Rasmus, Mather and four others sent out
JUPITER, Fla. — The Cardinals top prospect and one of the top impact surprises of spring training were among six players sent to Triple-A on the eve of the club’s only off day this spring, a sure sign of a roster taking shape with less than two weeks to play.
Colby Rasmus and Joe Mather will report to the Memphis Redbirds camp on Wednesday, where they will be joined by pitcher Mike Parisi, catcher Mark Johnson, and pitcher Jason Motte. Pitcher Clayton Mortensen was also reassigned to the minor-league camp. Mather, Motte and Parisi were all optioned to Triple-A.
“You can tell by the number of at-bats they got the kind of impression they made,” manager Tony La Russa said of Rasmus and Mather, two prospects who stayed in the thick of the competition for starting jobs all the way to St. Patrick’s Day. Both outfielders had more than 40 plate appearances.
“You don’t get at-bats like that if you’re not impressing someone.”
As a nod to the kind of spring training Rasmus has had, the Cardinals’ top prospect — and widely considered one of the five best prospects in all of baseball — started Monday’s game in center field and led off.
He leaves major-league camp as one of the NL leaders with 12 walks to complement a .273/.467/.515 line and two home runs, seven runs scored and four RBIs.
“I’ll go down and keep playing with a bunch of the guys I’ve been playing with,” Rasmus said, “and try to fight my way back up.”
Where Rasmus entered spring with excess hoopla, Mather came to spring training with little more than a new spot on the 40-man roster. Just a few years ago the Cardinals were about to release the 6-foot-4 slugger, and this past winter it took some staunch advocates in high places to put him on the 40-man roster and protect him from other team’s. Mather repaid his fans with a .526 slugging percentage in spring, the third best among outfielders behind opening day center fielder Rick Ankiel and surging Rule-5 pick Brian Barton.
Mather hit .289 with a .386 on-base percentage and six extra-base hits and four RBIs.
“I feel like I did what I could, did what I had to do,” Mather said. “Just put myself in the picture. I finally played in front of Tony.”
Parisi, a righthander, may be even more in the picture than the other two. While the Cardinals do have several major-league starters they are banking on returning in the first five weeks, Parisi threw himself into the mix as the first starter ready from Triple-A. The righthander drew raves for his throw Monday, as he alternated innings with newcomer Kyle Lohse in a simulated game.
Pitching coach Dave Duncan said Parisi “is going to pitch in the major leagues because he’s got major-league stuff. Very impressive.”
Motte, a catcher turned fireball reliever, had been in the mix for the one suddenly open bullpen spot. His departure leaves three still competing: favorite Kelvin Jimenez, upstart Kyle McClellan and Chris Perez.
The assignments give the clearest snapshot yet of the 13 position players the Cardinals will bring north, and the outfielders who will open the season with the team — including Skip Schumaker, Ryan Ludwick, and Barton, and infielder Brendan Ryan.
The roster moves were made Monday because innings to pitch and playing time will become sparse as the Cardinals devote more of the games to the regulars.
“All of these guys had real solid camps,” general manager John Mozeliak said. ”Not only did they open up the eyes on our major-league staff but they reinforced how a lot of us felt about them and why we brought them in the camp. … It wouldn’t surprise me if I saw either one of them (this season) in St. Louis.”
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
It will be good to see Mather back eventually, but for now the Cards need Ryan as the utility infielder. He’s a better fielder at 3B, even though the position was new to him, as of last year, and, of course, he plays SS better than Miles or Mather.
Now if we can just get Gonzalez to AAA, or the DL, we can breathe easy that Barton will stay and not be sent back to Cleveland. That would be a total shock, given the way Barton has excelled at bat and on the basepaths.
Even though the Cards may not win a ton of games I think they will be fun to watch because of the young outfielders and Ryan at short. for whatever reason the young guys will play to at least we can see what we have and they may turn out to be pretty good.
I think Barton is pretty safe. Thankfully, he’s produced, so it’s not a situation where they have to judge whether he’ll ever come around and if his potential is worth keeping. It’d be a very tortured rationalization to get rid of him now. (Not saying that this regime couldn’t come up with some, I’m just saying that’s what it’d take.)
I hope Tony gives the young guys thier chance when the time permits, its about producing in the big leagues and preforming as expected. If these newer outfielders dont produce then lets find ones that do in our system, its time to Win again because i sure dont like being 2nd to the
Cubs ever, and we should be looking to be in the playoffs - if not then play double A or triple - St louis is a winner and whomever plays for them should know the fans expect the best, thats why we have always been the team people like to be on, because we win. I’ll be backing them 100 percent and expecting the best. Like 2006 nobody thought but we faithful did and when we won it, it was even more rewarding, but management must put out or bring up…. evidently they want the latter so, lets produce from these young kids, that keeps the older veterans on thier toes, and i hope Tony goes to the system when its needed,,,, Go Cards…..
Seems like Perez is pitiching much better than the favorite Jiminez. Also Ryan is hitting the ball so why nit go ahead and play him at short?
I hate to see Colby go down, but I suppose that Schumaker has earned a shot at starting in the big leagues and it gives Colby a chance to prove that he can excell at the highest minor league level.
What is a 6-foor-4 slugger???
Is that the same as a near-sighted proof-reader?
Patience, virtuosity…This year could be special, not in our capacity to make the playoffs,but in future playoffs that have yet to be played.Go future stars,go developmment.future/STL history in the making…
As a card fan in exile in the ATL (and I do follow the Braves, just don’t root for them), I saw the Braves win the division 3 years ago playing 18 rookies. Let’s give the young guys a chance and see what they can do. As almost always happens in MLB, it’ll come down to pitching, so the big question is will the Cards have enough?? I think they will be a lot of fun to watch this year!
Letting those young players start the year at Memphis is a general policy in the Majors.
They’ll be back this year, but arbitration will be one year further off…it’ll save the club a fair piece of change 4 years from now
Free agency is the key. The Cardinals have already surrendered to the arbitration rules — which could make either Mather or Rasmus (most likely Rasmus) a Super 2 player if he spends 2/3 or more of this season in the majors. If he spends most of the year in the minors, then sure arbitration is delayed a year. But the real key is free agency. When his clock his 6.0 then he’s a free agent. That will be after 2014, but it could have been after 2013.
dg
Colby will be back up soon– and this move makes absolute sense: would you rather have him for a full year @ 21– or @ 27? (at a reduced rate…)…. It’s a budget call. I don’t know where this puts Barton or Ludwick– personally I hope we hang onto to Barton….