Lance Berkman beats up on some minor leaguers while Virgil Hill leads the position players. Another nice outing for 2011 draftee Sam Gaviglio.
Memphis 1, Palm Beach 1
Memphis
- Brian Broderick allowed 7 hits in 5 innings for 2 ER. He struck out 4 and walked no one.
- Chuckie Fick was perfect for two innings striking out 3.
- Bryan Anderson was 2-for-3. I can’t say that I’m thrilled to find Anderson in Memphis. I think that, on paper, there’s a good case for him being better than Tony Cruz. It’s understated by looking at just their rate stats given that Anderson could be platooned to better effect against right-handed pitching than Cruz. That said, we’re probably looking at something like 2-3 runs over the course of the year and if pitchers prefer Cruz or the coaching staff prefers Cruz, then so be it. At the end of the day, it’s nice to see the Cardinals saving half a million with a home-grown backup catcher.
Palm Beach
- Richard Castillo allowed 3 hits in 3 IP. He walked 1 and struck out 1.
- Dean Kiekhefer pitched 2 innings allowing 3 hits. He struck out 1 and was saddled with an unearned run.
- Justin Wright struck out 3 in 2IP. He walked 1.
- Lance Berkman was 3-for-3 with a double. I doubt he’ll be starting the season in Palm Beach. I’d expect the club to start him at least in Springfield.
Quad Cities 3, Extended Spring Training 4
Quad Cities
- Sam Gaviglio, who may be my new Quad Cities pet prospect, struck out 5 and walked 1 in 4 innings of work. He allowed 1 hit.
- Willy Paulino was lit up for 3 runs in 1 inning of work. He allowed 3 hits and struck out the side.
- Adam Lewis was 1-for-2 with a dinger.
- Colin Walsh and Nick Martini both walked twice. Martini seems to have had a positive spring, which hopefully translates into a better year. He struggled mightly in his half season at Batavia.
EST
- Dail Villanueva allowed 1 run over 4 IP. He walked 2 and struck out 1 allowing 2 hits.
- Shooter Hunt pitched 1 inning allowing 1 hit and striking out 1 for 1 ER.
- Kevin Jacobs pitched a perfect frame striking out 2.
- Virgil Hill was 2-for-3 with a triple and a homerun.
Entries (RSS)
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head re: Anderson. I like Anderson too, but not it’s not worth getting worked up over, and regardless I’m glad we’re not dumping another million on Laird (awesome photoshopping aside).
If I were Bryan Anderson, I would have my agent go ask for a trade. He will not get a legitimate chance in St.Louis. There are plenty of teams who need catchers and he’s not getting any younger. He was told it would be a competition for the backup job. He batted .478; had an obp close to .600; an OPS of over 1.2 and has more power then Cruz. If that doesn’t win you a job then it’s time to move on and for Bryan, it’s time.
Unfortunately for Anderson, being a catcher involves much, much more than offense. This is why many catchers are brutal offensively. I don’t think you can make any assumptions that the competition was unfairly weighted or judged. And even if you are making the offensive argument, it is such a small sample size it is negligible.
Who is to say that BA won’t get a nice bit of time in the majors this year. Catchers get hurt all the time, and while I hope both of ours stay healthy, there is a very good chance that one will go down for a period.
Finally, if I was another team, and looking for a catcher, the last guy I would want is the guy who has failed to truly distinguish himself in the minors, and yet feels entitled enough to demand a trade.
All that being said, I like BA and want him to have a shot. I think it will come.
Still think that he should have been moved to 2nd or LF.
I think they looked at him in the OF and decided against it. I don’t think 2B would work any better.
His hitting ability does not look good as an OF.
He did get legitimate chances. Problem is, teams don’t as easily look over his faults as you do.
If another team really wanted him, he would be gone. The fact that he is still a cardinal shows how limited his trade value is.
Why did Berkman even play with Palm Beach. Is it just to get more hitting reps.
Apparently both Trevor Rosenthal and Oscar Taveras are skipping Palm Beach, and are going straight to Springfield.
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120401&content_id=27807442&vkey=news_stl&c_id=stl
Only mildly surprised but this will be quite a test for both. I would partially expect both to struggle a little at first but I still believe they will both have success when its all said and done. Glad to see both these guys getting challenged.
I wasn’t surprised about the Rosenthal promotion. He had a pretty good year last year (peripherals, not his raw numbers) and he had a strong camp and he’ll be 22 in two months. Need to get him moving. Taveras on the other hand was an aggressive promotion.
Counting Wong, that’s 3 guys starting in Springfield this season who skipped PB. Can’t remember anything equivalent to that in past years.
I wouldn’t say it was that agressive. Taveras held his own in the AFL after a slow start and they say that’s equivalent to AA baseball. He clearly impressed the MLB staff and they frequently requested him personally from the backfields to be brought to the MLB complex. Also he’s been with the Springfield working group facing Memphis pitching all Spring. He will do fine he’s a natural.
the whole springfield roster has been posted:
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ros&cid=440&stn=true&sid=t440
Players who are not on the S’field roster (and presumably have been promoted to Memphis):
Shelby Miller
Matt Adams
Zack Cox
Joe Kelly
Chris Swauger
Jermaine Curtis
I don’t see D’Marcus Ingram listed either —- he must have been bumped back down to High A (or cut altogether).
Pham remains at AA, which is a mild surprise IMHO. Memphis outfield isn’t exactly brimming over w/ top prospects. The Memphis outfield will be swauger, chambers, aaron luna, mark hamilton, and shane robinson once craig / schumaker come of the DL. plus jimmy rapaport if he’s still with the organization.
Ingram was released over the Winter.
Rapaport was released before the end of last season.
Robinson seems certain to be in AAA when Craig returns. With Chambers and Robinson getting all the PT in CF in Memphis, probably made sense for Pham to be in SPR, just for playing time purposes.
that is odd. you’d think that the club would want to push, not put the brakes on, the closest guy to the majors who can credibly play CF and credibly hit RH.
Pham isn’t ready yet and I don’t think he’s the better RH hitter or CF. I think Pham’s the better prospect and probably will be a better player but after missing alot of last year with the broken wrist he needs to start in Springfield. He won’t even be playing in the field for another 17 days.
Even if you do believe that his relative success in the AFL to be fair idea of what he’ll do in AA, he’s still rather young for AA. You’d expect him to be in High A for the majority of the year given his age. I do agree that he impressed the staff with his maturity during ST, and I think that directly translated to his aggressive promotion.
Actually, it was Taveras who dominated the Midwest League. Rosenthal got his homework done developing secondaries. It was Taveras who got sent to the AFL. Both have looked good this spring. Frankly, I’m not surprised at any of the three (Taveras, Rosenthal or Wong).
It may take a bit for them to prosper but there is no reason why they can’t own this league as well. All three are brimming with confidence and the talent to keep on keeping on….
It would have been interesting to have Martinez, Rosenthal, Wong and Taveras all in Palm Beach….but, I think these 3 are right where they belong.
Exactly… Adams showed that skipping Palm Beach can be done. These are the 3 to do it.
Tonight will be interesting with Rosenthal pitching against his teammates in Springfield.
I thought it would have been more interesting to have him pitch against his future teammates in STL!
Even if Rosenthal had dominated the MWL, he wouldn’t have pitched in the AFL. His total innings with the play-offs were 137 which was a huge increase over the year before of 30 something (although short season innings are not very comparable due to EST which are not on the IP radar).
The question for me is when CMart goes to Springfield.
I doubt he sniffs Springfield unless it’s late in the year and he’s dominating High A. The Cardinals aggressively promoted him to High A (and they usually don’t do that with their young pitchers) likely to work with Dennis Martinez. Doubt they’re going to push that.
He doesn’t hot enough for left field
I’m too sexy for left field; too sexy for left; so sexy it hurts…
On Berkman he was getting some AB’s from the left side of the plate since he felt he didn’t get enough during the spring.
I guess it wasn’t Larussa blocking Anderson after all.
Damn! It’s a conspiracy.
What’ya know?
Ottavino claimed by the Rockies.
Is there any word on Gaviglio’s velocity this spring? I would think that if he has gained a couple MsPH on his fastball, with his excellent control and repertoire, his projected ceiling could rise a fair amount.
He hasn’t. He’s been 88 to 91 when I’ve seen him.