6	Five released . IFs Nick Vera, Isa Garcia, Ps Joe Rogers, Miguel Flores,
		C Christian Rosa.

26-Mar	#9	Nine released. Ps Hyang-Nam Choi, Russ Haltiwanger, Zach Pitts, Matt Spade,
		Wayne Damon, Jose Mateo, Jon Mikrut, Jameson Maj, 3B Brian Cartie.

31-Mar	#14	Seven released. Cs Justin Knoedler, Rickey Noland, Ps Ryan Bird,
		J.D. Stambaugh, Davis Bilardello, Dylan Gonzalez, Josh Hester.

Reminder: To track all the signings, releases and other major roster moves across the entire Cardinals system, check out the Roster Matrix right here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.

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The Cardinal Nation Blog featured on FOXSports.com again!

March 6, 2011 Brian Walton

For at least the seventh time in the last 14 months, an article from The Cardinal Nation Blog has been highlighted on FOXSports.com’s Major League Baseball page, achieved through this site’s association with Yardbarker. What brought the recognition this time was the post, “Cardinals concerned about Albert Pujols’ age?”

If you’re one of the many first-time visitors here and consider yourself a St. Louis Cardinals fan, please look around, register and join the discussion. I think you will enjoy the fresh new articles and daily commentary.

The link to my Pujols article is featured on FOXSports.com’s main MLB page about one-third of the way down the left column. But now that you are here, there is no need to go there, since the link will take you right back here to The Cardinal Nation Blog!

Monday morning update

There should be a new flood of first-time visitors today. Welcome to all of you. Don’t forget to look around the site and come back daily if you are interested in the Cardinals.

Yardbarker has a Monday-Friday push email with their top ten stories of the day, called The Daily Bark. I rarely make it because they tend to prefer saucier stories like today’s #1, “ECHL team to hold ‘Charlie Sheen Night’,” but somehow, my Pujols story slipped in at #6 today.

If you want to subscribe to The Daily Bark, click here. They say they don’t share or sell your info…

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Learning from Cardinals 2010 spring transaction dates

March 6, 2011 Brian Walton

On Saturday, I noticed the first major cuts of the spring by a Major League Baseball club. They were the non-descript reassignments to minor league camp of four players, two catchers and two pitchers, made by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It got me thinking about the sequence of these moves by the St. Louis Cardinals in a typical spring. While last year’s transactions are not a guarantee of this year’s, it seems an interesting effort to take a look back.

Since game dates are different each spring, I will list the Cardinals 2010 spring moves both by the game number they occurred as well as the calendar date.

With minor League pitchers and catchers reporting this year tomorrow, Monday, March 7, one might anticipate the first round of 2011 cuts as soon as later today, Sunday. Last year, the Cardinals had played only three official games prior to that date, but with an earlier start this year, heading into Sunday, St. Louis has already completed seven of its 32 scheduled spring training games.

Note the predominance of 2010 cuts that occurred on Sundays and Mondays. In three consecutive weeks, first catching and pitching NRIs were sent to minor league camp, then around the middle of the month, a group of youngsters were optioned out and by the 20^th or thereabouts, the third major trim occurred.

Also note that even after players are officially assigned to minor league camp, they can and will be called back to the major league club to help out in games as needed.

The following table lists the day/date, spring game number of 30, number of 40-man players still in camp, number non-roster invitees in camp and the detailed transactions themselves from last spring as the Cardinals went from 58 players down to their opening day 25.

St. Louis Cardinals major league spring training transactions – 2010

In camp	Game	40-man	NRI	Cardinals major league transactions
	(of 30)
Open		38	19

Fri 2/26		39	19	IF Felipe Lopez signed

Sun 3/7	#4	39	9	Minor league camp opens 3/8 – 10 NRIs reassigned
				Cs Charles Cutler, Tony Cruz, Steven Hill, Robert Stock
				IFs Daniel Descalso, Donovan Solano, Pete Kozma
				OF Tyler Henley, Ps Charlie Zink, Sam Freeman

Mon 3/15	#12	33	9	Optioned C Bryan Anderson, 1B Mark Hamilton, OF Daryl Jones,
				OF Shane Robinson, P Tyler Norrick, P Francisco Samuel

Thu 3/18	#14	32	9	First minor league games
				R5 P Ben Jukich returned to Reds

Sun 3/21	#18	31	6	Optioned P Josh Kinney, reassigned NRI Ps Lance Lynn,
				Evan MacLane, early invite P Shelby Miller

Mon 3/22	#19	30	1	Optioned C Matt Pagnozzi, reassigned NRIs IF Ruben Gotay,
				Ps Eduardo Sanchez, Oneli Perez, Fernando Salas, Pete Parise

Fri 3/26	#22	28	1	Optioned IF Tyler Greene, OF Jon Jay

Sat 3/27	#23	27	1	Optioned P Adam Ottavino

Tue 3/30	#26	27	0	NRI P Rich Hill reassigned

Thu 4/1	#28	26	0	Traded SS Julio Lugo to Baltimore

Fri 4/2	#29	25	0	Optioned P P.J. Walters

40-man roster players are optioned out while non-roster invitees are assigned to the minor leagues. Note that in 2010, an unusual situation occurred in that no NRIs made the team out of camp. That may not be the case in 2011 as non-roster players including veterans Miguel Batista and Ramon Vazquez and youngsters Lance Lynn and Brandon Dickson are among those making their bids to come north with the Cardinals.

The Cardinal Nation subscribers should be sure to check out my recent four-part series looking at the NRI situation in depth.

”Cardinals Veteran NRI Spring History: 2005-10”
”Handicapping the 2011 Cards NRIs: Veterans”
”Handicapping the 2011 Cards NRIs: Prospects”
“Making Room for the Cards NRIs: Outrighting”

Reminder: To track all the 2011 signings, releases and other major roster moves across the entire Cardinals system, check out the Roster Matrix right here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.

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Cardinals concerned about Albert Pujols’ age?

March 5, 2011 Brian Walton

The annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference is in its second and final day on Saturday in Boston. The first session is a Baseball Analytics Panel that includes Rob Neyer, Joe Bohringer, Greg Moore, Jonah Keri, Tom Tippett and Sloan graduate and former St. Louis Cardinals Assistant General Manager John Abbamondi.

A number of individuals in attendance at the sold-out conference have been tweeting some of the talking points being made. One that caught my eye was from a past acquaintance, Andy Andres, a sabermetrics instructor at Tufts University.

“Rob Neyer suggests Cardinals are worried about Pujols’ age in negotiations…,” reported Andres.

I would have loved to been able to study Abbamondi’s reaction when Neyer said that. While Abbamondi moved on to an executive position with the San Diego Padres in December, he was certainly in the inner circle of planning for the last few years as the Cardinals developed their Pujols contract strategy.

Update: I double-checked with Andres to ensure I did not misinterpret his tweet. I did not, as he reaffirmed the speaker was definitely questioning Pujols’ reported date of birth. In fact, Neyer polled the panel members on their individual views of the first baseman’s current age.

Neyer has highlighted concern about Pujols’ age multiple times in recent years, back to at least April 2008. The following was his comment to a reader following an ESPN insider article about Miguel Tejada’s age falsification case.

“I’ve been wondering about Pujols for a long time. I’m not alone. But for whatever reasons, nobody’s been able to confirm anything one way or the other.”

What makes Saturday’s statement more notable is a further refinement of the identity of the concerned party.

In late January, during an ESPN chat, Neyer mentioned unidentified people as the ones harboring the suspicions.

“Look, I’m going to say this now and maybe never again in this space, but … There are still some reasonably intelligent people with reasonable doubts about Pujols’ age. Just for the sake of argument, if he’s actually 33 or 34 would you give him eight years? Nine years? Ten?”

Now, he is apparently saying it is the Cardinals themselves with concerns.

Of course, that could still be from a secondary source, a third party relating what the Cardinals are supposedly thinking. Even so, if true, this could put a different spin on the team’s behavior in the currently-suspended contract negotiations with their superstar.

Neyer has a long-established national reputation and one would think he would not be making these repeated comments without foundation. Only he knows his source and would not be expected to divulge it.

Yet over the last decade, which included 9/11-driven changes that caught several players with falsified ages as well as Pujols completing the process to secure his US citizenship, no one has publicly surfaced any proof of irregularities with his age.

I offered more background in a January post entitled, “Why do Pujols’ age questions persist?”

What do you think?

[poll id=”67″]

[poll id=”68″]

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MLB Gameday Audio integrated into Gameday

March 4, 2011 Brian Walton

I know this might seem like I am pimping for MLB, but I can assure you that would be the last thing I would be inclined to do. On the other hand, when they deserve to take a bow, I will give them a nod. In this case, credit is due.

As many fans know, MLB offers a free data-filled window into each contest called MLB Gameday. It provides an in-game box score, play-by-play and pitch-by-pitch data. (The latter is not available during spring training.)

I have several friends who enter this data in various MLB pressboxes on an interactive basis during the regular season and know this job is taken very seriously.

You can get into MLB Gameday quickly for any game by clicking onto the baseball diamond icon in the scoreboard area at the upper left of the MLB.com homepage.

Anyway, putting all the background aside, a really neat new twist I noticed for this season is the integration of another feature, MLB Gameday Audio, into the Gameday page.

I know the terms may be a bit confusing, but here is the bottom line. One can watch the game stats and listen to the broadcast from the same screen. This example is from today, with the audio window just above and to the right of the score.

One minor downside this season is the addition of advertisements into the center batter window between innings. You learn it is there pretty quickly when its audio is bled on top of the game audio. Fortunately, you can toggle off the ad audio once for the entire session instead of having to do it each half-inning.

Gameday Audio is not free like the Gameday function, but its cost of $19.99 for the season isn’t bad at all. In addition to PC, it is also supported on mobile devices like Blackberry. An alternative to subscribe to it is via its inclusion with MLB.TV, Major League Baseball’s online video streaming offering.

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How to find Thursday’s Cardinals split squad games

March 3, 2011 Brian Walton

With the St. Louis Cardinals playing simultaneous split squad games on Thursday afternoon, it can get a little confusing as to where one can listen in or watch.

While I have provided a master schedule of Cardinals spring games on radio and television, I am getting questions about how to access them. With Thursday being the first of 10 televised St. Louis games this spring, I thought this would be a good time to go into more detail.

First of all, the basics. One Cardinals squad is remaining home in Jupiter, Fla. to face the visiting Washington Nationals. The rest of the team is traveling the 30-some miles to Port St. Lucie to take on the New York Mets. As is customary in the spring, both games start just after 1:00 P.M. Eastern.

In an interesting twist, the home game will be available on radio only while they away game is exclusively being televised. The other options are not available.

Nationals-Cardinals on audio only

The Nationals-Cardinals game audio will be on KMOX, XM satellite radio 186 and MLB Gameday Audio.

The audio originates from KMOX radio in St. Louis with the familiar voices of Mike Shannon and John Rooney expected on the call. The game will be available over the air via the 50,000 watt 1120 AM as well as selected stations in the Cardinals network. These are local decisions, so you’ll have to check in your town if your nearby radio affiliate is covering the game. You’ll have a better chance finding weekend games on your local Cardinals network station in the spring.

Though some radio stations like KMOX offer live streaming of their programming over the internet, you won’t be able to listen to baseball games that way. Due to MLB regulations, stations are not allowed to stream Major League games. Period.

There are at least two pay routes to listen to games.

XM satellite radio will be picking up the radio broadcast on channel 186.

MLB Gameday Audio is another subscription service that offers home and away radio broadcasts over the internet for spring and regular season games. There are never any blackouts with audio. One neat feature is that games are archived so if you miss the live event, you can come back that evening and listen to the “tape”. You can either subscribe to MLB Gameday Audio separately for $19.95 per season, or it is included in the price of MLB.TV. More on that in a moment.

Cardinals-Mets on television only

Thursday’s Cardinals-Mets game will be televised live on SportsNet New York or SNY. I don’t know who is assigned to work the game today, but their regular season booth is Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and former Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez.

If you subscribe to a sports package from your cable or satellite provider, you may have the SNY channel. This is the only way to see the 1 PM ET/noon CT game live on television.

A general comment. One good thing about spring television broadcasts is that the normal regular season blackouts are not enforced. Otherwise, those outside the SNY viewing area would not be able to see the game even if you have the channel. In other words, this route works great in March, but come April, you’ll be blacked out.

The Cards-Mets telecast will also be live over the internet on MLB.TV, a pay service. Like MLB Gameday Audio, game broadcasts are also archived for later viewing. This is the only way to watch games after the fact on-demand. The MLB.TV offering costs either $119.95 or $99.95 per season depending on the features you want.

Today’s game will be run on a three-hour delayed basis on MLB Network, starting at 4 PM ET/3 PM CT. This channel is included in many but not all satellite and cable packages. If you don’t have MLB Network, you don’t know what you are missing. It is excellent.

As always, you can find lineups, links to live in-game stats and all-day chatter on special threads for each day’s game (or in today’s case, games) at The Cardinal Nation message board.

If after reading this, you still have questions, please post them below.

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Fan optimism slipping about Pujols’ Cardinals future

March 2, 2011 Brian Walton

Over the past months, the contract situation of Albert Pujols, superstar first baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals, was front and center in baseball news. That is, it was dominating headlines until the player’s self-imposed February 16 negotiating deadline came and passed.

During that time, a series of related polls ran here at The Cardinal Nation Blog. Let’s take a look at what the readers had to say with their votes.

Not surprisingly, the fan view of when Pujols’ new contact will be signed slipped to the right over time. I first asked the question as 2010 ended, on New Year’s Eve, and again on Valentine’s Day.

Initially, the majority of the voters expected the club and player to come to terms before spring negotiations ended.

By February 14, the immediate optimism had waned. This polling date was still two days prior to Pujols’ deadline, but also before the free agent-to-be scored points with some by patiently answering media questions upon his arrival in camp and re-iterating his hope to remain with St. Louis.

Where/when will Pujols sign?	12/31/10	2/14/11	Change
With St. Louis prior to season	57%	18%
With St. Louis during season	3%	1%
With St. Louis after season	16%	41%
Total with St. Louis	76%	60%	-16%

With another club	22%	34%	12%

No opinion/don’t know	2%	6%	4%

From the end of the year, reader confidence in Pujols returning to St. Louis in 2012 eroded from over 75 percent to just 60 percent. Three of every four changed votes shifted to an opposing club, while the fourth moved to “undecided.”

As of February 14, just over one-third of the voters believe Pujols is gone.

Another area of voting that attracted considerable interest was in setting the contract terms for what is viewed to be a winning upcoming fall offer by the Cardinals to Pujols.

Here are the results of the fan proposal with the leading percent of the vote for each element in parentheses:

Eight year guarantee (39%) with two additional option years to be vested (36%)
Average annual value of $26 million to $27 million (32%)
10 or less percent of the total value deferred (35%)
Front-loaded (higher annual salary in early years) (56%)
Ownership stake upon retirement (49%)
Bonuses for games played and awards received (63%)

To create another point-in-time view of reader opinion, please share your opinion in the following three polls. New data points since last vote include the season-ending injury to Adam Wainwright and the trade speculation surrounding Chris Carpenter if the 2011 season collapses.

You can decide how much, if any, those two conditions matter before sharing your current prediction of what will happen with Pujols and when.

[poll id=”66″]

[poll id=”65″]

[poll id=”64″]

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Master Cardinals spring radio and television schedule

March 1, 2011 Brian Walton

While many St. Louis Cardinals fans were disappointed that Monday’s spring opener was not available on radio or television, it was one of just four of the team’s 33 spring games not scheduled to be accessible somehow.

Not all broadcasts will have familiar announcers, but after all, isn’t it better to listen to or watch the opposing team’s crew than to miss the game entirely?

The 2011 spring radio and television schedule opens with the Cardinals-Marlins on Tuesday, March 1. The radio broadcast will originate via St. Louis’ flagship KMOX and will also be picked by XM satellite radio.

Further, all radio games should be available as part of the MLB Gameday audio subscription service. (Note that MLB rules prohibit local stations from live streaming games. For example, though KMOX offers audio streaming through their website, the games will not be available in that manner.)

In the schedule below, some radio games will be broadcast on both the Cardinals network and by the opposition club’s station. I listed KMOX if available and if not, the other team’s station is noted as it should be available via Gameday and perhaps also XM. XM releases their subset of games covered on a weekly basis throughout the month, so I will be updating that part of the schedule as announced.

In terms of television, all networks covering ten Cardinals spring games to be shown are listed. The first TV game is this Thursday, carried live on SportsNet New York and that evening on a delayed basis by MLB Network (as part of their 83-game MLB spring schedule). Among the other ways the following nine games can be viewed is via the internet through the MLB.TV subscription service (offering 150+ spring games across baseball with no spring blackouts).

Keep this page bookmarked as I will be updating it throughout the month as appropriate.

March 3 update: FOX Sports Tennessee announced they will be carrying the same five games as FOX Midwest. The table below is updated to reflect this. More details here.

March 4 update: XM games through March 11 added.

March 12 update: XM games through March 20 added.

St. Louis Cardinals 2011 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule

Day	Date	Opponent	Location	Local Time	Radio	TV
Mon	28-Feb	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.
Tue	1-Mar	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 186
Wed	2-Mar	NY Mets	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.
Thu	3-Mar	Washington (ss)	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 186
Thu	3-Mar	NY Mets (ss)	St. Lucie	1:10 p.m.		SNY (live)/MLBN (delay)
Fri	4-Mar	Houston	Kissimmee	1:05 p.m.	KBME
Sat	5-Mar	Houston	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX (delay)
Sun	6-Mar	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 186
Mon	7-Mar	Minnesota	Ft. Myers	1:05 p.m.	KSTP/XM 179
Tue	8-Mar	Boston	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 186
Wed	9-Mar	Atlanta	Orlando	1:05 p.m.	WFOM
Thu	10-Mar	Atlanta	Orlando	1:05 p.m.	WFOM
Fri	11-Mar	Detroit	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 186
Sat	12-Mar	Minnesota	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX
Sun	13-Mar	NY Mets	St. Lucie	1:10 p.m.	KMOX/XM 183	WPIX-NY/MLB.TV
Mon	14-Mar	Atlanta	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	WFOM
Tue	15-Mar	Atlanta	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 183
Wed	16-Mar	Detroit	Lakeland	1:05 p.m.		FS Detroit/Midwest/Tenn/MLB.TV
Thu	17-Mar	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 183	FS Midwest/Tenn/MLBN/MLB.TV
Fri	18-Mar	Washington	Viera	1:05 p.m.	WFED/XM 183
Sat	19-Mar	Florida (ss)	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX
Sat	19-Mar	Houston (ss)	Kissimmee	1:05 p.m.	KTRH	FS Midwest/Tenn/MLB.TV
Sun	20-Mar	Boston	Ft. Myers	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 176	NESN/MLBN/MLB.TV
Mon	21-Mar	Washington	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.
Tue	22-Mar	OFF DAY
Wed	23-Mar	NY Mets	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 183	ESPN/MLB.TV
Thu	24-Mar	NY Mets	St. Lucie	1:10 p.m.	KMOX	SNY/MLBN/MLB.TV
Fri	25-Mar	Washington	Viera	6:05 p.m.	WFED	FS Midwest/Tenn/MLB.TV
Sat	26-Mar	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX/XM 185	FS Florida/Midwest/Tenn/MLB.TV
Sun	27-Mar	NY Mets	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX
Mon	28-Mar	Florida	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	WAXY
Tue	29-Mar	Florida (ss)	Jupiter	1:05 p.m.	KMOX
Tue	29-Mar	Springfield (ss)	Sprf, MO	7:07 p.m.	KTRS 550	Note: Game canceled due to weather

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Cardinals declines from second place

February 28, 2011 Brian Walton

Yesterday, I presented summaries of the five previous seasons since 1920 in which the St. Louis Cardinals improved in the standings from second place one year to first the next.

Since this is an equal-opportunity blog, today’s post covers the opposite case. Of course, there are more places then one to fall in the standings, but I will note every occurrence. There are seven such seasons in total.

The Cardinals slid from second to third three times:

1991-92
1974-75
1939-40

There was a pair of declines from second to fourth:

1971-72
1936-37

The largest drop from second the next season was to fifth. This elevator ride straight down occurred twice, both during the Stan Musial years.

1957-58
1949-50

Taking each of the seven seasons, starting with the most recent…

1992: third place. Manager Joe Torre’s Cardinals actually declined by just one win from year to year, 84 to 83. The 1992 team had added a proven offensive performer in Andres Galarraga to replace Pedro Guerrero at first base, but The Big Cat flopped. Following the season, he was sent to Colorado where he revived his career as a member of the Blake Street Bombers.

The second base jinx was a good representation of the 1992 season. Geronimo Pena broke his clavicle after tripping over a glove during spring training and the Secret Weapon, Jose Oquendo, went down with a dislocated shoulder on Opening Day.

No Cardinals regular hit .300 that year, though Ray Lankford led the club in most major offensive categories. Bob Tewksbury won 16 games and posted a 2.16 ERA. Lee Smith saved 43 games.

1975: third place. After falling just short the two previous years, the Cardinals finished 10 ½ games out in Red Schoendienst’s second-to-last season at the helm. Heading into the year, Torre had been traded to the Mets and Jose Cruz was sold to Houston.

Ted Simmons paced the offense with a .332 average and 100 RBI while Bob Forsch won 15 games with a 2.68 ERA. Bob Gibson concluded his Hall of Fame career, given permission to return home in mid-September.

1972: fourth place. Owner Gussie Busch ordered the trades of pitchers Steve Carlton and Jerry Reuss. Simmons refused to sign a contract and played without one. That pretty much says it all.

Gibson remained, winning 19 games with a 2.46 ERA. Torre dropped from 137 RBI in his 1971 MVP season to 81, but still led the punchless lineup.

1958: fifth place. Despite Musial and Ken Boyer leading the offense, the 1958 team stumbled out of the gate at 3-14 and finished last in the National League in runs scored. The Cardinals won just 72 games, finishing in fifth.

Teenage sensation Von McDaniel had injured his shoulder in spring training and would never pitch again. “Sad” Sam Jones led the staff with 14 wins and a 2.88 ERA. Musial collected his 3000^th hit on May 13 and Curt Flood played his first of 12 seasons as a Cardinal.

1950: fifth place. After winning 96 games in 1949 and finishing just 1 ½ games out, the 1950 team was in first place as late as July 24 before collapsing to just 78 wins in total. Their .510 mark was the worst showing by a Cardinals club since 1938 and foreshadowed a decade in which the team would post five losing seasons.

Despite having won the World Series in his first season in 1946 and not having a losing record in any year, manager Eddie Dyer resigned in October before owner Fred Saigh could fire him. Marty Marion would manage the club in 1951.

1940: third place. In a bridge period between the Gas House Gang of the 1930’s and what would become the Cardinals’ most successful decade, the 1940 team entered the season as the favorite, but came out of the chute at 15-29 and never recovered. In June, Future Hall of Famer Billy Southworth became the third manager of the season.

Johnny Mize’s 43 home runs stood as the team record for over a half-century until Mark McGwire came along. Star outfielder Ducky Medwick was essentially sold to the Dodgers in June.

1937: fourth place. In a reminder that one superstar performance does not ensure team success, Medwick had a season for the ages. Joe posted the last Triple Crown in the National League – .374 average, 31 home runs and 154 RBI. Dizzy Dean’s toe injury in the All-Star Game contributed to the team’s underachievement and sent his career on a slide. The team dropped from 87 wins in 1936 to 81.

It was manager Frankie Frisch’s last full season at the helm. Shortstop Leo Durocher was traded to the Dodgers after the season.

[poll id=”63″]

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Cardinals seasons going from second place to first

February 27, 2011 Brian Walton

Looking back at when the St. Louis Cardinals improved from second place one year to first place the next.

Researcher Tom Orf generally focuses his attention to winter sports this time of year but recently sent me the following. It documents the four (and arguably five) cases since 1920 that the St. Louis Cardinals improved from second place one season to first the next.

Also included are the circumstances in the more successful year two, of course with playoff action to report each time.

After all, with the various bad news items this past week, we could use some optimism, right?

Years the St. Louis Cardinals went from second to first

1927-2nd 92-61 1.5 games behind Pittsburgh
1928-1st 95-59 2 ahead NY Giants
Lost in WS 4-0 to NYY

Gehrig 4 HR/Ruth 3HR

Ruth all 3 HR in game 4 including consecutive AB in 7th & 8th and back-to-back with Gehrig in the 7th

1941-2nd 97-56 2.5 GB Brooklyn
1942-1st 106-48 2 ahead Brooklyn
Won WS 4-1 NYY lost game 1-won next 4

Game 2 Yankees score 3 in top of the 8th to tie game 3-3 but in bottom of the 8th Slaughter 2-out double & then scores on Musial single, in the top of the 9th Yanks open with 2 singles but Slaughter throws led runner out at 3rd

Game 5 game tied 2-2 top of the 9th Kurowski 2-run HR, bottom of 9th Yanks 1st & 2nd nobody out C Walker Cooper picks Joe Gordon off 2B

1945-2nd 95-59 3 GB Cubs
1946-1st 98-58 2 ahead Brooklyn
Won WS 4-3 over Red Sox (won games 2-4-6-7)

Harry Breechen had complete game wins in games 2 & 4 3-0 & 4-1 & won game 7 in relief

Game 7 Red Sox score 2 in top of 8th to tie game 3-3, in bottom of 8th Slaughter scores from 1st on Harry Walker’s hit (see photo of the end of “Slaughter’s Mad Dash”) and in the bottom of the 9th Red Sox had 1st & 2nd no outs/1st & 3rd 1 out but Breechen got out of it including pop out to Musial (1B) with 1 out

1963-2nd 93-69 6 GB Dodgers
1964-1st 93-69 1 ahead Phillies and Reds
Won WS 4-3 over Yanks (won games 1-4-5-7)

Gibson complete game victories in games 5 & 7 on Oct 12th & 15th

Game 1 Yanks led 4-2 until Cards got 4 in bottom of the 6th keyed by Shannon’s 2-run HR

Game 3 Mantle walkoff HR

Game 4 Yanks up 3-0 until Boyer grand slam in bottom of 6th, Ron Taylor pitches last 4 innings only allows 1 walk

Game 5 McCarver 3-run HR in top of 10th, Gibson goes 10 innings

Game 7 Cards get 3 in the 4th (McCarver RBI & stole home) & 3 in the 5th (Brock HR and McCarver SF) for 6-0 lead, Mantle 3-run HR in 6th makes it 6-3, Boyer HR in 7th 7-3 & Yanks score 2 in 9th

(This one is a little iffy since they actually tied for 1^st the first season)
2001-T-1st 93-69 lost tiebreaker to Astros lost NLDS to Arizona 3-2
2002-1st 97-65 13 ahead of Astros
Won NLDS 3-0 over Arizona

Fassero WP in games 2 & 3

Game 2 1-1 tie in top 9th Cairo singles in Renteria (1B then Matheny sac) & Isringhausen strikes out Spivey for last out in 1-2-3 9th

Game 3 Cards break 2-2 on Andy Benes squeeze (RBI) followed by Vina RBI single then add 2 in 8th on RBI by Cairo & Robinson

Lost NLCS 4-1 to Giants

Game 3 Cards get solo HR in 4th, 5th & 6th (Matheny/Edmonds/Marrero) for lead in 5-4 win Izzy walks Bonds in 4 batter 9th

Game 4 Giants score 2 in bottom of 8th for 4-2 lead-Edmonds 2-out RBI single 4-3 but with 1st &; 3rd Pujols & Drew K’d (Nen)

Game 5 Cards lead 1-0 but Bonds SF in bottom 8th ties it; Giants win series on Lofton RBI single in 9^th

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Losing 20-game winners have not been kind to the Cardinals

February 26, 2011 Brian Walton

As every St. Louis Cardinals fan knows by now, pitcher Adam Wainwright will miss the entire 2011 season due to injury. The 29-year-old right-hander will undergo Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery on Monday in St. Louis.

While losing the staff’s ace before the first official pitch of spring training has been thrown is a major blow to the team’s 2011 title aspirations, the Cardinals have overcome serious injuries in past seasons. Jerry Modene’s article running today on the main TheCardinalNation.com site looks at the top 10 injuries suffered by Cardinals players over the years.

Rarely has a 20-game winner been lost for the entire subsequent season, but it has happened twice in Cardinals history, as I was reminded by researcher Tom Orf. However, neither past occurrence was due to injury. Both were as a result of trades, including what I believe is the worst swap in franchise annals.

Unlike some of Modene’s examples, the Cardinals as a team suffered in both of these cases.

39 years ago yesterday, on February 25, 1972, the Cardinals traded future Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton to the Philadelphia Phillies for pitcher Rick Wise. I recall being incredibly angry the moment the deal was announced and remain so to this day.

Carlton had won 20 games for the 1971 Cards but had the audacity to ask for a raise. We’ll show him who’s boss, eh Gussie? Lefty was so crushed by the trade that he won 27 games in 1972. He went on to win a total of 241 games, four Cy Young Awards and a World Championship with the Phils. Once Carlton was gone, the Cardinals would not appear in the playoffs for another decade.

Ironically, Busch gave Wise the same salary that Carlton had requested, but the new Cardinal was no Lefty. Wise was good enough to log a pair of 16 win seasons in 1972-73, but the Cardinals dropped from 90 wins in 1971 to just 75 the next year. He was dispatched to Boston in trade that included Reggie Smith as soon as the .500 1973 season ended.

The other 20-win-to-nothing case occurred in 1985-86. Joaquin Andujar was coming off consecutive 20-victory seasons for the National League Champions.

While Andujar’s antics had him on thin ice already, his Game Seven meltdown in the 1985 World Series may have been the last straw. The volatile pitcher felt he was getting squeezed on ball and strike calls and was ejected after bumping home plate umpire Don Denkinger during the dispute. Of course, Denkinger’s blown call at first base the previous evening was viewed to be the pivotal moment of the Series.

Andujar’s reported links to a convicted Pittsburgh drug dealer probably didn’t help his standing, either. Ownership reportedly ordered general manager Dal Maxvill to get rid of Andujar and that he did. On December 10, 1985, six weeks after the bitter loss to the Kansas City Royals, the Cardinals sent their reigning two-time 20-game winner to Oakland in return for catcher Mike Heath and pitcher Tim Conroy.

Neither new player contributed much of anything to a Cardinals team that dropped from 101 wins in 1985 to just 79 the next. Andujar would win just 17 more major league games after leaving St. Louis. Ironically, Tony La Russa became his manager with 79 games remaining in the A’s 1986 schedule.

Cardinals fans can only hope that 2011 will turn out better than either the 1972 or 1986 seasons.

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Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2011 spring training

February 25, 2011 Brian Walton

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

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 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, 2010-11 off-season

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

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Gomes-Wainwright and anger displacement

February 24, 2011 Brian Walton

It is common across sports and society in general to play the blame game.

As St. Louis Cardinals fans know, just last week manager Tony La Russa tried to play off the Albert Pujols contract stalemate on pressure from the Players Union being applied to Pujols to seek top dollar on the open market. Considerable debate ensued as to whether the accusations were real or imagined.

Not only do officials do it, fans join in, too.

Wednesday was an especially bad day for members across the Cardinal Nation as the serious injury to Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright was announced. Thursday’s news confirmed the need for season-ending Tommy John surgery.

Some pointed an accusatory finger at the club’s oft-maligned medical staff for not addressing the problem earlier while others turned their anger on the opponent – specifically, the Cincinnati Reds’ Jonny Gomes.

A report from Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News had the veteran Cincy outfielder singing in the Reds clubhouse on Wednesday in apparent delight over Wainwright’s misfortune.

Another writer, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon, witnessed the same event, but offered a different perspective. Later Sheldon contacted Gomes by phone. The player said all the right things, including a denial of any malicious intent, but many suspicious Cardinals fans wrote it off as damage control, backtracking, spin to cut the heat.

This morning, McCoy was the one to backtrack. He said his “70-year-old ears” may have been “hearing things.” McCoy subsequently removed the offending passage from his original Wednesday post and offered his regrets for having written about it.

On Thursday, Gomes told ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick that he has “reached out” to the Cardinals to squash any potential bad feelings from the episode. Update: Gomes has also gone on local radio in St. Louis to explain.

Both managers earlier made politically-correct comments intended to diffuse the situation.

I can understand why Cardinals backers are unhappy about the Reds, stemming from last season’s comments from Brandon Phillips and especially the career-ending injury that Jason LaRue suffered at the cleats of Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto.

On the other hand, Cardinals fans have a well-deserved reputation for being knowledgeable and classy, showing respect for opponents. Overreaction to one writer’s disputed report would seem to go against that grain.

It is completely understandable to be upset over the Wainwright news, but it should probably be left at that.

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Cardinals rotation: 2012 question marks

February 23, 2011 Brian Walton

What was yesterday a strength for the St. Louis Cardinals, their rotation, has now become a source of concern.

With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, second-guessers are already noting that it would have been best for the Cardinals and Adam Wainwright if the pitcher had proceeded with ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction, otherwise known as Tommy John surgery, last fall.

The standard procedure in such cases is to try the rehab route first. That is what was chosen for what was diagnosed as a partial tear. Wainwright was optimistic coming into camp, but the reality is that his elbow didn’t last through two weeks of practice.

If Tommy John surgery is required, Wainwright would have missed the entire 2011 season either way, but October 2010 surgery would have given him an important five-month head start on his 12-month minimum rehab.

As it is, one would have to assume that Wainwright may not be fully ready to step back into a full workload in the rotation to begin the 2012 season.

From this come some interesting contract considerations. This winter, the Cardinals will have to decide what to do with Chris Carpenter’s $15 million option for the 2012 season, with the alternative of paying a $1 million buyout.

Would the club head into the Albert Pujols’ negotiations this fall and the 2012 campaign with neither of their co-aces on the mound? Do they believe they can they afford all three stars? Will that be viewed as enough?

Before the acquisition and re-signing of Matt Holliday, Pujols’ mantra was all about having a competitive team around him, and that it was not about the money. Might the Wainwright injury and future plans for Carpenter affect the Pujols negotiations? FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal is among those already fearing the worst.

Wainwright will make $6.5 million this season. Assuming TJS is in the offing, he will be on the disabled list the entire year. There is also a $21 million, two-year option in place for 2012 and 2013, with conditions. The options were triggered by Wainwright’s top five Cy Young Award finish last season, but hinge on him finishing 2011 off the disabled list. The possibility of the latter now seems out the window.

The timing of his surgery is probably irrelevant in the financial context, however. Given the high success rate from TJS, it seems likely the Cardinals will pick up the below-market value options on Wainwright’s 2012 and 2013 seasons.

The remainder of the rotation stacks up as follows.

Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse are under contract for 2012 and there is a mutual 2013 option for Westbrook as well. Jaime Garcia will remain under team control through 2014 before becoming eligible for free agency.

Of the big five, only Lohse will not be a TJS survivor assuming Wainwright proceeds as expected. Carpenter had the surgery in 2007 with Westbrook and Garcia having undergone the procedure the next year.

[poll id=”61″]

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Could Pujols’ situation end up like Jeter’s?

February 22, 2011 Brian Walton

At first blush, there seem few similarities between St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

One is a Dominican-born slugger with three Most Valuable Player Awards still in his prime playing years while the other is a US-raised owner of five World Series rings who is approaching the conclusion of a storied career.

There are several common threads, however. They are the acknowledged current on-field leaders of the two most storied franchises in the history of major league baseball as measured by World Series championships, 27 for New York and 10 for St. Louis.

Each is among the most admired men in the game off the field as well. For example, both are past winners of MLB’s Roberto Clemente Award, recognized for commitment to community and helping others.

Another similarity is that each has recently experienced difficulty getting a new contract in place with his only home as a major leaguer.

Heading into the final year of his previous deal in 2010, Jeter announced upon reporting to camp last February that he would not discuss his contract situation until after the season. He also made it clear he had no intention of wearing any uniform other than Yankee pinstripes. The club confirmed their standing policy of no in-season negotiations, as well.

After the season, the 36-year-old Jeter and the Yankees began a negotiation process that each said they wanted to keep private. Instead, it soon spilled into the papers and turned ugly. At one point, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman publicly encouraged his shortstop to search for a better deal elsewhere.

As expected, when all was said and done, there was not a higher offer. Jeter ultimately settled on a three-year, $51 million deal to remain with New York, but the Yankees took a lot of heat for the approach taken with their long-time team captain and feelings were hurt.

“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t angry about how some of this went,” Jeter said at a December press conference to announce his new contract.

Pujols’ current situation as of February 2011 looks much like Jeter’s did one year prior. Player and club are saying the right things about wanting to remain together until death do they part, but are deferring talks until the fall. That enables everyone to focus on the season at hand.

In hindsight, that approach didn’t work out as well as expected for the 2010 Yankees. While they made the playoffs, it was as a Wild Card. Some observers felt the club was unable to kick it into high gear when the post-season began. The defending World Champions lost to Texas in six games in the American League Championship Series.

Among those dissatisfied is Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, son of the late “Boss” George Steinbrenner. On Monday, Hank said the following, as reported by ESPN.

“I think, maybe, they celebrated too much last year,” Steinbrenner said. “Some of the players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problem saying that.”

The remark was a direct shot a Jeter, who was building a large multimillion-dollar home last year. Said to be almost 31,000 square feet, it is the largest residence in Tampa.

While the Yankees may have won the contract battle with Jeter, at what cost was it secured? Their cold war clearly continues on, long after the ink on the new contract has dried.

The Cardinals aren’t yet saying it the same way as the Yankees did with Jeter, but the one key outcome will be the same – Pujols testing his value via free agency.

No one knows exactly where the negotiations will head this fall. Unlike Jeter, Pujols is in the prime of his career and may be looking for a record haul. As such, there should be greater market interest, though the price may scare off some potential bidders.

This fall, St. Louis will likely be faced with a different problem than New York, having to decide whether or not to match a higher offer from another club. The Cardinals could force Pujols to choose between team loyalty and more cash elsewhere. That is the time when the words may start flying, even if a messy Pujols-Cardinals divorce is eventually averted.

Both sides should remain very careful. As the continuing Yankees-Jeter discord indicates, bad feelings can remain even after what appears to be a good outcome has been achieved.

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