Tag Archives: Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals in Rookie Academy Level – 2005-2019

May 22, 2020 Brian Walton

The St. Louis Cardinals were relatively late to enter the international market, starting in 2005. Recapping 15 years of play in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, highlighting the best teams and players.

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Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010-11 off-season

November 19, 2010 Brian Walton

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2010-11 off-season actions and should be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering 2011 spring training, click here.

The St. Louis Cardinals full system roster view reflects changes made during the entire 2010-11 off-season.

matrix-grid-crop-200 With the hot stove season upon us, it is once again time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made from the end of the 2010 regular season. The previous matrix reflects the rosters at the conclusion of last season.

If you are new to the blog and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

As the 2010 season came to its close, the St. Louis Cardinals had 320 players under contract from top to bottom, with 43 of them on the 40-man roster. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system based on his assignment 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 on the 40-man roster 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 320 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 ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

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
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’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

2010-2011 off-season transactions

10/4: New matrix. Organization total 320.

10/5: 14 releases: RHP Trey Hearne (Spr), OF Rich Racobaldo and IF Colt Sedbrook (PB), RHR LaCurtis Mayes and RHR Chris Notti (QC), OF Jon Edwards, RHP Matt North, RHR Travis Lawler, RHR David Kington (Bat), C Yorbel Alcala, LHS Moises Colorado, OF Anthony Fonseca, OF Alberto Rivero, OF Joe Babrick (GCL). New total 306.

10/6: Mem LHS Evan MacLane declared free agency. New total 305.

10/12: OF Shane Robinson outrighted to Mem.

10/13: RHP Bryan Augenstein claimed off waivers from Arizona. New total 306.

10/21: VSL releases: Marlon Sucre, Hayrich Martina, Lainer Bueno, Tharick Martines and Limbert Rivas. DSL releases: Jorge Lopez, Luis Polanco, Victor Ferreira and Christian Concepcion. New total 297.

11/1: Nine MLB free agents: Ps Brad Penny, Jake Westbrook, Jeff Suppan, Dennys Reyes, Mike MacDougal, C Jason LaRue, IFs Aaron Miles and Pedro Feliz and OF Randy Winn. New total 288.

11/3: OF Joe Mather (STL) claimed off waivers by ATL. New total 287.

11/4: C Matt Pagnozzi outrighted. Eligible for minor league free agency. New total 286.

11/6: Five minor league free agents: P’s Oneli Perez, Rich Rundles, Josh Kinney and Matt Scherer and IF Ruben Gotay. New total 281.

11/16: Free agent RHS Jake Westbrook signs 2-year deal with 3rd year option. New total 282.

11/17: Five players added to the 40-man roster: Ps David Kopp, Adam Reifer, Eduardo Sanchez, SS Pete Kozma and OF Adron Chambers.

11/19: Two players added to the 40-man roster: P Blake King, C Tony Cruz. Four players outrighted (off 40-man): P Adam Ottavino, C Steven Hill, OFs Nick Stavinoha and Daryl Jones.

11/23: LHP Raul Valdes signed to minor league contract with MLB spring training invite. New total 283.

11/30: IF Ryan Theriot acquired from LAD for P Blake Hawksworth. Signed FA LHP Brian Tallet. New total 284.

12/4: FA OF/1B Lance Berkman signed. New total 285.

12/9: Washington selects RHP Brian Broderick (Spr) in Rule 5 Draft. StL selects LHP Jean Mijares from Min.

12/12: Seattle acquires SS Brendan Ryan for RHP Mikael Cleto. Both on 40-man. Cleto to Spr for this document.

12/14: StL signs FA C Gerald Laird. New total 286.

01/14: FA RHPs Miguel Batista, Ian Snell sign minor league deals with spring camp invites. New total 288.

01/15: FA IF Ramon Vazquez signed to minor league contract with spring camp invite. New total 289.

01/16: FA IF/OF Freddie Bynum signed to minors deal. New total 290.

01/21: FA IF Nick Punto signed to major league contract. New total 291.

01/24: FA LHR Rich Rundles signed to minors deal. New total 292.

01/28: FA IF Ronald Ramirez signed to minors deal and assigned to Springfield. New total 293.

2/3: FA RHR Wilson Matos signed to minors deal and assigned to QC. New total 294.

2/4: FA OF Jim Edmonds signed to minors deal with spring camp invite. New total 295.

2/8: Dominican RHP Fernando Gonzalez signed. New total 296.

2/10: Dominican OF George Araujo and Venezuelan SS Leobaldo Pina signed. New total 298.

2/12: VSL LHP Angelo Echeverria released. DSL RHP Luis Mata and OF Andres Beras released. New total 295.

2/18: OF Jim Edmonds retired. New total 294.

2/23: VSL RHPs Kevin Cueto, Geudy Guerra, Jose Perez, Edubray Ramos and SS Kevin Gonzalez released. New total 289.

2/24: LHP John Gast and RHP Scott McGregor given NRIs to MLB spring camp.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 02/24/11)

* 21 non-roster major league camp invitees
+ 19 early minor league camp invitees

St. Louis (29)	40-man (40)
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	Berkman
Westbrook	Boggs	Laird					Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Tallet (L)						Craig
Walters	T Miller (L)
	Salas



Memphis (22+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn *	Fick	T Cruz		R Vazquez *	Bynum	Solano *	Chambers
Augenstein	Sanchez	S Hill *					Cazana *
Dickson *	Samuel						Rapoport
Ottavino *	Parise (DL)						Robinson (DL) *
Valdes (L) *	Norrick (L)						Stavinoha *
Snell *	Reifer
	Batista *
	Rundles (L)


Springfield (25+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L)	Delgado	Derba *	C Smith (DL)	Jo Martinez1(DL GCL)	Kozma	Curtis	Ant. DeJesus
Kopp	Eager	L DeLaCruz +	A Brown	Jo Garcia	Ramirez	M Carpenter *	Swauger
Thomas *	King	Cutler (DL)	Scruggs				Jones
Kulik (L DL)	S Freeman (L DL)						Pham (DL) +
Mijares (L)	Frevert						Henley (DL)
McGregor *	Buursma						Luna +
Gorgen
Cleto






Palm Beach (20+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Schneider	Mulligan	Espinoza	Rivera (DL)	R Jackson +	Bolivar	N Vasquez	A Castellanos +
G Brown (L)	Bradford	P Vasquez (RL)					Beatty
Diapoules (DL)	Rauschenberger						R Rodriguez
Nieto	Simpson						Bogany
Ri Castillo	M Tapia (DL)						Ingram
Zawacki	Pichardo
Bittle (DL)
Hooker



Quad Cities (26+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Rondon	Novak (DL)	Stock *	Adams (DL) +	L Mateo +		Ahmady	Lara
Fornataro	Calhoun (L)	Castro		Goodwin			R Smith
Bibona (L)	J Smith	Stanley +		Stidham (DL)			Swinson
Kelly *	Corrigan			Obregon			R Rosario
S Miller *	Rada			Walsh			Parejo
Cardenas (L DL)	Terry						Conley (DL)
	Blazek
	Kiekhefer (L DL)
	Greenwood (L)
	Matos

Batavia (25+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ju Edwards (L)	Butler	Klein	V Sanchez	Bergman	Y Castillo	J Rodriguez	Biserta
Moss	Avendano	J Castillo		Valaika			O’Neill
Gast (L) *	Swagerty +	A Perez *					Edmondson
Russell	Wright (L) +						Longmire +
Blair +	Reid +						Melker (DL)
A Ferrara (L) +	Squatrito (DL)
McCully	Summers
	Lyons (L DL)



Johnson City (33+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Copeland (L)	Benes	Tartamella	D Medina	S Rodriguez	Elkins	Cerreto	V Hill
H Hernamdez (L)	Corpas	Teran +			G Garcia	R DeLaCruz	S Ramos
Ang. De Jesus	Guzman	A Garcia			R Ruiz		Williams
Daugherty (L)	A Lucas				C Valera		Taveras +
C Johnson	Nazario (L)						Rbto Reyes
Jimenez
Rosenthal +	Revesz (L)
Nadeau (L)	Patterson (RL)
Whiting
Siegrist (L)
Jenkins +

Unassigned (1)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)

GCL (26)
P	2010 P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
B Martinez	B Freeman (L)	Montero	Pimentel	W Perez	Tuivailala	Cox	Bryant
A Castillo	Aguilar	Moscatel	Washington	Vargas	Martin	H Garcia	Dodd
Pasen	J Lucas			Vivas
Santana	Mendoza
Uribe (L)	M DeLaCruz (L)
	Brand
	R Martinez
	Nuernberg


DSL (28+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez		Rblys Reyes	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Araujo
Paulino	A Gonzalez	L Perez			R Medina		Capellan
C Martinez +	A Toribio				Barbuena		Celestino
S Lopez	Ceballo				Agustin		Encarnacion
F Gonzalez	Bautista						J Pena
	D Rodriguez (L RL)						Ro Castillo
	DeLeon						D Diaz
	DeLosSantos
	E Hiraldo
	Estalis
	JC DeLaCruz (RL)

	Segundo
	P Pena (L RL)
	Rudecindo (RL)



VSL (22+2)
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 DL)
Ulacio	Escudero
Oraa (DL)	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: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) 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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Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010 short season

June 22, 2010 Brian Walton

NOTE: This version of the roster matrix is no longer current. It reflects the 2010 season-ending organization and should be considered a historical reference document. For the active roster matrix covering the 2010-11 off-season, click here.

With the final opening day among the St. Louis Cardinals’ ten clubs on Tuesday, June 22, as the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League take the field, it is once again time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made through the end of the season. I plan to refresh the entire matrix at that time as we head into another off-season.

matrix-grid-crop-200 If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 321 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated daily 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. Roster rotation order and tandem assignments are noted when applicable.

The players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold. The round each signed 2010-drafted player was selected is listed following his name.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 321 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated for 2010 now at The Cardinal Nation / 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 ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

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
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, 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

Transactions

6/22: New matrix. Total 321.

6/24: RHP Trey Hearne off Mem DL to PB. RHP Pete Parise to Mem DL. RHP Eduardo Sanchez from Spr to Mem. LHP Tyler Norrick from PB to Spr. RHP Matt Frevert to PB DL. RHP Miguel Tapia off QC DL to PB. IF Luis Mateo off QC DL.

6/25: OF D’Marcus Ingram off QC DL. RHP Adam Ottavino from Mem to StL. RP Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. OF Mark Shorey off Mem DL. RHP David Kopp from Mem to Spr.

6/26: RHP David Kopp from Spr to Mem. LHR Rich Hill released from Mem. LHP Angelo Echeverria off VSL DL. New total 320.

6/28: OF D’Marcus Ingram from QC to PB. RHP Mike Blazek from PB to QC. RHP Mark Diapoules from Spr to PB. OF Rich Racobaldo onto PB DL. SS Kevin G0nzalez signed, assigned to VSL. New total 321.

6/29: 3B David Freese onto StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. 2B Jason Stidham to QC DL. LHP Dean Kiekhefer from JC to QC. RHP Charllan Jimenez from GCL to JC. RHP Juan Bautista signed to DSL. New total 322.

6/30: OF Steven Ramos from JC to GCL. OF Oscar Taveras from GCL to JC. 2B Daniel Descalso to Mem DL.

7/1: OF Tyler Henley to Spr DL. IF/OF Andrew Brown off Spr DL. RHP Mark Diapoules to PB DL. RHP Cory Rauschenberger signed and sent to PB. New total 323.

7/2: RP Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. SS Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. IF Mike Folli from Spr to Mem. RP Josh Kinney outrighted off 40-man. LHP Renyel Pinto signed, assigned to Mem. New total 324.

7/3: OF Ryan Ludwick to StL DL. OF Jon Jay from Mem to StL. OF Aaron Luna from Spr to Mem. IF Jermaine Curtis and OF Tommy Pham from PB to Spr. C Luis De La Cruz from Bat to PB. 3B Nkio Vasquez from QC to PB. IF Alan Ahmady from Bat to QC. C Roberto Espinoza off QC DL to Bat. 2B Colin Walsh from JC to Bat. OF Corderius Dodd (17th round) signed, assigned to GCL. New total 325.

7/4: C Robert Stock onto QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza returned to QC from Bat.

7/6: RHP Dyllon Nuernberg (23rd round) signed; assigned to GCL. New total 326.

7/7: OF Michael Swinson onto QC DL. OF Ross Smith from Bat to QC. RHP Adam Ottavino to StL DL. LHP Evan MacLane from Mem to StL. RHP Mike MacDougal signed, added to Mem. New total 327.

7/8: RHP Trey Hearne from PB to Spr. LHP John Gast (6th round) signed and assigned to Bat. New total 328.

7/10: RHP Matt Frevert off PB DL.

7/11: RHP Andrew Moye (50th round) did not sign. New total 327.

7/14: C Robert Stock off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza from QC to Bat.

7/15: OF Nick Stavinoha onto StL DL. OF ALlen Craig from Mem to StL. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. RP Andrew Brown onto Mem DL. OF Adron Chambers from Spr to Mem. OF Chris Swauger from PB to Spr.

7/16: OF Rich Racobaldo off PB DL. IF Manuel Marquez (DSL) released. New total 326.

7/18: LHP Evan MacLane from StL to Mem. RHP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. LHP Daniel Bibona (8th round) signed, sent to QC. New total 327.

7/19: RHP David Kopp from Mem to Spr. LHP Ryan Kulik from Spr to Mem.

7/20: RHP Bryan Martinez from DSL to GCL. OFs Tyler Bighames (GSL) and Devin Shepherd (PB) released. New total 325.

7/21: IF Ryan Jackson, OF Ryde Rodriguez from QC to PB. IF Ted Obregon from PB to QC. IF Oliver Marmol released from PB. OF Rainel Rosario from Bat to QC. New total 324.

7/22: P Gary Daley released from Spr. P Arquimedes Nieto from PB to Spr. LHP Kevin Siegrist from Bat to JC. RHP Deryk Hooker from QC to PB. New total 323.

7/23: RHP P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. RHP Shaun Garceau (Spr) and OF Joey Hage (JC) released. New total 321.

7/24: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. OF Ryan Ludwick off StL DL OF Mark Shorey released (Mem). New total 320.

7/25: C Roberto Espinoza from Bat to QC. LHP Anthony Ferrara to Bat 60-day DL. LHP Tyler Lyons (9th) signed, assigned to Bat. New total 321.

7/26: RHP Casey Mulligan off Spr DL to PB. 1B Xavier Scruggs from PB to Spr. 1B Curt Smith to Spr DL. Mem OF Adron Chambers to Temp Inactive List. OF Amaury Cazana to Mem.

7/27: LHS Evan MacLane onto Mem DL. 2B Daniel Descalso off Mem DL.

7/28: RHR Mike MacDougal from Mem to StL (added to 40-man). RHR Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. OF Aaron Luna from Mem to Spr. OF Adron Chambers off Mem TI list.

7/29: IF Jermaine Curtis from Spr to PB. C Ivan Castro to QC DL.

7/30: RHP Seth Blair (rd 1s) signs and sent to Bat. New total 322.

7/31: RHP Jake Westbrook (StL) and LHP Nick Greenwood (QC) acquired. OF Ryan Ludwick (StL) traded. RHP Brad Penny moved to 60-day DL. RHP Miguel Tapia to PB DL. LHP Daniel Bibona active at QC. RHP Jason Novak onto QC DL. C Ivan Castro off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza from QC to Bat.

8/1: SS Tyler Greene to StL DL. C Juan Castillo from JC to Bat.

8/2: LHS Nate Robertson signed, assigned to Mem. New total 324.

8/3: IF Mike Folli traded to Tampa Bay. OF Allen Craig Mem to StL. OF Nick Stavinoha StL to Mem. New total 323.

8/4: RP Jason Motte to StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. IF Alan Ahmady to QC DL. IF Colin Walsh from Bat to QC. LHP Tyler Lyons to Bat 60-day DL. OF Chris Edmondson from JC to Bat. RHR Francisco Samuel from Spr to Mem. RHR Ramon Delgado from PB to Spr. Spr P Kyle Mura released. DSL P Jefferson Segundo off RL. New total 322.

8/5: RP Jesse Simpson from QC to PB. RP Jose Rada from Bat to QC. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to Bat.

8/8: C Tony Cruz to Spr DL. C Charles Cutler from PB to Spr. C Kevin Moscatel from GCL to PB. IF Wilfred Vivas off GCL DL.

8/10: JC RHR Chris Patterson retired. New total 321.

8/11: RHS Jeff Suppan onto StL DL. C Steven Hill onto 40-man, to StL from Spr. C Luis De La Cruz from Bat to PB. C Nick Derba from PB to Spr. Bat Cs Audry Perez and Geoff Klein to the DL. LHP Justin Wright (47th) signs, assigned to Bat. New total 322.

8/13: C Jason LaRue to StL DL. OF Nick Stavinoha from Mem to StL. LHP Dean Kiekhefer to QC DL. RHP Tyrell Jenkins (1s) signs, assigned to JC. New total 323.

8/15: RHP Kyle Lohse off 60-day DL, activated by StL. RHR Fernando Salas from StL to Mem. 3B David Freese from 15- to 60-day DL. RHR LaCurtis Mayes from Bat to QC.

8/16: OF Tommy Pham onto Spr DL. 3B Zack Cox (1st round) signed, assigned to GCL. RHP Jordan Swagerty (2nd round) signed, assigned to Bat. New total 325.

8/17: LHS Evan MacLane off Mem DL. C Steven Hill StL to Mem. C Bryan Anderson Mem to StL. SS Tyler Greene off StL DL to Mem. RHP Adam Ottavino from StL 15-day DL to 60-day DL. Mem 1B Mark Hamilton to TI list. Mem RP Matt Scherer to PB (rehab?). IF Jermaine Curtis from PB to Spr.

8/18: OF C.J. Beatty from QC to PB. OF Ross Smith to QC DL. OF Michael Swinson, IF Alan Ahmady off QC DL. RHP Chris Notti suspended. RHP Chris Corrigan from Bat to QC.

8/19: 3B Pedro Feliz from Houston in return for PB RHR David Carpenter. C Jason LaRue from 15 to 60-day DL. RHR Andrew Brown released from Mem. OF Adron Chambers onto Mem DL. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem TI. Cs Geoff Klein and Audry Perez off Bat DL. New total 324.

8/20: OF Nick Stavinoha from StL to Mem.

8/21: Mem LHR Renyel Pinto released. New total 323.

8/22: Spr IF Jose Martinez begins rehab at GCL. C Roberto Espinoza from Bat to PB.

8/23: LHR Nate Robertson released. RHR Matt Scherer returned to Mem from PB rehab. New total 322.

8/24: LHR Dennys Reyes to StL DL. RHR Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. RHS Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB.

8/25: RHP Scott Gorgen off Spr DL. LHR Tyler Norrick from Spr to Mem.

8/26: OF Adron Chambers off Mem DL. IF Donovan Solano onto Mem DL. C Kevin Moscatel from PB to GCL. LHP George Brown off PB DL. OF Anthony Garcia, 2B Starlin Rodriguez and 3B Roberto De La Cruz from GCL to JC. LHP Anthony Ferrara off Bat DL.

8/27: OF Ross Smith off QC DL to Bat.

8/30: RHR Jason Motte off StL DL. OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. C Tony Cruz off Spr DL. C Nick Derba onto Spr temp inactive list. OF Steven Ramos from GCL to JC. DSL LHP Delvi Rodriguez and RHP Jean Carlos De La Cruz suspended 50 games for failed drug tests.

8/31: RHP Javier Avendano from GCL to Bat.

9/1: LHR Dennys Reyes, RHS Jeff Suppan off StL DL. OF Nick Stavinoha, C Matt Pagnozzi Mem to StL. C Tony Cruz Spr to Mem. C Nick Derba off Spr TI. OF Ross Smith from Bat to QC. 1B Matt Adams onto QC DL.

9/3: C Charles Cutler to Spr DL. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to Spr. C Geoff Klein from Bat to PB.

9/4: IF Kevin Howard onto Memphis suspended list. IF Donovan Solano off Mem DL.

9/5: RHR LaCurtis Mayes onto QC DL. C Cody Stanley from JC to QC.

9/6: C Geoff Klein from PB to Bat. RHR Adam Reifer from Spr to Mem. OF Adam Melker onto Bat DL (sometime between August 25-31).

9/7: IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. Mem IF Kevin Howard released. New total 321.

9/8: RHPs Kevin Thomas and Matt Frevert from PB to Spr. LHP Ryan Kulik onto Spr DL.

9/18: RHP P.J. Walters, 1B Mark Hamilton, OF Allen Craig, OF Joe Mather from Mem to StL. 2B Daniel Descalso from Mem to StL and added to 40-man roster. LHP Evan MacLane designated for assignment (off 40-man roster).

9/21: IF Felipe Lopez released. New total 320.

9/24: C Steven Hill from Mem to StL.

9/28: Name change – DSL P Carlos Matias to Carlos Martinez.

9/29: RHP Adam Ottavino off 60-day DL.

9/30: VSL SS Lainer Bueno suspended for first 30 games of 2011 for PED use.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (as of 09/30/10)

St. Louis (36+3)	40-man (40+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	Molina	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese (60 DL)	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	T Greene	Feliz	Stavinoha
Westbrook	Boggs	S Hill		Miles			Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte	LaRue (60 DL)					Jay
Ja Garcia (L)	Ottavino	Pagnozzi					Craig
Walters	T Miller (L)						Winn
Suppan	Salas						Mather
Penny (60 DL)	Hawksworth
	MacDougal
	Reyes (L)
Memphis (18+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 4	Fick	T Cruz		Gotay		Solano	Chambers
	Kinney						Rapoport
Dickson 3	Samuel						Cazana
MacLane (L)	Parise (DL)						Robinson (DL)
O Perez 5	Rundles (L)
	Sanchez
	Scherer
	Norrick (L)
	Reifer

Springfield (24+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Delgado	Derba	C Smith (DL)	Jo Martinez1(DL GCL)	Kozma	Curtis	Ant. DeJesus
Kopp 3	Eager	L DeLaCruz	A Brown1	Jo Garcia		M Carpenter	Swauger
Thomas	King	Cutler (DL)	Scruggs				Jones
Kulik (L DL)	S Freeman (L DL)						Pham (DL)
	Frevert						Henley (DL)
	Hearne						Luna
Broderick 4	Gorgen
McGregor 1	Buursma






Palm Beach (22+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Schneider 4	Mulligan	Espinoza	Rivera (DL)	R Jackson	Bolivar	N Vasquez	A Castellanos
G Brown (L)	Bradford	P Vasquez (RL)		Sedbrook			Beatty
Diapoules (DL)							R Rodriguez
	Simpson						Bogany
Ri Castillo 1							Ingram
Zawacki 2	Pichardo						Racobaldo
Bittle (DL)
Hooker 5	M Tapia (DL)
Nieto	Rauschenberger


Quad Cities (27+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Rondon 2	Novak (DL)	Stock	Adams (DL)	L Mateo		Ahmady	Lara
Fornataro 1	Calhoun (L)	Castro		Goodwin			R Smith
	J Smith	Stanley (4th)		Stidham (DL)			Swinson
Kelly 4	Mayes			Obregon			R Rosario
S Miller 5	Rada			Walsh (13th)
Cardenas (L DL)	Terry						Parejo
Bibona (L 8th) 3	Blazek						Conley (DL)
	Kiekhefer (L DL 36)
	Notti
	Corrigan
	Greenwood (L)
Batavia (29+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ju Edwards (L) 1	Butler	Klein (15th)	J Rodriguez	Bergman (33rd)	Y Castillo		Biserta (24th)
Moss 5	North	J Castillo	V Sanchez (26th)	Valaika (34th)			Jo Edwards
Gast (L 6th) 3	Swagerty (2nd)	A Perez					Edmondson (43rd)
	Wright (L 47th)						Longmire (5th)
	Lawler						Melker (44th DL)
A Ferrara (L)	Squatrito (DL)						O’Neill (31st)
McCully 4	Summers
Russell 2	Kington
Blair (1s)	Lyons (L 9th 60DL))
	Reid (41st)
	Avendano
Johnson City (33+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Copeland (L 32) T1	Benes (35th)	Tartamella	D Medina	S Rodriguez	Elkins (37th)	Cerreto (40th)	A Garcia
H Hernamdez (L) T1	Corpas				G Garcia (7th)	Teran	S Ramos (22nd)
Ang. De Jesus T2	Guzman				R Ruiz	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Daugherty (L) T2	A Lucas (27th)				C Valera		Taveras
C Johnson 3	Nazario (L 30th)						Rbto Reyes
Jimenez T4	Jenkins (1s)						Williams (10th)
Rosenthal	Revesz (L 49th)
Nadeau (L 38) T5	Patterson (RL 29th)
Whiting (18th) T5
Siegrist (L) T4

Unassigned (1)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M Harris (MIL)


GCL (31)
P	2010 P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	B Freeman (L 11)	Alcala	Pimentel	W Perez	Tuivailala (3rd)		Bryant (16th)
A Castillo	Aguilar (14th)	Moscatel	Washington	Vargas	Martin (20th)	H Garcia	Fonseca
	J Lucas (21st)	Montero		Vivas		Cox (1st)	Rivero
B Martinez	Mendoza (25th)						Babrick
Pasen	M DeLaCruz (L)
Santana	Brand (42nd)						Dodd (17th)
	R Martinez (FA)
Uribe (L)	Nuernberg (23rd)
	Colorado (L)

DSL (32+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia 2	A DeLaCruz (L)	Baez	V Ferreira	Rblys Reyes	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Beras
	A Gonzalez	L Perez		J Lopez	R Medina		Capellan
C Martinez 1	A Toribio				Barbuena		Celestino
S Lopez 3	Ceballo				Agustin		Encarnacion
Paulino 5	L Polanco						J Pena
	D Rodriguez (L RL)						Ro Castillo
	DeLeon						D Diaz
	DeLosSantos
	E Hiraldo
	Estalis
	JC DeLaCruz (RL)
	L Mata
	Concepcion
	P Pena (L RL)
	Rudecindo (RL)
	Segundo
	Bautista

VSL (32+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Garcia 5	Almeida	Rivas		B Valera	Bueno	H Martina	Acevedo
Bier 1	Canache	J Gomez				R Garcia	Argenal
Montanez 2	Cueto	Velazco			K Gonzalez		Jo Martinez2
Villanueva (L) 4	De Aguas (L DL)						Sucre
Ulacio 3	E Ramos						Martines
	Echeverria (L)
	Escudero
	Gerdel
	Guerra
Oraa (DL)	I Brito
	J Perez
	Jh Polanco
	Planchart
	Solarte
	Villegas

Codes
(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+TO) players

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Cardinals organization roster matrix: 2010 regular season

April 15, 2010 Brian Walton

With the first in-season transactions of 2010 made on Wednesday, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix. This version will reflect all changes made until the short-season clubs begin play in mid-June. I plan to refresh the entire matrix at that time.

matrix-grid-crop-200 The 2010 season-opening view will remain unchanged. You can see it here.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 287 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Along with the major league club and the four full-season rosters, the players participating in extended spring training camp are also included. 44 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

In a look ahead, the extended spring training players will either join full-season clubs as openings occur or will be augmented by this June’s draftees to staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs. A number are also likely to be released.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 287 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles freshly updated for 2010 now at The Cardinal Nation / 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 ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

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
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Remember that at this point, there are not yet 2010 rosters for the short-season clubs, Batavia on down, so players are listed where they finished last season – where they will remain until there is a reason to move them.

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead and back

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, 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

Transactions

4/14: C Jason LaRue onto StL DL. C Bryan Anderson from Mem to StL. C Nick Derba from PB to Mem. C Luis De La Cruz from EST to PB.

4/15: OF Chris Swauger onto PB DL. IF Jermaine Curtis off PB DL.

4/17: OF Kyle Conley to QC DL (in FL). 1B Jonathan Rodriguez from QC DL to EST. OF Edgar Lara from EST to QC.

4/21: SP Trey Hearne off Mem DL. RP Josh Kinney onto Mem DL, eff 4/19. RP Jason Buursma off PB DL. RP Ramon Delgado onto PB DL.

4/26: OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. IF Felipe Lopez onto StL DL. OF Jon Jay, IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. RP Josh Kinney off Mem DL. RP Pete Parise onto Mem DL.

4/27: C Bryan Anderson from StL to Mem. C Jason LaRue off StL DL. RP Kevin Thomas onto PB DL. RP Francisco Samuel from Spr DL to PB. IF Aaron Miles signed to minor league deal, assigned to EST. New total 288.

4/29: 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. C Nick Derba from Mem to PB. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to EST.

5/1: RHPs LaCurtis Mayes and Chris Corrigan from QC to EST with RHPs Justin Smith and Jason Novak from EST to QC.

5/4: RHP Chuckie Fick to Spr DL, RHP Francisco Samuel up to Spr from PB with RHP Ramon Delgado off PB DL. RHP P.J. Walters off the Mem TI list, LHP Tyler Norrick on Mem DL.

5/5: RHP Josh Dew released (Spr DL). New total 287.

5/7: 1B Francisco Rivera to PB DL, OF Devin Shepherd to QC DL, OF C.J. Beatty from EST to QC, OF Ross Smith from EST to PB.

5/9: OF Shane Robinson to Mem DL, OF Jim Rapoport from Spr to Mem, RP Francisco Samuel to Mem DL, RP Casey Mulligan from PB to Spr, RP Kevin Thomas off PB DL. OF Jarred Bogany from EST to PB.

5/10: 3B Matt Carpenter from PB to Spr. OF Michael Swinson from EST to QC. OF Frederick Parejo from QC to EST.

5/12: RHP Jason Buursma from PB to Spr. RHP Brett Zawacki from EST to PB. RHP Shaun Garceau to Spr temporary inactive list. IF Aaron Miles from EST to Spr. IF Colt Sedbrook from Spr to EST.

5/14: C Roberto Espinoza from EST to QC DL. SS Hector Alvarez released from EST. New total 286.

5/15: IF Colt Sedbrook from EST to PB. OF Devin Shepherd from QC DL to PB. 1B Osvaldo Morales released from PB. OF Ross Smith from PB to EST. New total 285.

5/16: 11 players added to EST. IF Alan Ahmady, OF Tyler Bighames from QC SL. From DSL: Ps Adriano Uribe, Bryan Martinez, Alejando Pinard and IF Luis Pimentel. From VSL: Ps Moises Colorado and Francisco Guzman, IFs Roberto Perez and Wilfred Vivas, OF Anthony Fonseca.

5/17: IF Felipe Lopez off StL DL. SS Tyler Greene from StL to Mem. OF Tyler Henley to Mem DL. Ps Carlos Oraa, Angelo Echeverria to VSL DL. DSL releases: Ramon Urena, Santo Sandoval, Keury Herrera. VSL releases: Sergio Nieves, Fernando Cedeno, Jose Weffer, Omar Viloria, Osmir Medina, Alexander Castellano. VSL signings: Ps Ismael Brito, Jose Perez, Douglas Planchart, Edubray Ramos, Kender Villegas; SS Lainer Bueno, Manuel Marquez, Breyvic Valera; OF Marlon Sucre’

5/20: OF Michael Swinson onto QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza off QC DL. RP Orlando Munoz released from EST. New total 284.

5/22: P Brad Penny to StL DL. P P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. RP Pete Parise off Mem DL.

5/24: P Trey Hearne onto Mem DL. RHR Andrew Brown acquired from Washington and assigned to Mem. New total 285.

5/27: SP Kyle Lohse onto StL DL. RP Fernando Salas from Mem to Stl (+40 man roster). P Tyler Norrick off Mem DL to PB. SP Scott Gorgen onto Spr DL. RP Kyle Mura off Spr DL. SP Brian Broderick from PB to Spr. SP Ryan Kulik from Spr to Mem.

5/28: OF Michael Swinson off QC DL. C Roberto Espinoza onto QC DL.

5/29: RHP Adam Ottavino and LHP Evan MacLane from Mem to StL. MacLane added to 40-man. RP Fernando Salas and OF Joe Mather from StL to Mem. DSL SS Grabiel Hernandez now Ronny Gil and put on disqualified list. Signed RHPs Carlos Matias and Addelin Ceballo, SS Robelys Reyes and OF Domingo Diaz. Released P Juan Mercedes. New total 289.

5/30: OF Chris Swauger off PB DL. OF Devin Shepherd onto PB DL.

5/31: LHP Evan MacLane from StL to Mem. OF Allen Craig from Mem to StL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from PB to Spr. RHP Eduardo Sanchez onto Spr DL.

6/1: Infielder Alan Ahmady and outfielder Tyler Bighames off suspension. IF Aaron Miles from Spr to StL (added to 40-man). OF Allen Craig from StL to Mem. 1B Mark Hamilton to Mem DL.

6/2: RHP Chuckie Fick off Spr DL. RHP Arquimedes Nieto from Spr to PB. IF Jose Garcia from PB to Spr. LHP Dail Villanueva off VSL suspended list.

6/3: IF Luis Mateo onto QC DL. IF Ted Obregon to QC from EST. IF Devin Goodwin from EST to PB.

6/4: OF D’Marcus Ingram onto QC DL. OF Frederick Parejo from EST to QC.

6/5: OF Randy Winn signed by StL. OF Jon Jay from StL to Mem. SP Kyle Lohse from 15- to 60-day DL. New total 290.

6/6: OF Amaury Cazana loaned to a Mexican League club. P Kyle Mura onto Spr DL. P Francisco Samuel off Spr DL.

6/8: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. RHP Fernando Salas from Mem to StL. OF Tyler Henley off Mem DL and moved to Spr. 1B Andrew Brown onto Spr DL.

6/11: LHP Tyler Norrick outrighted (off 40-man). Eight released from EST. RHPs Jose Calero, Luis Orozco, Alejandro Pinard, and Michael Thompson, LHPs John Durham and Kyle Heim, 1B Roberto Perez and 2b Gerardo Mambell. Signed P Roberto Canache for VSL. OFs Anthony Bryant and Corderius Dodd signed, assigned to GCL. New total 285.

6/13: C Tony Cruz from PB to Spr. C Charles Cutler from Spr to PB. 2B Ted Obregon from QC to PB. 2B Devin Goodwin from PB to QC.

6/14: SP Jeff Suppan signed to StL. SP Adam Ottavino from StL to Mem. New total 286.

6/15: C Nick Derba to PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from EST to PB. OF Corderius Dodd not signed (17th). NDFA RHP Ricky Martinez signed. LHP Anthony De La Cruz signed and assigned to DSL. 33 members of 2010 draft class signed. Will be placed when team assignments known. New total 320.

6/16: RHR Eduardo Sanchez off Spr DL. LHR Matt Meyer released. New total 319.

6/17: OF Mark Shorey onto Mem DL. P Ian Parry (39th rd) backed out of signing agreement to attend law school. Signed LHP Iden Nazario (30th). New total 319.

6/19: RHP Chase Reid (41st) signed and assigned to Bat. New total 320.

6/20: LHP Ryan Kulik from Mem to Spr. RP Casey Mulligan to Spr DL. OF Reggie Williams (10th) signed and assigned to JC. New total 321.

6/21: RP Matt Scherer to Mem DL. Ps David Kopp and Chuckie Fick from Spr to Mem. Ps Mark Diapoules and Scott McGregor from PB to Spr. P’s Scott Schneider and Mike Blazek from QC to PB.

6/22: C Nick Derba off PB DL. C Travis Tartamella from PB to JC.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 06/22/10)


St. Louis (25+2)	40-man (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse (60DL)	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny (DL)	Boggs			Miles			Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Winn
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
Suppan	T Miller (L)
	Reyes (L)
	Salas


Memphis (24+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	A Brown2	Pagnozzi	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney			Gotay		Howard	Cazana (Mexico)
Dickson 5	Fick	Anderson
Walters	Parise						Robinson (DL)
O Perez 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey (DL)
Kopp							Rapoport
Ottavino	Scherer (DL)						Mather
	R Hill (L)						Craig
	Hearne (DL)

Springfield (24+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Mulligan (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1(DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	T Cruz	A Brown1 (DL)	Jo Garcia			Chambers
Gorgen (DL)						M Carpenter	Jones
Diapoules	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau (TI)	King						Henley
Mura (DL)	Buursma
Broderick 4
McGregor
Kulik (L)	Reifer
	Samuel
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek	Norrick (L)	Cutler	Rivera (DL)	Marmol	Bolivar	Curtis	A Castellanos
G Brown (L DL)	Bradford	Derba	Scruggs	Obregon			Pham
Zawacki 2	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)		Sedbrook			Swauger
Nieto 5	Delgado						Racobaldo
Ri Castillo 3	Frevert						Shepherd (DL)
Schneider	Pichardo						Bogany
Bittle (DL)	Thomas




Quad Cities (23+7)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Novak	Stock	Adams	L Mateo (DL)	Stidham	N Vasquez	Lara
Fornataro 2	M Tapia (DL)	Castro		Goodwin	Jackson		Ingram (DL)
Hooker T4	J Smith	Espinoza (DL)					Swinson
Kelly T5	Notti						R Rodriguez
S Miller T4	Simpson						Beatty
	Terry						Parejo
Rondon T3							Conley (DL)
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)

M Harris (MIL)

Ext. spring (61+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina			Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez		R DeLaCruz	R Smith
Butler		A Garcia	J Rodriguez	Vargas		H Garcia	Bighames
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel	Ahmady	Vivas	R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero	Pimentel	S Rodriguez	C Valera
	Corrigan	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
	Jimenez	J Castillo					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	L DeLaCruz					Fonseca
Lawler							Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)
	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal						Hage (DL)
North	Santana
Mayes	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Uribe (L)	Colorado (L)
	Guzman

Batavia
Johnson City
GCL (36)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
R Martinez (FA)	Benes (35th)	Stanley (4th)	Sanchez (26th)	Walsh (13th)	Tuivailala (3rd)	Cerrato (40th)	Bryant (16th)
Freeman (L 11th)	Kiekhefer (L 36th)	Klein (15th)		Bergman (33rd)	G Garcia (7th)		Longmire (5th)
Aguilar (14th)	Nadeau (L 38th)			Valaika (34th)	Martin (20th)		Ramos (22nd)
Whiting (18th)	Nazario (L 30th)				Elkins (37th)		Biserta (24th)
J Lucas (21st)	Brand (42nd)						O’Neill (31st)
Mendoza (25th)	Revesz (L 49th)						Edmondson (43rd)
A Lucas (27th)	Moye (50th)						Melker (44th)
Patterson (29th)	Copeland (L 32nd)						Williams (10th)
Reid (41st)

DSL (33+5)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez			J Lopez	Gil (RL)	B Hiraldo (RL)	Beras
Matias	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira		R Medina		Capellan
Ceballo	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata				R Reyes		J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez							Diaz
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L RL)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo (RL)
E Hiraldo	Segundo (RL)
A Toribio	A DeLaCruz (L)


VSL (31+2)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Almeida	Canache	Rivas			Bueno	H Martina	Sucre
Bier	Cueto				Marquez	R Garcia	Acevedo
S Garcia	De Aguas (L)	Velazco			B Valera		Argenal
Oraa (DL)	Echeverria (L DL)	J Gomez
Gerdel	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Guerra							Martines
	Jh Polanco
I Brito	Montanez
J Perez	Solarte
Planchart	Ulacio
E Ramos
Villegas	Villanueva (L)

Codes

(DL): injured – on the disabled list
(TI): temporary inactive list
(SL): suspended list
(RL): restricted list
(TO): tryout player not under contract
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive/not under contract (DL+TI+SL+RL+TO) players

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The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Season-opening update

April 6, 2010 Brian Walton

Note: This version has been superceded. It will continue to reflect 2010 season-opening assignments. To access the current matrix, click here.

With the end of spring training, the start of the major league season and the minor league season commencing on Thursday as well, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

In this update, the major scope is to highlight those selected for the major league club and the four full-season minor league affiliates. As of posting on Tuesday, April 6, these rosters are NOT YET FINAL. For example, there are still about 15 too-many players on the full-season rosters at this time.

In addition, the 68 players invited to the extended spring training camp, underway on April 6, are included. 47 of them are holdovers from regular minor league spring training, players that did not make a full-season club, joined by 21 new arrivals.

For the remainder of the players, the rosters upon which they are listed reflect where they concluded last season. 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. At the lower levels, starters are not yet broken out from relievers, let alone tandem rotation assignments. At this point, I don’t have confirmation of these roles.

The 37 players on the 40-man roster are called out in bold.

Full team rosters and player profiles at The Cardinal Nation

Click on the following links to be taken to one of the ten team pages at The Cardinal Nation:

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
Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals

Once there, just click on a player’s name to be taken to his individual profile page. For example, here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

Looking ahead

In the past, I updated this version of the rosters all summer long, which meant the season-opening view was quickly lost. Based on your feedback, this year, I will instead keep this version for posterity and start a new one to reflect all the in-season changes.

For details behind past 2009 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, 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

Transactions

When they occur, they will be listed here and of course the matrix will reflect the updates.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 04/06/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	McClellan	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
Ja Garcia (L)	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn 2	O Perez	Anderson	Hamilton (DL)	Descalso	T Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane (L) 1	Kinney	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
Dickson 5	Norrick (L)						Henley
Ottavino 4	Parise						Robinson
R Hill 3	Rundles (L)						Shorey
Walters (TI)	Salas
Hearne (DL)	Scherer



Springfield (24+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Additon (L) 2	Dew (DL)	S Hill	C Smith	Jo Martinez1 (DL)	Kozma	Folli	Ant. DeJesus
Daley, Jr. 3	Eager	Cutler		Sedbrook		A Brown	Chambers
Gorgen 4	Fick						Jones
Kopp 5	Freeman (L DL)						Luna
Garceau 1	King						Rapoport
	Kulik (L)
	Meyer (L)
	Mura (DL)
	Reifer
	Samuel (DL)
	Sanchez



Palm Beach (25+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Ri Castillo 3	Mulligan	T Cruz	Rivera	Marmol	Bolivar	M Carpenter	A Castellanos
Broderick 1	Buursma (DL)	Derba	Scruggs	Jo Garcia		Curtis (DL)	Pham
McGregor 4	D Carpenter	Vasquez (RL)	Morales				Swauger
Bradford 2	Delgado						Racobaldo
Nieto 5	Frevert
	Pichardo
	Diapoules
	Thomas
Bittle (DL)
G Brown (L DL)

Quad Cities (25+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Blazek T3	Notti	Stock	Adams	L Mateo	Stidham	N Vasquez	Conley
Fornataro 2	Corrigan	Castro	Ahmady (SL)		Jackson		Ingram
Hooker T1	M Tapia (DL)		J Rodriguez (DL)				Parejo
Kelly T5	Mayes						R Rodriguez
S Miller 4	Simpson						Shepherd
Schneider T1	Terry						Bighames (SL)
Rondon T3
Calhoun (L) T5
Cardenas (L DL)
M Harris (mil)


Ext. spring (66+3)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Ferrara (L)	A Castillo	Tartamella	D Medina	Obregon	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Avendano	A Perez (DL)	Washington	W Perez	Goodwin	R DeLaCruz	Beatty
Butler	Calero	A Garcia		Vargas	Mambell	H Garcia	Bogany
C Johnson	Corpas	Moscatel			R Ruiz		Jo Edwards
Daugherty (L)	H Hernamdez (L)	Montero			Valera		Lara
Durham (L)	J Smith	Alcala			Y Castillo		R Reyes
Heim (L)	Jimenez	L DeLaCruz					R Rosario
Kington	Ju Edwards (L)	Espinoza					R Smith
Lawler	Munoz						Rivero
M DeLaCruz (L)	Orozco						Swinson
M Thompson	Pasen						Taveras
McCully	Rada						V Hill
Moss	Rosenthal
North	Santana						Hage (DL)
Novak	Siegrist (L)
Russell	Summers
Squatrito (DL)
Zawacki


Batavia
Johnson City
GCL
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (40+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	B Martinez	J Castillo	Pimentel	J Lopez	G Hernandez		Beras
Uribe (L)	Concepcion	L Perez	V Ferreira	S Rodriguez	R Medina		Capellan
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)	Baez			Barbuena		Celestino
Herrera (L)	Estalis				Agustin		Encarnacion
S Lopez	L Mata						J Pena
	L Polanco						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Mercedes (L)						Sandoval
JC DeLaCruz	P Pena (L)
DeLeon	Paulino
DeLosSantos	Rudecindo
E Hiraldo	Segundo (SL)
A Toribio	Urena


VSL (34+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Martina	A Castellano
Bier	Cueto	Viloria				R Garcia	Acevedo
Nieves	De Aguas (L)	Velazco					Argenal
Oraa	Echeverria (L)	J Gomez					Fonseca
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Guzman						Martines
S Garcia	Jh Polanco
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	Solarte
	Ulacio
	Weffer (L)
	Villanueva (L SL)

Codes

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The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Pre-camp update

February 24, 2010 Brian Walton

The St. Louis Cardinals full system rosters are refreshed to reflect spring training camps, both major and minor league.

Welcome to first-time readers arriving here due to the first of my weekly Cardinals Minor League Notebook columns in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. With the start of major league spring training camp and minor leaguers reporting in less than two weeks, it is time for a refresh of the St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix.

If you are new to the site and aren’t sure what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about, here is quick summary.

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 285 players under contract from top to bottom. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season as transactions occur.

Nowhere else will you find this current and comprehensive single-page view of the entire Cardinals organization.

Its major scope in this update is to highlight those invited to each of the two spring training camps. The rosters upon which the players are listed generally reflect where they concluded last season or the type of contract they signed and frankly mean very little at this stage.

The 38 players on the 40-man roster, who received automatic invites to major league camp, are called out in bold. They have been joined at spring training by 19 non-roster invitees, denoted in italics.

147 more players will arrive in minor league camp starting on March 8. Starting from the top of the matrix, those players include all those not in bold or italics down through Batavia. All of the 2009 Johnson City players with the exception of two, John Durham and Kleininger Teran, have also been invited.

The final group of minor league camp invitees consists of eight designated players from the 2009 Gulf Coast League team and one from last season’s Dominican Summer League squad. These JC, GCL and DSL players are broken out separately below. (Players noted on the suspended or restricted lists are excluded until reinstated.)

In a look ahead, the two Johnson City players, the remainder of the 2009 GCL roster and a good helping of the older players from the Dominican Summer League and Venezuelan Summer League will join the spring camp leftovers in extended spring training, starting in early April. Along with this June’s draftees, these players will staff the 2010 Batavia, Johnson City and GCL clubs.

You may note that I separated the pitchers on the short-season rosters between 2009 draftees and returning pitchers. At this point, starting and relieving roles at the lower levels can and will change. There will also certainly be some positional adjustments coming.

Remember that to get detailed profile information on every single one of these 285 Cardinals players, simply check out their free player profiles now updated for 2010 at The Cardinal Nation / 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.

For example, this is the link to the 2010 roster page for Memphis. Click on an individual player’s name to be taken to his profile page. Here is Adam Ottavino’s profile.

This will be the version of the roster matrix I will be updating the rest of the spring, so 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 rosters and 2010 transactions to date, 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

Transactions

2/26: Signed IF Felipe Lopez. Signed 14 DSL players: C Fernando Baez, 2B Starlin Rodriguez, SS Rafael Medina, SS Junior Agustin, SS Daniel Barbuena, OF Amauris Capellan, OF Ronald Castillo, OF Eduardo Celestino, RHPs Ariel Gonzalez, Jean Carlos De La Cruz, Victor De Leon, Hansel De Los Santos, Eduardo Hiraldo and Arturo Toribio. Signed seven VSL players: C Jose Gomez, OF Jose Martinez (noted as Jo Martinez2 below), OF Jhohan Acevedo, RHPs Alberth Almeida, Silfredo Garcia, Anderson Gerdel and Geudy Guerra. New total 307.

3/17: C Paul Vazquez retired. OF Kaiser Inojosa released. New total 305.

3/18: Rule 5 pick LHP Ben Jukich returned to CIN after clearing outright waivers. New total 304.

3/23: Seven released. Ps Justin Fiske, Andres Rosales, Jonathan Gonzalez, Reynier Gonzalez and Marco Gonzalez, 1B Matt Arburr and C Blake Murphy. New total 297.

3/26: Ten released. Ps Brad Furnish, Tyler Lavigne, Randy Santos, Adam Veres, Santo Maertz, Charlie Zink, Pedro Rodriguez and Yoffri Martinez, OFs Travis Mitchell and Edwin Gomez. New total 287.

3/31: SS Julio Lugo traded to Baltimore Orioles. New total 286. 40-man at 37.

The St. Louis Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix (effective 03/31/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	Ryan	Freese	Holliday
Lohse	Kinney	Molina		Lopez			Ludwick
Penny	Boggs						Rasmus
Wainwright	Motte						Craig
McClellan	Hawksworth						Stavinoha
	T Miller (L)						Mather
	Reyes (L)



Memphis (24)	9 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
O Perez	Parise	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso	Greene	Solano	Jay
MacLane	Salas	Pagnozzi		Gotay		Howard	Cazana
	Scherer						Shorey
Ottavino	Rundles (L)						Robinson
Ja Garcia (L)	Meyer (L)
R Hill	Norrick (L)
Walters




Springfield (30)	7 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Lynn	Freeman (L)	S Hill	A Brown	Jo Garcia	Kozma	Folli	Jones
Hearne	Sanchez	T Cruz			Jo Martinez1		Henley
Gorgen	Samuel	Derba			Sedbrook		Ant. DeJesus
Dickson							Rapoport
Kulik (L)	Fick						Luna
Additon (L)	Dew
	King
	Summers
	Daley, Jr.
	Mura
	Mulligan






Palm Beach (22)	1 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Buursma	Cutler	Rivera	Marmol		M Carpenter	Chambers
Ri Castillo	Eager		C Smith	A Castellanos			Pham
Nieto	Bradford		Morales				Swauger
	Reifer
Diapoules	Garceau
G Brown (L)
Kopp
Bittle




Quad Cities (25+1)	2 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
S Miller	D Carpenter	Stock	Scruggs		Stidham	Curtis	Parejo
Fornataro	Delgado	Espinoza			Bolivar	Racobaldo	Ingram
Schneider	Pichardo						R Rodriguez
Thomas	McCully						Bogany
Cardenas (L)	M Tapia
Zawacki	Frevert
	McGregor

	Rondon
M Harris (mil)


Batavia (23+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Calhoun (L)	Blazek	L DeLaCruz	Adams		Jackson	N Vasquez	Swinson
Corrigan	Hooker	Castro	Ahmady (susp)		Goodwin
Ju Edwards (L)
Kelly	Mayes						Jo Edwards
	Siegrist (L)						Conley
Moss							Shepherd
Squatrito
J Smith
Simpson
Terry


Johnson City (29)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Johnson	A Ferrara (L)	Tartamella	J Rodriguez	L Mateo	Y Castillo		Beatty
Heim (L)	North	A Perez			Obregon		R Smith
Kington	Notti				R Ruiz		Lara
Lawler	Russell				Alvarez		R Rosario
Butler	Rada						Hage
Novak
Daugherty (L)	Ang. De Jesus
M Thompson


Extended spring
Durham (L)						Teran


GCL (19+1)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
M DeLaCruz (L)	Calero		D Medina		Mambell		Babrick
	Avendano						Bighames (susp)
	A Castillo						Rivero
	Munoz
	Orozco
	Pasen


Regular spring
H Hernamdez (L)		A Garcia	Washington		Valera	R DeLaCruz	V Hill
Rosenthal		Moscatel


DSL (46+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	Concepcion	J Castillo	Pimentel	W Perez	G Hernandez		Beras
Santana	L Mata	L Perez	V Ferreira	J Lopez	R Medina		Encarnacion
Jimenez	Rudecindo	Baez		S Rodriguez	Barbuena		J Pena
Uribe (L)	Urena				Agustin		R Reyes
Pinard	D Rodriguez (L)						Sandoval
Herrera (L)	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
S Lopez	P Pena (L)						Capellan
	Paulino						Ro Castillo
A Gonzalez	Segundo (susp)						Celestino
JC DeLaCruz	B Martinez
DeLeon	Estalis
DeLosSantos	L Polanco
E Hiraldo
A Toribio


Regular spring
		Alcala

VSL (39+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Colorado (L)	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	Vivas	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	Cueto	Viloria		Vargas		R Garcia	Martines
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco				H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Jh Polanco	Montero					Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio	J Gomez					A Castellano
	Escudero						Jo Martinez2
Almeida	Solarte						Acevedo
S Garcia	Weffer (L)
Gerdel	Montanez
Guerra	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (susp L)

Codes
(i): injured – on the disabled list
(t): temporary inactive list
(susp): suspended list
(L) left-handed pitcher
bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster
italics: non-roster spring training camp invitee
(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp) players

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Cardinals minors all-star representation down

September 27, 2009 Brian Walton

In the last post, we reviewed recent Cardinals system minor league won-loss records. Observations included a decline in winning in 2009 over 2008 from over 54 percent to under 49 percent with that latter rate being the second-worst across the system in the last five years.

Here, we will consider another indicator of farm system strength.

All-Star representation down 18%

Following is the quantity of league all-star selections for the nine Cardinals minor league clubs year-to-year. I also included two important elite squads, Team USA and the Futures Game participants, drawn from the same pool of players.

While not every all-star squad is selected in the exact same manner, common threads among voters are that they are those who see these players regularly – peer managers, coaches, league officials and media.

Like placement in top prospect lists, these measurements are certainly not absolute. Yet since their selection criteria are basically the same each year, an annual comparison can be relevant in my view, especially when there is a major difference year upon year.

Note that all-star teams are not the same size across leagues, so comparing the number of representatives between different levels is not valid.

Cardinals	2009			2008			YTY
All-Stars	Total	Mid-seas	Post-seas	Total	Mid-seas	Post-seas	Chg
Team USA	1			2			-1
Futures Game	3			5			-2
Pacific Coast	1	1	0	1	1	0	0
Texas	13	9	4	11	8	3	2
Florida State	3	3	0	7	6	1	-4
Midwest	1	1		3	3		-2
NY-Penn	3	3		6	6		-3
Appalachian	3		3	1		1	2
Gulf Coast	0		0	1		1	-1
Dominican	3	3		2	2		1
Venezuelan	1		1	0			1
Total	32			39			-7
							-18%

As the data indicates, 2009 Cardinals all-star representation was down considerably from 2008 – 18 percent in aggregate.

Does that mean the system as a whole is 18 percent worse than last year? Of course not, but the difference is significant enough that it seems that others are seeing an overall decline in top talent across the organization.

In 2009, four of the eleven categories saw an increase of all-stars, Double-A and short-season rookie levels in the USA and the two overseas academies in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Triple-A remained flat while the other six had a decline in Cardinals participation from as low as one to as many as four fewer selections than last year.

The core of the year-to-year falloff was in A-ball, with a total decline of nine all-stars from last year to this in the Florida State, Midwest and New York-Penn Leagues.

The Cardinals were shut out of the 2009 Gulf Coast League all-star team and had fewer invites to both Team USA and the Futures Game, despite the latter having been played in St. Louis and managed by a pair of Cardinals legends.

Seven of 71 mentions have been traded

While the Cardinals have been busy dealing prospects, it is interesting to note that only three names of traded players appeared a total of seven times among the 71 all-stars represented in the two years of data in the table above.

Jess Todd, dealt to Cleveland in the Mark DeRosa trade, was named four times, Shane Peterson, part of the Matt Holliday deal with Oakland, was a two-time all-star and Luke Gregerson was the other, sent to San Diego for Khalil Greene last winter.

In 2008, Todd was an anomaly in that he was all-star at two different levels and was also named to the Futures Game. The Cardinals had no such triple-category star in 2009.

As the Cardinals continued aggressive promotions in 2009, one might wonder if in-season moves hurt players’ all-star chances, yet it could be a factor every season.

If early performances are memorable enough, they are not forgotten. For example, Daniel Descalso (pictured) was both a mid-season and post-season Texas League all-star in 2009 despite having spent only the first half of the summer in Double-A.

The central point here being that while the Cardinals lost top-end talent via trades, it did not clean out all their best players. The bottom line is that fewer Cardinals minor league players were recognized by knowledgeable outside observers as having stepped up to an all-star level of play this season.

Instructional League canceled

In another less-than positive occurrence, last month the Cardinals announced the cancellation of their 2009 instructional program. The yearly fall camp is designed to help the youngest players in the system become more acclimated to professional play.

The Cardinals believe they can accomplish necessary development activities on an individual basis and made headway with 2009 draftees during the season using roving instructors. Yet coming on the heels of the backslide in winning across the system and the organization’s acknowledged relative youth at every level made this decision a real head-scratcher for me.

It is difficult to come to any conclusion other than that the cancellation was ultimately driven by a desire to cut expenses.

The move, made in concert with the Mets and Marlins that train near the Cardinals facility in Jupiter, Florida, is counter to the vast majority of MLB organizations. Others are putting more emphasis on “instructs”, not less.

The Nationals have sent 2009 number one overall draft pick Steven Strasburg to their Florida fall camp. In Arizona, a new semi-formal fall instructional league was recently founded among the growing number of clubs that train in the Cactus League.

Fewer top prospects?

On the Scout.com Cardinals message board, the yearly community top 50 Cardinals prospect voting is underway. My read is that while excitement over the system in whole remains, there seems to be fewer clear high-end and breakout prospects this season.

With further individual player advancement, another strong season like 2008 is possible next year. If not, the system may remain in its current sub-.500 team won-loss and lower individual recognition neighborhood in 2010.

VSL Cardinals Report: June 28, 2009

June 28, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals turned it around during this period taking four of five games that were completed. The Cardinals extended their losing streak, at the beginning of the week, to four games but went on to take the final four. The Redbirds are 18-16 and are eight games out of first in a two-way tie in third place in the league. They are 9-9 at home and 9-7 on the road. The team has also tied last season’s mark of 23 home runs, still with another month and a half to go.

The Mets visited the Cardinals in the first game of this period. The Mets jumped out in front and that was all she wrote. Two big errors cost the Redbirds and gave free passes to the Mets four of six runs scored. The Mets extended the Cardinals losing streak to four games with a 6-1 victory.

The Cardinals hosted the Phillies next. The Cardinals scored first and their pitching held the Phils within check throughout the game. The Phillies did out hit the Cardinals, but only scored one run the whole entire game. The Phillies also committed three errors giving way to the Redbirds final and game-winning runs in the seventh. The Cardinals won 3-1 to halt their losing streak.

The Cardinals went on the road to play the Tigers and broke out the good bats. The Redbirds out hit the Tigers 18-6, with every Cards player connecting for at least one hit. The Cardinals tacked on six runs in the first three frames and added another seven on between the sixth and eighth innings. The Cardinals drilled three home runs and beat down the Tigers 13-2.

The Pirates came to town to take on the Cardinals in the next game. The Cardinals got some stellar pitching from their ace but four errors during the game contributed to runs being scored against him. The Pirates had the lead heading into the fifth but the Redbirds came out swinging in the bottom half and took the lead. The Cardinals’ reliever held the Bucs hitters in check and won 5-3. This marks the first win for the Cardinals over the Pirates in six games played between the two.

After an off day, the Cardinals hosted the Mariners. The Mariners plated two runs in the first two innings before a delay in game. The contest resumed only to be suspended after the top of the third. The Mariners led 2-0 and the game is scheduled to be resumed on July 10.

For the final game of the period the Cardinals hosted the Rays. Two of the top pitchers on the Cardinals’ staff shut down the Rays and held them to only six hits. The Redbirds scored five runs in the second and added on another two, on errors, in the seventh. The Cardinals won 7-0 and picked up their fourth shutout of the season.

Who’s Hot

Limbert Rivas extended his on base streak to six games and will carry a four-game hitting streak into the next week. The 18-year old right-handed hitter went 7-for-17 (.412) with one RBI, two runs, two walks, two stolen bases, four strikeouts, and was caught stealing once. Rivas played three games at first base, one as designated hitter, and split another between first and catcher. He was on the back end of two double plays while at first.

Jose Cortez nudged his way back into the leadoff role and has a six-game hitting streak to bring into the next period. The 20-year old right-handed hitter went 7-for-18 (.389) with two doubles, one home run, seven RBIs, six runs, two walks, and was caught stealing once. Cortez is 12-for-36 (.400) and has drove in ten runs in his last ten games.

Hector Garcia had his hitting streak extended to ten games, but was snapped in the last game of the week. The 19-year old right-handed hitter went 9-for-22 (.409) with three doubles, two home runs, nine RBIs, three runs, one walk, two strikeouts, and grounded into one double play. Garcia played four games at third base, where he committed one throwing error, and split one between the corners.

Hildemaro Vargas has silently been hitting real well as of late and has made it on base at least twice in the last four games. The 17-year old right-handed hitter went 6-for-11 (.545) with one double, one triple, three RBIs, four runs, three walks, hit by pitcher twice, and struck out twice. Vargas committed two fielding errors and assisted in one double play in his two games at shortstop and played his other three game at second base.

Omar Viloria got his shot at some playing time behind the plate this past week. The 18-year old right-handed hitter went 4-for-15 (.267) with one RBI, four runs, one walk, one hit by pitch, three strikeouts, and grounded into two double plays. He had his best game of the season on June 23 going 3-for-5 with one RBI and two runs. Viloria was the backstop for all four games he played, throwing out two of five attempting base stealers, assisting in one double play, and throwing away the ball twice for a couple errors.

Deimer Bier continued his dominance at the top of the hill this past week. On June 21, the 18-year old right-hander had a little trouble pitching five innings allowing seven hits, four runs (two earned), and struck out eight for his second losing decision. In his next start he gave up four hits, no runs, one walk, struck out four, and picked one runner off over six innings. His eight strikeouts tied a season-high and the second start was an opening to the third shutout he has been involved in this season.

Moises Colorado had some control issues but was still effective in his latest start. The 19-year old right-hander made his start on June 23, pitching five innings and allowing two hits, one earned run (home run), four walks, one balk, threw one wild pitch, and struck out five for his third winning decision of the season. Colorado had been up and down all season but finally lasted through five innings this time around.

Carlos Oraa had one of the best starts for the Cardinals, this past week, and his best yet this season. The 19-year old right-hander tossed five innings of shut out ball, giving up five hits, one walk, and striking out five on June 22. This was his first start that he has not allowed a run and has struck out four plus in four of his six starts (23 over 24 innings).

Hector Corpas seems to have taken over as the Cardinals closer picking up two saves in both appearances this period. The 19-year old right-hander closed out the June 22 game striking out his only batter faced and holding both inherited runners on for the win. On June 24, Corpas entered in the sixth and pitched four scoreless innings giving up two hits and striking out five for another team victory. The third-year Cardinals affiliated pitcher has not allowed an earned run in five of his seven relief outings this season.

John De Aguas returned to action after being overlooked for a week and extended his unearned runs streak to 16.1 innings. The 17-year old left-hander made his first appearance on June 21, going three innings and allowing one hit, one unearned run, two walks, and striking out one. He earned his first save of the season on June 27, giving up two hits, no runs, two walks, and striking out a season-high five over three innings.

Who’s Not

Jem Argenal and Carlos Yegues both went 1-for-11 (.090) during the week. Argenal had one run, one walk, and struck out three times. Yegues struck out seven times.

Jose Weffer, still showing the rookie butterflies, pitched on June 23. He walked three batters and induced a ground out before being pulled in the eighth inning.

The Happenings

Angelo Echeverria has still not pitched since June 12.

Jackson Solarte and Johnny Polanco have not made an appearance since June 20.

Dail Villaneuva was suspended for 50-games on June 23 for testing positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing drug banned by Major and Minor League Baseball. The 19-year old left-hander made seven appearances (three starts) posting an 0-1 record and 3.86 ERA. He allowed 15 hits, nine runs (seven earned), ten walks, and struck out four over 16.1 innings.

Wilfredo Vivas’ days on the suspended list are coming to an end. The Cardinals have played 34 games, as of Saturday, and it should be just a matter of time before he returns and adds some depth to the middle infield.

Venezuelan Summer League Stats

The Cardinals hitting improved from .268 to .273, good for second in the league. The team ranks second in runs, hits, home runs (tied), total bases, OBP, and OPS. They also rank third in doubles, walks, and SLG.

The Cardinals pitching also had a great week, watching their ERA drop from 4.63 to 4.09 (third worst) and their WHIP went from 1.54 to 1.49 (second worst). They rank second in shutouts (tied), strikeouts, holds, and first in saves.

Roberto Perez is eighth in batting average, tied for sixth in home runs, tied for tenth in total bases, fourth in walks, fourth in OBP, fourth in SLG, and third in OPS.

Jose Cortez is tenth in batting average and tied for third in doubles.

Anthony Fonseca is tied for tenth in runs scored and tied for ninth in home runs.

Hector Garcia is tied for tenth in hits, tied for first in doubles, tied for ninth in home runs, tied for tenth in RBIs, tied for fifth in total bases, and tenth in SLG.

Hildemaro Vargas is tied for second in triples and tied for ninth in stolen bases

Alexander Castellano is tied for sixth in triples.

Carlos Yegues is tied for ninth in home runs.

Osmir Medina is tied for ninth in stolen bases.

Javier Avendano is tied for fourth in wins, second in ERA, tied for fourth in innings pitched, and third in strikeouts.

Deimer Bier is tied for fourth in wins, tied for fourth in innings pitched, and fourth in strikeouts.

Moises Colorado is tied for fourth in wins and tied for eighth in strikeouts.

Francisco Guzman is second in saves and first in game finishes.

Hector Corpas is tied for third in saves.

Fernando Cedeno is tied for first in holds.

Up Next (Overall, vs. Cardinals)

June 28: @ Mets (16-17, 2-3)

June 29: @ Phillies (12-22, 2-4)

June 30: Tigers (10-24, 0-5)

July 1: @ Pirates (26-8, 5-1)

July 2: Off Day

July 3: @ Mariners (18-15, 4-1)

July 4: @ Rays (18-16, 3-3)

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: Short-season update

June 24, 2009 Brian Walton

Following is the most current St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix, including the initial 2009 rosters of the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League, Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League and the Gulf Coast League Cardinals.

I apologize for the delay in posting, but I needed to get an accurate GCL roster. There are still unassigned players noted below. When I get a read on their status, this matrix will be updated and the changes listed.

Hopefully, you have been here to the site previously and know what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about. If not, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 318 players under contract – 280 previous players augmented by 38 signed members of the 2009 draft class. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season. Nowhere else will you find this comprehensive information in one place.

You will also note that I separated the pitchers on the short-season rosters between 2009 draftees and returning pitchers. At this point, starting and relieving roles are unclear and fluid.

This should be the version of the roster matrix I will be updating the rest of the summer, so remember how to find this 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 the format used in the matrix as well as 2009 transactions to date, 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

Transactions

June 23 updates: Mem 1B Javier Brito released. RHP Oneli Perez assigned to Mem. Mem LHR Kat Maekawa onto temporary inactive list.

June 24 updates: 2B Jaime Landin to Bat restricted list. P Edouard Estalis from EST to DSL. Ps Jose Arredondo and Matt North plus OF Joey Hage on JC DL.

June 25 updates: IF Jason Stidham (8th rd) to QC. IF Alex Castellanos to QC DL. New total 319.

June 26 updates: C Brandon Yarbrough off Mem DL. IF Allen Craig (retro to 6/25) and C Bryan Anderson onto Mem DL.

June 27 updates: 1B Mark Hamilton from Spr DL to Mem. RHR Chris Perez traded from StL to Cle for IF/OF Mark DeRosa. LHP Jonny Bravo from QC DL to GCL (rehab only).

June 29 updates: RHP Clayton Mortensen onto 40-man, from Mem to StL. IF Khalil Greene onto StL DL. LHR Kat Maekawa to Mem active roster from temp inactive list.

Earlier moves missed: OF Edwin Gomez Bat to GCL on 6/23. IF Hector Alvarez Bat to JC on 6/25. RHS David Kopp to Spr DL on 6/10.

June 30 updates: IF Alex Castellanos act from QC DL. IF Guillermo Toribio from QC to Bat.

July 1 updates: IF Brett Lilley and OF Paul Cruz released (QC). RHR Andres Rosales QC to Bat. 3B Matt Carpenter Bat to QC. OF Kyle Conley (7th rd) and RHP Nick McCully (9th rd) to QC. RHP Clayton Mortensen StL to Mem and 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir from Mem to StL. RHP Joe Kelly (3rd rd) to Bat.

July 2 update: OF Wagner Mateo signed (Dominican). New total 320.

July 3 updates: OF Daryl Jones to Spr DL, IF Daniel Descalso from Spr to Mem. OF Shane Peterson and IF Colt Sedbrook from PB to Spr. OF Andres Beras off susp (DSL). RHP Scott Bittle (4th rd) signed. New total 321.

July 4 updates: 1B/OF Andrew Brown off Spr DL, assigned to PB. LHR Ian Ostlund onto Mem DL.

July 6 updates: IF Tyler Greene from StL to Mem. IF Brian Barden from Mem to StL. C Juan Castillo back on restricted list (GCL).

July 7 updates: IF Mark DeRosa to StL DL. OF Nick Stavinoha from Mem to StL. C Paul Vazquez to PB DL. C Charles Cutler from QC to PB. C Jack Cawley from Bat to QC. OF Joey Hage from JC DL to GCL. IF Allen Craig act from Mem DL.

July 8 update: 1B Matt Arburr from Spr to PB.

July 9 updates: LHP Brad Furnish from Spr to PB. RHS Scott Gorgen from PB to Spr. RHR Fernando Salas from Mem DL to Spr. 1B/OF Andrew Brown from PB to Spr. RHP Trevor Rosenthal (21st rd) signed and assigned to GCL. RHP John Folino NOT signed, removed from Bat roster.

July 10 updates: OF Daryl Jones activated off Spr DL. RHR Eddie Degerman onto Spr DL.

July 11 updates: RHP P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. IF Brian Barden StL to Mem. RHP David Kopp activated from Spr DL.

July 12 updates: RHS Kyle Lohse activated from StL DL. RHP Blake Hawksworth StL to Mem.

July 13 updates: OF Daryl Jones returned to Spr DL. RHP Kenny Maiques from Spr susp list to Spr DL.

July 15 updates: RHP Jared Bradford from QC to GCL. C Jesus Montero from DSL to VSL. LHP Jonny Bravo from QC DL (via GCL rehab) to Bat. RHP Jorge Rondon PB to QC. RHS Brett Zawacki to QC DL. RHP Jose Arredondo from JC to GCL. 1B Mark Hamilton to Mem DL.

July 16 update: C Juan Castillo from GCL suspended list to DSL.

July 17 updates: IF Wilfred Vivas off VSL suspended list. RHP Eddie Degerman off Spr DL. RHP Brian Broderick from Spr to PB. LHP Kristhiam Linares off PB DL (GCL rehab).

July 18 updates: IF Mark DeRosa activated from StL DL. 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir from StL to Mem.

July 19 update: RHP Fermin Montanez signed, assigned to VSL. New total 322.

July 20 updates: IF Donovan Solano from Mem to Spr. RHP David Kopp from Spr to PB. RHP Cale Johnson from GCL to JC.

July 21 update: OF Chris Duncan from StL to Mem. IF Brian Barden from Mem to StL.

July 22 update: OF Chris Duncan traded to BOS for SS Julio Lugo.

July 23 updates: RHP P.J. Walters from StL to Mem. RHP Jose Pasen from DSL to GCL. P Scott Bittle from unassigned to PB DL.

July 24 updates: IF Brian Barden from StL to Mem. OF Matt Holliday from Oak for Brett Wallace (Mem), Clayton Mortensen (Mem), Shane Peterson (Spr). LHP Ian Ostlund off Mem DL. New total 320.

July 25 update: 3B David Freese from Mem DL to Spr (via 4G GCL rehab).

July 26 updates: RHP Josh Kinney from StL to Mem. RHP Blake Hawksworth from Mem to StL. RHP Jess Todd from Mem to CLE to complete Mark DeRosa trade. 1B Mark Hamilton off Mem DL. New total 319.

July 28 updates: RHP Trey Hearne from Spr to Mem. LHP Nick Additon from PB to Spr. RHR Eddie Degerman released (Spr). LHR Kat Maekawa to Mem DL.

July 30 updates: RHP Chuckie Fick from PB to Spr. LHS Hector Cardenas onto QC DL.

July 31 updates: 3B David Freese from Spr to Mem. LHP Samuel Freeman onto Spr DL. RHP Kenny Maiques released (Spr DL). LHP Justin Fiske from Spr DL to GCL. RHP Jared Bradford from GCL to PB. RHS Mitchell Boggs from Mem to StL. OF Nick Stavinoha from StL to Mem. RHP Yonathan Gonzalez from PB to QC. New total 317.

August 1 updates: LHP Justin Fiske from GCL rehab to Spr. RHS Mitchell Boggs from StL to Mem. IF Khalil Greene activated off StL DL. UT Casey Rowlett released from Mem. New total 316.

August 2 update: C Kevin Moscatel from GCL to PB.

August 3 updates: RHR Casey Mulligan from PB to Spr. 1B Osvaldo Morales, 3B Matt Carpenter, IF Jose Garcia, RHP Arquimedes Nieto from QC to PB. 3B Jermaine Curtis, IF Domnit Bolivar from PB to QC. 1B Xavier Scruggs, OF Ryde Rodriguez, OF D’Marcus Ingram, OF Kyle Conley from QC to Bat. RHP Justin Smith, 1B Matt Adams, OF Michael Swinson, RHP Jesse Simpson from JC to Bat. 3B Rich Racobaldo from JC to QC. RHP Daniel Richardson, OF Jairo Martinez released from Bat. New total 314.

August 4 updates: 2B Aaron Luna from PB to Spr. LHP Jaime Garcia from GCL to PB (rehab). From GCL to JC: RHPs Angel De Jesus and Zach Russell, 1B Jonathan Rodriguez, 3B Kleininger Teran, OF Joey Hage. OF Mark Shorey to Mem DL. RHP Fernando Salas from Spr to Mem. LHP Kat Maekawa off Mem DL and released. New total 313.

August 5 update: LHR Ian Ostlund onto Mem DL.

August 7 updates: IF Alex Castellanos from QC to PB. IF Guillermo Toribio from Bat to QC. IF Brian Barden outrighted off 40-man roster. LHP Pat Daugherty from GCL to JC. C Blake Murphy onto PB DL (retro 8/5).

August 9 update: RHP Javier Avendano from VSL to GCL.

August 10 updates: RHPs Jose Arredondo and Omar Javier released from GCL. 1B Matt Arburr onto PB DL. New total 311.

August 11 update: RHS Scott Schneider from Bat to QC. RHR Joel Pichardo to QC DL. RHP Mitchell Boggs from Mem to StL. RHP Todd Wellemeyer to StL DL.

August 12 update: LHR Ian Ostlund activated from Mem DL.

August 16 updates: C Blake Murphy off PB DL. C Kevin Moscatel from PB to GCL.

August 17 updates: IF Juan Cabrera from DSL to GCL. RHP Joel Pichardo off QC DL. RHP Miguel Tapia onto QC DL. 1st rd pick RHP Shelby Miller signed. New total 312.

August 18 updates: RHP Gary Daley from QC to Spr. RHP Mark Diapoules from PB DL to QC. LHR Tyler Norrick from Spr to Mem. OF Antone DeJesus onto Spr DL.

August 19 update: RHP John Smoltz signed. RHP Mitchell Boggs from StL to Mem. LHR Ian Ostlund onto Mem DL (retro 8/17). New total 312.

August 20 update: LHS Jaime Garcia off StL DL and optioned to Mem.

August 21 updates: RHS Trey Hearne from Mem to Spr. LHR Charlie Manning onto Mem DL. 1B Matt Arburr off PB DL.

August 22 updates: RHS Kyle Lohse onto StL DL. RHS Mitchell Boggs from Mem to StL. OF Mark Shorey off Mem DL. LHR Justin Fiske onto Spr DL.

August 24 updates: OF Daryl Jones off Spr DL. C Nick Derba onto Spr DL. OF Beau Riportella released (Bat). OF Edwin Gomez from GCL to Bat. New total 311.

August 25 updates: OF Mark Shorey onto Mem DL. LHR Ian Ostlund off Mem DL.

August 27 updates: RHP Keith Butler from GCL to JC. RHP Mark Diapoules from QC to PB. RHR Francisco Samuel to Spr DL. RHR Blake King from PB to Spr. OF Nick Stavinoha onto Mem DL. LHR Charlie Manning off Mem DL.

August 28 updates: RHR Elvis Hernandez off PB DL. RHP Pablo Ortiz from JC to GCL.

August 30 update: C Robert Stock from JC to QC.

September 1 updates: RHP David Kopp onto PB DL sometime after 8/22. 3B Troy Glaus activated off StL DL. OF Mark Shorey activated off Mem DL. 2B Daniel Descalso to inactive list for Team USA.

September 2 updates: RHPs Andrew Moss and Aaron Terry from JC to Bat.

September 3 updates: RHR Todd Wellemeyer off StL DL. RHP Shelby Miller activated by QC. C Roberto Espinoza onto QC DL. LHP Ryan Kulik onto Spr DL. LHP Justin Fiske off Spr DL

September 4 updates: LHS Jaime Garcia onto Mem temp inactive list. RHS Lance Lynn from Spr to Mem. RHP Scott McGregor onto QC DL. RHP Miguel Tapia off QC DL. C Paul Vazquez off PB DL. LHP George Brown onto PB DL.

September 5 updates: RHP Lance Lynn from Mem to Spr. 1B Curt Smith onto PB temp inactive list. 1B Matt Arburr onto PB DL.

September 6 update: RHP Kyle Lohse activated from StL DL.

September 8 updates: LHR Ian Ostlund onto Mem DL (retro 9/7), IF Donovan Solano from Spr to Mem. LHS Jaime Garcia off Mem temp inactive list. IF Jose Garcia from PB to Spr.

September 9 updates: LHP Ryan Kulik off Spr DL. RHR Blake King onto Spr DL.

September 22 update: Contract of July 2 signee OF Wagner Mateo is voided. New total 310.

September 23 updates: IFs Tyler Greene and David Freese, RHR Josh Kinney and C Matt Pagnozzi from Mem to StL. Pagnozzi added to 40-man roster.

October 6 update: IF Alan Ahmady (Bat) suspended 50 games, starting 2010 season.

October update: IF Brian Barden and LHR Royce Ring (both Mem) elected free agency. New total 308

October 17 update: RHP Elvis Hernandez (PB), C Jack Cawley (QC), 2b Guillermo Toribio (QC), RHP Tyler Leach (Bat), 1B Matt Rigoli (JC) released. New total 303.

October 19 update: RHR Fabian Marquez, IF Moises Marquez. OF Jose Cortez, SS Carlos Yeguez, RHR Gregorio Ramos. LHR Ruben Alvarado (all VSL) released. 2B Michael Avila (DSL) released. New total 296.

October 21 update: Signed RHP Kevin Cueto, 3B Ronnierd Garcia, RHP Jhonatan Escudero (VSL). New total 299.

October 29 update: Signed RHP Pedro Rodriguez. Released LHP Jonny Bravo.

November 3 updates: 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir claimed by Toronto. RHP Brad Thompson released. RHR Matt Scherer and IF Joe Thurston outrighted to minors. New total 297.

November 11 updates: RHP Angel Cruz and SS Juan Mosquera (GCL) released. New total 295. C/3B Wilmer Alvarado reinstated from inactive list and released.

November updates: Nine major leaguers declare free agency: John Smoltz, Todd Wellemeyer, Joel Pineiro, Jason LaRue, Mark DeRosa, Rick Ankiel, Troy Glaus, Khalil Greene, Matt Holliday. Seven minor leaguers declare: Kristhiam Linares, Julio Castellano, Brandon Yarbrough, Oneli Perez, Evan MacLane, Ian Ostlund, Charlie Manning. New total 279.

November 18 updates: Eight added to 40-man roster: Allen Craig, Daryl Jones, Jon Jay, Bryan Anderson, Adam Ottavino, Mark Hamilton, Francisco Samuel, Tyler Norrick.

November 20 updates: 2B Joe Thurston declared free agency. RHR Omar Diaz released. New total 277.

November 30 updates: C Jason LaRue re-signs. IF Ruben Gotay signed to minor league deal with spring invite. New total 279.

December 4 update: DSL RHP Jefferson Segundo suspended 50 games.

December 8 update: Free agent RHS Brad Penny signs. New total 280.

December 10 updates: RHP Mike Parisi to ChC, LHP Ben Jukich to StL and LHP Matt Meyer to Mem in Rule 5. New total 281

December 11 update: RHP Mark McCormick released. New total 280.

December 21 update: GCL OF Tyler Bighames suspended 50 games.

January 5 update: Free agent OF Matt Holliday re-signs. New total 281.

January 14 updates: GCL RHP Geney Rios and IF Juan Cabrera released. Mem RHS Charlie Zink signed. New total 28.

January 20 updates: RHP Oneli Perez and LHP Evan MacLane re-signed (Mem). RHP Pablo Ortiz (GCL) to restricted list. New total 282.

January 26 updates: 17 non-roster invitees in italics. LHP Rich Hill signed to minor league deal with MLB camp invite. Minor league pitchers Rich Rundles, Yoffri Martinez and Houston Summers and IF Kevin Howard signed. New total 287.

February 22 updates: RHP Shelby Miller and LHP Samuel Freeman added to major league camp.

The St. Louis Cardinals Roster Matrix (effective 2/22/10)

St. Louis (25)	40-man (38)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
C Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker			Holliday
Lohse		Molina			Ryan
Penny	McClellan	Pagnozzi			Lugo	Freese	Ludwick
Wainwright	Motte				T Greene		Rasmus
	Hawksworth
Boggs	T Miller (L)
	Reyes (L)
	Jukich (L)
	Kinney

Memphis (25)	9 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
O Perez	Parise	Anderson	Hamilton	Descalso		Craig	Jay
MacLane	Rundles (L)			Gotay		Howard	Cazana
Zink	Scherer					Solano	Shorey
Ottavino							Robinson
Ja Garcia (L)	Salas						Stavinoha
R Hill
Walters
	Meyer (L)
	Norrick (L)




Springfield (34)	7 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Gorgen	M Gonzalez	S Hill	A Brown	Luna	Kozma	Folli	Jones
Additon (L)	Fick	T Cruz		Jo Garcia	Jo Martinez		Rapoport
Dickson	Freeman (L)	Derba			Sedbrook		Ant. DeJesus
Lynn	Samuel						Henley
Kulik (L)	Y Martinez						Mather
Hearne	Dew
	King
	Daley, Jr.
	Sanchez
	Mura
	Fiske (L)
	Mulligan
	Summers

Palm Beach (25+1)	1 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
G Brown (L)	Buursma	P Vazquez	Rivera	Marmol		M Carpenter	Chambers
R Castillo	Eager	Murphy	C Smith				Pham
Kopp		Cutler	Arburr	A Castellanos			Swauger
Furnish (L)	Reifer		Morales
Broderick
Nieto	Bradford
Diapoules	Garceau
Bittle




Quad Cities (27+1)	2 NRI
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	D Carpenter		Scruggs		Stidham	Curtis	Parejo
Fornataro	Delgado	Espinoza			Bolivar	Racobaldo	R Rodriguez
Schneider	Pichardo	Stock					Ingram
	McCully						Bogany
Cardenas (L)	M Tapia
Thomas	Frevert
Zawacki	McGregor
S Miller	Veres
	Rondon
J Wilson (restr)	Y Gonzalez


Batavia (29+2)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Calhoun (L)	Blazek	L DeLaCruz	Adams	Landin (restr)	Jackson	N Vasquez
Corrigan		Castro		Ahmady (susp)	Goodwin		Mitchell
Ju Edwards (L)	Hooker						Gomez
Kelly							Jo Edwards
Lavigne	Maertz						Conley
Simpson	Mayes						Swinson
Squatrito
J Smith	Siegrist (L)						Shepherd
Moss	Rosales
Terry	P Rodriguez
Johnson City (31)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Durham (L)	A Ferrara (L)	Tartamella	J Rodriguez	L Mateo	Y Castillo	Teran	Beatty
Heim (L)	R Gonzalez	A Perez			Obregon		R Smith
Kington	Notti				R Ruiz		Lara
Lawler					Alvarez		R Rosario
	Rada						Hage
Novak	Santos
Daugherty (L)	Ang. DeJesus
C Johnson	North
	Russell
M Thompson
Butler

GCL (20+2)
2009 draft P	Other P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Calero	Je Polanco	D Medina		Mambell	R DeLaCruz	Babrick
Rosenthal		A Garcia	Washington		Valera		Bighames (susp)
M DeLaCruz (L)	A Castillo	Moscatel					V Hill
							Rivero
H Hernandez (L)	Avendano
	Ortiz (restr)
	Pasen
	Munoz
	Orozco





July 2 signings (0)
P	P	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF




DSL (32+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia T4	Concepcion	Alcala	Pimentel		G Hernandez		Beras
Santana T2	L Mata	L Perez	V Ferreira	J Lopez			Encanacion
Jimenez T3	Rudecindo	J Castillo		W Perez			J Pena
	Urena						R Reyes
Pinard T1	D Rodriguez (L)			Hiraldo (restr)			Sandoval
Herrera (L) T1	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
S Lopez T4	P Pena (L)
Uribe (L) T3	Paulino
	Segundo (susp)
	B Martinez
	Estalis
VSL (32+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez		O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	Cueto	Viloria		Vargas		R Garcia
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco		Vivas		H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Jh Polanco	Montero					Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio						A Castellano
Colorado (L)	Escudero						Martines
	Solarte
	Weffer (L)

	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (susp L)
	Montanez

Codes:

(#): My Cardinals prospect ranking from over the winter at Scout.com

(i): injured – on the disabled list

(t): temporary inactive list

(susp): suspended list

(L) left-handed pitcher

Bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster

(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp) players

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VSL Cardinals Report: June 21, 2009

June 21, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals has another slow week in the winning department taking only two of six games this period. The team will be riding a three-game losing streak into the next week. The Cardinals have fallen under the .500 mark with a 14-15 record overall and sit in fourth place and eight games out. The club is now 8-7 on the road and 6-8 when defending their home territory. But not is all lost as the team saw an increase in power as they have now clubbed a total of 19 home runs on the season (four shy of 2008’s total of 23) and have jacked one out in eight of their last ten games.

The Cardinals opened this period up visiting the Mets. The Mets took an early lead scoring four in the third and knocking out the Redbirds starter. The Redbirds were held within check the hole game and made their own comeback late in the game plating four runs in the eighth and taking a one run lead. The Cardinals’ closer couldn’t hold the lead and gave up the game in the eighth as the Mets won 6-5.

The Cardinals stayed on the road and took on the Phillies in the second game of the week. The Phillies struck first, but the Cardinals came back to tie and win in a low scoring game. The Redbirds received solid pitching from their starter and bullpen and held the Phils to only four hits and two runs. The Cardinals won 3-2.

The Tigers came town in the next game and the Cardinals tore them up. The game was tied up heading into the fifth at 3-3 and the Redbirds capitalized on some Tiger mishaps. The Cardinals twice scored four in the following four frames and the bullpen held the Tigers to one run as the Cards went on to win 13-4.

The Pirates welcomed in the Cardinals in the following game and jumped on them quick. The Bucs scored five in the first three frames for an early lead and tacked on another two runs on Cardinals errors. The Redbirds had the hits but couldn’t get the runners across the plate and lost 7-3.

The Cardinals stayed on the road and visited the Mariners and were beat on in this game. Again errors by the Cardinals came back to bite and the M’s knocked the Redbirds’ ace out after four innings. The Mariners plated ten runs in the fifth, including eight on one Cards reliever, and went on to win 14-6.

The Cardinals ended the period with their third straight road game, this time against the Rays. The Redbirds took an early lead of 5-2 until the bullpen took over in the sixth. In The sixth, the relievers coughed up the lead and game allowing the Rays to score eight in two innings. The Rays won 10-7.

Who’s Hot

Carlos Yegues broke out the hot stick and will be carrying a four-game multi-hit streak into the next week. The 18-year old right-handed hitter went 9-for-29 (.450) with one double, three home runs, nine RBIs, five runs, and two strikeouts. Yegues has managed to play himself into the starting lineup, getting time in at second and third base, and is tied for second on the team in home runs, second in RBIs, and second in SLG.

Hector Garcia found his swing after slumping recently. The 19-year old right-handed hitter went 8-for-22 (.364) with three doubles, two RBIs, three runs, two walks, and four strikeouts. Garcia assisted in one double play, committed one throwing error, and is riding a six-game hitting streak.

Jem Argenal is another that broke his bat back out after a short slump. The 17-year old left-handed hitter went 7-for-19 (.368) with two doubles, one RBI, four runs, and five strikeouts. He played two of his six games at first and will bring a four-game hitting streak into the next period.

Kaizer Hinojoza has also caught fire and even pushed himself into a starting role for the Cardinals. The 18-year old right-handed hitter went 7-for-25 (.280) with three doubles, one triple, one RBI, five runs, two walks, nine strikeouts, and one caught stealing. He began the week with a five-game hitting streak, broke up on June 19, and drilled his first career home run in the last week on June 13. Hinojoza has become the everyday right fielder and showed off the cannon throwing out a couple runners on June 17.

Deimer Bier was one of two pitchers in the rotation to put together a solid start this past week. On June 15, the 18-year old right-hander pitched five innings allowing three hits, two earned runs, two walks, and struck out five. Bier has made it through five innings in three of his six starts this season, struck out five or more in two outings, and has the second best ERA (3.52) among the starting rotation.

Carlos Oraa made his return to the rotation after missing a little over a week and was just as effective as usual. The 19-year old right-hander ate up the most innings by any starter this week, on June 16, going six and gave up five hits, three earned runs, two walks, threw two wild pitches, and struck out five. He picked up his first winning decision of the season and has struck out five or more in two of five starts.

Who’s Not

Alexander Castellano played himself out of an everyday role and is still having problems at the plate. The 20-year old went 2-for-13 (.154) with two doubles, six strikeouts and one caught stealing. Castellano has gone 4-for-22 (.182) with no RBIs in his last ten games and leads the team in strikeouts with 26. The Colombian born native had one outfield assist and one fielding error while playing in left field.

Hector Corpas had one great relief appearance and was plastered to the wall in his second. The 19-year old right-hander pitched three hitless and scoreless innings on June 15. He struck out a season-high three, earned his second save of the season, and hit one batter for the only runner allowed by him in the game. Things flipped in his next save opportunity on June 20, as he was clubbed for four hits, four earned runs, one walk, and struck out only one in two-thirds of an inning. Corpas also let all three inherited runners score and had his first blown save of the season.

Moises Colorado again struggled in his second start of the season. The 19-year old left-hander lased just two and a third innings allowing three hits, four earned runs, three walks, threw one wild pitch, and struck out three. In his only two starts this season he has only lasted into or through the third inning and picked up a losing decision in one of them. Colorado has struck out 24 batters over 20.2 innings, which is the best among the pitching staff.

Fernando Cedeno, like Corpas, started off fine and was just clobbered in his last outing. The 19-year old right-hander picked up his second winning decision on June 15, allowing one hit no run, and striking out one over an inning of work. Everything came crumbling down for him on June 19, when he was tagged for six hits, eight earned runs, and two walks, over a third of an inning. This was indeed Cedeno’s worst game of his career and his ERA has shot up to over 10.00 (now at 10.80).

Ramon Ulacio had two not so pretty relief appearances this last week. The 18-year old right-hander made his first on June 16, pitching one inning and giving up one hit, one earned run, one walk, one balk, hit one batter, threw one wild pitch, and struck out one. The on June 19, Ulacio coughed up two hits, two earned runs, one walk, and struck out one over two-thirds of an inning. His season ERA sits at 6.39, but he’s struck out 13 and walked only five over 12.2 innings.

The Happenings

Both Jose Weffer and Angelo Echeverria have not pitched since June 12.

John De Aguas hasn’t made an appearance since June 14.

Fabian Marquez made his return on June 19, after missing 17 days, pitching a hitless and scoreless inning for the Cardinals.

Venezuelan Summer League Stats

The Cardinals hitting improved from .265 up to .268, which is good for second in the league. In the seven-team league they rank second in hits, total bases, OBP, SLG, and OPS. They rank third in walks and fourth in home runs.

The Cardinals’ pitching took a major hit as their team ERA jumped from 4.19 to 4.63 (second worst) and their WHIP went up three notches to 1.54 (tied for last). The team is tied for second in shut outs, first in saves, and rank as one of the worst in walks allowed.

Jem Argenal is eighth in batting average.

Roberto Perez is ninth in batting average, tied for fifth in home runs, tied for seventh in RBIs, tied for fifth in total bases, tied for fifth in walks, sixth in OBP, third in SLG, and third in OPS.

Anthony Fonseca is tied for tenth in runs scored, tied for seventh in home runs.

Hector Garcia is tied for third in doubles.

Jose Cortez is tied for eighth in doubles.

Hildemaro Vargas is tied for fourth in triples and seventh in stolen bases.

Alexander Castellano is fourth in triples.

Carlos Yegues is tied for seventh in home runs.

Osmir Medina is tied for seventh in stolen bases.

Javier Avendano is tied for second in ERA, tied for eighth in wins, tied for sixth in innings pitched, and fifth in strikeouts.

Deimer Bier is tied for eighth in wins.

Moises Colorado is tied for eighth in wins and ninth in strikeouts.

Fernando Cedeno is tied for eighth in wins and second in holds.

Francisco Guzman is tied for first in saves and first in game finishes.

Hector Corpas is tied for seventh in saves.

Next Up (Overall, vs. Cardinals)

June 21: Mets (13-15, 1-3)

June 22: Phillies (11-18, 2-3)

June 23: @ Tigers (10-19, 0-5)

June 24: Pirates (22-7, 5-0)

June 25: Off Day

June 26: Mariners (15-14, 4-1)

June 27: Rays (16-13, 3-2)

VSL Cardinals Report: June 14, 2009

June 14, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals had one of their slowest weeks of the season as they took only two of six games during this period. The Cardinals extended their winning streak at the beginning of the week to three games and end it on a three-game downward turn. They are 12-11 on the season and dropped to fourth place in the division, five games out. The team is still playing better ball on the road than at home, with a 7-3 mark as the visiting team and 5-8 record when hosting.

The Cardinals opened this period up hosting the Mets and got another great performance from their staff ace. He pitched a strong six innings (one run) and then was followed by another four scoreless by the bullpen. The mets may have taken the early lead but the Cardinals tacked on two in the third and rounded out the game with another three in the eighth for a 5-1 victory.

The Phillies came to town and ended the Cardinals three-game winning streak. The bats were alive in this game as both teams combined for 24 hits, with the Phils collecting 13 of those. The Cardinals starter struggled through the first four innings and the teams fielders committed four errors during the rest of the game allowing more runs to score. The Phillies scored in seven of the nine frames and outlasted the Cardinals 8-5.

Everything came together for the Cardinals, in the next game, as they visited the Tigers. The Cardinals used only two pitchers who held the Tigers scoreless and only gave up six hits. The bats were a swinging and the Tigers had miscues in the field to let the Redbirds plate five in the fifth. The Cardinals went on to claim their third shut out of the season with a 7-0 win.

The Pirates visited and started the Cardinals three-game losing streak that ended the week. The Redbirds scored early scoring two in the first but the Buccs came back in the following innings and then went on to tack on another five in the late frames. The Cardinals’ three errors came into play in the early part of the game and the Pirates went on to win 7-3.

Next up the Cardinals played host as the Mariners came to town. The Mariners pitching staff managed to hold the Redbirds to only five hits during the game. The Cardinals had a chance and were within striking distance as the M’s had a 2-0 lead heading into the seventh. But the Cards never came through and their bullpen chalked another five runs in the final three frames as they fell to the Mariners 7-0.

The Cardinals ended this period with a visit from the Rays. The Cardinals again got another quality start from their ace and even scored early to take the lead. The Rays however tied it up and took the lead as the Redbirds’ bat went silent and errors started to add up (five total for the game). The Rays took the game 5-2.

Who’s Hot

Roberto Perez will carry a three-game hitting and 12-game on base streak on into the next week. The 20-year old right-handed hitter went 6-for-18 (.333) with three RBIs, one run, six walks, and struck out four times. He was on the back end of four double plays and was 1-for-2 in the stolen base department. The third-year first baseman leads the team in most hitting stats for the 2009 season.

Anthony Fonseca has has hit way back up to the second hole in the batting order. The 20-year old right-handed hitter went 7-for-23 (.304) with one RBI, two runs, one stolen base, one hit by pitch, struck out three times, and was picked off once. He is currently sporting a 12-game hitting streak and made the move from right to centerfield in the last two games.

Javier Avendano didn’t drop the ball during the week and keeps racking up the solid starts for the team. The 18-year old right-hander opened the week up for the Cardinals pitching five innings and allowing six hits, one earned run, one walk, and struck out six for his second winning decision of the season. In his next start, he gave up six hits, two earned runs, one walk, and struck out a season-high seven over five innings. The second-year VSL pitcher has lasted five or more innings and has struck out six or more in four of five starts on the season.

Deimer Bier bounced back after having to shaky starts. The 18-year old right-hander tossed six innings of scoreless ball on June 9 and only allowed four hits, two walks, and struck out a season-high eight for his second winning decision of the season. The second-year VSL pitcher has lasted four or more innings in three of his four starts.

Fernando Cedeno showed signs of life this past week in his two relief appearances. The 19-year old right-hander followed Bier’s quality start with his very own three innings of no-run ball. Cedeno only gave up two hits and struck out two for his first save of his career. His next outing great but it was much improved. The third-year VSL reliever pitched three innings giving up three hits, two runs (one earned), and struck out two for his second losing decision of the season.

Jackson Solarte had two scoreless outings during the week. The newly turned 19-year old right-hander pitched four innings and gave up three hits, no runs, one walk, and struck out three for his first career save on June 7. Then on June 10 he tossed another inning and a half just allowing one hit. The second-year VSL reliever has not given up an earned run in four of seven relief appearances.

Who’s Not

Jem Argenal has hit quite a snag as of late. The 17-year old left-handed hitter went 3-for-18 (.167) with one home run, one RBI, one run, and struck out seven times. He’s only connected for seven hits in his last ten games (33 at-bats).

Hector Garcia is still struggling at the plate and hasn’t connected for a hit in the last two games. The 19-year old right-handed hitter went 5-for-23 (.217) with one double, one home run, three RBIs, three walks, and struck out three times. The third-year VSL third baseman picked up three of his five hits on June 9.

Gerwins Velasco received his chance for to impress behind the plate in the catching rotation. The 18-year old right-handed hitter went 1-for-13 (.077) with one double, one RBI, one walk, and walked four times. He’s picked up one hit in five of his last ten games and batting .195 on the season. The rookie VSL backstop threw out two runners, watched three steal a base, and lofted away two balls for errors in the four games he participated in during this period.

Sergio Nieves couldn’t turn it around in his latest start on June 8. The 17-year old right-hander made a short start, going four innings and allowing seven hits, four earned runs, one home run, two walks, threw a wild pitch, and struck out two for a losing decision. Nieves has had one solid start in four games this season.

Francisco Guzman had trouble with location in his worst appearance of the season. The 21-year old right-hander made his only relief outing on June 10 and pitched one inning coughing up one hit, three earned runs, two walks, hit one batter, threw two wild pitches, and struck out one. This ended his nine-game streak without allowing and earned run.

The Happenings

Angelo Echeverria made his return to the bullpen for the team, after missing three plus weeks, and Johnny Polanco made his 2009 debut. Both coming on June 12.

Carlos Oraa has been missing in action since June 5 when he was pulled after making the start and pitching to two batters.

Fabian Marquez hasn’t pitched since June 2.

Wilson Perez, who was released in the spring, was signed by the New York Yankees and assigned to their Dominican Summer League #2 team.

Jonathan Gonzalez has been promoted from extended spring training to the A-Advanced Palm Beach Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals are said to be one of a handful of teams scouting Venezuelan prospects Gioskar Amaya and Ernesto Leon, according to ESPN Deportes.

Venezuelan Summer League Stats

The Cardinals hitting took a slight drop sliding from .265 to .259 on the season, and now third overall in the league. The rank third in walks, strikeouts, and on base percentage.

The Cardinals’ ERA improved from 4.43 to 4.19, which is good for fifth in the seven team league. The team is second in shut outs, first in saves, second in holds, and are third best in home runs allowed. They however rank second in hits allowed, third in runs, third in earned runs, second in walks, and third worst in WHIP (1.51).

Roberto Perez is tied for seventh with a .333 AVG, tied for third with four home runs, tied for tenth with 14 RBIs, tied for seventh with 39 total bases, tied for third with 13 walks, fourth with a .439 OBP, second with a .591 SLG, and second with a 1.030 OPS.

Anthony Fonseca is tenth with a .323 AVG.

Jose Cortez and Hector Garcia are tied with others for fifth with six doubles.

Osmir Medina is tied for seventh with five stolen bases.

Alexander Castellano and Hildemaro Vargas are tied with others for fourth with two triples.

Javier Avendano is seventh with a 1.44 ERA, tied for third with two wins, sixth with 25 innings pitched, and fourth with 28 strikeouts.

Deimer Bier is tied for third with two wins.

Moises Colorado is tied for third with two wins and tied for ninth with 21 strikeouts.

Francisco Guzman is first with six saves and first with ten game finishes.

Fernando Cedeno is tied for first with two holds.

Next Up (Overall, vs. Cardinals)

June 14: @ Mets (11-12, 0-3)

June 15: @ Phillies (8-15, 2-2)

June 16: Tigers (7-17, 0-4)

June 17: @ Pirates (17-6, 4-0)

June 18: Off Day

June 19: @ Mariners (13-10, 3-1)

June 20: @ Rays (13-10, 2-2)

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: DSL update

June 8, 2009 Brian Walton

Following is the most current St. Louis Cardinals system roster matrix, including the 2009 Dominican Summer League Cardinals roster.

I apologize for the delay in posting, but I needed to get an accurate DSL roster and determine the status of several “missing” players.

Hopefully, you have been here to the site previously and know what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about. If not, here is quick summary:

At the time of this posting, the St. Louis Cardinals have 280 players under contract. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season.

The 33-man DSL opening roster follows, including with one player on the restricted list, Andres Beras. Pitcher Edouard Estalis will only be on the DSL roster if he cannot resolve an outstanding visa issue. Otherwise, he will begin in the Gulf Coast League. In addition, the eight tandem starters are called out in their pairs.

New to the Cardinals organization are pitchers Stalyn Lopez, Luis Mata, Rosalyn Rudecindo, Jefferson Segundo, Michael Santana and Willy Paulino. Biographical player information for each can be found on their Scout.com profile pages.

Just as six were added, so have six departed. They include Marcos Martinez, Santo Franco, Lenny Rosario, Eddy Rivera, Braulio Hiraldo and Bernardo Villar. Martinez was released and Hiraldo has been placed on the restricted list after not reporting.

The other four had background check irregularities on identity and/or age that caused the Cardinals to ask MLB to void their contracts. That means the highly-touted right-handed pitcher Franco did not receive his reported $570,000 bonus after he was announced as the Cards’ top July 2^nd mound signing last year. The four are ineligible to sign with any organization over the next year.

The next update of the roster matrix should be coming within the next ten days to two weeks as the players in Extended Spring Training will couple with this month’s draftees to define the 2009 Batavia, Johnson City and Gulf Coast League rosters.

For details behind the codes used in the matrix as well as 2009 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows:

Link to previous matrices: Jan–March 2009, April–May 2009, May-June 2009

Transactions

June 8 update: RHS Mark Diapoules to PB DL. C Luis De La Cruz from EST to PB, RHR Blaine Boyer claimed by Arizona. New total 279.

June 9 update (date approximate): LHP Nick Additon act from PB DL. RHR Elvis Hernandez onto PB DL.

June 10 update: C Juan Castillo completed suspension, RHP Shaun Garceau from PB DL to susp list.

June 11 update: OF Jon Edwards act from QC DL. OF Jairo Martinez from QC to EST (Batavia). RHP Jason Buursma from QC to PB. RHP Matt Frevert from EST to QC.

June 12 update: RHP P.J. Walters from Mem to StL. IF Brian Barden from StL to Mem. C Brandon Yarbrough off Mem DL. RHR Pete Parise from Spr to Mem. LHP Samuel Freeman from PB to Spr. LHR Kristhiam Linares to PB DL. RHRs Yonathan Gonzalez and Jorge Rondon from EST to PB.

June 13 update: LHP George Brown from EST (Batavia) to PB. RHP Brian Broderick from PB to Spr.

June 14 update: OF Joe Mather to Mem DL. 1B Curt Smith from Spr to PB. IF Jose Garcia from PB to QC.

June 15 update: SS Niko Vasquez from QC to Bat. C Luis De La Cruz from PB to Bat. C Paul Vazquez act from PB DL.

June 16 update: RHP Bryan Martinez signed for DSL. New total 280.

June 18 update: IF Khalil Greene act from StL DL. RHR Josh Kinney from Mem to StL. RHP P.J. Walters and OF Nick Stavinoha from StL to Mem. RHR Fernando Salas to Mem DL (eff 6/4).

June 20 update: C Brandon Yarbrough to Mem DL.

June 23 update: VSL LHP Dail Villanueva suspended 50 games.

The St. Louis Cardinals Roster Matrix (effective 06/23/09)

St. Louis (25+3)	40-man (38)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	K Greene (i)	Glaus (i)	Ankiel
Lohse (i)	Thompson	Molina		Thurston	Ryan		Duncan
Pineiro	McClellan						Ludwick
Wainwright	Motte (4)				T Greene (16)		Rasmus (1)
Wellemeyer	C Perez
Ja Garcia (9iL)	Miller (L)
	Reyes (L)
	Hawksworth
	Kinney (20)
Memphis (24+6)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Mortensen (11)	Parise	Anderson (3)	Brito (i)	Hoffpauir	Solano	Craig (18)	Jay (12)
Parisi (i)	Salas (31i)	Pagnozzi		Rowlett	Barden	Freese (5i)	Mather (i)
Walters (17)	Scherer	Yarbrough (i)				Wallace (2)	Shorey
Ottavino (15)	Todd (7)						Robinson (27)
Boggs (10)	Maekawa (L)						Stavinoha (35)
MacLane (L)	Ostlund (L)
	Manning (L)
	Ring (L)

Others (1)
							Cazana
							(Mexico)

Springfield (24+8)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Kopp (28)	M Gonzalez	Hill (34)	A Brown (i)	Descalso	Kozma (8)	Folli	Jones (6)
Hearne	Degerman	T Cruz (36)	Hamilton (i)		Jo Martinez (37ti)		Rapoport
Fiske (iL)	Freeman (L)	Derba					Ant. DeJesus
Lynn (14)	Samuel (21)		Arburr				Henley
Kulik (L)	McCormick (i)
Broderick	Dew (i)
	Norrick (L)
	Furnish (L)
	Sanchez
	Mura (i)
	Maiques (susp)
	Dickson


Palm Beach (25+4)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
G Brown (L)	Diapoules (i)	P Vazquez	Rivera	Marmol	Bolivar	Curtis	Chambers
R Castillo (19)	Eager	Murphy	C Smith (40)	Luna (39)	Sedbrook		Pham
Additon (26L)	King						Peterson
Gorgen (22)	Reifer (24)						Swauger
Fick	Linares (iL)
	Y Gonzalez
	Garceau (29susp)
	Mulligan
	E Hernandez (i)
	Buursma
	Rondon
Quad Cities (25+3)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Daley, Jr.	Carpenter	Cutler	Morales	A Castellanos			Parejo
Bravo (iL)	Delgado	Espinoza		Lilley			Edwards (23)
Bradford (i)	Pichardo			Toribio			P Cruz
Nieto	Rosales			Jo Garcia			Bogany
Cardenas (L)	M Tapia						Mitchell
Thomas	Frevert
Zawacki	McGregor
	Veres

J Wilson (restr)

Ext. Spring (60)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Cruz	A Castillo	A Perez	D Medina	Landin	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus	Calero	Castro	Rigoli	L Mateo	Y Castillo	R DeLaCruz (38)	Gomez
Arredondo		Cawley	Scruggs		Mambell		Hage
Blazek	Maertz	L DeLa Cruz			Mosquera		Ingram
Diaz	Mayes	Moscatel			Obregon		Lara
Fornataro	Munoz	J Polanco			R Ruiz		Rivero
Javier	Orozco				Valera		R Rodriguez
Leach	Ortiz				N Vasquez (13)		R Rosario
North							Riportella
Notti	Russell						Shepherd
R Gonzalez							Swinson
Rada	J Castellanos (L)						Ja Martinez
Richardson	Siegrist (L)
Rios
Santos
Hooker (32)
A Ferrara (L)


EST (visa delay 2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Estalis	J Castillo

Batavia (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

Johnson City (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

GCL (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (34+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia T4	Concepcion	V Ferreira	Pimentel	Avila	Cabrera		Beras (susp)
Santana T2	L Mata	L Perez		J Lopez	G Hernandez		Encarnacion
Jimenez T3	Rudecindo	Montero		W Perez			J Pena
Pasen T2	Urena	Alcala					Reyes
Pinard T1	D Rodriguez (L)			Hiraldo (restr)			Sandoval
Herrera (L) T1	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
S Lopez T4	P Pena (L)
Uribe (L) T3	Paulino
	Segundo
	B Martinez

VSL (33+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Avendano	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	M Marquez	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	F Marquez	Viloria		Vargas		Yegues	Cortez
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco		Vivas (susp)		H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Polanco						Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio						A Castellano
Colorado (L)	Ramos						Martines
	Solarte
	Weffer (L)
	R Alvarado (L)
	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (susp L)

Codes:

(#): My Cardinals prospect ranking from over the winter at Scout.com

(i): injured – on the disabled list

(t): temporary inactive list

(susp): suspended list

(L) left-handed pitcher

Bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster

(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp) players

VSL Cardinals Report: June 7, 2009

June 7, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals started the week off by extending their losing streak from two to four games, but rebounded and split this period’s six-game series. The team is now 10-7 on the season and tied for second in the league, only two games out of first. The Cardinals are still playing better ball on the road then at home with a 6-3 away record and 4-4 at home.

The number one team in the league came to visit the Cardinals on their first game of this period. The Redbirds scored in the first and watched as the bullpen coughed up the lead in the later innings. The club committed five errors in the game and it didn’t help that the Bucs went on to pound out 16 hits on the pitching staff. The Pirates doubled up the Cardinals 8-4.

The Cardinals opened the month of June up making a trip to face the Phillies. The game was defined by the incredible pitching by both staffs. Both teams combined for 14 hits and and the game went into extra innings where an error caused the Cardinals the win. The Phillies beat the Redbirds 2-1 in ten innings.

The Tigers came to town to take on the Cardinals in their next game. This time the Cards whipped out the rocking sticks and clubbed four home runs in the game, including two by their first baseman. The Cardinals starter was solid until he got into the middle of the game and the bullpen followed giving up a few more runs. The Cardinals took the game 9-7.

The next game the Redbirds took on a familiar opponent already faced during the week, in the Pirates. This game ended worse then the first time around with the Pirates plating 12 runs, including a six-run rally in the sixth inning. The Buccs manged to knock the Cards starter out after three innings by tacking on five runs. The Pirates spanked the Cardinals 12-5.

After a day of rest the Cardinals took on the Mariners at their place. The M’s were probably thrilled to take on the Redbirds since they already thumped them twice already this season. However the Cardinals turned things around shutting out the Mariner 4-0. The Cardinals starter only lasted two batters, but the bullpen tightened up their belts and gave up only three hits in the game.

The final game of this weekly report ends on a positive note with the Cardinals extending their winning streak to two games and evening off their record for the week. The visited the Rays and squeaked by with a 4-3 win. The Redbirds had a three-run lead heading into the eighth and gave up two runs that inning, but recovered to take the “W”.

Who’s Hot

Osmir Medina after slumping in the beginning of the season has now started connecting the bat on the ball. The 18-year old shortstop went 8-for-25 (.320) with three RBIs, four runs, three walks, three stolen bases, and struck out nine times. The improvement in his hitting could be credited to the right-handed hitter moving up in the batting order to the second and third spot in the order. He also committed two errors during the week for a team leading total of six and assisted in four double plays. Medina will be carrying a four-game hitting and eight-game on base streak into the next period.

Roberto Perez continued to pound the ball this past week. The 20-year old first baseman went 6-for-23 (.261), slugging his third and fourth home run of the season, drove in three runs, scored five, walked twice, and struck out twice. The right-handed hitter is now leading the Cardinals in home runs (four), RBIs (11), total bases (32), walks (seven), SLG (.667), and OPS (1.095). In the field, perez was on the back end of six double plays and couldn’t handle a throw for a pickoff error.

Moises Colorado put together one of his best performances of the season. The 19-year old left-hander picked up the game for Carlos Oraa, who left early, and went on the pitch 4.2 scoreless innings only giving up three hits. Colorado picked up his second win of the season and leads the team in inning pitched (15.1) and strikeouts (18). I feel him making a move back to the rotation.

Francisco Guzman started the week off a little slow but closed out two games for the Cardinals to finish it off in style. The 21-year old right-hander made three appearances this past week with the first coming on the first of June. In extra innings, Guzman’s defensive backing committed an error and the very next batter tripled to drive in the run and hand him his first loss of the season. He went on to pick up two saves in the following two games he pitched. Guzman gave up two hits, no runs, and one walk over his next four innings. On the season, the former catcher has not allowed an earned run and struck out ten over 10.1 innings and has earned six saves in nine games pitched.

Hector Corpas finally made his season debut this past week. The 19-year old right-hander pitched three innings and gave up two hits, no runs, one walk, hit a batter, threw one wild pitch, and struck out two to start off his 2009 season. Corpas followed Colorado, in his second game, and out pitching him with four hitless and scoreless innings for the save on June 4. The Panamanian native is one of three pitchers on the staff that hasn’t allowed an earned run in five plus innings.

Who’s Not

Alexander Castellano slipped a little in the hitting department this past week. The 20-year old switch hitter went 4-for-20 (.200) with one triple, one home run, three RBIs, two runs, two walks, eight strikeouts, and grounded into one double play. During the month a June, he’s only 2-for-16 with both hits singles and coming in separate games. The Colombian native also committed one fielding error in left.

Hector Garcia is htting the ball at the defending team’s fielders. The 19-year old right-handed hitter went 3-for-17 (.176) with one double, one RBI, two runs, three walks, and struck out once. In his last nine games he’s only connected for four hits in 29 at-bats. The starting third baseman also got some time in at first base at the beginning of the week.

Sergio Nieves followed his best start with his season’s worst start. On June 2, the 17-year old right-handed pitched 4.1 innings giving up five hits, three earned runs, three walks, and struck out three. He’s second on the team in walks allowed.

Deimer Bier, like Nieves, had his worst start of the season this past week. The 18-year old right-hander was dinged up on June 3. He allowed six hits, five earned runs, oen walk, hit one batter, and struck out two over three innings. The second-year VSL Cardinal pitcher picked up his first loss in his shortest outing of the season.

Fernando Cedeno is still having trouble pitching in the league. The 19-year old right-hander made three relief appearances coughing up a total of eight hits, seven earned runs, one home run, three walks, and struck out four. He allowed four earned runs over one inning on June 3. Cedeno has only had one relief outing, up to this point in the season, where he didn’t give up a run.

Missing In Action

Angelo Echeverria still has not shown up since May 20.

Moving On

The St. Louis Cardinals assigned catcher Yorbel Alcala to the Dominican Summer League Cardinals for the 2009 season. The 19-year old switch hitter spent all of last season with the VSL squad as their starting catcher and joins Jesus Montero as the second Venezuelan player to join DSL this summer.

Venezuelan Summer League Stats (as of Friday)

The Cardinals team batting average improved from .265 to .269 on the season and second in the league. The team ranks third in runs scored, total bases, walks, strikeouts, and on base percentage.

The Cardinals pitching staff took a hit watching their ERA balloon from 4.27 to 4.43, which is third worst in the league. They do had the second most shut outs, first in saves, and third in strikeouts. On the other end they have given up the third most hits, runs, and home runs and second most in earned runs and walks.

Jem Argenal is ranked third with a .357 batting average.

Roberto Perez is tied for tenth with ten runs scored, tied for second with four home runs, tied for fifth with 11 RBIs, fourth with 32 total bases, seventh with a .429 OBP, second with a .667 SLG, and leads the league with a 1.095 OPS.

Jose Cortez and Hector Garcia are tied, with others, for seventh with five doubles.

Alexander Castellano and Hildemaro Vargas are tied, with others, for third with two triples.

Osmir Medina is tied for seventh with four stolen bases.

Javier Avendano is fourth with a 0.60 ERA and eighth with 15 strikeouts.

Moises Colorado is tied for second with two wins and second with 18 strikeouts.

Francisco Guzman leads the league with six saves and nine game finishes.

Fernando Cedeno is tied for first with two holds.

Next Up (Overall Record, vs. Cardinals)

June 7: Mets (9-8, 2-0)
June 8: Phillies (5-12, 2-1)
June 9: @ Tigers (5-13, 3-0)
June 10: Pirates (12-5, 0-3)
June 11: Off Day
June 12: Mariners (10-7, 1-2)
June 13: Rays (9-8, 2-1)

Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals Report: 05/31/09

May 31, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals finished off this period on a low note of a two-game losing streak after extending their winning streak to five games earlier in the week. The Cardinals took four of their six contests and settled in at second place in the division with two games separating them from the first place team. Just before their first loss of the week they were tied for first in the league. The Cardinals are now 4-1 on the road and 3-3 when defending their own turf.

The Cardinals opened up this period visiting the Mets. The Mets came out swinging in the first and scored the first two runs of the game. Behind a solid bullpen and some late inning errors by their opponents, the Cardinals came back in the final three innings tacking on five runs. The Cardinals took the game 5-2.

The Tigers came to town in the next game vs. the Redbirds. The Cardinals put ten runs on in the second and third inning as the team’s pitching staff held the Tigers to only five hits through out the game. The Cardinals slapped on another six runs in the fifth and following innings and had their biggest victory of the season with a 16-4 win over the Tigers.

The next game the Cardinals and Tigers switched roles in terms of home and visiting team. The Redbirds struck early and the team’s ace pitched another quality outing, holding the Tigers scoreless through five innings. As soon as the Cardinals starter was pulled, the Tigers came to life scoring five runs in the sixth and seventh. The Cardinals did calm down and hold on to win 7-5.

The Cardinals welcomed the Phillies on Wednesday and this game was a low scoring game, unlike the previous games, with all the runs except for one being an earned run. The Cardinals put the first two runs of the game on in the third and fifth, but the Phils tied it up in th sixth. The Redbirds bullpen then held the Phillies to just one hit over the next three plus innings and went on to win 3-2.

The Mariners visited after the day off and ended the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak with a slugfest. Both teams were tied up at 2-2 heading into the fifth, but all things changed as the bullpens took over the games with a total of 15 runs being put on the board in the five innings. The M’s kicked it off taking the lead with three runs in the top half of the fifth and the Cardinals tried to keep up scoring two. The Cardinals then struggled getting runners across the plate in the late innings as the team’s bullpen imploded coughing up a total of six in the eighth and ninth. The Mariners went on to win 13-6.

The Rays visited and extended the Cardinals’ losing streak. The Rays scored first but the Cardinals came back to take and hold a lead until the sixth. The game ended up heading into extra innings and like the previous game, the bullpen gave away the win handing away three runs in the tenth. The Rays won 7-4.

Who’s Hot

Roberto Perez pulled out the thunder stick during the week and racked up some extra base hits. The 20-year old first baseman went 8-for-16 (.500) with two doubles, two home runs, seven RBIs, five runs, two walks, and struck out twice. The right-handed swinger had a five-game hitting streak during the Cardinals’ winning streak and had two multi-hit games during that time. He was on the back end of three double plays and committed only one error.

Jem Argenal continued to show he can swing the bat this past week. The 17-year old first baseman/designated hitter went 8-for-17 (.470) with three RBIs, three runs scored, one sac fly, and struck out once. The left-handed hitter will be bringing a three-game hitting streak into the next week and leads the team in hitting with a .407 average. He did commit one fielding error in one of the three games he played at first.

Alexander Castellano put together his best hitting performance up to the point of the season on Friday going 4-for-5 with two doubles and two runs. The 20-year old left fielder went 7-for-19 (.368) with two doubles, one triple, one RBI, seven runs, one walk, and struck out five times during the period.

Sergio Nieves came through with a great start in a close game for the Cardinals on Wednesday. The 17-year old right-hander made his second start going 5.2 innings allowing three hits, two unearned runs, two walks, hit one batter, threw one wild pitch, and struck out three batters. He did not pick up a decision in the start but did improve his season ERA to 1.86, which is second best in the rotation.

Javier Avendano takes on the role of ‘ace’ for the Cardinals’ pitching staff with his latest performance of the season. On Tuesday, the 18-year old right-hander made his second start pitching five scoreless innings, giving up six hits and struck out six. He picked up his first winning decision of the season and has not allowed a run over nine innings.

John De Aguas was the steady arm out of the bullpen during the week. The 17-year old left-hander had three relief appearances (four innings) without coughing up a single run. He did let three runners get on base (via one hit, one walk, and one hit by pitch), but they did not create any damage. The 5’9”, 160 pound Colombian has only given up two hits and no runs over five innings during the season.

Who’s Not

Omar Viloria is still hitless through four games this season. The 18-year old right-handed swinger went 0-for-5 with one strikeout and grounded into one double play in the two games he played. The catcher did manage to throw out one of the four attempting base stealers this past period.

Ramon Ulacio started off the week on a bad note but recovered to end his week. On May 26, the 18-year old right-hander was sacked with three hits, four earned runs, one home run, and hit one batter before getting the hook without securing an out. His next relief appearance was much better as he pitched 1.1 innings and allowed one hit, no runs, and struck out one. The 6’1″ 190 pounder also got three ground outs and held on all three runners in that last game.

Jose Weffer made a not so pretty professional debut on Friday. The 16-year old left-hander gave up three hits, three earned runs, one home run, and walked one over a third of an inning for the losing decision.

Fabian Marquez saw his ERA shoot up in his two games pitched this period. The 17-year old right-hander made his first relief appearance on May 25, going two innings and giving up two hits, one earned run (home run), hit one batter, and struck out two for his first winning decision of the season. And on May 29, he allowed two hits, two earned runs, and one walk before being knocked out after two-thirds of an inning.

Gregorio Ramos took a thumping during this past week and it hurt. Combined over two relief appearances, the 19-year old right-hander was drilled for six hits, seven runs (six earned), walked two, and hit one batter in just one and a third innings. He ate five runs in his last relief outing and watched his ERA balloon to 23.62 on the season.

Missing In Action

Angelo Echeverria has not seen game action since May 20. The 17-year old left-hander pitched an extended relief appearance for three innings and gave up only one hit and one walk, while striking out four for the win.

Venezuelan Summer League Stats

The Cardinals are ranked second in the league with a team batting average of .265, falling 32 points behind the league leader. They are tied for first in doubles and are in tied for second in triples. The team is ranked third in on base percentage and slugging, but sits middle of the pack in all other categories.

The Cardinals pitching is taking a hit with their ERA, second worst in the league at 4.27. They are second in the league in earned runs and walks but are tops in strikeouts and are tied for first in shutouts and saves.

Single player leader stats will come later when more games are played.

Next Up (Season Record, vs Cardinals)

May 31: Pirates (9-2, 0-1)

June 1: @ Phillies (4-7, 2-0)

June 2: Tigers (3-9, 2-0)

June 3: @ Pirates (9-2, 0-1)

June 5: @ Mariners (6-5, 0-2)

June 6: @ Rays (5-6, 1-1)

Dominican Summer League

The season opened Saturday, be on the look out for highly touted prospects Grabiel Hernandez and Victor Encarnacion along with returning stars Eduard Estalis, Jose Pasen, and Juan B. Cabrera.

Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals Report: 05/24/09

May 24, 2009 Brian Walton

By Josh Jones, Cardinals Best News Links

The Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals opened their 2009 season this past Monday and have now played five games on the season. The team finished with a 3-2 record, which is good for second place and only one game out of first. They are 1-1 at home and 2-1 on the road to start.

Starting the week off, the Cardinals traveled to visit the Phillies. The Redbirds opened the game up scoring two in the first inning and added on another four in the seventh. The team’s pitchers didn’t allow a run until the fifth frame and doubled up their opponents 8-4. The Phils committed four errors which slightly contributed to the Cards win.

The next day the Cardinals had the Mariners in town for a contest. The M’s managed to knock out the Cards starter in the third and continued to pummel the following long reliever. Walks came back to bite the Cardinals and they couldn’t get an extra base hit during the game. The Mariners handed the Cardinals their first shutout 7-0.

The Cardinals stayed home and hosted the Mets the next day. Again the Cards opened the game with a run in the first inning and got some help from the starter, who held their opponents to one hit and no runs in the first four frames. The bullpen followed with the same success until the closer gave up a hit and run in the ninth. Cardinals held off the Mets 3-1.

The Cardinals went on the road after having an off day, visiting the Pirates on Friday. The Redbirds struck first and held a the lead until the sixth when the bullpen tanked. The Bucs ended up scoring two or more in three frames during the game. The Cards gave up their first home run but also cranked out their first of the season during this contest. Pirates took the game 8-3.

The final game of this period the Cardinals stayed away from home as they took on the Rays. The Redbirds had their best pitching performance of the season during this game. They held the Rays to only four hits and didn’t allow a single run to cross the plate. The Cardinals picked up their first shutout of the season with a 4-0 victory over the Rays.

Who’s Hot:

Jose Cortez had two multi-hit games and went 6-for-19 (.316) during the week. The 20-year old right-handed hitter leads the team with eight total bases and four walks, and is tied with two doubles and three runs scored. The centerfielder also picked up his first and only RBI, struck out four times, and committed one error during this period.

Hector Garcia will be carrying a four-game hitting streak into the next week. The 19-year old right-handed hitter went 4-for-13 (.308) with one double, one RBI, five total bases, and scored two runs. He split his four games played between third base and designated hitter.

Jem Argenal (pictured) currently has a two-game hitting streak and was the first VSL Cardinal to slug a home run this season. The 18-year old left-handed hitter also has six total bases, two walks, and has scored two runs for the team. He leads the team with a .600 SLG, .462 OBP, and 1.062 OPS at this time.

Deimer Bier has pitched the most innings by any Cardinals starter up to this point in the season. The 18-year old right-hander made his first start on May 23, pitching five innings. He gave up two hits, no runs, walked two, and struck out four for his first winning decision of the year.

Javier Avendano got back on track after being slowed at the end of last season. The 18-year old right-hander pitched four innings, allowing one hit, no runs, two walks, and struck out six on May 20. He currently leads the team in strikeouts and is ranked third with a 0.75 WHIP.

Who’s Not:

Osmir Medina has gone hitless in his last three straight games. The 18-year old shortstop went 1-for-14 (.071) with one total base, one walk, scored one run, and struck out once during the week.

Tharick Martinez is wearing the sombrero for the season. The 18-year old outfielder went 0-for-6 with one walk, three strikeouts, and stole one base in the first week. The former DSL Cardinal has struck out in each of his three games.

Moises Colorado was thumped in his only appearance of the week. On May 19, the 19-year old left-hander entered the game during the third and was knocked around for five hits, five runs (four earned), two walks, and struck out two over 3.1 innings. He was able to keep the ball down on the ground and stranded both inherited runners.

Fernando Cedeno continued his so-so VSL career this past week. The 18-year old right-hander made his 2009 debut on May 18, giving up three hits, one earned run, one walk, and struck out a early season-high three over 1.1 innings. He did pick up the winning decision and kept his only inherited runner on. The third-year VSL participant made his second outing on May 22, which didn’t last long or end well. His opponents chalked up three hits, two earned runs, and the team’s first home run allowed in only a third of an inning for his first losing decision of the season.

Ruben Alvarado followed in somewhat the same fashion as Cedeno, just not as bad. The 17-year old left-hander made his season debut on May 18, picking up a hold and pitching two scoreless innings. He struck out three and gave up only one run in the appearance. Then on May 22, like Cedeno, he was slapped back down to earth. The second-year VSL pitcher gave up four hits, three earned runs, three walks, and struck out one over 1.1 innings.

Comings and Goings:

Enrique Brito assumed the manager position after holding the same title with the Gulf Coast Cardinals. He takes over for Javier Meza, who moved on to teach the hitters at GCL.

Former Cardinal farmhand Henderson Lugo, took over the pitching duties and Jesus Laya moved over form the Detroit Tigers franchise to coach the hitters.

2008 VSL Co-Players of the Year Alberto Rivero and Gerardo Mambell, 2008 Starting Pitcher of the Year Geney Rios, Yorbel Alcala, and Jonathan (formerly known as Yonathan) Gonzalez are currently in Jupiter, FL attempting to make one of the three rookie-season teams opening play in June.

Wilson Perez, Billy Bolivar, Peter Jaspe, Cristofher Dumont (GCL), Carlos Noguera, Miguel Lopez, and David Brito have all been given their unconditional releases.

Jesus Montero was reassigned to the Dominican Summer League Cardinals squad for 2009.

Wilfred Vivas is serving a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a performance enhancing substance during the winter. He probably will not make an appearance til mid-July.

Johnny Polanco, who was recently signed out of Nicaragua, should be joining the team sometime in the near future. Nothing has been set in stone at this time.

Jose Campos, who backed out of a potential deal with the Cardinals during the spring, is officially active and pitching for the VSL Mariners. He debuted on May 22, pitching 2.1 innings, and allowing no hits or runs, three walks, and struck out three.

Up Next:

May 24: @ Mets (2-3)

May 25: Tigers (2-3)

May 26: @ Tigers (2-3)

May 27: Phillies (2-2)

May 29: Mariners (2-3)

May 30: Rays (2-3)

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: VSL version

May 19, 2009 Brian Walton

Hopefully, you have been here to the site previously and know what the Cardinals organization roster matrix is all about. If not, here is a quick summary:

The St. Louis Cardinals currently have at least 281 players under contract. The matrix places each one at his current assigned level in the system as well as by position. It is kept updated throughout the season.

The occasion for this refresh is the opening of the Venezuelan Summer League season. Subscribers to Scout.com can read more about what I’ve written there on the subject, but here we have an overview of the 34-man VSL opening roster.

The next update of the roster matrix should be coming within the next ten days to two weeks as the Dominican Summer League will open. Following that, the players in Extended Spring Training will couple with next month’s draftees to define the 2009 Batavia, Johnson City and Gulf Coast League rosters.

For details behind the codes used in the matrix as well as 2009 transactions to date, check out the earlier versions of the Cardinals organization roster matrix as follows:

Link to previous matrices: January – March, 2009, April – May, 2009

Transactions

May 19 update: Signed VSL pitchers John De Aguas, Angelo Echeverria, Johnny Polanco, Ramon Ulacio and Dail Villanueva. New total 281.

May 20 update: RHP Chris Carpenter activated by StL, OF Shane Robinson optioned to Mem.

May 21 update: LHP Jonny Bravo to QC DL. RHR Jason Buursma from EST to QC. Mem C Brandon Yarbrough placed on DL eff 5/20. LHR Charlie Manning outrighted off 40-man roster.

May 23 update: OF Jon Edwards placed on QC DL. OF Jairo Martinez from EST to QC. 1B Mark Hamilton to Spr DL. 1B Matt Arburr from PB to Spr.

May 24 update: OF Rick Ankiel activated from DL, SS Tyler Greene optioned to Mem. Spr LHR Joe Williams released. RHR Eduardo Sanchez from PB to Spr. RHR Casey Mulligan QC to PB. New total 280.

May 25 update: RHS David Kopp from PB to Spr. RHR Joel Pichardo from EST to QC. RHR Kyle Mura to Spr DL. IF Donovan Solano returned to Spr from Mem.

May 27 update: RHS Josh Wilson placed on restricted list from QC active roster. RHS Brett Zawacki from EST to QC. Spr RHR Eddie Degerman to DL.

May 29 update: OF Ryan Ludwick activated from DL. SS Khalil Greene placed on 15-day DL. OF Joe Mather activated from Mem DL. 1B Javier Brito placed on Mem DL. Eff 5/31, QC moves to five-man rotation with Adam Veres and Scott McGregor to the pen.

May 30 update: 2B Aaron Luna activated from QC DL and assigned to PB. LHR Kristhiam Linares activated from Spr DL and assigned to PB.

June 1 update: RHS Deryk Hooker activated from QC restricted list and assigned to EST (Batavia). RHS Nick Additon to PB DL, RHR Shaun Garceau to PB DL. IF Oliver Marmol act from PB DL. RHP Elvis Hernandez activated from Spr DL and assigned to PB.

June 3 update: RHS Tyler Herron released from Spr. RHR Eddie Degerman act from Spr DL. New total 280.

June 4 update: RHR Blaine Boyer DFAed. RHR Jess Todd from Mem to StL. LHR Ian Ostlund act from Mem DL.

June 5 update: RHS Kyle Lohse onto StL DL. IF Tyler Greene from Mem to StL. C Blake Murphy act from QC DL and promoted to PB.

June 6 update: C Nick Derba promoted from PB to Spr. RHS Blake Hawksworth from Mem to StL. RHR Jess Todd from StL to Mem. IF Donovan Solano from Spr to Mem.

The St. Louis Cardinals Roster Matrix (effective 06/06/09)

St. Louis (25+5)	40-man (38)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	K Greene (i)	Glaus (i)	Ankiel
Lohse (i)	Thompson	Molina		Thurston	Ryan		Duncan
Pineiro	McClellan				Barden		Ludwick
Wainwright	Motte (4)				T Greene (16)		Rasmus (1)
Wellemeyer	C Perez						Stavinoha (35)
Ja Garcia (9iL)	Miller (L)
Hawksworth	Reyes (L)


Memphis (24+5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Boyer (DFA)	Anderson (3)	Brito (i)	Hoffpauir	Solano	Craig (18)	Jay (12)
Mortensen (11)	Salas (31)	Pagnozzi		Rowlett		Freese (5i)	Mather
Parisi (i)	Scherer	Yarbrough (i)				Wallace (2)	Shorey
Walters (17)	Kinney (20)						Robinson (27)
Ottavino (15)	Maekawa (L)
Boggs (10)	Ostlund (L)
MacLane (L)	Manning (L)
	Ring (L)
	Todd (7)
Others (1)
							Cazana
							(Mexico)

Springfield (24+8)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Kopp (28)	Mura (i)	Hill (34)	A Brown (i)	Descalso	Kozma (8)	Folli	Jones (6)
	M Gonzalez	T Cruz (36)	Hamilton (i)		Jo Martinez (37ti)		Rapoport
Hearne	Degerman	Derba	C Smith (40)				Ant. DeJesus
Fiske (iL)	Parise		Arburr				Henley
Lynn (14)	Samuel (21)
Kulik (L)	McCormick (i)
	Dew (i)
	Norrick (L)
	Dickson
	Furnish (L)
	Sanchez

	Maiques (susp)

Palm Beach (25+2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Diapoules		Rivera	Marmol	Bolivar	Curtis	Chambers
R Castillo (19)	Eager	Vazquez		Jo Garcia	Sedbrook		Pham
Additon (26iL)	King	Murphy		Luna (39)			Peterson
Gorgen (22)	Reifer (24)						Swauger
Fick	Linares (L)
	Freeman (L)
	Garceau (29i)
	Mulligan
	E Hernandez

Quad Cities (25+4)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Daley, Jr.	Carpenter	Cutler	Morales	Toribio	Vasquez (13)		Parejo
Zawacki	Delgado	Espinoza		A Castellanos			Edwards (23i)
	Buursma			Lilley			P Cruz
Bravo (iL)	Rosales			Toribio			Bogany
Bradford (i)	M Tapia						Mitchell
Nieto	Pichardo						Ja Martinez
Cardenas (L)	Veres
Thomas	McGregor

J Wilson (restr)

Ext. Spring (63)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Cruz	A Castillo	A Perez	D Medina	Landin	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus		Castro	Rigoli	L Mateo	Y Castillo	R DeLaCruz (38)	Gomez
Arredondo	Calero	Cawley	Scruggs		Mambell		Hage
Blazek	Frevert	L DeLaCruz			Mosquera		Ingram
Diaz	Maertz	Moscatel			Obregon
Fornataro	Mayes	Polanco			R Ruiz		Lara
Javier	Munoz	Alcala			Valera		Rivero
Leach	Orozco						R Rodriguez
North	Ortiz						R Rosario
Notti							Riportella
R Gonzalez	Rondon						Shepherd
Rada	Russell						Swinson
Richardson	Y Gonzalez
Rios	J Castellanos (L)
Santos	Siegrist (L)
Hooker (32)
A Ferrara (L)
G Brown (L)

EST (visa delay 2)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Estalis	J Castillo (susp)

Batavia (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

Johnson City (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

GCL (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (32)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	Concepcion	V Ferreira	Pimentel	Avila	Cabrera	Villar	Beras
Franco	E Rivera	L Perez		Hiraldo	G Hernandez		Encarnacion
Jimenez	M Martinez	Montero		J Lopez			J Pena
Pasen	Pinard			W Perez			Reyes
Urena	D Rodriguez (L)						Sandoval
Herrera (L)	Mercedes (L)						Taveras
L Rosario (L)	P Pena (L)
	Uribe (L)

VSL (34+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Avendano	Cedeno	Rivas	R Perez	M Marquez	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	F Marquez	Viloria		Vargas		Yegues	Cortez
Corpas	Guzman	Velazco		Vivas (susp)		H Martina	Fonseca
Nieves	Polanco						Inojoza
Oraa	Ulacio						A Castellano
Colorado (L)	Ramos						Martines
	Solarte
	Weffer (L)
	R Alvarado (L)
	De Aguas (L)
	Echeverria (L)
	Villanueva (L)

Codes:

(#): My Cardinals prospect ranking from over the winter at Scout.com

(i): injured – on the disabled list

(t): temporary inactive list

(susp): suspended list

(restr): restricted list

(L) left-handed pitcher

Bold: on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster

(#+#) number of active players on the roster plus number of inactive (i+t+susp+restr) players

The Cardinals organization roster matrix: regular season

April 10, 2009 Brian Walton

Welcome to the refreshed St. Louis Cardinals roster matrix published to celebrate the start of the regular season for the major league club and the four full-season affiliates.

The initial versions of those four minor league rosters, Memphis, Springfield, Palm Beach and Quad Cities, are complete. Also included are injured and suspended players as well as those granted personal leave.

All of the invitees to Extended Spring Training camp are included together, a group that currently sits at 78 players with five more scheduled to arrive next month. The three US-based short-season rosters, for Batavia, Johnson City and the Gulf Coast League Cardinals, are left blank for the time being.

Come June, those clubs will be populated from the EST standouts as well as 2009 draftees and free agent signings. I will keep this roster matrix updated between now and then and then republish another fresh version once the short-season rosters are announced.

Most of the remainder of the EST players will return to the Dominican and Venezuelan Summer Leagues. The additional 62 players on the DSL and VSL rosters not invited to the US are listed below in their most recent league assignments.

All told, the organization currently has 282 players under contract, from St. Louis down through the Venezuelan Summer League Cardinals.

Like everything here at The Cardinal Nation, the matrix is provided at no charge. That doesn’t mean it didn’t take a lot of work to create and maintain. Please be respectful and link back here if you want to reference the matrix rather than copying it elsewhere.

Remember, this Roster Matrix can always be accessed in several ways. You can enter the term “roster matrix” in the blue search box in the upper right of the site or access this information through the top red menu bar under “Players/Staff” > “Depth Charts/Roster Matrix”.

Update 4/10: RHP Andres Rosales promoted from EST to QC to replace suspended Deryk Hooker

Update 4/13: 2B Oliver Marmol placed on Palm Beach DL, Jose Garcia promoted from EST to Palm Beach. Mark Hamilton activated by Springfield from EST, Brandon Buckman placed on the Springfield DL.

Update 4/15: Chris Carpenter to 15-day DL, Brad Thompson optioned to Memphis. Chris Perez and Mitchell Boggs promoted from Memphis to StL.

Update 4/16: LHR Royce Ring activated from Memphis 7-day DL.

Update 4/17: RHS P.J. Walters from Memphis to StL, RHR Josh Kinney optioned out. 2B Aaron Luna to Quad Cities DL, C Blake Murphy activated.

Update 4/20: OF Brian Barton traded to Atlanta for RHR Blaine Boyer.

Update 4/21: 3B David Freese optioned to Memphis to make room for Boyer in StL.

Update 4/23: RHR Kenny Maiques assigned to Extended Spring Training from Springfield. Eddie Degerman activated from PB DL to Springfield. OF Paul Cruz to Quad Cities DL. 2B Brett Lilley promoted to QC from EST.

Update 4/24: OF Amaury Marti injured (Oaxaca Guerreros of the Mexican League. LHP Katsuhiko Maekawa placed on Memphis 7-day DL.

Update 4/25: Acquired LHP Evan MacLane from Triple-A Reno (Arizona). Assigned to Triple-A Memphis. 282 players under contract.

Update 4/27: LHS Ryan Kulik promoted from PB to Spr as LHS Justin Fiske placed on DL. RHS Scott Gorgen promoted from Extended Spring Training.

Update 4/30: IF Brendan Ryan placed on StL 15-day DL. Tyler Greene promoted to StL from Memphis. OF Paul Cruz activated from DL by QC. C Blake Murphy returned to QC DL. Marco Gonzalez from Mem to Spr with Donovan Solano going the other way. OF Shane Robinson placed on Memphis DL with C Brandon Yarbrough and RHR Fernando Salas activated. SS Pete Kozma from PB to Spr. Kyle Mura to Spr DL. Trey Hearne into Spr rotation for Mura.

Update 5/1: IF Domnit Bolivar from QC to PB. IF Guillermo Toribio from EST to QC.

Update 5/2: LHP Jonny Bravo from EST to QC. RHP Chuckie Fick from QC to PB. RHP Lance Lynn from PB to Spr. Elvis Hernandez to Spr DL. PB ends tandem rotation with Mark Diapoules and Shaun Garceau to the bullpen.

Update 5/3: 1B Matt Arburr activated by PB. OF Charlie Kingrey released. New total 281.

Update 5/4: RHP P.J. Walters optioned to Mem with RHP Brad Thompson promoted to StL.

Update 5/5: 1B Brandon Buckman released from Spr. RHR Marco Gonzalez to Spr DL. LHP Joe Williams signed and added to Spr. OF Shane Robinson off Mem DL with 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir on.

Update 5/7: OF Rick Ankiel placed on the 15-day DL (likely effective 5/5). OF Shane Robinson added to 40-man roster and promoted from Memphis.

Update 5/8: IF Mike Folli from Spr to Mem. OF Brian Buck released from QC, replaced by Frederick Parejo from EST. LHP George Brown sent from QC to EST, replaced by RHP Josh Wilson. RHP Marco Gonzalez activated by Spr with LHP Kristhiam Linares onto Spr DL. QC moves Andres Rosales and Miguel Tapia to bullpen. New total 280.

Update 5/9: OF Alexander Castellano to VSL from DSL. C Jesus Montero to DSL from VSL. RHPs David Brito and Carlos Noguera released from EST. New total 278.

Update 5/12: IF Brendan Ryan assigned to Mem on rehab. RHP Kyle Mura activated by Spr. Ps Carlos Gonzalez, Jose Penaloza, Adam Prange and Senger Peralta released from EST. New total 274.

Update 5/13: OF Ryan Ludwick placed on StL DL, OF Nick Stavinoha recalled from Mem. OF Jarred Bogany from EST to Quad Cities, with OF Ryde Rodriguez going from QC to EST. LHP Ian Ostlund to Mem DL.

Update 5/14: OF Joe Mather to Mem DL. 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir and LHP Katsuhiko Maekawa activated from Mem DL. 1B Javier Brito signed for Mem as minor league free agent. New total 275.

Update 5/15: Spr 1B/OF Andrew Brown placed on DL. 1B Curt Smith from PB to Spr. OF Chris Swauger from QC to PB. OF Travis Mitchell from EST to QC. RP Kenny Maiques transferred from EST to Spr and suspended 50 games. RHP Mitchell Boggs from StL to Mem, with IF Brendan Ryan activated from Mem rehab.

Update 5/16: Mem 3B David Freese to DL. 3B Brett Wallace from Spr to Mem. Amaury Cazana activated from DL in Mexico.

Update 5/18: IF Mike Folli returned to Spr from Mem.

The St. Louis Cardinals Roster Matrix (effective 05/18/09)

St. Louis (25+5)	40-man (39)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Carpenter (i)	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	K Greene	Glaus (i)	Ankiel (i)
Lohse	Thompson	Molina		Thurston	Ryan		Duncan
Pineiro	McClellan				Barden		Ludwick (i)
Wainwright	Motte (4)				T Greene (16)		Rasmus (1)
Wellemeyer	C Perez						Robinson (27)
Ja Garcia (9iL)	Miller (L)						Stavinoha (35)
	Reyes (L)
	Boyer
Memphis (24+4)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Walters (17)	Todd (7)	Anderson (3)	Brito	Hoffpauir	Solano	Craig (18)	Jay (12)
Hawksworth	Kinney (20)	Pagnozzi		Rowlett		Freese (5i)	Shorey
Mortensen (11)	Salas (31)	Yarbrough				Wallace (2)	Mather (i)
Parisi (i)	Scherer
Ottavino (15)	Ring (L)
MacLane (L)	Maekawa (L)
Boggs (10)	Ostlund (iL)
	Manning (L)


Others (1)
							Cazana
							(Mexico)

Springfield (24+8)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Dickson	E Hernandez (i)	Hill (34)	A Brown (i)	Descalso	Kozma (8)	Folli	Jones (6)
Herron (25)	M Gonzalez	T Cruz (36)	Hamilton		Jo Martinez (37ti)		Rapoport
Hearne	Degerman		C Smith (40)				Ant. DeJesus
Fiske (iL)	Parise						Henley
Lynn (14)	Samuel (21)
Kulik (L)	McCormick (i)
	Dew (i)
	Norrick (L)
	Linares (iL)
	Furnish (L)
	Williams (L)
	Mura
	Maiques (susp)
Palm Beach (25+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Broderick	Sanchez	Derba	Rivera	Marmol (i)	Sedbrook	Curtis	Chambers
R Castillo (19)	Eager	Vazquez	Arburr	Jo Garcia	Bolivar		Pham
Additon (26L)	King						Peterson
Gorgen (22)	Reifer (24)						Swauger
Kopp (28)	Freeman (L)
	Diapoules
	Garceau (29)
	Fick

Quad Cities (25+4)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Daley, Jr. T4	Carpenter	Cutler	Morales	Luna (39i)	Vasquez (13)		Parejo
Bravo (L) T3	Delgado	Espinoza		A Castellanos	Toribio		Edwards (23)
Hooker (32 susp)	Mulligan	Murphy (i)		Lilley			P Cruz
J Wilson T3	Rosales						Bogany
McGregor T2	M Tapia						Mitchell
Nieto T2
Cardenas (L) T1
Thomas T1
Veres T4
Bradford (i)



Ext. Spring (63)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Cruz	A Castillo	A Perez	D Medina	Landin	Alvarez	Teran	Babrick
Ang. De Jesus		Castro	Rigoli	L Mateo	Y Castillo	R DeLaCruz (38)
Arredondo	Buursma	Cawley	Scruggs		Mambell		Gomez
Blazek		L DeLaCruz			Mosquera		Hage
Diaz	Calero	Moscatel			Obregon		Ingram
Fornataro	Frevert	Polanco			R Ruiz		Ja Martinez
	Maertz						Lara
	Mayes
Javier	Munoz						R Rodriguez
Leach	Orozco						R Rosario
	Ortiz						Riportella
North							Shepherd
Notti	Pichardo						Swinson
R Gonzalez
Rada	Rondon
Richardson	Russell
Rios	Y Gonzalez
Santos
Zawacki	J Castellanos (L)
G Brown (L)	Siegrist (L)
A Ferrara (L)


EST (May 15) (5)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
	Estalis	Alcala			Valera		Rivero
		J Castillo (susp)

Batavia (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

Johnson City (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

GCL (TBD)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF

DSL (34)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
A Tapia	Concepcion	V Ferreira	Pimentel	Avila	Cabrera	H Martina
Franco	E Rivera	L Perez		Hiraldo	G Hernandez	Villar	Beras
Jimenez	M Martinez	Montero		J Lopez			Encarnacion
Pasen	Pinard			W Perez			J Pena
Urena	D Rodriguez (L)						Martines
Herrera (L)	Mercedes (L)						Reyes
L Rosario (L)	P Pena (L)						Sandoval
	Uribe (L)						Taveras

VSL (26+1)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Avendano	Cedeno		R Perez	M Marquez	O Medina	H Garcia	Argenal
Bier	F Marquez	Rivas		Vargas		Yegues	Cortez
Nieves	Guzman	Viloria		Vivas (susp)			Fonseca
Colorado (L)	Oraa	Velazco					Inojoza
Weffer (L)	R Alvarado						A Castellano
	Ramos
	Solarte

The matrix: breaking the code

Players with injuries that led to a stint on the disabled list are noted with (i). The number in parentheses after each club’s name is the quantity of players assigned there. (ti) means the player is on the temporary inactive list. “susp” denotes players suspended.

The names of those on the 40-man roster are listed in BOLD.

After some names, you will see a number in parentheses. That denotes my personal ranking of the player in the annual Top 40 Cardinals Prospects voting at Scout.com. (At The Birdhouse, my individual scores as shown here were weighted one-fourth in determining the final Scout.com ranking.)

Paired members of the tandem starting rotations at Palm Beach and Quad Cities are denoted by “Tn”. Pairs are assigned “n” values 1 through 4 or 5 based on their initial assignment sequence.

When assigning positions, I put players in just one column. My attempt was to acknowledge where they are expected to play during the majority of the season.

To delineate the left-handed starters and relievers, I adopted the practice of placing the lefties at the end of the starters and relievers lists, designated by the letter (L).

Don’t read anything into the order of the names within any column, other than the LHPs at the end. They are generally presented alphabetically. The order has no correlation to playing time, duration on the roster or anything else.

This isn’t the final source on the spelling of players’ names. I have tried to remain consistent with what we use at Scout.com and what is designated at MiLB.com. Especially with the academy players, the information from the Cardinals themselves can even include mistakes.

Don’t forget the wealth of (free) information about each player that we maintain in the Scout.com player data base. It is too unwieldy to maintain every link to almost 300 player profiles directly from the matrix, but do keep using the Scout profiles as the source for additional information on individual players.

I will always designate the most current date when the matrix was last updated, but I am not necessarily planning to maintain a log of every transaction that occurs across the system all year, though I will keep the matrix current.

The good news is that I don’t have to document all the moves. UConnCard already does that over on the Scout.com message board. My goal will be to stay in sync with that list of moves visually. So remember the link to the transaction log, especially if/when detailed questions come up.

Link to previous matrix: January – March, 2009

Cardinals minor matters – February 11

February 11, 2009 Brian Walton

I decided to post a round-up of recent news and may append other items to this entry as the day goes on.

Kennedy second-guessing

Many fans and columnists are confused by the decision and/or the timing of the release of second baseman Adam Kennedy by the Cardinals. I am not among them.

Tony La Russa apparently wanted Kennedy gone since before the holidays as he was concerned about a potential disruption in camp, with a competition coming for the second base job. Over the winter, the organization continued to try to get some value for the player, which makes sense given they owe him $4 million on the third and final year of his current contract. But with spring training just a week away, the club finally had to cut bait. Both views seem reasonable to me.

Kennedy has a good glove, but he is not alone in that. His offense is considerably below MLB average and for that reason, I am not sad to see him go. My only wish is that the Cardinals could have gotten something from Kennedy very early in the off-season. Before Arizona signed Felipe Lopez, there were rumors they were interested in Kennedy. Had that deal been done, perhaps either Lopez or Aaron Miles would still be Cardinals.

As I said yesterday, considering where things are now, let the kids fight it out during camp and if no one emerges, make a move late in March.

Weaver hanging on

Former Cardinals pitcher Jeff Weaver signed a minor league deal to return to the Dodgers, his home in 2004 and 2005. The contract is reportedly worth $500,000 if he makes the team. The 33-year-old right-hander split his time between Triple-A clubs for Milwaukee and Cleveland last summer, posting an ERA over six.

Most fans know the story of how the Cards rescued the former Tiger and Yankee off the Angels’ scrap heap after the latter club bumped Jeff in favor of his brother Jered. While Jeff Weaver went just 5-4, 5.18 to end the 2006 season for the Cards, he came up big in the post-season, going 3-2, 2.43 and winning the final game of the World Series.

As a result, he received an offer to return to St. Louis for 2007, but instead agent Scott Boras guided Weaver to Seattle, where a large mushroom cloud was soon sighted. It doesn’t seem to me that Boras cares about the fact that the most money isn’t always the best answer.

Looper to slide with Bernie Brewer

After being seemingly everyone’s second choice all winter, former Cardinals reliever-turned-starter Braden Looper is joining the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers rotation, joining former teammate Jeff Suppan.

The deal is reportedly a most reasonable one for the club, at one year, $4.75 million with a mutual option for 2010. Looper can choose to return to free agency after this coming season, giving him a chance to get back in the market if it improves. If Milwaukee declines the 2010 option and Looper accepts, he’ll be bought out for a lower amount. Looper’s 2010 salary has not been disclosed nor whether any incentives exist in the contract.

Somewhere, likely en route to spring training, Kyle Lohse is grinning again. Here’s hoping (again, still) that Chris Carpenter is going to be ok.

Pujols still standing behind his trainer

As the Alex Rodriguez furor continues, I ran across a very small Albert Pujols news item. The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman is hosting a hitting clinic this Thursday in the Kansas City area.

The site is a place called Millhouse AEP, an athletic training center focusing on strength and conditioning. Its owner is Chris Mihlfeld, also known as Pujols’ personal trainer and a friend of the star since his time at Maple Woods Community College ten years ago.

It is great to see that Albert is still standing behind his friend, the victim of a most unfortunate and unwarranted attack on his reputation back in 2006 that also attempted to wrongly smear Pujols’ name.

The website Deadspin published and later was forced to retract an unfounded accusation that Mihlfeld supplied PEDs to former pitcher Jason Grimsley. The photo in the article and much of the bad press that followed was directed at Pujols, an entirely innocent third party, but obviously a much bigger name to drag through the mud.

And folks wonder why mainstreamers like Bob Costas come out against internet writers for lack of accountability. (OK, so Costas’ comments overall were pretty ridiculous, but reports like the Mihlfeld one from sites that feature frathouse-type humor to try to appear edgy help no one that cares about credibility.)

Nick the backstop

In case you missed it, add one more player to the round about position changes underway in Cardinals spring training camp. The Post-Dispatch reported that GM John Mozeliak has announced that outfielder Nick Stavinoha is undergoing a position move to catcher.

Joe Strauss notes that the strong and stocky-built 26-year-old was an all-state catcher in high school in Houston. However, 2002 was a long time ago and there is a huge gap between high school and the major leagues.

Yet in the outfield, Stavinoha has not been mentioned among the top tier of candidates for a major league berth in 2009. He was likely destined for a return to Memphis, where outfield at-bats will be a fought-for commodity. Though he punished the ball in Triple-A last season, Stavinoha’s 57 at-bat MLB debut yielded a very soft .193/.217/.211 line.

Flores hopes for health, humidor

Jettisoned Cards left-handed reliever Randy Flores signed a one-year, $600,000 contract to return to his 2002 club, the Colorado Rockies. Coming off shoulder surgery, it is unclear when Flores will actually be ready to pitch. He has an out in his contract that he can exercise by April 30 if he is not in the majors.

Ankiel, Boras heading toward arbitration

I thought I had covered this ad nauseum, but the Cardinals and Rick Ankiel, represented by agent Scott Boras, are meeting Thursday in Phoenix to present their cases to a three-person panel of arbiters. The subject is whether Ankiel’s 2009 salary should be $2.35 million or $3.3 million.

Expect the decision to be made public on Friday. To this point, the players and clubs are 1-1 this winter, with Tampa Bay defeating catcher Dioner Navarro while pitcher Shawn Hill won his case against the Washington Nationals.

Cards outfielder Ryan Ludwick’s hearing is this coming Tuesday, the 17^th.

Update: The Post-Dispatch identified local attorney Hal Wellford as the individual assisting Assistant GM John Abbamondi in presenting the Cardinals case. Here is a link to Wellford’s resume.

Three more spring invites

The Cards have invited three more pitchers to their big league camp, according to Dustin Mattison at Whiteyball.com. Left-handers Brad Furnish and Katsuhiko Maekawa plus right-hander Shaun Garceau get to experience the excitement of their first major league spring training with the Cardinals, but shouldn’t plan on staying long.

Garceau and Furnish will be Rule 5-eligible this winter if not added to the 40-man roster. With so many in a similar situation, that is far from assured. The Japanese native Maekawa is a recent signee with a checkered past, both on and off the field.

Venezuelan winter update

Over at Cardinals Best News Links, Josh Jones is continuing his Cardinals winter league recaps with the prospects that competed in Venezuelan League this winter.

Bo Hart for Valentine’s Day

Two Bo Hart references here in as many days. Let’s get camp underway!

In a February 14-themed feature, a Chicago writer recapped the former Cardinals second baseman’s 2008 season in independent ball.

2008 season summary video

MLB.com has posted a free three-and-a-half minute video summary of the 2008 Cardinals season. It is worth a quick watch as a refresher, though of course, the negatives are glossed over as having been injury-driven.

The Cardinals Organization Roster Matrix: Preseason 2009

January 12, 2009 Brian Walton

Note: This post has been superseded by a new version of the Roster Matrix dated 4/10 which is available via this link.

What follows is a project I have considered for a long time, but I guess I needed the cold and snow of winter to motivate me to finally undertake it.

Following is a complete listing of all players currently known to be under contract in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Initially, there are 306 players from the 40-man roster down through the Venezuelan Summer League.

Because we are all impatient types, I am going to list the rosters first, with all the explanation, caveats, etc. following. Before you post comments or send notes with mistakes or corrections, please take the time to read the explanations that follow the matrix, as many of your questions may already be answered. Also, don’t forget to read the comments afterward and add your own!

For future reference, as this article falls off the front page, remember to bookmark this URL. If you forget how to find it, just put your cursor on “Players/Staff” at the top of the page and then “Depth Charts”, and you’ll be back here. Plus, the search box at the upper right is always active.

One final request. Like everything here at The Cardinal Nation, the matrix is provided at no charge. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a lot of work to create and maintain. Please be respectful and link back here if you want to reference the matrix rather than copying it elsewhere.

Updated 2/4/09: Reliever Hyang-Nam Choi signed to a minor league deal and added to Memphis roster. New total 307.

Updated 2/9/09: 2B Adam Kennedy released. New total 306

Updated 2/28/09. P Mitch Harris signed. Likely on restricted list due to active Navy service so not listed here.

Updated 3/2/09: C Ismael Cardona (Batavia) released. The contract of pitcher Jose Vicente Campos (VSL) was voided. New total 304.

Updated 3/5/09: LHR Dennys Reyes signed. 305 players under contract.

Updated 3/15/09: Minor league LHP Kristian Linares added. New total 306.

Updated 3/18/09: RP Mike Sillman and OF Luke Gorsett retired. Total 304.

Updated 3/23/09: RP Luke Gregerson traded. IF Nick Vera, LHS Joe Rogers, 2B Isa Garcia, RHP Miguel Flores and C Christian Rosa released. New total 298.

Updated 3/26/09: Released RPs Hyang-Nam Choi, Russ Haltiwanger,Zach Pitts, Matt Spade, Wayne Damon, Jose Mateo, Jon Mikrut, Jameson Maj and 3B Brian Cartie. Total 289.

Updated 3/27/09: Royce Ring removed from 40-man and accepted assignment to Memphis.

Updated 3/31/09: Released Cs Justin Knoedler and Rickey Noland and Ps Ryan Bird, J.D. Stambaugh, Davis Bilardello, Dylan Gonzalez and Josh Hester.

The St. Louis Cardinals Roster Matrix (as of 3/31/09)

St. Louis (23)	40-man (34)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Carpenter	Franklin	LaRue	Pujols	Schumaker	K Greene	Glaus	Ankiel
Lohse	Kinney (20)	Molina			Ryan		Duncan
Pineiro	McClellan						Ludwick
Wainwright	Motte (4)						Mather
Wellemeyer
	Thompson
	Reyes (L)
	Miller (L)


Memphis (27)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Boggs (10)	Haltiwanger	Anderson (3)		Hoffpauir	Barden	Freese (5)	Barton
Hawksworth	Mikrut	Knoedler		Thurston	T Greene (16)		Cazana (Marti)
Mortensen (11)	Scherer	Pagnozzi					Jay (12)
Parisi (i)	Manning (L)	Yarbrough					Rasmus (1)
Todd (7)	Maekawa (L)						Robinson (27)
Walters (17)	Ostlund (L)						Stavinoha (35)
Ja Garcia (9iL)	Choi
Rogers (L)	Ring (L)
	C Perez
Springfield (22)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Dickson	Dew		Brown	I Garcia	Jo Martinez (37)	Craig (18)	Jones (6)
Hearne	M Gonzalez		Buckman	Descalso	Solano	Wallace (2)	Rapoport
Mura	Gregerson (30)		Hamilton				Rowlett
Ottavino (15)	Salas (31)						Shorey
Fiske (L)	McCormick
Furnish (L)

Palm Beach (27)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Bird	Daman	Derba	Hill (34)	Folli	Kozma (8)	Cartie	DeJesus
Diapoules	Degerman	Vasquez	Arburr		Marmol	T Cruz (36)	Luna (39)
Garceau (29)	E Hernandez						Henley
Herron (25)	Maiques						Kingrey
King	J Mateo
Kopp (28)	Mulligan
Additon (26L)	Parise
Norrick (L)	Samuel (21)
	Bilardello (L)
	Freeman (L)
	Linares (L)
Quad Cities (23)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
R Castillo (19)	Bradford	J Castillo	Rivera		Bolivar		Chambers
Broderick	Daley, Jr.	Espinoza	Smith (40)		Vasquez (13)		Edwards (23)
Fick	Frevert	Murphy					Ingram
Hooker (32)	D Gonzalez						Pham
Lynn (14)	Rondon
Maj	Sanchez
McGregor	Spade (L)
Kulik (L)	Stambaugh (L)

Batavia (29)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Delgado	Buursma	Rosa	Scruggs	A Castellanos	Lilley	Curtis	Gomez
Eager	Lugo	Cutler		Jo Garcia	Sedbrook	Morales	Ja Martinez
Gorgen (22)	Mayes	L DeLaCruz		Landin		Vera	Parejo
Hester	Reifer (24)						Peterson
Nieto							Riportella
Pitts							Swauger
Richardson
M Tapia
Veres
Brown (L)
Cardenas (L)

Johnson City (29)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Arredondo	Carpenter	Castro	Rigoli	L Mateo	Alvarez		Bogany
Blazek	Flores	Cawley		Toribio	Y Castillo		P Cruz
Fornataro	C Gonzalez	Noland					Hage
R Gonzalez	Maertz						Lara
Leach	Pichardo						Mitchell
North	Bravo (L)						R Rodriguez
Rosales
Santos
Thomas
Zawacki
Peralta (L)

GCL (28)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Diaz	Calero	Moscatel	H Medina	Hiraldo	Mosquera	Teran	Babrick
Javier	Concepcion	A Perez			Obregon		Buck
Notti	Munoz				R Ruiz		R Rosario
Rada	Ortiz						Shepherd
A Cruz	Penaloza						Swinson
A Ferrara (L)	Prange
	Russell
	J Castellanos (L)
	Siegrist (L)

DSL (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
De Jesus	Estalis	V Ferreira	Pimentel	J Lopez	G Hernandez	H Martina	Beras
Franco	Pinard	L Perez		Avila	Cabrera	R DeLaCruz (38)	A Castellano
Jimenez	A Castillo	Polanco		W Perez		Villar	Martines
Urena	E Rivera						Reyes
Pasen	M Martinez						Sandoval
A Tapia	Mercedes (L)						Encarnacion
Herrera (L)	Uribe (L)						J Pena
L Rosario (L)	D Rodriguez (L)						Taveras
	P Pena (L)

VSL (37)
SP	RP	C	1B	2B	SS	3B	OF
Bier	R Alvarado	Alcala	R Perez	M Marquez	Mannbel	H Garcia	Cortez
Avendano	Y Gonzalez	Montero		Vargas	O Medina	Yegues	Fonseca
Nieves	Guzman	Rivas		Vivas	Valera		Inojoza
Corpas	F Marquez	Viloria					Rivero
Noguera	Solarte	Velazco					Argenal
Rios	Orozco
Weffer (L)	Cedeno
Colorado (L)	Oraa
	Brito
	Ramos

The matrix: What it is

While some of the players’ levels may look odd (four catchers in Memphis and none in Springfield, for example), they are placed where the Cardinals have assigned them. Of course, once working rosters begin to be “worked” in Jupiter in March, there will be changes, many of them.

Players with injuries that appear to be season-ending are noted with (i). The number in parentheses after each club’s name is the quantity of players assigned there.

The one area where I did make adjustments is in my view of the likely end-of-spring distribution of the players on the 40-man roster between St. Louis and Memphis. Otherwise, there wouldn’t yet be much of a roster in Triple-A. Like everything else, this will be fluid come spring. The 40-man players’ names are listed in BOLD.

(In that vein, I initially listed 26 players for St. Louis. I know that is one too many. I predict that one of the three lefty relievers isn’t going to make it and same with one of the righties. One the plus side, another infield reserve will be required. 26 minus two plus one will get us to 25, eventually.)

After some players’ names, you will see a number in parentheses. They denote my personal ranking of the player in the annual Top 40 Cardinals Prospects voting at Scout.com. (At The Birdhouse, my individual scores as shown here were weighted one-fourth in determining the final Scout.com ranking.)

What it isn’t

When assigning positions, I put players in just one column. My attempt was to acknowledge where they spent the majority of last season. For example, I know that Steven Hill and Tony Cruz are being tried behind the plate. That’s no different from last year, yet both ended up playing far more games at other positions.

For the pitchers, I started out with separate columns for the left-handed starters and relievers, but the table just became too big. So instead, I adopted the practice of placing the lefties at the end of the starters and relievers lists, designated by the letter (L).

Don’t read anything into the order of the names within any column, other than the LHPs at the end. I started alphabetically, but at the lower levels, I backed off. At this point, they have no correlation to playing time, duration on the roster or anything else. Step one was simply to get everyone in the right box.

Don’t forget the wealth of (free) information about each player that we maintain in the Scout.com player data base. It is too unwieldy to include and keep current every link to over 300 player profiles directly from the matrix, but do keep using the Scout profiles as the source for detailed information on individual players.

I will always designate the most current date when the matrix was last updated, but I am not planning to maintain a log of every transaction that occurs across the system all year. The good news is that I don’t have to. UConnCard already does that over on the Scout.com message board. My goal will be to stay in sync with that list of moves visually. So remember the link to the transaction log, especially if/when questions come up.

What it may be later on

Once the 2009 regular season begins, I hope to be noting players:

on the disabled list
sharing jobs in the tandem pitching rotations in A-ball
performing the role of closer

Perhaps I may even undertake re-ordering the players in some sort of recognition of playing time, but that remains to be seen.

What you can do

Let me know what you think about this project. Putting in the time to create and maintain it is only of value to me if it is of value to you.

Speak up if you see errors or have questions. The more eyes over the map, the more accurate it will be.

I’d like to thank CariocaCardinal and UConnCard for being the initial set of proof-readers/correctors. In addition, jrocke217’s reports on the DSL and VSL were invaluable.

In fact, Carioca’s first comments led me to the article about the releases of Carlos Pupo, Ross Oeder and Nick Peoples. So, other good can come from this kind of project, too.

First-hand news and commentary on the St. Louis Cardinals™ and minor league system for over 25 years