Cardinals minor league spring training notebook: 03/23/13

On Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals top four clubs walked over to the Miami Marlins’ side of the Jupiter complex for game action. The fifth clubs from each organization met on one of the Cardinals’ diamonds.

Four wins in five tries represents the Cardinals’ best showing in 10 days so far this spring. All of the highest level clubs outscored their opposition, despite Palm Beach and Peoria yielding a total of five unearned runs. Peoria 2 was shaded by a lone run. The Cardinals’ spring record against external minor league competition is now 12-14-6.

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.

Saturday’s Player of the Day: Springfield’s Xavier Scruggs (pictured) not only plated a day-high four runs, but the big first baseman also legged out both a double and a triple.

Saturday’s Pitcher of the Day: After a full college season at the University of Arizona, Kurt Heyer only pitched six innings last season after being taken in the sixth round of the 2012 draft. In four scoreless innings Saturday for Peoria 1, the 22-year-old right-hander allowed just two hits and fanned five.

The Cardinal Nation subscribers can check out the newest spring training working rosters posted Thursday, the full minor league spring schedule and more.

The entire system view by level and position as last season ended is available via the Roster Matrix, free, right here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.

Memphis (6-3-1) 5, New Orleans 2

Memphis pitching IP H ER BB K Notes Memphis hitting AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB Notes
Tyler Lyons 3 5 2 3 Lefty just down from big league camp this week Brock Peterson 4 2 2 3 2 Two long balls are usually Player of Day worthy
Victor Marte 2 1 1 Pitching much better away from limelight and MLB hitters Jamie Romak 4 2 Has appeared in two StL games this spring
Justin Wright 2 1 Colin Walsh 4 1 2 1 1 6th in system with 16 home runs last season
Eduardo Sanchez 2 2 No walks = good performance Jake Lemmerman 2 1 1 1 Joined organization in Skip Schumaker trade
Geoff Klein 2 1 1 1 Haven’t seen the Aussie winter ball C here lately
Ryan Jackson 2 1 1 Getting hits each day
Tommy Pham 1

Springfield (3-4-3) 12, Jacksonville 7

Springfield pitching IP H ER BB K Notes Springfield hitting AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB Notes
Boone Whiting 2.2 2 0 3 Only 34 walks in 208 2/3 career innings Xavier Scruggs 4 2 2 4 1 1 Power and speed make a lethal combination!
Travis Miller 2 0 3 Patrick Wisdom 4 2 2 2 2 More MLB games this spring than some invitees
Kevin Thomas 1.2 4 4 3 4 Plus one unearned run Nick Longmire 4 3 2 1 Would like to have a rebound year
Iden Nazario 2 2 0 1 Plus two unearned runs Stephen Piscotty 1 1
Neal Pritchard 1 1 Also HBP in other plate appearance
Luis Mateo 2 1 1 1
Matt Williams 1 1 1 1
Nick Martini 3 1 2 2 128 hits last season tied for 6th-most in system
Danny Stienstra 1 1

Palm Beach (5-2-3) 7, Jupiter 5

Palm Beach pitching IP H ER BB K Notes Palm Beach hitting AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB Notes
Dail Villanueva 2.1 7 3 1 Plus one unearned run Carson Kelly 3 2 3 1 Continues to hit for average this spring – encouraging
Lee Stoppelman 2 2 0 1 4 Continues a nice spring Matt Young 4 2 3 3 1 Most exciting play in baseball – inside the park HR
Jonathan Cornelius 2 2 0 1 Plus one unearned run Adam Ehrlich 4 3 2 Catcher continues to show a nice bat
Heath Wyatt 2 1 0 1 Steven Ramos 4 1 2 1 Had 12 doubles each of last two seasons
Jacob Wilson 4 1 2 1 7 doubles in 160 ABs for Batavia last summer
Breyvic Valera 1 1 1

Peoria1 (2-7-1) 3, Greensboro 1

Peoria 1 pitching IP H ER BB K Notes Peoria 1 hitting AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB Notes
Kurt Heyer 4 2 0 5 Our Pitcher of the Day Anthony Melchionda 5 2 2 1 Thursday Player of the Day keeps hitting
Hansel De Los Santos 3 2 0 4.57 ERA over 8 GCL starts in 2012 Adam Lewis 2 1 1
Willy Paulino 1.2 3 1 1 Lance Jeffries 1 1 Also hit-by-pitch and stole two bases
Michael Swinson 1 1
David Washington 1 Cooling down a bit

Marlins team5 5, Peoria2 (1-3) 4

Peoria 2 pitching IP H ER BB K Notes Peoria 2 hitting AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB Notes
Nick Greenwood 3 2 3 Down from Memphis for the outing Rafael Medina 4 1 2 1 2 1 17 doubles in 429 career at-bats
Jacob Booden 2 2 Fanned 29 in 28 2/3 IP at JC last season Amaury Capellan 4 2 1 Dropped from .305 in DSL to .233 in GCL
Steve Sabatino 1.1 5 5 2 2 Very rough day Jose Godoy 3 1 2 2 1 First appearance in this report this spring
Dixon Llorens 2 2 1 Brett Wiley 1 1 1 1
Jhohan Acevedo 1 1

On Sunday, the Cardinals’ Memphis and Springfield clubs will remain in Jupiter, while Palm Beach and Peoria again take the bus ride to Port St. Lucie, with the New York 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.

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