Cardinals Minor League Spring Training Notebook: 03/26

Highlights from Friday’s St. Louis Cardinals minor league spring training games in Florida.

On Friday, the St. Louis Cardinals’ top four clubs once again faced each other as Memphis took on Springfield and Palm Beach opposed Quad Cities.

As always, Cardinals director of minor league operations John Vuch shares game highlights. The raw data is his, with the comments mine.

Kyle Conley (Names Around Town Photography)Team summary: Memphis missed getting their second win of the spring as they tied Springfield in a shortened, five-inning game. As they should, Palm Beach defeated Quad Cities in the other intersquad contest behind 2009 top draft pick Shelby Miller and a big day from a pair of outfielders.

Combined records: The Cardinals records on the day were 1-1-2. Spring totals are now 13-23-6 overall and 7-18-2 versus external competition.

My Pitcher of the Day: Palm Beach’s Justin Edwards tossed a pair of perfect innings and added a strikeout as well.

My Hitter of the Day: Palm Beach’s Kyle Conley (pictured) had a double, home run and four RBI.

Saturday’s schedule: The Cardinals’ five squads are “home” as their Marlins counterparts take the short walk over from their side of the Jupiter complex.

Memphis (1-6-2) and Springfield (3-3-3) tied 1-1, 5 innings

Memphis Pitching

Matt Meyer – 0 2 IP, 1H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K’s
Rich Rundles – struck out the side
Matt Scherer – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K’s
Casey Mulligan – one scoreless inning with two walks

Memphis Hitting

Shane Robinson – doubled and scored a run
Jim Rapoport – RBI single – Led the system with 71 walks last year, but his OBP of .358 did not crack the top ten.
Daniel Descalso – singled and walked in two plate appearances

Springfield Pitching

Blake King – two hitless innings with a walk and a strikeout – Will this be the year he puts it together?
Jason Buursma – 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s
Adam Reifer – one perfect inning – This is very important to see. It will be very interesting to see who closes for both Memphis and Springfield this season as there are a number of candidates. Surely Reifer is among them.

Springfield Hitting

Adron Chambers – walked twice and HBP in his three plate appearances
Matt Carpenter – solo home run – A sort of under-the-radar prospect was pushed in his first season at 24. Wouldn’t be the first to struggle a bit at Palm Beach only to rebound.

Palm Beach (3-5-1) defeated Quad Cities (4-5), 7-4

Palm Beach Pitching

Shelby Miller – 3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s – Touched by a solo home run. Other than that, he had what looks to be a good outing.
Justin Edwards – two perfect innings, 1 K – Allowed just one home run in 221 batters faced last season.
Pat Daugherty – 1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 K
Jason Novak – 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K

Palm Beach Hitting

Ryde Rodriguez – 3-for-4 with a run scored and RBI – Ryde, where have you been?
Kyle Conley – doubled, homered and had 4 RBIs – Ditto for you, Kyle. Great to see these two in the highlights. Conley was the organization’s Minor League Player of the Month last August.
Alex Castellanos – 2-for-4 with a run scored and RBI – Continues to appear in these reports almost daily
Frederick Parejo – 2-run HR – Still just 19 years old. Very young for this level.
Jose Garcia – singled, walked and scored two runs – An organizational favorite is another under-the-radar guy.
Xavier Scruggs – RBI single and was HBP
Rich Racobaldo – singled and walked and had an RBI
Luis De La Cruz and Jason Stidham – singled, walked and scored – Last season, De La Cruz had a major league camp invite and was selected to the New York-Penn League All-Star Game. The 20-year-old needs to stay healthy to restore his prospect luster at a position that needs standouts.

Quad Cities Pitching

Scott McGregor – 2.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s – Rough day for Scott.
Chris Notti – 3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K’s
LaCurtis Mayes – 1 IP, 1 H – A guy to watch, especially if he can continue to keep the walks under control.
Miguel Tapia – 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB

Quad Cities Hitting

Devin Shepherd – 2-run HR in his only AB
Niko Vasquez – solo HR (off Miller) – Former shortstop has seven minor league home runs in 704 career at-bats. Would be nice to see a third baseman with power.
Ted Obregon – singled in his only AB – Another shortstop to be considered among those at this position, deep at these levels.
Ivan Castro – 1-for-2 with a run scored

Releases and other news: On Friday, the  Cardinals announced their second group of minor league player releases for the spring. The most prominent of the ten now ex-Cardinals is former second-round draft pick Brad Furnish. The others are pitchers Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres, Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez and Yoffri Martinez along with outfielders Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez. The Cardinal Nation subscribers can read up on all ten players here.

In addition, after their day off changing clubhouses, Tyler Greene and Jon Jay should be appearing in the Memphis highlights later this weekend as the two were cut from the big club on Friday.

The Roster Matrix is up to date on all players, though team assignments will not be changed until the full-season rosters are finalized around April 4. 287 players are currently under contract.

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