On Thursday, the St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers had their first spring games against external competition – the Miami Marlins.
Springfield and Palm Beach were victorious. The Cardinals’ spring record against external minor league competition is 2-3.
Thursday’s Pitcher of the Day: Dixon Llorens of Palm Beach (pictured) fanned four in two innings. Not bad for a 25th round draft pick. In fact, not bad for anyone!
Thursday’s Player of the Day: Springfield first baseman David Medina made this selection a no-brainer with two home runs and five runs batted in.
As he has been doing the last few seasons, Cardinals farm director John Vuch is sharing game stats. As always, the raw numbers are his, but the comments and players of the day are mine.
The Cardinal Nation subscribers can check out the full minor league schedule, Thursday’s starting lineups with pitcher velocities and spring training working rosters. The entire system view by level and position is available via the Roster Matrix, right here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.
New Orleans 7, Memphis 6
| Memphis pitching | IP | H | ER | BB | K | Notes | Memphis hitting | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | Notes | |
| Scott McGregor | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Missed all of 2011 (Tommy John) | Tommy Pham | 1 | 1 | Says bad things come in 3s and he has had 3 | ||||||||
| Deryk Hooker | 2 | 0 | 3 | Career walk rate = 3 / 9 innings | Chris Swauger | 1 | |||||||||||
| Justin Wright | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Brock Peterson | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sac fly, two-run home run | |||||||
| Aidan Lucas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Xavier Scruggs | 1 | 1 | Infield single still counts | |||||||||
| Kevin Thomas | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4th fewest baserunners/9 IP in TL in 2012 | Jermaine Curtis | 2 | 1 | Batted over .300 in 2011 and 2012 | ||||||||
| Heath Wyatt | 1 | 4 | 1 | Grand slam allowed | Starlin Rodriguez | 1 | Started spring in big league camp | ||||||||||
| Chris Edmondson | 1 | 1 | Also lined out to end game with tying run on 2B |
Springfield 12, Jacksonville 7
| Springfield pitching | IP | H | ER | BB | K | Notes | Springfield hitting | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | Notes | |
| Seth Blair | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Getting back on prospect radar | Adam Melker | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Ryan Sherriff | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 UER, 10 wins in 2012 was 4th in system | Patrick Wisdom | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9th in system with .837 OPS in 2012 | ||||||
| Corey Baker | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Stephen Piscotty | 3 | 1 | Hard-hit single | |||||||||
| Iden Nazario | 1.2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Best reliever OBA in FSL at .188 last year | James Ramsey | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Willy Paulino | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Luis Mateo | 1 | ||||||||||
| Travis Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | David Medina | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | Player of the Day – simple as that | ||||||
| Michael Swinson | 4 | 3 | 1 | Has all the talent, but yet to put it together | |||||||||||||
| Casey Rasmus | 3 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Nick Longmire | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Line drive long ball | |||||||||||
| Danny Stienstra | 3 | 2 | .345 BA last season was 2nd in the system | ||||||||||||||
| Anthony Garcia | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Tyler Rahmatulla | 1 | 2 | <1 BB/10 plate appearances as a professional | ||||||||||||||
| Neal Pritchard | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Palm Beach 3, Jupiter 0
| Palm Beach pitching | IP | H | ER | BB | K | Notes | Palm Beach hitting | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | Notes | |
| Tim Cooney | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Threw a lot of pitches in 1st inning | Breyvic Valera | 1 | 1 | NY-Penn League All-Star in 2012 | |||||||
| Kyle Hald | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 136.2 IP last season was T6th in system | Ildemaro Vargas | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Jonathan Cornelius | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Carson Kelly | 0 | 1 | 1 | RBI on 6-3 ground out | |||||||
| Dixon Llorens | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | Submariner had highest K/9 IP rate in 2012 | Jordan Walton | 1 | ||||||||||
| Yunior Castillo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Converted shortstop now reliever | Cesar Valera | 1 | |||||||||
| Roberto De La Cruz | 2 | 2 | 1 | Moved to LF after starting game as DH | |||||||||||||
| Jacob Wilson | 1 | 1 | 1 | Double stroked deep into LF corner | |||||||||||||
| Jeremy Schaffer | 1 | 1 | RBI single past 3B, but also GIDP |
Greensboro 4, Peoria1 2
| Peoria 1 pitching | IP | H | ER | BB | K | Notes | Peoria 1 hitting | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | Notes | |
| Tyrell Jenkins | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Heavy reliance on fastball early on | Charlie Tilson | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | What injury? Looking strong. | ||||||
| Hector Hernandez | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | Allowed two UER, curve and change good | Bruce Caldwell | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Jhonny Polanco | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Trevor Martin | 1 | |||||||||||
| Chris Perry | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Leandro Mateo | 1 | ||||||||||
| Ronnie Shaban | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 16 saves in 2012 was 3rd in system | David Washington | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7th in system with .842 OPS last season |
Marlins #5 team 6, Peoria2 0
(Peoria2 managed just four hits)
| Peoria 2 pitching | IP | H | ER | BB | K | Notes | Peoria 2 hitting | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | Notes | |
| Hansel De Los Santos | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Brett Wiley | 1 | ||||||||||
| Joey Donofrio | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Finished 2012 with 14 straight scoreless IP | Johan Acevedo | 1 | |||||||||
| Thomas Lee | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Rafael Medina | 1 | ||||||||||
| Anderson Gerdel | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Only 3 BB in 25 2/3 IP last season | Joshua Lopez | 1 | |||||||||
| Josh Renfro | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
On Friday, Memphis and Springfield will remain in Jupiter, while Palm Beach and Peoria take the bus ride to Port St. Lucie, with the Mets their opponent as well.
Subscribers to the main site, TheCardinalNation.com, should continue to check out my extensive spring training content over the upcoming days.
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