Vuch Reports: Scrimmages abound
The major league team may have left Friday morning — and taken the Double-A team with it — but most of the Cardinals’ minor leaguers remained in Florida for the weekend. They’re still playing. Which means there are still Vuch Reports coming.
Below are the complete reports from Friday’s scrimmages, and after them are the highlights from the two previous days — Vuch Reports that slipped through the cracks of packing, traveling and other writing. The minor league teams continue to play into next week, including one game Sunday that Braden Looper with start.
There were some requests to continue to the “Vuch Report” during the regular season, and I heard them. The traditional Vuch Report is specific to spring training because of the nature of the backlot games. We’ve had a minor-league report every week in the paper the past couple years, and I’m trying to think of a way to use the blog to expand that minor-league coverage. Perhaps there is a melding of the three — the Vuch Report, the blog and the weekly report — that can satisfy?
Have a few days to give it some thought.
In the meantime, the VR:
** Memphis and Palm Beach tied, 3-3 (6 innings) **
– For Memphis: Skyscraper righthander Stu Pomeranz, another spring removed from surgery that stole the 2007 season from him, pitched three innings, allowing four hits, two runs (one earned). He struck out one and walked none. … Former first-round pick Kris Honel, who the Cardinals tried out and signed in the early weeks of spring training, pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowed two hits and one earned run. Honel’s biggest issue continues to be his control. He’s got good stuff. Just has to show he knows what to do with it. He walked three and struck out one. When he tried out, the Cardinals believed they saw a flaw in his mechanics that would improve his control. It’s a work in progress.
– Trey Hearne pitched 3 2/3 innings for High-A Palm Beach. He allowed five hits to the Triple-A lineup, three runs (two earned). He struck out two and did not walk a batter. … Mark McCormick, following in piggyback style, went two innings, allowed one hit and struck out one. Almost every coach who spoke about McCormick talked about two things: First, this is an important year for the Cardinals and McCormick to figure out what they have in the fireballing righthander and, secondly, McCormick looks healthy and his stuff is lively this spring.
– On offense for Memphis: Some outfielder named Colby Rasmus went 1-for-3 with a double. (Add in a walk and you’re going to see that line a few times this season.) … Josh Phelps doubled; Donovan Solano tripled. … Catcher Mark Johnson and former long snapper turned Bayou Bengal Nick Stavinoha went 1-for-2 with an RBI.
– Tony Cruz cracked two doubles for Palm Beach. Cruz’s name was a regular in the Vuch Report and he should be a regular in the watch column of any Farmnik (trademark; in fact that should be the name of the regular-season report, eh?). … Oliver Marmol singled and walked, scored two runs in his two plate appearances.
** Quad Cities #1 and Quad Cities #2 tied 2-2 (7 ½ innings) **
– For QC1, Thomas Eager pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowed three hits, two runs (one earned) and walked three against one strikeout. … Cordoza Tucker worked three scoreless innings and allowed two hits. … Francisco Samuel pitched one hitless, scoreless inning, though he walked three and then struck out two.
– For QC2, Florida native and rising prospect Tyler Herron pitched three innings, allowing two hits and one earned run. He struck out a batter. … Brandon Garner worked four innings, allowing three hits and one run. He did not walk a batter and also struck out one. … Pete Parise pitched a scoreless inning. He allowed one hit and struck out two.
– At the plate for QC1, St. Louisan Travis Mitchell went 2-for-4. … Vuch Report regular Matthew Arburr doubled and scored a run. … Justin Roberson, Peter Kozma and Charlie Pelt had the other QC1 hits.
– And for QC2, Ivan Castro went 2-for-2. Bob’s son Chris Gibson was 1-for-3 with an RBI. The Jupiter slugger, Carlos Pupo, doubled and walked twice.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM PAST WEEK
On Tuesday: Amaury Marti hit a 3-run HR … Jon Jay two doubles and a walk with two runs scored … Though he’s being assigned to Double-A (again), feeling the pinch of the Cardinals outfield depth, Cody Haerther two doubles and an RBI … Mark Hamilton hit a 2-run HR … Clayton Mortensen 3 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K’s … Josh Dew 2 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K’s … Daryl Jones went 2-for-4.
On Wednesday: Triple-A Memphis’ opening day starter Mike Parisi went 5.2 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K’s. … Colby Rasmus 2-for-4 with HR … He’ll probably be Memphis’ starting shortstop: Brian Barden 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. … Again, again; Amaury Marti homered and two RBIs. … Catcher Bryan Anderson 3-for-4 with a double, 3 runs scored and an RBI … Tyler Greene, who is in the same situation as McCormick this summer, 2-for-3 with a double … AJ Van Slyke 3-for-3 with a double and RBI … Daryl Jones 2-for-3 with a walk … Tommy Pham 2-for-4 with a HR and 2 RBIs … Adron Chambers 2-for-2 with two triples and 3 runs scored, along with two walks … Ivan Castro homered and had 4 RBIs.
On Thursday: Some players got to play up a few levels, like Pete Kozma who ascended all the way to Triple-A for the afternoon. At the higher level, Kozma 1-for-2 with a triple and a run scored … Gabe Johnson 2-for-4 with a HR … Joe Mather two hits, two runs, two RBIs and a double … Josh Phelps 3-for-5 with a double and homer. … Matt Arburr 3-for-4 doubled, homered and had 4 RBIs … Ryde Rodriguez 2-for-3, HR.
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Check out the transcript from ESPN’s Sunday Conversation between bosom buddies Bobby Kinight and Tony La Russa.
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This is the third spring of the Vuch Report, an exclusive feature of Bird Land. Each day John Vuch, the Cardinals director of minor league operations, harvests statistics and notes from the game reports and scorebooks of the minor-league games played on the back fields. The numbers are his, the comments are mine.
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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.
Thanks, Derrick.
Not only do the Cardinals have a good outfield, but they have some serious depth in the minors too with guys like Marti, Rasmus, Mather, Jon Jay, Daryl Jones, D’Marcus Ingram, etc…
And that’s a good sign. The Cardinals’ farm system is finally looking pretty good. We have a lot of good young guys that will play for us in a few years. Our outfield will especially be very strong.
Amaury Marti in particular seems like he’s crushing the ball down there in Memphis. Every time I read a Vuch Report, Marti has always doubled and a lot of times hit a home-run. I hope he gets a chance with the Cardinals sometime this season, because he can hit. If one of our outfielders gets hurt, will Marti be one of the first ones to be called up do you think?