JUPITER, Fla. — On the backfields of the Florida Marlins side of Roger Dean Stadium, there was sighting of an elusive and once feared lost Redbird on Thursday.

He came sporting heat.

Mark McCormick, the fireballing prospect who was as much a riddle as a talent, made his first game start of spring training, throwing for Double-A Springfield against the Marlins’ affiliate. Less than a couple years ago, McCormick was considered the organization’s top pitching prospect within in the organization. He came to club as the 43rd overall pick in the 2005 draft, riding a fastball he could chuck in the high 90s, even if he didn’t always know where it was going.

Then he had some shoulder troubles to go with the control issues.

Then he made just 17 starts and threw less than 65 innings the past two seasons.

Out of sight, out of mind, even with a fastball that was once out of sight.

Yet, there it was Thursday.

McCormick worked 2 2/3 innings in his start, and he consistently threw 93 mph and 94 mph. He touched 96 mph, and he featured a sharp surve and baffled a hitter with a 85-mph changeup to whiff the final batter of the third inning. McCormick’s consistency tends to vary inning to inning. His walk totals can ebb just as his strikeouts flow, and vice versa.

He breezed through the first inning of work and then walked the first batter of the second inning on four pitches. He fell behind the next two hitters, and that’s when catch Bryan Anderson popped up and trotted out for a talk. McCormick had been straying high, up and away, with his fastball, until Anderson talked to him. The next two batters went like this:

• 93-mph swinging K, low and in.
• 92-mph two-seamer, grounded into force out.
• 93-mph looking K, 93-mph fastball up, 93 mph fastball away – F9

The Marlins’ minor-leaguers had difficulty catching up to his fastball, and McCormick eventually learned how to use that. He also began to feature his two-seam fastball, that has a solid snap to it and moves at (only) a few minutes less than the four-seam fastball. That thing can cook, but it’s most effective when he stays out of the zone with it. In his third inning, for example, he got ahead of the first hitter in the inning, lost him after missing with two 94-mph fastballs and then fed a meatball over the plate.

It landed somewhere out beyond the fence in right field.

McCormick has been leapfrogged by other pitching prospects like Jaime Garcia and Clayton Mortensen – who will both pitch against the Dodgers on Friday — and Adam Ottavino, both in house and from the outside. But some observers out on the backfields believed that McCormick could surge back into that group. Drafted out of Baylor and staked to a $800,000 signing bonus, McCormick has been a great unknown because of how few innings he’s pitched professionally.

He had shoulder surgery to repair an injury that had contributed to his irregular appearances, and his rehab is done. Dyar Miller recently told the righthander that this is a big season for him, one that could put him back in the conversation as the team’s best pitching prospect.

Thursday was a start.

***

While watching McCormick on Thursday, I couldn’t help but overhear what Arnoldi “Tony” Cruz was doing on an adjacent field. Starting at catcher for the Palm Beach club, Cruz nearly threw out a runner on the basepaths before a few beats later throwing out a runner on the basepaths. The second one got an enthusiastic shout and fist pump from starter David Kopp.

Then Cruz cracked a solo home run.

Second position for the third baseman. Two strong throws. Homer.

All in a days work.

That brings us to today’s Vuch Report.

** THE VUCH REPORT **

** Albuquerque 4, Memphis 3 **

– P.J. Walters, the Cardinals pitcher of the year in the minors, went 3 2/3 innings without allowing a run or a hit in his first start of the minor-league spring.

– Following Walters, a couple other of the Cardinals’ minor-league starters came in. Brad Furnish took the loss, allowing five hits and four runs in his two innings. And, Trey Hearne allowed one hit and no runs in his two innings.

– Reid Gorecki had two hits, including an RBI double.

** Carolina 5, Springfield 3 **

– There was McCormick, and: Gary Daley Jr. went 2 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, two runs, two walks and one strike. He took the loss. Though Eddie Degerman, the Rice alum with the extreme over-the-top, biceps-to-ear delivery, was the pitcher who struggled. He walked five and allowed two runs in his inning. 

– Chuckie Fick and Zach Zuercher each worked a scoreless inning.

– Shortstop Tyler Greene, who is in a similar situation as McCormick, went 2-for-4 with a run scored. A. J. Van Slyke went 2-for-3 with a walk and a couple RBIs, and Luke Gorsett was 2-for-4 with a double.

** Palm Beach 6, Jupiter 4 **

– Cruz (catcher) and Tommy Pham (outfielder) each homered.

– Daryl Jones, that raw athlete who has idled a bit in Low-A the past couple seasons, went 2-for-2, with a double, and stole a base. This past winter, the Cardinals discussed starting Jones in High-A Palm Beach, to challenge him but also to see if he could get some momentum going in spring and stay put and ride it for a bit. They’d also like to see what he does when he gets to start and stay in warm weather.

– Kopp pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, one walk, striking out and that one emphatic first pump. … JD Stambaugh got the victory for his two innings of work, during which he allowed one hit and one run (unearned) while striking out two. … Cordoza Tucker picked up the save with a scoreless ninth that included two strikeouts.

** Greensboro 3, Quad Cities #1 2 **

– Justin Roberson cracked a leadoff home run as I was walking back the field McCormick was on. Roberson went 2-for-2 with two walks and two hit by pitches. He reached base six times, his other hit was a triple … and yet he only scored one run. 

– Josh Dew pitched the ninth, striking out one in a scoreless frame. … Jess Todd, threw two innings and allowed three hits and a run. … Jai Chul Chung pitched two innings, gave up two hits, walked one, but also didn’t allow a run and struck out three.

– Jose Garcia was 3-for-4 with a double … Catcher Luis De La Cruz, considered one of the finest prospects in the GCL last year, hit a solo homer.

** Quad Cities #2 5, Marlins 5th 2** 

– Quad Cities bolted to a quick 3-0 lead and held on. Charlie Pelt paced the offense with three hits in four at-bats and three RBIs. Ross Oeder scored twice, and Will Groff doubled, walked and scored a run.

– Josh Wilson worked three scoreless innings, allowing two hits without a walk and with a strikeout. … Mark Diapoules also pitched three scoreless, striking out five. … Francisco Samuel got the save with a scoreless ninth and he struck out two of the three batters that he faced.

***

A quick correction on a note from a recent day. Fernando Salas did not throw 96 mph as previously reported. Salas, according to official charts kept by the Cardinals during the game, threw consistently in the high-80s, from 88 and 89 mph. The 96-mph was the radar reading the ball off the bat — the escape velocity, not the pitch velocity.

***

John Vuch, the Cardinals minor league coordinator who compiles and supplies the information for the Vuch Report each day, also points out the following quirk of minor-league spring training: Not all games are the, ahem, traditional nine innings. Pitch counts are a priority, too, so some innings will just end when a pitcher gets to his limit. No reliever is brought in. And rallies end. This happened twice Thursday in the Memphis game, as the Marlins just halted the inning without bringing in a reliever.

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