A New Approach: Real-Time - Page 8

pete3 · 02-13-2014, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OOTPRealTime

Thanks! Yea, I am not worried so much about the correct minor league schedules. So, I just imported the major league one for now. Big ups to Bigrod for that. Such a huge help.

Thanks for the heads up. Yeah, I did the re-alignment in the PCL and I'm thinking about how I am going to change Bristol. What I'll probably do is create a new team in the Appalachian League and name them the Bristol Pirates. I'll then create a new team called the Glendale Sox in the AZL. Then, I'm going to move all of the players (using the Commissioner mode) to that team from the Bristol Sox to the newly created Glendale Sox fo the AZL -and then delete the Bristol team completely. Then, I'll disband the Surprise Royals team by moving their players to Idaho Falls and let their AI decide who stays and who goes.

Let us know how this works out (make sure you back up obviously). I've tried just changing affiliate for Bristol to keep their history intact. Before I did that, I DFAed all their players so the White Sox still owned them. It did make the players angry. Right now, I'm waiting to see what happens to them. Hopefully, the White Sox will adjust and assign accordingly enough They're still on the DFA list right now. As for the AZL team, I just changed the affiliate name without deleting any teams. There weren't any players on the roster so that one should be easy. I was little worried about deleting teams because that might mess up the schedules.

OOTPRealTime · 02-16-2014, 11:20 AM

We are a few days in now and things have been running relatively smoothly. I was approached with an idea from Matheny who said that he sorely misses the veteran presence of Chris Carpenter at camp. Right now, Chris is a free agent and looking for a one-year deal to show he can still pitch. Last year, he lost his rotation spot and still has lingering shoulder issues. That said, he is a competitor in the highest regard and we want his presence around our young pitchers. So, we offered him a measly (compared to what he used to make) $1.5 Million offer for one-year. Not because we think he'll compete for a rotation spot when he is healthy - though, that wouldn't surprise anybody in this camp - but because he is a Cardinal and he belongs here. He made just three starts before he was shut down last year, and at 38 years old our expectations are tempered. Again, we just want him around, if nothing else to bring that veteran presence and teach our young pitchers how to compete. That does complicate things a bit though with the 40-man roster, which would put us right at 40. I'd really like to have a little breathing room with 39 players on the 40-man in camp. We are a little heavy in the outfield with the signings of Juan Lagares and Nelson Cruz, that it leaves Justin Christian as the likely odd man out. And his reps know that. They have been in touch to see if their 33-year old client can go somewhere he legitimately has a chance to make the team. We are OK with depth after the projected big league guys so I made a few calls to see if anybody would part with a lower level prospect for him. He can play all three outfield positions. It's purely a depth move, I was confident I could find a taker. Regardless, I probably should have done this before extending the offer to Chris.

@KenRosenhaus #Yankees to add OF Chris Young to the mix. 2-year deal - good value at this point. #MLB

@Yankees Welcome Chris Young to the Yankee family! Signed a two-year deal today and will report to Tampa for Spring Training. #Yankees

@BubbaOlmey Love the Young signing for the #Yankees. Can backup at all 3 OF positions and start in RF if needed. Brings power/speed.

@MLBDepthCharts We expect Chris Young to start vs. RHP. Heathcott still ahead in RF v. LHP. New lineup projection:

@AJC_Braves #Braves sign Brandon Moss to backup in corner outfield. One-year deal worth just over $2 Million. Hit .209 w/ 13 HR last year in OAK. #MLB

@MLBDepthCharts No change to #Braves starting lineup projection after Brandon Moss signing. Bench depth guy. Solid player.

I wasn’t able to find a suitor for Christian right now. It may be best to keep him around and if he doesn’t make the team, we can release him. We’ll see how things progress.

Official full squad report day is Tuesday but most of our positional players are around the complex early which is not unusual but always good to see.

OOTPRealTime · 02-18-2014, 04:47 PM

Well, here we are. Camp has officially opened in Jupiter for the 2014 Cardinals Spring Training. We have all players present and accounted for. They have all been evaluated and I haven't heard any negative reports to this point. We'll begin the day with a couple of speeches. One from manager Mike Matheny - who will address all in attendance to discuss goals for the season and what we are looking for in camp. The club will also hear from our ownership group - headed by Bill DeWitt III and a few other principle owners. As far as workouts go, I'm not 100% sure what Mike has up his sleeve.

Now that the entire squad is here, that means the media is here is full force now as well. There will be plenty of requests for interviews of myself, Mike and the players. We'll get our club-related stuff done as well (signings; photo day; commerical shoots) as we prepare for the season. Again, the focus here is to get through camp healthy and ready to hit the field come March 31st in Cincinnati.

-------------------

@MLB The @Royals have agreed to terms with closer Ryan Madson on a 3-year deal worth $7.2 Million.

@MLBDepthCharts Updated #Royals projected bullpen with signing of Madson. Holland is the closer; Madson will be primary set-up man. #MLB
Preview:

@KenRosenhaus The @Yankees are expected to bring veteran Kevin Youkilis back on a one-year deal. #MLB

@NYPost_Yankees After trading Youk last year to the #Angels for Conger, the team is bringing him back on a 1-year deal. Will backup 1B & 3B. #Yankees

@CotsContracts The deal for Youkilis with #Yankees is confirmed as one-year at $3.5 Million.

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CARDINALS CONVENE IN JUPITER
Spring Training 2014 is underway. The P-D staff previews what we'll see over the next 41 days leading up to Opening Day.
By: Post-Dispatch staff - Derek Gold, Bernie Zlamick & Jose Santos

Spring is in the air - maybe not in St. Louis where temperatures remain hovering around the freezing point and the only precipitation seems to be white and cold. But some 1,100 miles southeast in Jupiter, Florida the Cardinals are officially beginning preparations for the 2014 season - in mid 70-degree temperatures. There are a few pressing questions heading into camp and the next six weeks will provide a glimpse into what to expect for the upcoming season - one in which the club hopes to return to their seemingly rightful place of playing baseball in the month of October. New General Manager Parker Campbell said it simply, "We are here to accomplish one thing. We want to leave here the best team we can be and most prepared to take on the task of a 162-game schedule and end up at the top of the standings in our division. Period." Manager Mike Matheny embarks on his third Spring camp and says that he has learned from the past two years and may do things a bit differently. "You always evolve in this game. If you don't, your going to fall behind. I've picked up on a few subtle things and while the drills and timing may seem the same, we are going to be making a few adjustments to freshen things up a bit. We're also going to have a little bit more fun this time around. We want to keep it loose while not losing sight of why we are down here," said Matheny.

After a relatively quiet off-season in terms of big money signings, the Cardinals enter camp with a good idea of how they would like to see the 25-man roster break and head north with. But, there is always the unknown that lies ahead. Injuries, tweaks, performances (both positive and negative) which will have an impact on those 25 players that officially board the plane ticketed for Cincinnati. The Post-Dispatch staff each gives their preview on what to watch for in Cardinals Spring Training 2014:

Top Position Battles

Jose Santos: The biggest one for me is in the rotation where Shelby Miller is expected to break through and leave camp as a starting pitcher. If that’s the case either Lance Lynn, Jaime Garcia or Joe Kelly will either be switching roles or switching zip codes.

Bernie Zlamick: Let’s talk the veteran Nelson Cruz and the phenom Oscar Taveras in right field. The Cardinals believe Jon Jay should be playing every day at this point - which means he is in center field. Is Taveras ready to take the reigns in right field full time? If so, what does that mean for Cruz? Regardless of who officially wins the spot, they will all find time playing since Taveras can play all three outfield positions and Cruz can play left field as well.

Derek Gold: Sorry, I am not ready to give up on Pete Kozma at shortstop. He has done more at the big league level than his main competition - and favorite to win it - Leury Garcia. Sure, Kozma leaves some to be desired offensively, but he is a sound with the glove and he may play there more than people think. Garcia may not quite be ready for the everyday role.

Opening Day Lineup

Jose:
1. Kolten Wong, 2B
2. Jon Jay, CF
3. Allen Craig, 1B
4. Matt Holliday, LF
5. Nelson Cruz, RF
6. Yadier Molina, C
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Leury Garcia, SS

I’m convinced that Wong will emerge as the best lead-off option for this club. Despite rumors, Matt Holliday will remain the clean-up role and I think Nelson Cruz teaches the young Oscar Taveras a lesson and earns the Opening Day nod.

Bernie:
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Jon Jay, CF
3. Oscar Taveras, RF
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. Matt Holliday, LF
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Kolten Wong, 2B

I expect the Spring to shine a light on the youngsters in camp and they will be rewarded with major roles early on. Taveras may never let go of that three-hole once it is handed to him.

Derek:
1. Jon Jay, CF
2. Kolten Wong, 2B
3. Allen Craig, 1B
4. Matt Holliday, LF
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Oscar Taveras, RF
8. Pete Kozma, SS

Jay remains the Cardinals best lead-off option despite limited speed. Wong is a perfect two-hole hitter and Craig-Holliday remain the heart-of-the-order bats. I think Taveras makes the team and earns a starting role (or else they would just send him to Memphis) and I really believe Kozma’s experience wins out and earns him the shortstop job - at least to begin the season.

Opening Day Rotation

1. Michael Wacha -- unanimous
2. Adam Wainwright -- unanimous
3. Shelby Miller (Derek) / Lance Lynn (Jose, Bernie)
4. Lance Lynn (Derek) / Jaime Garcia (Jose, Bernie)
5. Jaime Garcia (Derek) / Joe Kelly (Jose) / Shelby Miller (Bernie)

Derek: What can I say? I’m a Shelby Miller believer. I think he really shows what he can do and makes it an obvious enough choice that he jumps the other three and starts a game in that opening series in Cincinnati. I think Joe Kelly is the odd-man out and will assume a key role in the bullpen.

Jose: I believe that the pressure is still too much for the immature Miller, who will be relegated to a bullpen role at the beginning of the season. He’ll eventually join the rotation - he’s too good not to - but he doesn’t break camp in that role.

Bernie: I’m with Jose on the top four - those guys deserve it, however, I do think Shelby does enough to warrant the job. Kelly’s experience in the bullpen will serve him well out there. Eventually, when injuries strike (and they will), Kelly will be the first to be re-inserted.

More to come...

OOTPRealTime · 02-21-2014, 03:03 PM

I'm a little bummed that uploading the new schedule forced Spring Training games to start already. So, what I'm going to do is "pretend" that the games don't start yet and won't advance the universe until the actual Spring opener (On the 28th). Then play all of the games as if they were that way and then sim the 14 days (March 17-30th) in one swoop to get back to live. It will seem that it doesn't matter. Just wanted to update that on here because there won't be many updates until the 28th - just some camp updates. Maybe I'll delve a little more into the background story of our GM.

Also, I wanted to let everybody know that I am going to start including comments from manager Mike Matheny as well. His comments will be in blue moving forward. I think this will be a fun way to show the contrast between the thinking and strategy and how GM's and field managers work together (or struggle to). I'll start with a little excerpt from Mike today. Again, thanks for following!

Campbell: Camp is well underway and we're starting to get some of the club-related asks done early. The players are being asked to pose for their pictures; shoot television commercials and sign items for the charity. This is all things that are required and necessary - not always the most fun and don't necessarily promote a focused atmosphere. That's why we get it done early in camp - even before games start. I noticed also that more and more media are roaming around and asking for anything they can possibly grasp on to. I have had a couple sessions with them just to let them know that there is nothing to report at this time. As time goes on, that will certainly change.

I do enjoy getting up to the complex early and seeing who is there. It just gives me a quick snap shot of the guys who are willing to put in the extra effort to improve. It guarantees nothing but it could factor into a decision that needs to be made down the road. The usual suspects are there: Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright and Trevor Rosenthal. It has been good to see a few young guys following their leads, like Juan Lagares, Shelby Miller and Lance Lynn.

Matheny: Camp is off to a good start. We have workouts scheduled for the week and will slowly work our way up to the games. This is the part that I can relax a little more - don't have to worry about lineups and subs and getting everybody their innings and at-bats. That is coming soon. I spend most of my time roaming around and watching the effort level. I'll watch the bullpen sessions for the arms that I have any questions about. We run a pretty tight camp. We ask guys to get here early, get their stations done and then get out and enjoy the day. This is a balancing act. For the next nine months we will be together and they will need to find that work/life balance that any traveling salesman would. Things will tighten up later on as games start happening.

As far as the stations that we have them running through. We have a strict bullpen throwing schedule for the pitchers. I leave that up to Lilliquist. He tells me who and how many pitches and I'll schedule their timing and line them up with a catcher. At this point, many of the catchers spend most of their day catching bullpens and then taking some batting practice. As time goes on, we'll start ramping up the live batting practice sessions.

The position players will go back to the fundamentals and work with different coaches on simple tasks like communication on fly balls, fielding outfield grounders and throwing to certain bases. Infielders work with Jose Oquendo on ground balls, turning double plays, taking throws from catchers and all of those things. They will also take batting practice at the end of the days.

We look forward to running a smooth and HEALTHY camp.

OOTPRealTime · 02-28-2014, 08:41 AM

Finally! We have arrived at our first competition against other outfits and we couldn't be more excited to get it started. Pre-game camp was great. No major injuries and the players were showing up early and staying late to improve. That prompted Mike to give them a full day off yesterday. It wasn't a day off for us. We discussed a long-term plan for the Spring Training games ahead of us. He announced to the media on Tuesday that Michael Wacha would get the first spring start and that we would be using many pitchers early on. As time goes on, we'll start stretching them out a little more as we start making cuts. Mike and Lilli (pitching coach) have determined that we would work out six pitchers as starters - in case there is an injury, we'll be covered. It's much easier to move a pitcher into the bullpen than it is to get them ready for the rotation. Those players are: Wacha, Wainwright, Garcia, Lynn, Miller and Ogando. This made some headlines as there was some question as to whether that sixth player would in fact be Ogando or Joe Kelly. We just really like what Joe brings in the bullpen at this point and Ogando has been vocal about being a starter. He is a veteran and we're more comfortable right now going that way. This made news on Twitter:

@dgold #Cardinals set six-man rotation for Spring Training. Joe Kelly not included. He'll take a bullpen role.

@miklasz Not surprised on the #stlcards announcement about the rotation. Ogando will get first shot. Kelly can go max effort - when he is at his best.

@JoseSantos Not questioning the decision - but Kelly will need to show maturity with this and know that it isn't a death sentence. He'll embrace role and get better. #stlcards

With this news, we'll have an open competition for the five rotation spots. Only two of them (Wacha and Wainwright) are guaranteed their roles. The player that falls out of the mix will join the bullpen - maybe. With Jason Motte expected back in April, we'll have some decisions to make with some good depth of arms. The players that would move to the bullpen for sure would be those who have some experience there: Ogando, Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller. If Jaime Garcia is the odd man out - we may look to deal him. He just doesn't seem to have the mentality for the bullpen. We'll see how things shake up.

The other item that made news, despite Mike's claims that this is not the "opening day lineup," is that first lineup. It looks like this:

1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Jon Jay, CF
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, LF
5. Oscar Taveras, RF
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Kolten Wong, 2B
8. Matt Carpenter, 1B
9. Michael Wacha, P

The biggest surprise was that Matt Carpenter was at first base, especially with Daniel Hudson (not a LHP) on the mound. Much was made of this by the local media - saying that we may have a lack of confidence in Matt Adams. That's simply not true at this point. He just has a little back strain and we don't want him to aggravate it.

We'll be back with the results of our first Spring Training game later today.

OOTPRealTime · 02-28-2014, 04:19 PM

Cardinals TV broadcast introduction

Dan McLaughlin: Welcome back to baseball! We are live for our first broadcast of the season, bringing you Cardinals baseball all season long here on Fox Sports Midwest. Joining me in the booth is my partner, the "Mad Hungarian", Al Hrabosky.

Al Hrabosky: Dan, it's good to be back, in this nice weather and baseball right around the corner.

Dan: That it is. The Cardinals head into the season with high hopes for the coming months as they look to avenge missing out on playing in the post-season in 2013 and return to that familiar setting. There are plenty of questions to be answered and Spring Training is the time to do that. The Diamondbacks are coming off of a disappointing 2013 season themselves. This Arizona club is lead by first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who belted 50 homers a season ago. They were relatively quiet this off-season with no major additions - they hope that their current roster of talent can bounce back from a rough season and get better.

Now, let's go over to Al to talk about our starting pitchers...

Al: Dan, both "aces" are on the mound as the Cardinals trot out young Michael Wacha and he'll be opposed by the Diamondbacks' Daniel Hudson. Hudson is a 26 year old who has already battled back from some injury woes. He went 4-6 with a 3.44 ERA a year ago. And, we all know about Wacha - the new Cardinals ace on the hill. The Cardinals would like to see him pick up right where he left off a season ago with a solid first outing in 2014...

Dan: Here we go. Cardinals baseball is back. And, we'll be right back to bring it to you.

--------------------------------

Lineups:

CARDINALS (0-0)
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Jon Jay, CF
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, LF
5. Oscar Taveras, RF
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Kolten Wong, 2B
8. Matt Carpenter, 1B
9. Michael Wacha, P

DIAMONDBACKS (0-0)
1. Adam Eaton, CF
2. Martin Prado, 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Jason Kubel, LF
5. Cody Ross, RF
6. Miguel Montero, C
7. Taylor Green, 3B
8. Didi Gregorius, SS
9. Daniel Hudson, P

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Though we lost 3-2, we saw some good things. Wacha was sharp in his four innings of work - allowing just one walk and shutting out the Diamondbacks in his debut. We also saw an RBI double from Kolten Wong and Allen Craig - who has had some leg issues in the past - score from first base on that Wong double. Shelby Miller pitched two scoreless innings which included three strikeouts. Miller is our six scheduled starter so we wanted to get him some work before that outing. Multi-hit games from Wong and Matt Carpenter. Garcia had a hit in three AB's in his Cardinals debut in the lead-off spot.

The negatives included a rough outing from Marc Rzepczynski ("Scrabble"), allowing all three earned runs in the 7th and 8th innings. He did not look sharp. Not a big deal - he was working on some things - but still, we see him as an important part of our bullpen and we'd like to see more from him. Ogando and Choate also threw a third of an inning in this one to get them some work. Wong was caught stealing in the only attempt to swipe a bag in the game.

We don't take too much from these Spring Training games - but we do take some things.

This is Spring Training for my dynasty reporting skills also. Does anybody know of an easy/effective way to post the box scores and/or game logs in these posts for viewing?

CatKnight · 03-01-2014, 04:06 AM

Easiest way off the top of my head is to get a graphics program: Microsoft Paint will do, but I prefer Paint.net - a free program online.

When you get to the boxscore, hit 'PrintScreen' to capture it. Go into Paint.Net and 'paste' the image in, primarily to make sure it looks okay. You also want to be sure to save as .jpg - the default .png format leaves the files pretty large, and you don't lose much quality going to .jpg with a 95% effect.

Assuming the images aren't too large (file size wise), at the end of each game post you can 'attach' your boxscore.

OOTPRealTime · 03-01-2014, 09:36 AM

Cardinals TV Broadcast Preview

“Welcome to the second game of Cardinals Spring Training - after losing a tough opener to Arizona, despite a great outing from Michael Wacha, the Cardinals turn to Adam Wainwright to take the hill against the defending NL East Champion, Atlanta Braves. MVP Jason Heyward and the Braves look to pick up right where they left off a season ago. The Braves will send right-hander Brandon Beachy to the mound, coming off of a solid 2013 campaign. It’s the Cardinals and the Braves in Spring Training game number two right here on Fox Sports Midwest!”

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (0-1)
1. Jon Jay, CF
2. David Freese, 3B
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Matt Holliday, LF
6. Matt Adams, DH
7. Nelson Cruz, RF
8. Daniel Descalso, 2B
9. Pete Kozma, SS

MM: Switching things up a bit. We do want to get Jon Jay some AB’s at the top of the order in case we go that route. Freese could be a viable second hitter too. This is my preferred 3-4-5 hitters with Molina-Craig-Holliday. The DH will be used in most Spring games and I really want to get Matty Adams some AB’s without him having to dive for baseballs at first base yet. Craig moves to 1B from LF. Nelly Cruz gets his first start. He’ll likely be switching off with Oscar most of the Spring. Descalso gets a start at 2B and Koz back at SS.

BRAVES (1-0)
1. Brian McCann, C (L)
2. Jordan Schafer, CF (L)
3. Justin Upton, LF
4. Jason Heyward, RF (L)
5. Juan Francisco, 3B (L)
6. Tyler Pastornicky, SS
7. Ramiro Pena, 1B (S)
8. Evan Gattis, DH
9. Blake DeWitt, 2B (L)

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As good as Wacha was in his debut - Wainwright was the exact opposite. He had a really tough first inning - giving up five runs to the Braves. Descalso made an early error, but that wasn’t the reason for it. Only three of the runs were earned and he battled back to go four full innings and not suffer any more damage...Boggs came in and pitched two scoreless innings after Wainwright. We went back to Rzepczynski after the rough outing to get him back on the saddle and see how he responds to it. He went two innings, one hit, 15 pitches and no damage. Nice rebound for him. We had Choate come in and get a lefty out - which he accomplished with one pitch. Ogando then pitched the final ⅔ inning to finish it out. Good outings from the staff after that initial onslaught in the first inning. The guys battled back to get it to 5-4 but came up short and fall to 0-2 on the Spring. Holliday and Descalso had a couple of hits each. RBI for Freese, Craig, Christian and Descalso. Koz drew a couple of walks. We saw a rare error from Yadi as well in the game. It wasn’t sharp or pretty and we can come to expect that early on in these Spring games.

OOTPRealTime · 03-02-2014, 09:58 AM

Spring Training Game 3 - 3/2/14 - vs. Miami Marlins (0-2) - Roger Dean Stadium

We didn’t have to travel far for this one. We are taking on the Marlins, who share the other side of the Roger Dean campus with us. Game three is Lance Lynn’s to start. Mike is going with what he sees as his go-to lineup at this point. Obviously, a lot can and will change. Just hoping to remain healthy.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (0-2)
1. Jon Jay, CF
2. Kolten Wong, 2B
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Matt Holliday, LF
6. Oscar Taveras, RF
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Leury Garcia, SS
9. Lance Lynn, P

MM: We (myself and Marlins manager Mike Redmond) decided to skip the DH today and put out regular NL-style lineups. This changes each game - whatever we decide. Whenever we play AL teams, we’ll use the DH. It’s Spring Training for us too. Today we’ll get Lynn out there for his first tune-up. He’ll have a 35 pitch limit. Then, we’ll go with a combination of Maikel Cleto, Carlos Martinez and Eric Fornataro to finish it out. It will be their first action of Spring. The lineup is one that I could see us rolling out on opening day. Obviously, a lot can still happen but this is the way I’m leaning. I’m not overly thrilled about back-to-back lefties (Jay-Wong) at the top, but I like the balance the rest of the way down. I’ll get some backups in later on, but I’m going to let them go for a bit in this one.

MARLINS (0-2)
1. Matt Downs, 1B
2. Bryan Petersen, CF (L)
3. Logan Morrison, LF (L)
4. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
5. Hiroyuki Nakajima, 3B
6. Nick Green, 2B
7. Kyle Skipworth, C (L)
8. Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
9. Henderson Alvarez, RHP

---------------------

1st Inning
We went 1-2-3 in the first to Alvarez. Lynn gave up a leadoff base-hit to Downs but erased him with a D.P. against Petersen and then got Morrison to ground out after running the count full. No damage.

2nd Inning
Craig ran the count full before striking out looking. Holliday swung at a 3-1 pitch and grounded out. Oscar got his first hit of Spring (1-for-6), a single up the middle. Freeser jumped on the first pitch and grounded out to end the inning...Lynn fell behind Stanton (which you never want to do), but battled back and he flew out. Nakajima then doubled on a 1-2 pitch that he left over the plate. He then walked Green. He is at 32 pitches. We would like to see how he responds so we leave him in against Skipworth. He fell behind 2-0 but battled back to strike him out. Good to see him end on a good note. Joe Kelly comes on for his first action of Spring with 2 runners on and 2 out facing Hechavarria... and he popped him up to first base. Inning over.

3rd Inning
It was good to see Leury work the count full and see some pitches. He ended up flying out, but a solid AB. Kelly hits for himself and walks. Jay then lined out and Wong flew out to end the inning. Alvarez looks relatively sharp. Kelly back out there and after getting the pitcher, he gave up back-to-back singles to Downs & Petersen. He got ahead 0-2 on Morrison - but he singled also. Bases juiced for Stanton. Kelly is at 22 pitches but we want him to work out of this mess. He did just that, getting a 5-4-3 D.P. ball and ended it. That’s it for Kelly.

4th Inning
Yadi led off with a single and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. Craig then grounded out to second, moving Yadi over to third base - normally that’s a productive out but we need Craig to drive runners in. Holliday picked it up with an RBI base hit, 1-0. Oscar then singled to move to 2-for-2 on the day and Freeser doubled scoring Holliday to make it 2-0. Bats are awakening. Leury Garcia then singled to make it 3-0. We pinch hit for Kelly with Lagares. We definitely want to see Leury run - he does and he swipes second base with ease. Lagares battled the count to full despite it taking Leury a bit to get moving...then he grounded out and didn’t score Freese. We left Jay in to get his 3rd AB and we’re glad we did - he hit a 3-run bomb to make it 6-0. Wong grounds out to end the inning…

@dgold Jay delivers first Cardinal long ball of Spring, a 3-run shot off Henderson Alvarez to open it up, 6-0 #Cards. #ST

We left Lagares in and replaced Jay in center field - hitting in the 9-hole. Maikel Cleto enters as the new pitcher in the 1-spot and Descalso replaces Wong at second base...Nakajima turned around a 100 MPH fastball from Cleto for his second single of the game. He then walked Green - Skipworth flew out and he K’ed Hechavarria with some heat. Justin Ruggiano pinch hit for Alvarez and Cleto got him to pop out. Good results but ugly in the process - Cleto was all over the place.

5th Inning
The Marlins brought in A.J. Ramos to pitch. We’re going to get Yadi, Craig and Holliday one more AB before we replace them. Molina had a good AB but ended up striking out. Craig doubled and we replaced him with Thomas Pham to pinch-run. That’s a day for Craig. Holliday then flew out on a line to end his day. Oscar walked.

@dgold Taveras gets on base three times today - two singles and now he drew a walk. #OscarWatch

Freese flew out to end the inning. Made some subs: Lagares moves to LF; Pham in CF; Shane Robinson enters in RF; Matt Adams in at 1B; Jermaine Curtis in for Freese at 3B; Jose Molina in for Yadi. Cleto remains on the hill with Carlos Martinez ready. Cleto got two flyouts and we got him out after 29 pitches. Martinez on and he makes quick work of LoMo - striking him out on three pitches.

6th Inning
Garcia singled and stole second right away - boy, we’d like to see a lot of that.

@dgold New SS Leury Garcia swipes his second base of the game and of the Spring. Guy is lightning. Brings a whole new dimension to #Cardinals game.

Lagares popped out and then Carlos Martinez had to hit for himself b/c we wanted to keep him in the game. He sacrificed Garcia over to third nicely. Descalso grounded out to end the inning. We put Koz in at SS for Garcia - a nice day for him: 2-for-3, a run, an RBI and two steals. Martinez was between 98-100 with his fastball and struck out the side - but not before giving up two free passes and an RBI single to Skipworth. 6-1.

7th Inning
We went 1-2-3. We brought in Fornataro and put him in the 4-spot, taking Pham out and moving Lagares back to CF. Then brought in Justin Christian to play LF. We hope Fornataro can give us a couple of innings. He struggled mightily and gave up a couple of runs in the process to make it 6-3. We have a game now. We weren’t planning on using another arm in this one - but it appears we will have to.

8th Inning
We didn’t do anything offensively. Then Fornataro manned up and gave us a 1-2-3 inning himself.

9th Inning
Jose Ceda got us 1-2-3 again (third inning in a row) and we figured it’s a good time to see what Jhan Marinez has in a save situation. He gave up a leadoff single to Downs (his 4th hit of the game). Then got a pop out from Donovan Solano. He then battled with Gorkys Hernandez and won that with a K and then sat down Marcell Ozuna swinging to end it.

---------------------

A solid win in this one. Plus performances from Leury Garcia and most of the pitchers. Jhan Marinez looked particularly good in that final inning. We’ll take it.

OOTPRealTime · 03-03-2014, 03:33 PM

@KenRosenhaus #Yankees land Jeff Francis. He finally cashes in on 2013 success. Deal is 4-years, $27 Million. #MLB

@MLBDepthCharts Updated projected #Yankees rotation after the signing of Jeff Francis.
Preview:

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Spring Training Game 4: vs. New York Mets (1-1) at Roger Dean Stadium - Jupiter, Florida

Coming off of our first win of the Spring, we’ll get right back after it against the Don Mattingly-led Mets. We’ll see Matt Harvey, a good young right-handed starter. We’ll get Jaime Garcia back on the mound for his Spring debut…

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (1-2)
1. Leury Garcia, SS (S)
2. Jon Jay, CF (L)
3. Allen Craig, 1B
4. Matt Adams, DH (L)
5. Nelson Cruz, LF
6. Oscar Taveras, RF (L)
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Kolten Wong, 2B
9. Tony Cruz, C

SP: LHP Jaime Garcia

MM: I really want to get another look at Garcia after his good day yesterday. It’s still a competition with Kozma at this point. We’re going with the DH today. Matt Adams will hit clean-up and DH. Want to get a look at Nelson Cruz in left field - in case he needs to play there - Holliday gets a day off. Yadi has played enough early on so we’ll have Tony Cruz start at catcher and get Audry Perez in at some point. Jaime on the hill. We’ll get a look at a few different arms today as well.

METS (1-1)
1. Collin Cowgill, CF
2. Ruben Tejada, SS
3. Travis d’Arnaud, C
4. Ike Davis, 1B (L)
5. Justin Turner, 3B
6. A.J. Jimenez, DH
7. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, LF (L)
8. Wilfredo Tovar, 2B
9. Jordany Valdespin, RF (L)

SP: RHP Matt Harvey

---------------

1st Inning
Collin Cowgill grounded out to Wong but then Ruben Tejada doubled. Garcia then K’ed d’Arnaud after a solid battle and a few foul balls. He then gave up a base-hit to the first LH hitter he faced in Ike Davis. 1-0 Mets. He struck out Turner to end the inning ///// Jay drew a walk to start things off for us. Garcia then saw 11 pitches and walked himself. Craig then jumped on the first pitch - figuring Harvey would really want to fill up the zone and doubled home Jay. 2nd and 3rd nobody out for Adams. He grounded out (productively) to 2B, scoring Garcia. 2-1. Cruz then picked up his first RBI on a ground out also making it 3-1. Harvey then walked Oscar (his 3rd walk of the inning). Freese and Wong both followed up with singles and all of the sudden it was 4-1 and after a Cruz fly out - we hit through the order and Harvey tossed 39 pitches.

2nd Inning
A.J. Jimenez singled to start the second and then Nieuwenhuis sacrificed him over to second. Tovar then singled and Jimenez was held up at third. Valdespin lofted a sac fly to cut it to 4-2. Garcia then struck out Cowgill. ///// Jay led off with an infield single (on base twice) and then Matheny decided to let Garcia try to bunt for a hit - he ended up getting a sac bunt out of it ahead of Craig who struck out and then Adams flew out to end the threat.

3rd Inning
Jaime threw 37 pitches and we wanted to limit him to 40. We let him head back out to face Tejada as his last batter. He flew out on the second pitch and we got him out. We brought in our closer Trevor Rosenthal who got d’Arnaud to fly out and then hit Ike Davis with a pitch and Turner got a base knock. A.J. Jimenez had a nice battle with Rosie but ended up flying out to end the inning. ///// Nelly Cruz struck out and then Oscar and Freese flew out for a quiet inning.

4th inning
We’ll leave Rosenthal out there for one more batter which was Nieuwenhuis who popped out. Decent outing for Trevor. We now go to Fernando Salas. Tover singled for the 2nd time and then stole second base with relative ease. Valdespin got an infield single - Tovar to 3rd. Salas struck out Cowgill and then got out of it with a ground out. ///// Wong drew a walk (Harvey’s 4th) and we wanted to see him run against a good defensive catcher in d’Arnaud...and he did just that. Cruz then hit a 2-run bomb down the left field line to extend the lead to 6-2. Tony may want to make this team.

@JoseSantos Tony Cruz, battling with Yadi’s brother for the backup catcher job (translated: he has no shot) hit a 2-run jack off Harvey. 6-2 #stlcards

The Mets went to Scott Rice. Jay welcomed him with a home run, his second in as many days. Jay is not a power hitter but is squaring it up early in camp. 7-2 now. Garcia then drew another walk and then couldn’t get his wheels moving as Craig struck out. They kept throwing over to keep Leury close and he, again, couldn’t get a good enough jump and Adams struck out. Now with two outs, we really wanted to see him get into scoring position. He did, and stole it with the throw going to center field and he went to third. Nelson Cruz then singled him in and that was a productive sequence. Oscar then flew out and ended the half inning

5th Inning
d’Arnaud singled and then Salas struck out Ike Davis. That’s 30 pitches and the limit for Salas - we went to Eduardo Sanchez who got a quick fly out and then allowed a single to A.J. Jimenez - who looks like a really good player. He had to exit after it looks like he pulled something running to first base...Sanchez got a ground out to end the inning. ///// Freese and Wong both walked to start the bottom half. Cruz then grounded out, moving both other to 2nd and 3rd. Then Jay tripled them both home. He has been on FIRE to start things here. 10-2 Cardinals. They went to Greg Burke to face Garcia who reached on an error, scoring Jay and he went to second with that speed of his. Craig grounded out but Adams picked up Garcia with a base-hit to make it 11-2. Nelson Cruz then struck out to end it.

6th Inning
Sanchez stayed in the game and gave up a four-pitch walk (Tovar) and a base-hit (Valdespin) to start the 6th. He K’ed Duda and then they pinch-hit with Chris Parmelee who singled. They held up Tovar and the bases were loaded. Sanchez in trouble with d’Arnaud heading to the plate. He got a groundout and a run scored, then threw a wild pitch to bring in another before striking out Murphy to end the inning. All of this and he thew just 22 pitches. Now 12-4. ///// Taveras and Freese flew out and Wong struck out. Substitution time. Matt Carpenter in at 3B (Freese); Kozma in at SS (Garcia); Shane Robinson in LF (N. Cruz); Audry Perez in at C (T. Cruz); Thomas Pham in at CF (Jon Jay); Descalso in at 2B (Wong). Taveras, Adams and Craig stay in the game.

7th Inning
Sanchez gave up a double to Turner and then got a ground ball out from Cesar Puello. They then pinch hit with Mike Baxter, a left-handed hitter. So, we countered with Randy Choate, our left-handed specialist to get him some work. Baxter hit a sac fly and made it 12-5. We got Choate out in favor of Rafael Dolis, making his Cardinals debut. He got pinch hitter Alonzo Harris to line out to center. ///// Audry Perez singled; Pham struck out, then Kozma singled. We left Craig in to get one more AB and he grounded into a double play to end the 7th.

8th Inning
They brought in David Wright to get a quick AB against Dolis. Rafael got a ground ball out. Lucas Duda then singled and Parmelee walked, creating some trouble. Dolis rebounded nicely to strike out both d’Arnaud and Daniel Murphy to end the Mets half of the 8th ///// Adams, S. Robinson and Taveras went 1-2-3.

9th Inning
Under perfect circumstances, Dolis would be able to finish this one without his arm falling off. HE got the first two easily and then Omar Quintanilla hit a routine grounder to Kozma to end the game - but he booted it. That allowed him to strike out the side (Harris) and ended the game. 12-5 win.

--------------------

@dgold The #Cardinals bats are awakening in Jupiter. Put up a 12-spot on #Mets pitching today. Jon Jay hit 2nd spring HR (3-3). L. Garcia scored 3x.

@miklasz Late signee and hard-throwing Rafael Dolis impresses in his Spring debut: 2 ⅓, 1 hit, 1 BB, 4 K. 23-of-33 were strikes. Dark horse bullpen candidate?

-----------------------

Another solid win. Happy to see some things. Here were my notes (+ indicates a positive; - indicates negative; / indicates neutral)

+ Jon Jay continues to impress. Hit 2nd HR of Spring, scored 3 times and drove in 3. Really wants to hold on to that CF job.
+ Leury Garcia showing he can get on base early on. Drew two walks and scored three times. Stole his 3rd base (3-for-3)
+ Tony Cruz showed some power with a HR
+ Rafael Dolis: 4 K’s in 2.1 IP. Looked sharp and threw hard. Faced some big league hitters too.
- Too many hits allowed (13) by the pitchers
- Eduardo Sanchez gave up 4 hits and 3 ER in 2.0 IP.
- Oscar was 0-for-4 (hitting .182 early)...Not too worried about it.

We have Washington tomorrow as Shelby Miller will get the start.

OOTPRealTime · 03-04-2014, 05:31 PM

Prior to our fifth Spring Training game I was visited in my office by a tall, dominating figure named Chris Carpenter. He was there to tell me that he’d be signing on board and that he understands his role. We placed him immediately on the 60-day D.L. and he’ll officially join camp. I expect this to be a big morale booster. Chris is there also to get better, healthy and contribute to this team. We are very happy to have him on board once again.

Spring Training Game 5 - 3/4/14 - vs. Washington Nationals (2-1)

We head into our 5th game of Spring Training against the Nationals. Shelby Miller will make his much anticipated first spring start. Though, it isn’t his first appearance, he appeared in relief early on to get his arm going a bit. We are three games away from our first cut of the Spring and so there are some guys that we really need to see before passing judgement, though that first cut is mainly the non-roster invitees and extra catchers we employed to help get us through the first part of camp without games.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (2-2)
1. Kolten Wong, 2B (L)
2. Juan Lagares, LF
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Matt Adams, 1B (L)
5. Oscar Taveras, RF (L)
6. Jermaine Curtis, 3B
7. Pete Kozma, SS
8. Thomas Pham, CF
9. Shelby Miller, RHP

MM: We want to get a look at some of our young guys that are going to fight for a spot. We’re also going to let them play a bit longer today and give our veterans a bit of an early break. We do want Shelby throwing to Yadi - but, we’ll likely get him out of there after that ends (probably much to his annoyance). It’s early and Yadi is aging a bit - we need to keep him healthy for when it counts. As mentioned, Shelby will be on the mound and we agreed to play it like a real National League game with the pitchers hitting for themselves.

NATIONALS (2-1)
1. Danny Espinosa, 2B (S)
2. Erik Komatsu, LF (L)
3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B
4. WIlson Ramos, C
5. Jayson Werth, RF
6. Steve Lombardozzi, SS (S)
7. Anthony Rendon, 1B
8. Brian Goodwin, CF (L)
9. Jeff Niemann, RHP

-------------

Recap:

MATT ADAMS SHINES IN CARDS 6-5 VICTORY
By: Derek Gold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Matt Adams stepped into the clean-up role as today’s fourth hitter in a lineup featuring about half starters and half reserves - and lived up to the expectation of that spot in the order. A three-run homer in the first got things started and then at the other end of the game, he delivered a two-out RBI single in the top of the ninth for the go-ahead (and eventually winning) run.

Shelby Miller made his first start of the Spring and struggled early on, eventually settling for three earned runs in three innings pitched with five hits allowed and two strikeouts. He threw 51 pitches, which was more than manager Mike Matheny had hoped he would throw going in. “The situation dictated his pitch count today. He would not have pitched to one more batter. We wanted him to end on a good note after a tough outing, and he did,” said the manager. That “good ending” included retiring the heart of the Nationals order - Ryan Zimmerman, Wilson Ramos and Jayson Werth - in order with the two strikeouts he recorded on the day.

Uber-prospect and possibly the most watched member of the Cardinals this Spring, Oscar Taveras, had a big two-out, two-run single in the top of third to retrieve the lead, 5-3.

Jhan Marinez is opening eyes early in game action as well, this time pitching two innings, not allowing a hit and striking out two. He threw 17-of-25 pitches for strikes and the only blemish was one free pass. Marinez, 25, was signed on Feb. 3rd after a brief cup of coffee with the Chicago White Sox a year ago. He’s known for having dynamic stuff - and not having much of a handle on where it is going. The Cardinals believe if their staff and reign in the control - they will really have something. He’s battling for a spot in the deep Cardinals bullpen. He’s off to a good start with 3.0 innings, one hit, one walk and four strikeouts on his record in the early going.

Marc Rzepczynski joined Miller as a Cardinal pitcher wishing he started with his last inning of work. After struggling in the sixth inning - allowing a run to let the Nats draw within one run, 5-4 - he returned in the seventh and set them down in order. Mitchell Boggs was the next pitcher and he gave up the lead after allowing a lead off base hit to Nationals star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. He advanced on a Boggs wild pitch and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly.

Just as the Nationals knotted the score, Adams stepped back up and delivered a knock out punch by turning around a 2-1 Drew Storen offering through the second base hole, scoring Kolten Wong, who doubled to lead off the inning. Boggs, like Miller and Rzepczynski before him, returned and finished better than he started. He allowed a single to Brian Goodwin but stranded him in scoring position by striking out Danny Espinsoa to end the game.

The Cardinals have now won three straight after dropping the first two contests. They have an off day tomorrow and return to action on Thursday against their Central division foes, the Cincinnati Reds. The Cardinals are expected to get their first look at Alexi Ogando as a starter in that contest. Ogando came over from the Texas Rangers in the off-season trade that also included shortstop Leury Garcia. Ogando wants to earn a spot in the rotation, rather than in the bullpen like most of his time in Texas. Game time is slotted for noon.

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Very happy to see some things in this one. Particularly, our pitchers bouncing back from rough innings. Shelby, Zep and Boggsie all finished strong after facing some adversity. I'd like to see them have 2-3 great innings every time of course - but it's good to see they aren't letting it get out of hand. All three of those guys are expected to be key for us. Jhan Marinez continues to turn heads, though the sample size is very small, there is reason for optimism. Good to see Matty Adams come through a few times as well. All in all, a good game. And, I'll say it again, just glad we came out healthy.

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@Brewers Welcome David Murphy, the newest Brewer to the family! He signed a 1-year deal today and will join big league camp immediately. #BrewCrew

@MatthewLurchMLB Murphy hit .265-7-53 in 423 AB's for #Rangers last season. Can play either corner OF position. Depth add. #MLB

@MLBDepthCharts Updated #Brewers off-season page with the addition of David Murphy. He'll compete for a backup OF spot. Should make the 25-man.

OOTPRealTime · 03-07-2014, 07:20 AM

Here is yesterday's game post. Got busy. Going to post today's game later tonight.

@SFGiants Looks like Panda (Pablo Sandoval) will miss the rest of Spring Training with a strained hamstring. More on his status as we hear of it. #SFGiants

@InjuryExpert Sandoval has had hammy issues in the past. Depending on the severity, he should be ready for Opening Day. #MLB #Ouch

@KenRosenhaus The #Astros have signed veteran closer Fernando Rodney to a one-year, $1.82 Million deal. Likely serves as set-up man to Dotel and eventually close himself.

@JohnHayman You can mark Jon Lester off your starting pitching FA want lists now. He signed a six-year extension with the #RedSox today. Details coming…

@CotsContracts The extension for Lester is 6-years, $84 Million. Get’s as high as $15,875,000 in final year of deal. Will be 36 years old when it expires. #MLB

Spring Training Game #6: 3/6/14 vs. Cincinnati Reds

After a nice off day yesterday, we’re back at it. Mike gave the guys some time to get away and be with family and just take an R&R day. Most guys showed up at the complex at least for an hour to get a lift in or play catch. That’s the kind of group this is. It’s a testament to how Mike runs things and the focus remains on the task at hand. We’re taking on the Reds today. We’ll play this one like it’s a real game. Get our main starters in there for a while - but probably not the whole game. It will be good to see what Alexi Ogando comes with in his first Spring start. He wants to earn a rotation spot - so here is his first chance to make a good impression.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (3-2)
1. Leury Garcia, SS (S)
2. Jon Jay, CF (L)
3. Allen Craig, 1B
4. Matt Holliday, LF
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. Nelson Cruz, RF
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Kolten Wong, 2B
9. Alexi Ogando, RHP

MM: We’re going to send out as close to an Opening Day roster as possible today and let them get a few AB’s each. Hopefully, they’ll be timing up Cueto. Cruz gets the veteran nod over Taveras, who has plenty of early AB’s. It’s not an indication that he is “beating out” Taveras at this point, though, I’m sure twitter is blowing up with that rumor as we speak. It will be good to battle with our rivals today.

@dgold Opening day-looking lineup for #stlcards today vs. #Reds. Of note, Cruz starting in RF over Taveras. Hint? Maybe.

REDS (4-2)
1. Billy Hamilton, SS (S)
2. Ryan Hanigan, C
3. Joey Votto, 1B (L)
4. Jay Bruce, RF (L)
5. Ryan Ludwick, LF
6. Zack Cozart, 2B
7. Jack Hannahan, 3B (L)
8. Josh Fellhauser, CF (L)
9. Johnny Cueto, RHP

--------------

1st Inning
Good start for Ogando who struck out the speedster Hamilton, then got Hanigan and Votto on ground outs. ///// Cueto matched him with a K of Garcia and then Jay and Craig popped out easily.

2nd Inning
After a Jay Bruce ground out, Ogando issued a free pass to Ludwick and then Cozart singled with Luddy going to 3rd. Ogando beared down and got Hannahan to GIDP. ///// We went 1-2-3 at the hands of Cueto again.

3rd Inning
After getting Fellhauser and Cueto easily, Billy Hamilton singled and it set up the first (of many) showdowns between the new premier base-stealing threat (Hamilton) and the best defensive catcher (Molina). This was our first look at how well Ogando holds runners and keeps them close. With two outs and four steals already under his belt, Hamilton was almost certain to run. It would be Ogando’s last batter regardless (pitch count). Hamilton never got going but Ogando was clearly too worried about him and walked Hanigan in front of Votto. A big no-no. This is a good time to use Mr. Choate - our lefty-specialist. He got him on three pitches. Very nice to see. ///// After a Freese ground out, Wong singled. We pitch hit with Matt Carpenter - which we plan on him doing a lot this year. Matt went up there hacking and doubled. 2nd and 3rd with one out for Garcia. He singled home Wong and Carpenter was held at 3rd on the hard hit ball. 1-0. Garcia comes through. Now that sets up another fun match-up with Garcia, our new speedster and their quality backstop - Ryan Hanigan. Garcia won the battle and swiped his 4th bag of the Spring - matching Hamilton. Jay then singled to make it 3-0. Jon’s 7th and 8th RBI of the Spring already.

@JoseSantos #stlcards show no signs of hangover following off day. L. Garcia gets an RBI 1B and steals his 4th base. Then Jay gets RBI’s 8 & 9. 3-0 in 3rd off Cueto.

Nothing else after that.

4th Inning
We kept Matt Carp in the game - moved him to 1B and took Craig out. Carlos Martinez takes the mound and hits in Craig’s vacated 3-hole. Jay Bruce lofted his 2nd Spring homer off Carlos to welcome him to the game. He then struck out Ludwick and walked Cozart. The struggles continued as Hannahan doubled home Cozart to make it 3-2. He got a ground out from Fellhauser and then struck out Cueto. He was clearly not happy with his outing - and he has trouble containing his emotions. ///// Nelson Cruz singled and then Freese grounded out - moving him over to 2B. Wong then walked and Carpenter couldn’t net his second big hit of the game, grounding out. Then it was up to Garcia - who came through again.

@JoseSantos If early season Spring stats mean anything, the #stlcards have to be happy with Leury Garcia - another RBI base hit...and 2B is open.

Normally, I don’t think we would take the bat out of Jon Jay’s hands (again) but it’s Spring and a good test for Garcia to try to run on Hanigan. This time, Hanigan threw him out. He’s vincible!

5th Inning
That’s good for Garcia on the day, 2-for-3, a run, 2 RBI and a SB. So, since he just hit and the P slot due up 2nd, we put Kozma in at short and brought in Fornataro for an appearance. We’re currently leading 4-2. He K’ed Hamilton (2nd on the day) and grounded out Hanigan before Votto put a charge into one in the gap for a stand-up double. Normally, maybe we’d consider taking it easy with Jay Bruce - but, again, it’s Spring Training...let’s see what this kid is made of, right? And, he got him to fly out. ///// Jay-Kozma-Holliday all grounded out.

6th Inning
Fornataro struck out Ludwick, then walked Cozart. With Yadi still in the game, we’ll see if they test him. After a good battle with Hannahan, he struck him out but it was enough to allow Cozart to steal 2nd on Yadi and get into scoring position. Fellhauer then came through with an RBI base hit to score Cozart and make it 4-3. They pinch-hit with Brandon Phillips and “Fornie” got him to ground out weakly. ///// They brought in Aroldis Chapman, who has struck out 11 in 4.2 IP so far this year. Just sick. Yadi singled. We pinch ran with Justin Christian. Nelly Cruz struck out and Freese flew out (but made contact!). Wong then furthered his clout with a two-strike triple down the line to make it 5-3. Very good at-bat. A perturbed Chapman struck out Matt Carpenter.

7th Inning
Mike went with Joe Kelly, who got pinch-hitter Todd Frazier to ground out - Hanigan to follow suit and then walked Emmanuell Burris, who stole second base on Tony Cruz - who entered this inning for Yadi. Kelly got out of it with a weak fly out. Decent inning ///// Nothing happening in the bottom of the 7th for us. Though, Jon Jay did get another base hit. He was stranded. Still leading 5-3 heading into the 8th.

8th Inning
Cleto was the new pitcher in a tough spot. He got Ludwick, but Cozart then doubled. He battled and struck out Hannahan and Fellhauer flew out to end the threat. ///// Justin Christian (entered to pinch run for Yadi and took over in RF for Cruz) doubled to start the 8th. Cleto’s spot was up next so Shane Robinson “Suga” bunted him over to 3rd on the first pitch from Jonathan Broxton. Freese then singled him home to make it 6-3. Wong and Matt Carpenter then struck out and it sets up a save situation for Mr. Rosenthal…

9th Inning
After a strike out - Rosenthal gave up a triple to Frazier and then hit Hanigan with a pitch. Burriss then delivered with an RBI base hit to make it 6-4. with 2 on and 1 out. He then K’ed Heisey and Ludwick (3rd of the game) to finish it. Not a sharp outing from Rosie, but he got the job done in the end.

Ball game. We win this one 6-4 and now have won four straight.

--------------------------

+Randy Choate showdown with Votto - struck him out on three pitches with 2 on and 2 out.
+Leury Garcia RBI base-hit
+Jay continues to mash
+Good inning from Cleto in the 8th
-Carlos Martinez a rough go and a worse reaction to it.
-Rough outing from Rosenthal - despite picking up the save and 3 K’s

Biggest plus - no injuries!

Back at it tomorrow with the Padres and Michael Wacha back on the mound for his 2nd start and a higher pitch count allowed - 60 pitches. We’ll also have our first cut of the Spring following the game tomorrow.

OOTPRealTime · 03-07-2014, 03:07 PM

[B]Spring Training Game #7 - 3/7/14 - vs. San Diego Padres[b]

It’s cut day. We’ll have four total cuts to get us down to our 25-man roster that we’ll be bringing with us to start the season in Cincinnati. This first cut will be mainly the non-roster invitees that helped out catching bullpens and used as extra bodies in intrasquad games. There won’t be any earth shattering news coming from today. Mike and I will meet immediately following the game today to discuss and finalize these and he’ll then call them each into his office to have a conversation with them. Today, Michael Wacha will get the start and Mike has decided to make it a “back up” day where most of the backups will play the entire game. This gives the every day guys a break - even though they just had a day off - but let’s us get a better look at some of these players that we haven’t seen much of. The ones trying to avoid getting sent to minor league camp.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (4-2)
1. Thomas Pham, CF
2. Juan Lagares, LF
3. Matt Carpenter, 1B (L)
4. Matt Adams, DH (L)
5. Jermaine Curtis, 3B
6. Daniel Descalso, 2B (L)
7. Pete Kozma, SS
8. Audry Perez, C
9. Shane Robinson, RF

MM: We’ll get some of our guys playing time that haven’t had much of it to this point - and give our vets a bit of an extended rest as we embark on the next stage of the spring training schedule. This is a tough day because I’ll be cutting people after the game. I think most of these guys see it coming - but that doesn’t make it any easier. Hopefully Michael (Wacha) can go out there and put on a good show - he’ll be limited to 60 pitches today.

PADRES
1. Everth Cabrera, SS (S)
2. Chase Headley, 3B (S)
3. Yasmani Grandal, C (S)
4. Carlos Quentin, RF
5. Will Venable, LF (L)
6. James Darnell, DH
7. Jason Hagerty, 1B (S)
8. Everett Williams, CF (L)
9. Logan Forsythe, 2B

----------------------

Not a very exciting one, though based on the discrepancies in the number of starters playing, we were happy only to lose this one 2-1 - with a good chance to have won it. Michael Wacha wasn’t too sharp today. He walked three batters and gave up a couple of hits in (1 ER) in 3.0 IP today. Eduardo Sanchez also struggled. Rafael Dolis and once again, Jhan Marinez were good. Marinez is really making a case for himself to make the team. The bats could only muster six hits (tied with them) and one run. Audry Perez was able to get a couple of those hits. Again, we were healthy!

CUT DAY #1

After some deliberation, we decided to send back the following players to minor-league camp to get them some work:

RHP Seth Maness
RHP Keith Butler
C Cody Stanley
C Travis Tartamella
C Juan Castillo
C Casey Rasmus
OF Xavier Scruggs
IF Greg Garcia
SS Jake Lemmerman
OF Mike O’Neill
OF Stephen Piscotty
OF James Ramsey

That means we have 18 (healthy) arms in camp right now. We’ll be will getting that down to 12 eventually. We have four (4) catchers - only two will go north with us (most likely the Molina bros.) and 17 non-catcher position players. We’ll be getting that down to 11.

We have 15 games left to make those tough decisions.

@KenRosenhaus Heard that Kendrys Morales is ready to sign. Hearing it’s narrowed down to SEA, OAK and BAL. Can DH in AL. No NL teams in mix.

OOTPRealTime · 03-09-2014, 08:55 AM

@KenRosenhaus Morales headed to Baltimore on a 3-year deal with around $21 Million. Split LY bt SEA/OAK hitting .280 w/ 24 HR and 81 RBI. #GoodGet

@MattLurchMLB Not surprised to see #Os upgrade at 1B. Steve Pearce/Travis Ishikawa weren’t going to cut it there.

Spring Training Game 8: vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

We are progressing to the point of camp that we'd like to see what we have in the players expect to move North with us. Mike said that he'd like to have three of four games in which the "starters" play the entire game. This was the first of such games. The only exception is that we're using the DH in this one to get more AB's for the guys that need them.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (4-3)
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Jon Jay, CF
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Oscar Taveras, RF
6. Matt Holliday, LF
7. David Freese, 3B
8. Nelson Cruz, DH
9. Kolten Wong, 2B

SP: Adam Wainwright

DODGERS (5-3)
1. Carl Crawford, LF
2. Luis Cruz, SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
4. Hanley Ramirez, SS
5. Yasiel Puig, RF
6. A.J. Ellis, DH
7. Alex Castellanos, CF
8. Tim Fedorowicz, C
9. Joey Sellers, 2B

SP: Chad Billingsley

-----------

TIMELY HITTING ELUDES CARDS IN LOSS TO DODGERS
By: Jose Santos, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Staying true to his plan for Spring Training, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had his regulars out there - the entire game. This included a DH and he made no substitutions. This is normally a recipe for success. Not on this sunny day in Jupiter, Florida.

The Cardinals regulars managed eight hits off of Dodgers pitching, including starter Chad Billingsley. They also failed with 2-outs and runners in scoring position four different times. Lineup stalwarts Jon Jay, Yadier Molina, Allen Craig and Matt Holliday were the culprits. As a team, they finished with 10 left on base.

Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright battled through three and a third innings when he hit his pitch count limit for his second spring start (60). He gave up four hits, one earned run and one walk. He struck out one and gave up the only home run of the game - a solo shot to Adrian Gonzalez in the first inning. "I didn't have my best stuff and I haven't introduced my curve yet this spring. Still, I left one over the heart to their best hitter and he deposited it," Wainwright said with a slight smile. In a few weeks, when the Cardinals report for regular season duty, rest assured, there will be no smiles of any kind when discussing opponents home runs allowed.

Oscar Taveras recorded three of the Cardinals eight hits (all singles), upping his Spring batting mark to .350 (7-for-20). Jon Jay continued his early onslaught with a double and he now stands at .529 with two homers and eight RBI.

Mitchell Boggs was the most effective hurler in the game for the Redbirds. He went two and a third, gave up just one hit and struck out three to finish the pitching end for the Cardinals. Fernando Salas gave up two runs in his three and a third innings - laboring most of the way. He is battling for a spot in the bullpen. A battle that has added such names as Jhan Marinez and Rafael Dolis. When Matheny was asked after the game if the outing set Salas back, his answer was simple and direct, "Yes. Sure. Every outing is key for those guys. We are blessed with a deep bullpen and some new arms have entered that race. Everybody needs to be as sharp as possible at all times. There isn't that much time left. That said, we know Fernando. He has a track record with us."

Matheny never mentioned if that was a positive or negative for Salas.

The Cardinals will continue their Spring slate with a matchup against the Colorado Rockies. Lance Lynn will make his second Spring start in that one.

OOTPRealTime · 03-10-2014, 09:02 AM

Here we are at Spring Training game #9 already and we have a lot of questions to answer. So far, we have remained healthy. We're going to get a look at some other options at positions today and get some AB's for a lot of players. Lance Lynn makes his second Spring start after a decent outing his first go around. We will face Jhoulys Chacin from the Rockies.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS
1. Jon Jay, CF
2. Oscar Taveras, RF
3. Matt Holliday, LF
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Matt Carpenter, DH
8. Pete Kozma, SS
9. Daniel Descalso, 2B

MM: We are going to get another look at Jon Jay leading off. He and Leury Garcia have been doing a great job there. Oscar will hit 2nd for the first time this Spring. I can see him developing there. Holliday gets a chance in the 3rd spot as Craig's struggles move him down to clean-up. Yadi will hit 5th. The final three are guys battling for spots so we'll need to see something out of them relatively quickly.

SP: RHP Lance Lynn

ROCKIES
1. Josh Rutledge, 2B
2. Jordan Pacheco, 1B
3. Corey Dickerson, LF
4. Carlos Gonzalez, RF
5. Eric Young Jr., CF
6. Chris Nelson, SS
7. Michael Cuddyer, 3B
8. Wilin Rosario, C
9. Tim Wheeler, DH

SP: RHP Jhoulys Chacin

----------------------

1st Inning
Jay reached on an error and Oscar followed up with a base-hit. Holliday then grounded into a double play on a 2-0 pitch. Jay to 3rd. Craig then flew out and no damage. ///// Rutledge led off with a single off Lynn. Then Lance got a fly out and hit Corey Dickerson with a pitch. This in front of one of the most feared hitters in the league, Carlos Gonzalez. Lynn looked like he wanted no part of him, even if it meant loading the bases with one out in the first inning. This, we don't like to see. EY Jr. followed up with a single, plating one. Nelson then got a base-hit to make it 3-0. Rosario later singled and made it 4-0. Mike was so disgusted with Lynn's demeanor, body language and just about everything he saw, that he went out to the mound and pulled him. I back this move. He had Joe Kelly up after the walk to CarGo and he would go to him. Kelly got out of the inning with a fly out.

2nd Inning
The offensive funk continued with a 1-2-3 from Molina/Freese/Carpenter. ///// After two quick ground outs, Kelly gave up a base-hit to Dickerson and set up a matchup with CarGo. This time, Kelly beared down and went after him. A 9-pitch at bat ended in a harmless fly out. That was a statement from Kelly that he wants to be considered for the rotation.

3rd Inning
Two quick ground outs from Descalso and Kozma. Jay then singled to up his Spring average to .526. Taveras then flew out to end the inning. Chacin crusing. ///// 1-2-3 inning from Kelly.

4th Inning
Molina came up with a 2-out double but Freeser couldn't knock him in. No damage (again). ///// Kelly came out and got two quick ones before a 2-out base hit from Rutledge, their good leadoff man. Pacheco then singled and advanced to second on the throw to third. 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs for their 3-hole hitter Dickerson. This is another statement time for Kelly if he can make it...and he came through with a ground out.

5th Inning
Carpenter drew a walk to start the 5th against new pitcher Edgmer Escalona. Kozma then grounded out weakly and Descalso doubled. Oquendo held up Carp at third. Jay then came through AGAIN with an RBI base-hit.

@dgold Jon Jay continues hot spring with an RBI base hit to make it 4-1 #Rockies. Scores Matt Carpenter who reached on a walk. #stlcardsST

Oscar then hit a pill to 3rd at Michael Cuddyer who committed his second error of the game, allowing Descalso to score, making it 4-2. Holliday flew out. Then a passed ball by Rosario and a wild pitch by Escalona allowed another run to score to make it 4-3. Craig then flew out. His frustration clearly starting to show through. ///// Kelly, at 51 pitches, comes back out to face CarGo one more time. And he got him to ground out again. He got EY Jr. to ground out and then walked Nelson. That was it for him. A statement was made today by Joe Kelly. Rosenthal needs some work (just 2.0 IP this Spring) and got a fly out to end the inning.

6th Inning
A couple of 2-out base hits from Carpenter and Kozma, but DD struck out to end our half inning ///// Rosenthal then came out and got a quick strikeout and ground out. Then Walt Weiss (Rockies mgr) brought in Troy Tulowitzki off the bench because he wanted him to face Rosenthal. Tulo singled. Then he brought in another regular, Dexter Fowler, who Rosie blew away with a 101 MPH fastball to end the sixth. Good outing from Trevor.

7th Inning
Jay doubled to lead off the 7th - this is getting out of hand. Mike pinch hit for Oscar with Shane Robinson, who then bunted to get Jay over to third, but he ended up beating it out for a hit. 1st and 3rd nobody out. Juan Lagares pinch hit for Holliday - who was 0-for-3 on the day. Lagares struck out looking. Then Craig, needing the AB's in these situations to try to break out - walked. Jose replaced his brother Yadi with the bases loaded and he grounded into a D.P. ///// Robinson (RF) and Lagares (LF) stay in the game defensively. With a couple of LHB coming up, Mike went to Choate. He walked the first (Charlie Blackmon, pinch hitting for Dickerson) and then struck out CarGo. He then went to Cleto who struck out Wheeler and Brignac to end the inning.

8th Inning
Jermaine Curtis entered in Freese's spot after an 0-for-3 day (.136 so far). Curtis doubled and then Adams entered in the DH spot for Carpenter and he walked against Rex Brothers. Kozma successfully bunted them both over and it was a big spot for Descalso. He couldn’t put the ball in play, striking out. Jay’s day was over and a chance for Thomas Pham to show us something. He walked and then Suga Shane hit a sharp grounder to shortstop, which Tulo booted and allowed the tying run to score. Lagares then flew out to end the inning ///// Dolis entered and quickly gave up a double to Herrera and then a walk to Wilin Rosario. Then he got Wheeler to fly out and struck out Tulowitzki. He then battled with Fowler to get a fly out to end it. What looked like big trouble for Dolis didn’t end up that way.

9th Inning
Mike really wants to see Allen Craig bust out so he left him in this one. He walked to start the 8th and then Jose Molina reached on the Rockies’ fourth error of the game. Then Jermaine Curtis, Matt Adams and Pete Kozma all struck out. ///// Dolis walked Charlie Blackmon to start the 9th but then struck out CarGo to end his day. With a couple of lefties coming up and Choate not available, Mike went to Rzepczynski. Zep got Wheeler but then Brignac singled setting up 1st and 3rd for Jonathan Herrera. Zep got out of it with a ground out. /////

10th Inning
We went 1-2-3. ///// Zep then got Rosario, Wheeler and Tulo in order. /////

11th Inning
We managed a base runner with a walk but didn’t score. ///// Zep walked Dexter Fowler to start the 11th. He then stole 2nd on Jose Molina. Blackmon singled and then Carlos Gonzalez struck out again. He is now 0-for-5 with three K’s. Zep battled back and got both Wheeler and Brignac to get out of it! Zep made a statement today.

Finally, Colorado ended it in the 13th with a Charlie Blackmon RBI triple off of Eric Fornataro.

-----------------

The negatives in this one were the offense, again, struggling to get runners home. We saw some solid pitching performances from Joe Kelly and Marc Rzepczynski today after a dismal start from Lance Lynn. Not sure what Mike is thinking about doing about it but we'll have to have that conversation.

Back at it tomorrow against the Giants. Jaime Garcia makes his second spring start and we'll get a look at Matt Cain.

OOTPRealTime · 03-10-2014, 05:05 PM

Before the game today, I wanted to speak with Mike regarding where Lance Lynn stands. That conversation went something like this:

Me: What are you thinking about Lynner?

Mike: Not much, really. That was just one of those bad days. He just looked disinterested that that’s not going to fly.

Me: Want me to trade him? (jokingly)

Mike: (laugh) Maybe.

Me: Well, we have plenty of options.

Mike: Yeah, he’s not out of it. He’ll get another start but right now I am leaning towards bullpen for him. I haven’t seen enough of Ogando yet to decide whether it’s him or Kelly that replaces him.

Me: Well, like you said, we have time to figure that out. He better come up with something next outing. Did you talk to him?

Mike: Nope. I took the ball and told him to hit the showers. I figure at this point, if he doesn’t see the urgency here, we’re better off without him in that role.

Me: Agreed.

That was it. Quick and to the point - as most of my interactions with the manager are. The media back home (of course) was all over it. Gold wrote about the rotation and how it is shaping up. How important each of these Spring starts is going forward. At this point, nothing has been determined. We have three more games before our next scheduled cut.

Spring Training Game #10 -- 3/10/14 - vs. San Francisco Giants (5-4)

Taking on the Giants here today. Jaime Garcia is on the mound with a pitch limit of 60 today. We’ll see how far into it he can go. Mike mentioned that he wants to get our starters/regulars a good amount of at-bats in this middle section of Spring Training and then wane them off as we get closer to the regular season to make sure they are rested.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (4-5)
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Oscar Taveras, RF
3. Jon Jay, CF
4. Matt Holliday, LF
5. Yadier Molina, C
6. Matt Adams, 1B
7. Nelson Cruz, DH
8. David Freese, 3B
9. Kolten Wong, 2B

SP: LHP Jaime Garcia

MM: I wanted to reward Jon Jay for his great Spring start by giving him a shot at hitting in the 3-spot. That, and nobody else seems to want to post claim to it right now. I have a feeling (unfortunately) that it may be a revolving door this year. Excited to see the bookends of Leury Garcia and Kolten Wong at leadoff and 9th in the order. We'll give Allen Craig a mental day off today and let Matt Adams play first base. That will give us a chance to get Nelson Cruz in there as well.

GIANTS (5-4)
1. Brandon Crawford, SS
2. Gary Brown, CF
3. Buster Posey, C
4. Hunter Pence, RF
5. Brian Roberts, 2B
6. Juan Perez, LF
7. Nick Noonan, 3B
8. Brett Pill, 1B
9. Jackson Williams, DH

SP: RHP Matt Cain

-------------------

ADAMS BELTS GAME-WINNING HOMER IN SPRING VICTORY
By: Derek Gold -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Matt Adams has had the flair for the dramatic in early Spring camp for the Cardinals. A week ago, he delivered the game-winning hit against the Reds in a 5-4 win. This time, he delivers a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning to give the Cardinals an exciting 6-5 win over the Giants at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.

The Cardinals stuck with their starters for the entirety of this one, much to the approval of the near 7,000 in fans in attendance. It was Matt Adams, who was 0-for-3 on the day at the time, stepping in against veteran reliever Grant Balfour with one on and one out. He deposited 0-1 delivery over the right field fence and a one hop off the Cardinals clubhouse to give the Cardinals that 6-5 lead.

The game was a seesaw affair with the lead changing hands multiple times after the Giants staked out a quick 1-0 lead with a Buster Posey double scoring Brandon Crawford in the first off of Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia. Spring sensation Leury Garcia led of the Cardinals half of the first with his first Spring homer against Giants starter Matt Cain. The Giants re-captured the lead with a Hunter Pence double, plating both Gary Brown and Buster Posey and handing them a 3-1 advantage in the top of the 3rd - still against Garcia. Again, the Cardinals cut into that lead with a David Freese homer (1st of Spring) to lead off the bottom half of the third off of Cain.

Kolten Wong gave the Cardinals their first lead with a 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom of the 4th only to see Brian Roberts drive home two of his own in the top of the 5th off of new Cardinals hurler Carlos Martinez. The Giants took a 5-4 lead. There was no more scoring until the Adams blast in the bottom of the 8th.

Then it was in the hands of a pitcher making headlines early in camp, Jhan Marinez. He pitched a successful 8th inning and then came right back out in the 9th and closed it out for the win. Marinez now has four appearances, posted a win and a save with just one hit and one walk allowed to go with 8 K’s in 6.0 innings pitched. He is making a case to join a crowded Cardinals bullpen. At least, he’s making the decision a difficult one.

Kolten Wong and Leury Garcia led the way with three hits a piece. Garcia is now hitting .526 (10-for-19) and is running away with the “battle” for the shortstop position. Pete Kozma, his competition is just 2-for-18 thus far. Jon Jay earned the right to hit in the 3-hole in this one after his hot start to the Spring season, he responded with his first hitless game (0-for-3 with a walk).

The Cardinals are back in action tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. St. Louis will throw Shelby Miller against Philadelphia right-hander Tyler Cloyd. Game time is 12:05 CT.

---------------------

Happy to see Leury Garcia continue to make an impact early in camp. Though, we look at it with tempered expectations. He is certainly separating himself from Pete Kozma and he has a good chance to be our starting shortstop come Opening Day - which is what we wanted him to be when we made the deal. Jhan Marinez continues to impress in a small sample size as well. Good to see Matty Adams get another big hit. Mike wanted to give Allen Craig a mental day off today. He’s trying a bit too hard to get his timing down. Still plenty of time to work out any kinks. He’s 4-for-24 this Spring so far. We are at the point of camp that we are sitting back and watching body language and not as much hard line stats. Though, by the end of it, the stats will play a part in our decision making process. We’ll play two more games before we cut anybody else.

@DodgersBeat The rumors are true. #Dodgers going to ink Joba Chamberlain to a 2-year deal worth just over $8 Million.

@MLBDepthCharts We expect Joba Chamberlain to be in a set-up role for closer Kenley Jansen this year. Solid signing after good year in the New York in ‘13. #STDepth

I see that Joba got what he wanted - and there was no doubt that he would. He can get to camp late - miss some workouts and still get paid handsomely. I’m sure we’ll run into him at some point this season and I’m sure he’ll remember that we pulled the plug on our deal. Right now, we have plenty of competition for the bullpen as it is, so we’re just fine.

OOTPRealTime · 03-11-2014, 02:46 PM

Moving on to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, who are struggling this Spring with a 2-8 record so far. We're continuing to evaluate our players and taking a look at some of them in different roles in case they are needed to take on a new identity as the long 162-game grind rolls along. Again, we want to stay healthy first and foremost.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (6-5)
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Kolten Wong, 2B
3. Allen Craig, RF
4. Matt Holliday, DH
5. Matt Adams, 1B
6. Nelson Cruz, LF
7. Oscar Taveras, CF
8. David Freese, 3B
9. Tony Cruz, C

SP: RHP Shelby Miller

PHILLIES (2-8)
1. Ben Revere, RF
2. Cesar Hernandez, 2B
3. Darin Ruf, DH
4. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
5. Domonic Brown, LF
6. Freddy Galvis, 1B
7. Kevin Frandsen, SS
8. Cody Asche, 3B
9. John Mayberry Jr., CF

SP: RHP Tyler Cloyd

------------

1st Inning
After a Leury Garcia strikeout, Kolten Wong tripled and then Allen Craig got him in with a perfectly placed weak ground ball. Again, still waiting for something to click with Craig. Holliday then flew out. ///// Shelby got them 1-2-3 with a strikeout of Revere. STL 1, PHI 0

2nd Inning
Adams was given the green light on a 3-0 pitch and he drove a base-hit to right field with it. N. Cruz then singled - Adams to 3rd. Taveras then struck out and Freese grounded into a double play to end what looked like a promising 2nd inning. ///// After two quick outs, Freddy Galvis singled and then stole 2nd base on Shelby/Tony Cruz. Shelby got out of it with a ground out. STL 1, PHI 0

3rd Inning
Kolten Wong grabbed his 2nd hit of the game with 2 outs (now hitting .519). Craig flew out. ///// Again, Shelby got 2 quick ones and then allowed a base hit to speedster Revere. He easily stole second base. Shelby got out of it with a ground out. STL 1, PHI 0

4th Inning
Nothing happening outside of a 1-out base hit by Matt Adams. ///// For the 3rd straight inning, Shelby got the first two outs and then this time Domonic Brown took him deep. He then hit Galvis with a pitch before getting Frandsen. PHI 1, STL 1

5th Inning
Tony Cruz got a one out base hit off of new pitcher Manny Parra. He was sacrificed to 2nd by Garcia and then Kolten Wong flew out. ///// Shelby entered the 5th at 57 pitches. So, he'll face just one batter in this inning. He finished strong, striking out Cody Asche.

@dgold Shelby's line today: 4.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 K, 1 HR (D. Brown)on 63 pitches (40 strikes). #solid

Eduardo Sanchez enters and quickly gives up a base hit to Mayberry. Ben Revere then delivered an RBI triple to make it 2-0 Phillies. Sanchez pitching his way right out of contention for the bullpen. Rollins scored Revere from third with a ground out. 3-0. Ruf then doubled before the inning ended on a fly out. PHI 3, STL 1

6th Inning
Craig struck out - dropping him to .148. Holliday flew out - dropping him to .167 and Matt Adams singled, bringing him up to .300 on the Spring. Nelly Cruz then struck out. ///// Fernando Salas takes over for Sanchez. Base hit for Brown. Galvis sacrifices him over to 2nd. Frandsen grounded out and then Asche flew out. No further damage. PHI 3, STL 1

7th Inning
Taveras - Freese - T. Cruz went 1-2-3 without much of a fight. ///// Salas gave up a one-out base hit to pinch hitter Mike Napoli. He then walked Rollins before K'ing Ruf. With 2 outs he got Salty to ground out to end the inning. PHI 3, STL 1

8th Inning
All the backups come in as we hope to mount a comeback. Kozma grounded out. Descalso singled. Pham GIDP. ///// Fornataro got them 1-2-3. PHI 3, STL 1

9th Inning
They brought in their closer Jonathan Papelbon. We have Justin Christian-Matt Carpenter-Shane Robinson due up in our last chance. Christian led off with a double. Matt Carpenter then struck out looking. Shane Robinson struck out looking but then Juan Lagares singled home Christian to keep hope alive. With Curtis coming up, Lagares tried to get into scoring position by stealing second base, but Saltalamacchia somehow threw him out to end the game.

FINAL: Philadelphia 3, St. Louis 2

------------------

A solid outing from Shelby. Two hits from Wong has him hitting .500. The real concerns are early struggles of those who struggled in 2013: Craig (.148), Holliday (.167) and Freese (.143). How much do we worry? Right now, it does us no good. But is it time to consider taking a look at Matt Carpenter at third base? He isn't great defensively there - and doesn't have much experience, but David Freese just doesn't appear ready to take that on full time. He hit .246 with 23 HR last year with 60 RBI - and a career high 163 strikeouts. Is a platoon in order? Matt Carpenter (the lefty) against RHP and Freese against LHP? It at least has to be considered. Last year, Freese hit .259 against LHP and .241 against RHP. Not a huge difference.

Matt Adams has really started to come along and with three hits today is really putting up a fight to be the starting first baseman. That would mean Allen Craig has to play in the outfield. Which would mean that Oscar Taveras would probably start the season in Memphis. We'll see what happens. Still some time to make these difficult decisions.

--------------

@MLBInjuryReport The #Indians will be without Michael Bourn for 6 weeks with a herniated disc in his back.

@MLBDepthCharts Michael Bourn to projected DL. Michael Brantley to projected starting CF. Tim Fedroff to projected starting LF. #Indians

@MLBInjuryReport The #Mariners aren't ready to diagnose Dustin Ackley's shoulder yet, but he'll be shut down for the time being. #MLB

OOTPRealTime · 03-13-2014, 01:39 PM

It’s cut day number two of four after today’s game with the Cubs. We have some tough decisions to make and while it won’t be as tough as the one five days and then ten days from now, it’s still never easy to crush dreams. Regardless, nobody that is cut today will be surprised by it.

Yesterday during the off day, I saw plenty of our guys coming in and getting their workouts in. In fact, I’m fairly certain every single player in camp showed up at least for an hour. I confirmed that with our trainer and strength coaches. That’s a good sign. Regardless, rest is still important and that’s Mike’s job to stay on top of that. There were a couple of newsworthy happenings around the league yesterday:

MIAMI SIGNS GAVIN FLOYD -- rotoworld.com
Gavin Floyd finally finds a home and it is in South Beach. The Marlins agreed to terms with the former White Sox right-hander on a four-year, $24+ Million deal. Advice: He moves to a pitcher-friendly park in the National League so you can expect his numbers to get a bit better. At 31, he’s nearing that “over the hill” for starting pitchers - but he isn’t there yet. The wins won’t be there in Miami but he could keep that ERA under 4.00 and close in on 10 wins.

@RedSox Happy to announce that we have locked up CF Jacoby Ellsbury for five more years! The extension is worth $67.5 Million.

@KenRosenhaus Love the locking up of Ellsbury. BOS signed him to a one-year deal this year to keep him around and negotiated to keep him there thru ‘19. #MLB

Alexi Ogando gets the start for us today. His 2nd outing as he battles for a spot in the rotation. This is a big audition for him. He’ll get 70 pitches max today as we want to see how he does in a bit more of an extended outing. We may make a decision on the rotation after today’s game so as to start putting guys in their correct roles and get work there before the season starts. We will definitely need to see how Lynn does in response to his terrible outing last time out.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (5-6)
1. Leury Garcia, SS
2. Kolten Wong, 2B
3. Yadier Molina, C
4. Allen Craig, 1B
5. Matt Holliday, LF
6. David Freese, 3B
7. Juan Lagares, RF
8. Justin Christian, DH
9. Thomas Pham, CF

SP: RHP Alexi Ogando

MM: I want to see Leury Garcia get comfortable atop the lineup. Wong is working his way into the 2-hole as well. That’s a young combo up there, but it could work. Molina back to the 3-hole and Craig-Holliday-Freese will try to break out of their funks in the 4-6 spots. Lagares, Christian and Pham are going to get AB’s today with two of them likely headed back to minor league camp after the game. Looking forward to seeing Ogando’s second start as well.

CUBS (4-7)
1. Jose Vargas, RF
2. Scott Hairston, CF
3. Mike Morse, DH
4. Ian Kinsler, 2B
5. Junior Lake, 3B
6. Steven Clevenger, 1B
7. Logan Watkins, SS
8. Dave Sappelt, LF
9. Luis Flores, C

SP: RHP Casey Coleman

-------------------------

1st Inning
After a lead off walk (ugh), Ogando settled down and got a fielder’s choice and a GIDP to get out of the first inning unscathed. ///// Garcia singled to lead off the game - now hitting .500 on the Spring. Because it’s Spring Training and we’re working on things - he will try to steal just about every time he’s on base. That will change (obviously) in the regular season. He stole his 7th base (in 8 tries) on the first pitch. Wong struck out looking and then Yadier came through with an RBI base hit - his first RBI of ST to make it 1-0. Craig then GIDP. Struggles mounting.
STL 1, CHC 0

2nd Inning
Another walk to start the 2nd for Ogando (Kinsler). Then he struck out Lake and got another GIDP to end that inning! How often does that happen? ///// Holliday grounded out before Freese doubled (great to see). Lagares and Christian couldn’t get him in.
STL 1, CHC 0

3rd Inning
This time, he got the first two and then allowed a base-hit to the 9-hold hitter Flores before getting Vargas to fly out. He’s through three innings at 38 pitches - aided by the two GIDP. ///// Pham K’ed, Garcia grounded out and then Wong singled (.500). Molina then flew out.
STL 1, CHC 0

4th Inning
Ogando got a quick out of Hairston and then Mike Morse unloaded on him to tie the game - a shot to left field. He then struck out Kinsler and then Junior Lake singled into the gap and he tried to stretch it into a double but Pham cut him down there to end the inning. ///// Craig singled (finally!) and then Holliday struck out before Freese drew a walk. Juan Lagares, who clearly wants to make this team, doubled in Craig to make it 2-1. Christian then doubled in two more to make it 4-1. Pham and Garcia flew out to end it.
STL 4, CHC 1

5th Inning
Clevenger singled before Ogando got two outs. Then Flores singled for the 2nd time. He was at 73 pitches and Mike had seen enough. It was a good outing. With a lefty coming up (Vargas) we wanted to insert Choate in this scenario. He singled home Clevenger though to make it 4-2. Choate stayed in to face Hairston and he got a ground out. ///// Wong-Molina-Craig went 1-2-3.
STL 4, CHC 2

6th Inning
Eduardo Sanchez, who is most likely getting cut after the game is given a chance to show us something enough to keep him around. He got a quick out and then walked Kinsler and gave up a base-hit to Lake. Clevenger then doubled to make it 4-3. Mike has seen enough. That sealed Sanchez’ fate - he’s just not quite ready. He wanted to see how Spring sensation Jhan Marinez does when he enters in some hot water (runners on 2nd and 3rd in a one-run game). His other appearances have been his own innings. Most likely, if he makes the team, he’ll be more so used in this role. He faces Logan Watkins. He got ahead of him 0-2 and was filling up the zone early. Watkins eventually popped out. Now it was Dave Sappelt. Again, he got ahead 0-2 and wasted one before striking him out looking! Marinez is really impressing. ///// Nothing happening for us in the bottom half. Freese did draw a walk and Lagares sacrificed him over but Pham couldn’t get him in.
STL 4, CHC 3

7th Inning
Marinez stayed in and got them 1-2-3 with relative ease. ///// Mike changed up the lineup with Kozma going to SS; Descalso to 2B; Jose Molina to C; Matt Carpenter to 1B; Oscar Taveras to LF and Jermaine Curtis to 3B - in that order. Kozma-Descalso-J. Molina went 1-2-3.
STL 4, CHC 3

8th Inning
With a rested bullpen this is a good opportunity to use these players in their projected roles. So, that means Boggs in the 8th and Rosenthal in the 9th. We’ll see how that goes….Boggsie struck out Morse and then got pinch-hitters (and starters) Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro to each ground out. A very solid set-up performance from Boggs. ///// Looking for a little breathing room, we didn’t get any. Carpenter/Taveras/Curtis went quietly.
STL 4, CHC 3

9th Inning
Instead of going to Rosenthal, Mike wanted to see how Boggs could do in two innings - again, its Spring Training and we know what Rosenthal can do. He was wild and walked the lead off man (Brett Jackson). Logan Watkins then sacrificed him over to second base. Alfonso Soriano then pinch hit and delivered a 2-run home run to give the Cubs the lead. Ouch. Didn’t want to see that. Rosie then came in and got out of it. ///// Lagares and Christian flew out before Pham (in his last AB in big league camp) walked. They have Christian Villanueva behind the plate and I’m fairly certain that I could steal second base on him. Pham has good speed too. We already ended one game this Spring on a caught stealing and don’t want to do it again - but, come on. So, Pham swiped second base with ease and it was up to Kozma. He flew out and that was it.

FINAL: Chicago Cubs 5, St. Louis Cardinals 4
WP - Bobby Parnell (1-0)
LP - Mitchell Boggs (1-1)
SV - Joel Hanrahan (3)
HR: CHC - Mike Morse (1), Alphonso Soriano (3)

----------------------

The positives include continued solid work out of Leury Garcia and Kolten Wong at the top of the lineup. David Freese seems to be seeing the ball better (2B and a couple of walks). Jhan Marinez came through again in a big way. The negatives include Allen Craig’s struggles, Mitchell Boggs giving up the lead - though he was stretched out (again, it’s Spring!).

I’m getting together with Mike to go over our next set of cuts and will update this later with who we will be sending back to minor league camp today.

OOTPRealTime · 03-13-2014, 01:47 PM

After some discussion, we have decided to cut five players today.

P Eric Fornataro
P Eduardo Sanchez
C Audry Perez
3B Jermaine Curtis
OF Thomas Pham

These five players will obviously remain a part of the organization and remain a part of our future plans. Fornataro just didn't quite do enough to warrant sticking around. Sanchez flat out struggled (12.60 ERA). Perez is a depth cut. It was between him and Tony Cruz and we decided to keep Cruz around. Jermaine Curtis was a long shot - though he hit well during camp (.268) and Pham was overmatched at this level.

@jenohgosh #Cardinals cuts today include Fornataro, E. Sanchez, A. Perez, J. Curtis and T. Pham. 16 pitchers remain / 18 hitters.

We will make two more cuts. One more after five more games and then the final cut down (the hardest one) will take place after our final Spring Training tune up. We hope that no decisions are made for us via injury and so far we have been fortunate - knock on wood.

OOTPRealTime · 03-14-2014, 03:46 PM

Our “ace” Michael Wacha will get his longest leash of the spring, now allowed to stretch it out to 80 pitches. We’re all excited to see how he responds against the Pirates today.

LINEUPS

CARDINALS (5-7)
1. Leury Garcia, 2B
2. Oscar Taveras, CF
3. Allen Craig, RF
4. Yadier Molina, C
5. Matt Holliday, DH
6. Matt Adams, 1B
7. Nelson Cruz, LF
8. Matt Carpenter, 3B
9. Pete Kozma, SS

SP: RHP Michael Wacha

MM: Getting a look at guys in their backup positions - those who have them. Never know when we’re going to need them to play there. Obviously, Yadi needs to catch Michael and really doesn’t have a second position. Matt Carpenter is now vying for a starting spot over David Freese as far as I’m concerned. I’m happy that we’ll get a look at Francisco Liriano, who handled us pretty well last year.

PIRATES (7-5)
1. Eduardo Nunez, SS
2. Jose Tabata, LF
3. Starling Marte, RF
4. Neil Walker, 2B
5. Michael McKenry, DH
6. Travis Snider, CF
7. Josh Harrison, 3B
8. Russell Martin, C
9. Juan Miranda, 1B

SP: LHP Francisco Liriano

------------------

WACHA SURRENDERS 10 HITS; CARDS OFFENSE STYMIED
By: Derek Gold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sure, it’s just Spring Training and the stats and even the game itself doesn’t matter - but don’t tell that to Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny. Matheny was clearly perturbed more so than a normal mid-March loss, but why? Well, the team fielded a “starter filled” lineup against the Pirates and their “ace” on the mound. You’d expect better than a 5-0 beating at the hands of mainly backups in the Pittsburgh lineup. There is more to it than that. “A lack of effort. We only have nine more tune-up games before we start playing for real. They just went out there and went through the motions today. It’s time to start showing what we can do,” said Matheny.

It’s not just the field manager that took the loss hard. Cardinals GM Parker Campbell had a few quick jabs at the players who they fielded today, “Just no passion was shown by any of the starting nine. Joe Kelly was the only player I’d give a passing grade to today.”

Kelly, who is battling for a spot in the bullpen - and remains a long shot for the rotation, relieved starter Michael Wacha and looked like the “ace” of the staff in comparison. Kelly tossed 3 ⅔ scoreless frames with two walks and two strikeouts, not allowing a hit. Wacha, however, struggled. He gave up 10 hits and five earned runs. He didn’t issue a walk and struck out six in his 5 ⅓ innings, totalling 84 pitches (58 for strikes). “We were excited to get our first extended look at Michael today and he completely flopped,” said Matheny.

The offense wasn’t much more inspiring. The most glaring example came in the bottom of the seventh, facing a 5-0 deficit, though loaded the bases with nobody out. Pete Kozma, who has all but lost any chance of winning the starting shortstop job struck out looking - dropping his Spring average to .083. He had two strikeouts on the day. That was followed by a Leury Garcia infield pop-out and then an Oscar Taveras weak ground out to end the “threat”. Matt Holliday’s struggles continued with an 0-for-3 day with one whiff. He’s now hitting .133 this Spring. Holliday was also picked off first base to end the sixth innign with Matt Adams at the plate and runners on first and third. Spreaking of Matt Adams, he continued to hit the ball at a nice pace with two hits - the only Cardinal with multiple hits.

“Sloppy. Just slop. We had a caught stealing (Garcia’s 2nd of the Spring), got picked off (Holliday) and even found a way to see just three pitches in an inning, with three weak ground outs,” Matheny piled on. That was in reference to a fourth inning in which Pirates starter Francisco Liriano got the heart of the Cardinals order out on three pitches. Allen Craig grounded out on a three hopper to second base; Yadier Molina followed that with a routine grounder to shortstop and then Matt Holliday - not to pile on - swung at the first pitch and grounded to third base. “It was like we were hitting them infield practice,” joked Campbell.

Neither found even their own quips very funny. They stopped short of saying that the focus may have been more on getting out of the complex and to dinner and/or the beach. Regardless, the Cardinals can put this one behind them and come out behind Adam Wainwright tomorrow against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals will look to break a three game losing streak.

---------------------

A very frustrating performance today. It’s one thing to get beat. It’s a whole other thing to be embarrassed by a divisional rival who didn’t even play most of their starters. Wacha ran into some bad luck but Matt Holliday looks downright disinterested. Either way, we’ll just have to put it behind us and come out to play tomorrow.

02-16-2014, 11:20 AM	#142
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	We are a few days in now and things have been running relatively smoothly. I was approached with an idea from Matheny who said that he sorely misses the veteran presence of Chris Carpenter at camp. Right now, Chris is a free agent and looking for a one-year deal to show he can still pitch. Last year, he lost his rotation spot and still has lingering shoulder issues. That said, he is a competitor in the highest regard and we want his presence around our young pitchers. So, we offered him a measly (compared to what he used to make) $1.5 Million offer for one-year. Not because we think he'll compete for a rotation spot when he is healthy - though, that wouldn't surprise anybody in this camp - but because he is a Cardinal and he belongs here. He made just three starts before he was shut down last year, and at 38 years old our expectations are tempered. Again, we just want him around, if nothing else to bring that veteran presence and teach our young pitchers how to compete. That does complicate things a bit though with the 40-man roster, which would put us right at 40. I'd really like to have a little breathing room with 39 players on the 40-man in camp. We are a little heavy in the outfield with the signings of Juan Lagares and Nelson Cruz, that it leaves Justin Christian as the likely odd man out. And his reps know that. They have been in touch to see if their 33-year old client can go somewhere he legitimately has a chance to make the team. We are OK with depth after the projected big league guys so I made a few calls to see if anybody would part with a lower level prospect for him. He can play all three outfield positions. It's purely a depth move, I was confident I could find a taker. Regardless, I probably should have done this before extending the offer to Chris. @KenRosenhaus #Yankees to add OF Chris Young to the mix. 2-year deal - good value at this point. #MLB @Yankees Welcome Chris Young to the Yankee family! Signed a two-year deal today and will report to Tampa for Spring Training. #Yankees @BubbaOlmey Love the Young signing for the #Yankees. Can backup at all 3 OF positions and start in RF if needed. Brings power/speed. @MLBDepthCharts We expect Chris Young to start vs. RHP. Heathcott still ahead in RF v. LHP. New lineup projection: @AJC_Braves #Braves sign Brandon Moss to backup in corner outfield. One-year deal worth just over $2 Million. Hit .209 w/ 13 HR last year in OAK. #MLB @MLBDepthCharts No change to #Braves starting lineup projection after Brandon Moss signing. Bench depth guy. Solid player. I wasn’t able to find a suitor for Christian right now. It may be best to keep him around and if he doesn’t make the team, we can release him. We’ll see how things progress. Official full squad report day is Tuesday but most of our positional players are around the complex early which is not unusual but always good to see. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

02-18-2014, 04:47 PM	#143
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Well, here we are. Camp has officially opened in Jupiter for the 2014 Cardinals Spring Training. We have all players present and accounted for. They have all been evaluated and I haven't heard any negative reports to this point. We'll begin the day with a couple of speeches. One from manager Mike Matheny - who will address all in attendance to discuss goals for the season and what we are looking for in camp. The club will also hear from our ownership group - headed by Bill DeWitt III and a few other principle owners. As far as workouts go, I'm not 100% sure what Mike has up his sleeve. Now that the entire squad is here, that means the media is here is full force now as well. There will be plenty of requests for interviews of myself, Mike and the players. We'll get our club-related stuff done as well (signings; photo day; commerical shoots) as we prepare for the season. Again, the focus here is to get through camp healthy and ready to hit the field come March 31st in Cincinnati. ------------------- @MLB The @Royals have agreed to terms with closer Ryan Madson on a 3-year deal worth $7.2 Million. @MLBDepthCharts Updated #Royals projected bullpen with signing of Madson. Holland is the closer; Madson will be primary set-up man. #MLB Preview: @KenRosenhaus The @Yankees are expected to bring veteran Kevin Youkilis back on a one-year deal. #MLB @NYPost_Yankees After trading Youk last year to the #Angels for Conger, the team is bringing him back on a 1-year deal. Will backup 1B & 3B. #Yankees @CotsContracts The deal for Youkilis with #Yankees is confirmed as one-year at $3.5 Million. ------------------------ CARDINALS CONVENE IN JUPITER Spring Training 2014 is underway. The P-D staff previews what we'll see over the next 41 days leading up to Opening Day. By: Post-Dispatch staff - Derek Gold, Bernie Zlamick & Jose Santos Spring is in the air - maybe not in St. Louis where temperatures remain hovering around the freezing point and the only precipitation seems to be white and cold. But some 1,100 miles southeast in Jupiter, Florida the Cardinals are officially beginning preparations for the 2014 season - in mid 70-degree temperatures. There are a few pressing questions heading into camp and the next six weeks will provide a glimpse into what to expect for the upcoming season - one in which the club hopes to return to their seemingly rightful place of playing baseball in the month of October. New General Manager Parker Campbell said it simply, "We are here to accomplish one thing. We want to leave here the best team we can be and most prepared to take on the task of a 162-game schedule and end up at the top of the standings in our division. Period." Manager Mike Matheny embarks on his third Spring camp and says that he has learned from the past two years and may do things a bit differently. "You always evolve in this game. If you don't, your going to fall behind. I've picked up on a few subtle things and while the drills and timing may seem the same, we are going to be making a few adjustments to freshen things up a bit. We're also going to have a little bit more fun this time around. We want to keep it loose while not losing sight of why we are down here," said Matheny. After a relatively quiet off-season in terms of big money signings, the Cardinals enter camp with a good idea of how they would like to see the 25-man roster break and head north with. But, there is always the unknown that lies ahead. Injuries, tweaks, performances (both positive and negative) which will have an impact on those 25 players that officially board the plane ticketed for Cincinnati. The Post-Dispatch staff each gives their preview on what to watch for in Cardinals Spring Training 2014: Top Position Battles Jose Santos: The biggest one for me is in the rotation where Shelby Miller is expected to break through and leave camp as a starting pitcher. If that’s the case either Lance Lynn, Jaime Garcia or Joe Kelly will either be switching roles or switching zip codes. Bernie Zlamick: Let’s talk the veteran Nelson Cruz and the phenom Oscar Taveras in right field. The Cardinals believe Jon Jay should be playing every day at this point - which means he is in center field. Is Taveras ready to take the reigns in right field full time? If so, what does that mean for Cruz? Regardless of who officially wins the spot, they will all find time playing since Taveras can play all three outfield positions and Cruz can play left field as well. Derek Gold: Sorry, I am not ready to give up on Pete Kozma at shortstop. He has done more at the big league level than his main competition - and favorite to win it - Leury Garcia. Sure, Kozma leaves some to be desired offensively, but he is a sound with the glove and he may play there more than people think. Garcia may not quite be ready for the everyday role. Opening Day Lineup Jose: 1. Kolten Wong, 2B 2. Jon Jay, CF 3. Allen Craig, 1B 4. Matt Holliday, LF 5. Nelson Cruz, RF 6. Yadier Molina, C 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Leury Garcia, SS I’m convinced that Wong will emerge as the best lead-off option for this club. Despite rumors, Matt Holliday will remain the clean-up role and I think Nelson Cruz teaches the young Oscar Taveras a lesson and earns the Opening Day nod. Bernie: 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Jon Jay, CF 3. Oscar Taveras, RF 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Yadier Molina, C 6. Matt Holliday, LF 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Kolten Wong, 2B I expect the Spring to shine a light on the youngsters in camp and they will be rewarded with major roles early on. Taveras may never let go of that three-hole once it is handed to him. Derek: 1. Jon Jay, CF 2. Kolten Wong, 2B 3. Allen Craig, 1B 4. Matt Holliday, LF 5. Yadier Molina, C 6. David Freese, 3B 7. Oscar Taveras, RF 8. Pete Kozma, SS Jay remains the Cardinals best lead-off option despite limited speed. Wong is a perfect two-hole hitter and Craig-Holliday remain the heart-of-the-order bats. I think Taveras makes the team and earns a starting role (or else they would just send him to Memphis) and I really believe Kozma’s experience wins out and earns him the shortstop job - at least to begin the season. Opening Day Rotation 1. Michael Wacha -- unanimous 2. Adam Wainwright -- unanimous 3. Shelby Miller (Derek) / Lance Lynn (Jose, Bernie) 4. Lance Lynn (Derek) / Jaime Garcia (Jose, Bernie) 5. Jaime Garcia (Derek) / Joe Kelly (Jose) / Shelby Miller (Bernie) Derek: What can I say? I’m a Shelby Miller believer. I think he really shows what he can do and makes it an obvious enough choice that he jumps the other three and starts a game in that opening series in Cincinnati. I think Joe Kelly is the odd-man out and will assume a key role in the bullpen. Jose: I believe that the pressure is still too much for the immature Miller, who will be relegated to a bullpen role at the beginning of the season. He’ll eventually join the rotation - he’s too good not to - but he doesn’t break camp in that role. Bernie: I’m with Jose on the top four - those guys deserve it, however, I do think Shelby does enough to warrant the job. Kelly’s experience in the bullpen will serve him well out there. Eventually, when injuries strike (and they will), Kelly will be the first to be re-inserted. More to come... __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

02-21-2014, 03:03 PM	#144
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	I'm a little bummed that uploading the new schedule forced Spring Training games to start already. So, what I'm going to do is "pretend" that the games don't start yet and won't advance the universe until the actual Spring opener (On the 28th). Then play all of the games as if they were that way and then sim the 14 days (March 17-30th) in one swoop to get back to live. It will seem that it doesn't matter. Just wanted to update that on here because there won't be many updates until the 28th - just some camp updates. Maybe I'll delve a little more into the background story of our GM. Also, I wanted to let everybody know that I am going to start including comments from manager Mike Matheny as well. His comments will be in blue moving forward. I think this will be a fun way to show the contrast between the thinking and strategy and how GM's and field managers work together (or struggle to). I'll start with a little excerpt from Mike today. Again, thanks for following! Campbell: Camp is well underway and we're starting to get some of the club-related asks done early. The players are being asked to pose for their pictures; shoot television commercials and sign items for the charity. This is all things that are required and necessary - not always the most fun and don't necessarily promote a focused atmosphere. That's why we get it done early in camp - even before games start. I noticed also that more and more media are roaming around and asking for anything they can possibly grasp on to. I have had a couple sessions with them just to let them know that there is nothing to report at this time. As time goes on, that will certainly change. I do enjoy getting up to the complex early and seeing who is there. It just gives me a quick snap shot of the guys who are willing to put in the extra effort to improve. It guarantees nothing but it could factor into a decision that needs to be made down the road. The usual suspects are there: Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright and Trevor Rosenthal. It has been good to see a few young guys following their leads, like Juan Lagares, Shelby Miller and Lance Lynn. Matheny: Camp is off to a good start. We have workouts scheduled for the week and will slowly work our way up to the games. This is the part that I can relax a little more - don't have to worry about lineups and subs and getting everybody their innings and at-bats. That is coming soon. I spend most of my time roaming around and watching the effort level. I'll watch the bullpen sessions for the arms that I have any questions about. We run a pretty tight camp. We ask guys to get here early, get their stations done and then get out and enjoy the day. This is a balancing act. For the next nine months we will be together and they will need to find that work/life balance that any traveling salesman would. Things will tighten up later on as games start happening. As far as the stations that we have them running through. We have a strict bullpen throwing schedule for the pitchers. I leave that up to Lilliquist. He tells me who and how many pitches and I'll schedule their timing and line them up with a catcher. At this point, many of the catchers spend most of their day catching bullpens and then taking some batting practice. As time goes on, we'll start ramping up the live batting practice sessions. The position players will go back to the fundamentals and work with different coaches on simple tasks like communication on fly balls, fielding outfield grounders and throwing to certain bases. Infielders work with Jose Oquendo on ground balls, turning double plays, taking throws from catchers and all of those things. They will also take batting practice at the end of the days. We look forward to running a smooth and HEALTHY camp. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

02-28-2014, 08:41 AM	#145
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Finally, games! Finally! We have arrived at our first competition against other outfits and we couldn't be more excited to get it started. Pre-game camp was great. No major injuries and the players were showing up early and staying late to improve. That prompted Mike to give them a full day off yesterday. It wasn't a day off for us. We discussed a long-term plan for the Spring Training games ahead of us. He announced to the media on Tuesday that Michael Wacha would get the first spring start and that we would be using many pitchers early on. As time goes on, we'll start stretching them out a little more as we start making cuts. Mike and Lilli (pitching coach) have determined that we would work out six pitchers as starters - in case there is an injury, we'll be covered. It's much easier to move a pitcher into the bullpen than it is to get them ready for the rotation. Those players are: Wacha, Wainwright, Garcia, Lynn, Miller and Ogando. This made some headlines as there was some question as to whether that sixth player would in fact be Ogando or Joe Kelly. We just really like what Joe brings in the bullpen at this point and Ogando has been vocal about being a starter. He is a veteran and we're more comfortable right now going that way. This made news on Twitter: @dgold #Cardinals set six-man rotation for Spring Training. Joe Kelly not included. He'll take a bullpen role. @miklasz Not surprised on the #stlcards announcement about the rotation. Ogando will get first shot. Kelly can go max effort - when he is at his best. @JoseSantos Not questioning the decision - but Kelly will need to show maturity with this and know that it isn't a death sentence. He'll embrace role and get better. #stlcards With this news, we'll have an open competition for the five rotation spots. Only two of them (Wacha and Wainwright) are guaranteed their roles. The player that falls out of the mix will join the bullpen - maybe. With Jason Motte expected back in April, we'll have some decisions to make with some good depth of arms. The players that would move to the bullpen for sure would be those who have some experience there: Ogando, Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller. If Jaime Garcia is the odd man out - we may look to deal him. He just doesn't seem to have the mentality for the bullpen. We'll see how things shake up. The other item that made news, despite Mike's claims that this is not the "opening day lineup," is that first lineup. It looks like this: 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Jon Jay, CF 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, LF 5. Oscar Taveras, RF 6. David Freese, 3B 7. Kolten Wong, 2B 8. Matt Carpenter, 1B 9. Michael Wacha, P The biggest surprise was that Matt Carpenter was at first base, especially with Daniel Hudson (not a LHP) on the mound. Much was made of this by the local media - saying that we may have a lack of confidence in Matt Adams. That's simply not true at this point. He just has a little back strain and we don't want him to aggravate it. We'll be back with the results of our first Spring Training game later today. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

02-28-2014, 04:19 PM	#146
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 1 - 2/28/14 - vs. Diamondbacks Cardinals TV broadcast introduction Dan McLaughlin: Welcome back to baseball! We are live for our first broadcast of the season, bringing you Cardinals baseball all season long here on Fox Sports Midwest. Joining me in the booth is my partner, the "Mad Hungarian", Al Hrabosky. Al Hrabosky: Dan, it's good to be back, in this nice weather and baseball right around the corner. Dan: That it is. The Cardinals head into the season with high hopes for the coming months as they look to avenge missing out on playing in the post-season in 2013 and return to that familiar setting. There are plenty of questions to be answered and Spring Training is the time to do that. The Diamondbacks are coming off of a disappointing 2013 season themselves. This Arizona club is lead by first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who belted 50 homers a season ago. They were relatively quiet this off-season with no major additions - they hope that their current roster of talent can bounce back from a rough season and get better. Now, let's go over to Al to talk about our starting pitchers... Al: Dan, both "aces" are on the mound as the Cardinals trot out young Michael Wacha and he'll be opposed by the Diamondbacks' Daniel Hudson. Hudson is a 26 year old who has already battled back from some injury woes. He went 4-6 with a 3.44 ERA a year ago. And, we all know about Wacha - the new Cardinals ace on the hill. The Cardinals would like to see him pick up right where he left off a season ago with a solid first outing in 2014... Dan: Here we go. Cardinals baseball is back. And, we'll be right back to bring it to you. -------------------------------- Lineups: CARDINALS (0-0) 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Jon Jay, CF 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, LF 5. Oscar Taveras, RF 6. David Freese, 3B 7. Kolten Wong, 2B 8. Matt Carpenter, 1B 9. Michael Wacha, P DIAMONDBACKS (0-0) 1. Adam Eaton, CF 2. Martin Prado, 2B 3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B 4. Jason Kubel, LF 5. Cody Ross, RF 6. Miguel Montero, C 7. Taylor Green, 3B 8. Didi Gregorius, SS 9. Daniel Hudson, P ------------------------------------ Though we lost 3-2, we saw some good things. Wacha was sharp in his four innings of work - allowing just one walk and shutting out the Diamondbacks in his debut. We also saw an RBI double from Kolten Wong and Allen Craig - who has had some leg issues in the past - score from first base on that Wong double. Shelby Miller pitched two scoreless innings which included three strikeouts. Miller is our six scheduled starter so we wanted to get him some work before that outing. Multi-hit games from Wong and Matt Carpenter. Garcia had a hit in three AB's in his Cardinals debut in the lead-off spot. The negatives included a rough outing from Marc Rzepczynski ("Scrabble"), allowing all three earned runs in the 7th and 8th innings. He did not look sharp. Not a big deal - he was working on some things - but still, we see him as an important part of our bullpen and we'd like to see more from him. Ogando and Choate also threw a third of an inning in this one to get them some work. Wong was caught stealing in the only attempt to swipe a bag in the game. We don't take too much from these Spring Training games - but we do take some things. This is Spring Training for my dynasty reporting skills also. Does anybody know of an easy/effective way to post the box scores and/or game logs in these posts for viewing? __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-01-2014, 04:06 AM	#147
CatKnight All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 1,199	Easiest way off the top of my head is to get a graphics program: Microsoft Paint will do, but I prefer Paint.net - a free program online. When you get to the boxscore, hit 'PrintScreen' to capture it. Go into Paint.Net and 'paste' the image in, primarily to make sure it looks okay. You also want to be sure to save as .jpg - the default .png format leaves the files pretty large, and you don't lose much quality going to .jpg with a 95% effect. Assuming the images aren't too large (file size wise), at the end of each game post you can 'attach' your boxscore. Last edited by CatKnight; 03-01-2014 at 07:42 PM.

03-01-2014, 09:36 AM	#148
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 2 - 3/1/14 - vs. Braves Cardinals TV Broadcast Preview “Welcome to the second game of Cardinals Spring Training - after losing a tough opener to Arizona, despite a great outing from Michael Wacha, the Cardinals turn to Adam Wainwright to take the hill against the defending NL East Champion, Atlanta Braves. MVP Jason Heyward and the Braves look to pick up right where they left off a season ago. The Braves will send right-hander Brandon Beachy to the mound, coming off of a solid 2013 campaign. It’s the Cardinals and the Braves in Spring Training game number two right here on Fox Sports Midwest!” LINEUPS CARDINALS (0-1) 1. Jon Jay, CF 2. David Freese, 3B 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Matt Holliday, LF 6. Matt Adams, DH 7. Nelson Cruz, RF 8. Daniel Descalso, 2B 9. Pete Kozma, SS MM: Switching things up a bit. We do want to get Jon Jay some AB’s at the top of the order in case we go that route. Freese could be a viable second hitter too. This is my preferred 3-4-5 hitters with Molina-Craig-Holliday. The DH will be used in most Spring games and I really want to get Matty Adams some AB’s without him having to dive for baseballs at first base yet. Craig moves to 1B from LF. Nelly Cruz gets his first start. He’ll likely be switching off with Oscar most of the Spring. Descalso gets a start at 2B and Koz back at SS. BRAVES (1-0) 1. Brian McCann, C (L) 2. Jordan Schafer, CF (L) 3. Justin Upton, LF 4. Jason Heyward, RF (L) 5. Juan Francisco, 3B (L) 6. Tyler Pastornicky, SS 7. Ramiro Pena, 1B (S) 8. Evan Gattis, DH 9. Blake DeWitt, 2B (L) ----------------------------- As good as Wacha was in his debut - Wainwright was the exact opposite. He had a really tough first inning - giving up five runs to the Braves. Descalso made an early error, but that wasn’t the reason for it. Only three of the runs were earned and he battled back to go four full innings and not suffer any more damage...Boggs came in and pitched two scoreless innings after Wainwright. We went back to Rzepczynski after the rough outing to get him back on the saddle and see how he responds to it. He went two innings, one hit, 15 pitches and no damage. Nice rebound for him. We had Choate come in and get a lefty out - which he accomplished with one pitch. Ogando then pitched the final ⅔ inning to finish it out. Good outings from the staff after that initial onslaught in the first inning. The guys battled back to get it to 5-4 but came up short and fall to 0-2 on the Spring. Holliday and Descalso had a couple of hits each. RBI for Freese, Craig, Christian and Descalso. Koz drew a couple of walks. We saw a rare error from Yadi as well in the game. It wasn’t sharp or pretty and we can come to expect that early on in these Spring games. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-02-2014, 09:58 AM	#149
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 3 - 3/2/14 - vs. Miami Marlins (0-2) - Roger Dean Stadium Spring Training Game 3 - 3/2/14 - vs. Miami Marlins (0-2) - Roger Dean Stadium We didn’t have to travel far for this one. We are taking on the Marlins, who share the other side of the Roger Dean campus with us. Game three is Lance Lynn’s to start. Mike is going with what he sees as his go-to lineup at this point. Obviously, a lot can and will change. Just hoping to remain healthy. LINEUPS CARDINALS (0-2) 1. Jon Jay, CF 2. Kolten Wong, 2B 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Matt Holliday, LF 6. Oscar Taveras, RF 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Leury Garcia, SS 9. Lance Lynn, P MM: We (myself and Marlins manager Mike Redmond) decided to skip the DH today and put out regular NL-style lineups. This changes each game - whatever we decide. Whenever we play AL teams, we’ll use the DH. It’s Spring Training for us too. Today we’ll get Lynn out there for his first tune-up. He’ll have a 35 pitch limit. Then, we’ll go with a combination of Maikel Cleto, Carlos Martinez and Eric Fornataro to finish it out. It will be their first action of Spring. The lineup is one that I could see us rolling out on opening day. Obviously, a lot can still happen but this is the way I’m leaning. I’m not overly thrilled about back-to-back lefties (Jay-Wong) at the top, but I like the balance the rest of the way down. I’ll get some backups in later on, but I’m going to let them go for a bit in this one. MARLINS (0-2) 1. Matt Downs, 1B 2. Bryan Petersen, CF (L) 3. Logan Morrison, LF (L) 4. Giancarlo Stanton, RF 5. Hiroyuki Nakajima, 3B 6. Nick Green, 2B 7. Kyle Skipworth, C (L) 8. Adeiny Hechavarria, SS 9. Henderson Alvarez, RHP --------------------- 1st Inning We went 1-2-3 in the first to Alvarez. Lynn gave up a leadoff base-hit to Downs but erased him with a D.P. against Petersen and then got Morrison to ground out after running the count full. No damage. 2nd Inning Craig ran the count full before striking out looking. Holliday swung at a 3-1 pitch and grounded out. Oscar got his first hit of Spring (1-for-6), a single up the middle. Freeser jumped on the first pitch and grounded out to end the inning...Lynn fell behind Stanton (which you never want to do), but battled back and he flew out. Nakajima then doubled on a 1-2 pitch that he left over the plate. He then walked Green. He is at 32 pitches. We would like to see how he responds so we leave him in against Skipworth. He fell behind 2-0 but battled back to strike him out. Good to see him end on a good note. Joe Kelly comes on for his first action of Spring with 2 runners on and 2 out facing Hechavarria... and he popped him up to first base. Inning over. 3rd Inning It was good to see Leury work the count full and see some pitches. He ended up flying out, but a solid AB. Kelly hits for himself and walks. Jay then lined out and Wong flew out to end the inning. Alvarez looks relatively sharp. Kelly back out there and after getting the pitcher, he gave up back-to-back singles to Downs & Petersen. He got ahead 0-2 on Morrison - but he singled also. Bases juiced for Stanton. Kelly is at 22 pitches but we want him to work out of this mess. He did just that, getting a 5-4-3 D.P. ball and ended it. That’s it for Kelly. 4th Inning Yadi led off with a single and moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. Craig then grounded out to second, moving Yadi over to third base - normally that’s a productive out but we need Craig to drive runners in. Holliday picked it up with an RBI base hit, 1-0. Oscar then singled to move to 2-for-2 on the day and Freeser doubled scoring Holliday to make it 2-0. Bats are awakening. Leury Garcia then singled to make it 3-0. We pinch hit for Kelly with Lagares. We definitely want to see Leury run - he does and he swipes second base with ease. Lagares battled the count to full despite it taking Leury a bit to get moving...then he grounded out and didn’t score Freese. We left Jay in to get his 3rd AB and we’re glad we did - he hit a 3-run bomb to make it 6-0. Wong grounds out to end the inning… @dgold Jay delivers first Cardinal long ball of Spring, a 3-run shot off Henderson Alvarez to open it up, 6-0 #Cards. #ST We left Lagares in and replaced Jay in center field - hitting in the 9-hole. Maikel Cleto enters as the new pitcher in the 1-spot and Descalso replaces Wong at second base...Nakajima turned around a 100 MPH fastball from Cleto for his second single of the game. He then walked Green - Skipworth flew out and he K’ed Hechavarria with some heat. Justin Ruggiano pinch hit for Alvarez and Cleto got him to pop out. Good results but ugly in the process - Cleto was all over the place. 5th Inning The Marlins brought in A.J. Ramos to pitch. We’re going to get Yadi, Craig and Holliday one more AB before we replace them. Molina had a good AB but ended up striking out. Craig doubled and we replaced him with Thomas Pham to pinch-run. That’s a day for Craig. Holliday then flew out on a line to end his day. Oscar walked. @dgold Taveras gets on base three times today - two singles and now he drew a walk. #OscarWatch Freese flew out to end the inning. Made some subs: Lagares moves to LF; Pham in CF; Shane Robinson enters in RF; Matt Adams in at 1B; Jermaine Curtis in for Freese at 3B; Jose Molina in for Yadi. Cleto remains on the hill with Carlos Martinez ready. Cleto got two flyouts and we got him out after 29 pitches. Martinez on and he makes quick work of LoMo - striking him out on three pitches. 6th Inning Garcia singled and stole second right away - boy, we’d like to see a lot of that. @dgold New SS Leury Garcia swipes his second base of the game and of the Spring. Guy is lightning. Brings a whole new dimension to #Cardinals game. Lagares popped out and then Carlos Martinez had to hit for himself b/c we wanted to keep him in the game. He sacrificed Garcia over to third nicely. Descalso grounded out to end the inning. We put Koz in at SS for Garcia - a nice day for him: 2-for-3, a run, an RBI and two steals. Martinez was between 98-100 with his fastball and struck out the side - but not before giving up two free passes and an RBI single to Skipworth. 6-1. 7th Inning We went 1-2-3. We brought in Fornataro and put him in the 4-spot, taking Pham out and moving Lagares back to CF. Then brought in Justin Christian to play LF. We hope Fornataro can give us a couple of innings. He struggled mightily and gave up a couple of runs in the process to make it 6-3. We have a game now. We weren’t planning on using another arm in this one - but it appears we will have to. 8th Inning We didn’t do anything offensively. Then Fornataro manned up and gave us a 1-2-3 inning himself. 9th Inning Jose Ceda got us 1-2-3 again (third inning in a row) and we figured it’s a good time to see what Jhan Marinez has in a save situation. He gave up a leadoff single to Downs (his 4th hit of the game). Then got a pop out from Donovan Solano. He then battled with Gorkys Hernandez and won that with a K and then sat down Marcell Ozuna swinging to end it. --------------------- A solid win in this one. Plus performances from Leury Garcia and most of the pitchers. Jhan Marinez looked particularly good in that final inning. We’ll take it. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-03-2014, 03:33 PM	#150
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Yanks sign Jeff Francis; Spring Game #4 @KenRosenhaus #Yankees land Jeff Francis. He finally cashes in on 2013 success. Deal is 4-years, $27 Million. #MLB @MLBDepthCharts Updated projected #Yankees rotation after the signing of Jeff Francis. Preview: -------------------------- Spring Training Game 4: vs. New York Mets (1-1) at Roger Dean Stadium - Jupiter, Florida Coming off of our first win of the Spring, we’ll get right back after it against the Don Mattingly-led Mets. We’ll see Matt Harvey, a good young right-handed starter. We’ll get Jaime Garcia back on the mound for his Spring debut… LINEUPS CARDINALS (1-2) 1. Leury Garcia, SS (S) 2. Jon Jay, CF (L) 3. Allen Craig, 1B 4. Matt Adams, DH (L) 5. Nelson Cruz, LF 6. Oscar Taveras, RF (L) 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Kolten Wong, 2B 9. Tony Cruz, C SP: LHP Jaime Garcia MM: I really want to get another look at Garcia after his good day yesterday. It’s still a competition with Kozma at this point. We’re going with the DH today. Matt Adams will hit clean-up and DH. Want to get a look at Nelson Cruz in left field - in case he needs to play there - Holliday gets a day off. Yadi has played enough early on so we’ll have Tony Cruz start at catcher and get Audry Perez in at some point. Jaime on the hill. We’ll get a look at a few different arms today as well. METS (1-1) 1. Collin Cowgill, CF 2. Ruben Tejada, SS 3. Travis d’Arnaud, C 4. Ike Davis, 1B (L) 5. Justin Turner, 3B 6. A.J. Jimenez, DH 7. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, LF (L) 8. Wilfredo Tovar, 2B 9. Jordany Valdespin, RF (L) SP: RHP Matt Harvey --------------- 1st Inning Collin Cowgill grounded out to Wong but then Ruben Tejada doubled. Garcia then K’ed d’Arnaud after a solid battle and a few foul balls. He then gave up a base-hit to the first LH hitter he faced in Ike Davis. 1-0 Mets. He struck out Turner to end the inning ///// Jay drew a walk to start things off for us. Garcia then saw 11 pitches and walked himself. Craig then jumped on the first pitch - figuring Harvey would really want to fill up the zone and doubled home Jay. 2nd and 3rd nobody out for Adams. He grounded out (productively) to 2B, scoring Garcia. 2-1. Cruz then picked up his first RBI on a ground out also making it 3-1. Harvey then walked Oscar (his 3rd walk of the inning). Freese and Wong both followed up with singles and all of the sudden it was 4-1 and after a Cruz fly out - we hit through the order and Harvey tossed 39 pitches. 2nd Inning A.J. Jimenez singled to start the second and then Nieuwenhuis sacrificed him over to second. Tovar then singled and Jimenez was held up at third. Valdespin lofted a sac fly to cut it to 4-2. Garcia then struck out Cowgill. ///// Jay led off with an infield single (on base twice) and then Matheny decided to let Garcia try to bunt for a hit - he ended up getting a sac bunt out of it ahead of Craig who struck out and then Adams flew out to end the threat. 3rd Inning Jaime threw 37 pitches and we wanted to limit him to 40. We let him head back out to face Tejada as his last batter. He flew out on the second pitch and we got him out. We brought in our closer Trevor Rosenthal who got d’Arnaud to fly out and then hit Ike Davis with a pitch and Turner got a base knock. A.J. Jimenez had a nice battle with Rosie but ended up flying out to end the inning. ///// Nelly Cruz struck out and then Oscar and Freese flew out for a quiet inning. 4th inning We’ll leave Rosenthal out there for one more batter which was Nieuwenhuis who popped out. Decent outing for Trevor. We now go to Fernando Salas. Tover singled for the 2nd time and then stole second base with relative ease. Valdespin got an infield single - Tovar to 3rd. Salas struck out Cowgill and then got out of it with a ground out. ///// Wong drew a walk (Harvey’s 4th) and we wanted to see him run against a good defensive catcher in d’Arnaud...and he did just that. Cruz then hit a 2-run bomb down the left field line to extend the lead to 6-2. Tony may want to make this team. @JoseSantos Tony Cruz, battling with Yadi’s brother for the backup catcher job (translated: he has no shot) hit a 2-run jack off Harvey. 6-2 #stlcards The Mets went to Scott Rice. Jay welcomed him with a home run, his second in as many days. Jay is not a power hitter but is squaring it up early in camp. 7-2 now. Garcia then drew another walk and then couldn’t get his wheels moving as Craig struck out. They kept throwing over to keep Leury close and he, again, couldn’t get a good enough jump and Adams struck out. Now with two outs, we really wanted to see him get into scoring position. He did, and stole it with the throw going to center field and he went to third. Nelson Cruz then singled him in and that was a productive sequence. Oscar then flew out and ended the half inning 5th Inning d’Arnaud singled and then Salas struck out Ike Davis. That’s 30 pitches and the limit for Salas - we went to Eduardo Sanchez who got a quick fly out and then allowed a single to A.J. Jimenez - who looks like a really good player. He had to exit after it looks like he pulled something running to first base...Sanchez got a ground out to end the inning. ///// Freese and Wong both walked to start the bottom half. Cruz then grounded out, moving both other to 2nd and 3rd. Then Jay tripled them both home. He has been on FIRE to start things here. 10-2 Cardinals. They went to Greg Burke to face Garcia who reached on an error, scoring Jay and he went to second with that speed of his. Craig grounded out but Adams picked up Garcia with a base-hit to make it 11-2. Nelson Cruz then struck out to end it. 6th Inning Sanchez stayed in the game and gave up a four-pitch walk (Tovar) and a base-hit (Valdespin) to start the 6th. He K’ed Duda and then they pinch-hit with Chris Parmelee who singled. They held up Tovar and the bases were loaded. Sanchez in trouble with d’Arnaud heading to the plate. He got a groundout and a run scored, then threw a wild pitch to bring in another before striking out Murphy to end the inning. All of this and he thew just 22 pitches. Now 12-4. ///// Taveras and Freese flew out and Wong struck out. Substitution time. Matt Carpenter in at 3B (Freese); Kozma in at SS (Garcia); Shane Robinson in LF (N. Cruz); Audry Perez in at C (T. Cruz); Thomas Pham in at CF (Jon Jay); Descalso in at 2B (Wong). Taveras, Adams and Craig stay in the game. 7th Inning Sanchez gave up a double to Turner and then got a ground ball out from Cesar Puello. They then pinch hit with Mike Baxter, a left-handed hitter. So, we countered with Randy Choate, our left-handed specialist to get him some work. Baxter hit a sac fly and made it 12-5. We got Choate out in favor of Rafael Dolis, making his Cardinals debut. He got pinch hitter Alonzo Harris to line out to center. ///// Audry Perez singled; Pham struck out, then Kozma singled. We left Craig in to get one more AB and he grounded into a double play to end the 7th. 8th Inning They brought in David Wright to get a quick AB against Dolis. Rafael got a ground ball out. Lucas Duda then singled and Parmelee walked, creating some trouble. Dolis rebounded nicely to strike out both d’Arnaud and Daniel Murphy to end the Mets half of the 8th ///// Adams, S. Robinson and Taveras went 1-2-3. 9th Inning Under perfect circumstances, Dolis would be able to finish this one without his arm falling off. HE got the first two easily and then Omar Quintanilla hit a routine grounder to Kozma to end the game - but he booted it. That allowed him to strike out the side (Harris) and ended the game. 12-5 win. -------------------- @dgold The #Cardinals bats are awakening in Jupiter. Put up a 12-spot on #Mets pitching today. Jon Jay hit 2nd spring HR (3-3). L. Garcia scored 3x. @miklasz Late signee and hard-throwing Rafael Dolis impresses in his Spring debut: 2 ⅓, 1 hit, 1 BB, 4 K. 23-of-33 were strikes. Dark horse bullpen candidate? ----------------------- Another solid win. Happy to see some things. Here were my notes (+ indicates a positive; - indicates negative; / indicates neutral) + Jon Jay continues to impress. Hit 2nd HR of Spring, scored 3 times and drove in 3. Really wants to hold on to that CF job. + Leury Garcia showing he can get on base early on. Drew two walks and scored three times. Stole his 3rd base (3-for-3) + Tony Cruz showed some power with a HR + Rafael Dolis: 4 K’s in 2.1 IP. Looked sharp and threw hard. Faced some big league hitters too. - Too many hits allowed (13) by the pitchers - Eduardo Sanchez gave up 4 hits and 3 ER in 2.0 IP. - Oscar was 0-for-4 (hitting .182 early)...Not too worried about it. We have Washington tomorrow as Shelby Miller will get the start. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-04-2014, 05:31 PM	#151
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Prior to our fifth Spring Training game I was visited in my office by a tall, dominating figure named Chris Carpenter. He was there to tell me that he’d be signing on board and that he understands his role. We placed him immediately on the 60-day D.L. and he’ll officially join camp. I expect this to be a big morale booster. Chris is there also to get better, healthy and contribute to this team. We are very happy to have him on board once again. Spring Training Game 5 - 3/4/14 - vs. Washington Nationals (2-1) We head into our 5th game of Spring Training against the Nationals. Shelby Miller will make his much anticipated first spring start. Though, it isn’t his first appearance, he appeared in relief early on to get his arm going a bit. We are three games away from our first cut of the Spring and so there are some guys that we really need to see before passing judgement, though that first cut is mainly the non-roster invitees and extra catchers we employed to help get us through the first part of camp without games. LINEUPS CARDINALS (2-2) 1. Kolten Wong, 2B (L) 2. Juan Lagares, LF 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Matt Adams, 1B (L) 5. Oscar Taveras, RF (L) 6. Jermaine Curtis, 3B 7. Pete Kozma, SS 8. Thomas Pham, CF 9. Shelby Miller, RHP MM: We want to get a look at some of our young guys that are going to fight for a spot. We’re also going to let them play a bit longer today and give our veterans a bit of an early break. We do want Shelby throwing to Yadi - but, we’ll likely get him out of there after that ends (probably much to his annoyance). It’s early and Yadi is aging a bit - we need to keep him healthy for when it counts. As mentioned, Shelby will be on the mound and we agreed to play it like a real National League game with the pitchers hitting for themselves. NATIONALS (2-1) 1. Danny Espinosa, 2B (S) 2. Erik Komatsu, LF (L) 3. Ryan Zimmerman, 3B 4. WIlson Ramos, C 5. Jayson Werth, RF 6. Steve Lombardozzi, SS (S) 7. Anthony Rendon, 1B 8. Brian Goodwin, CF (L) 9. Jeff Niemann, RHP ------------- Recap: MATT ADAMS SHINES IN CARDS 6-5 VICTORY By: Derek Gold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Matt Adams stepped into the clean-up role as today’s fourth hitter in a lineup featuring about half starters and half reserves - and lived up to the expectation of that spot in the order. A three-run homer in the first got things started and then at the other end of the game, he delivered a two-out RBI single in the top of the ninth for the go-ahead (and eventually winning) run. Shelby Miller made his first start of the Spring and struggled early on, eventually settling for three earned runs in three innings pitched with five hits allowed and two strikeouts. He threw 51 pitches, which was more than manager Mike Matheny had hoped he would throw going in. “The situation dictated his pitch count today. He would not have pitched to one more batter. We wanted him to end on a good note after a tough outing, and he did,” said the manager. That “good ending” included retiring the heart of the Nationals order - Ryan Zimmerman, Wilson Ramos and Jayson Werth - in order with the two strikeouts he recorded on the day. Uber-prospect and possibly the most watched member of the Cardinals this Spring, Oscar Taveras, had a big two-out, two-run single in the top of third to retrieve the lead, 5-3. Jhan Marinez is opening eyes early in game action as well, this time pitching two innings, not allowing a hit and striking out two. He threw 17-of-25 pitches for strikes and the only blemish was one free pass. Marinez, 25, was signed on Feb. 3rd after a brief cup of coffee with the Chicago White Sox a year ago. He’s known for having dynamic stuff - and not having much of a handle on where it is going. The Cardinals believe if their staff and reign in the control - they will really have something. He’s battling for a spot in the deep Cardinals bullpen. He’s off to a good start with 3.0 innings, one hit, one walk and four strikeouts on his record in the early going. Marc Rzepczynski joined Miller as a Cardinal pitcher wishing he started with his last inning of work. After struggling in the sixth inning - allowing a run to let the Nats draw within one run, 5-4 - he returned in the seventh and set them down in order. Mitchell Boggs was the next pitcher and he gave up the lead after allowing a lead off base hit to Nationals star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. He advanced on a Boggs wild pitch and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly. Just as the Nationals knotted the score, Adams stepped back up and delivered a knock out punch by turning around a 2-1 Drew Storen offering through the second base hole, scoring Kolten Wong, who doubled to lead off the inning. Boggs, like Miller and Rzepczynski before him, returned and finished better than he started. He allowed a single to Brian Goodwin but stranded him in scoring position by striking out Danny Espinsoa to end the game. The Cardinals have now won three straight after dropping the first two contests. They have an off day tomorrow and return to action on Thursday against their Central division foes, the Cincinnati Reds. The Cardinals are expected to get their first look at Alexi Ogando as a starter in that contest. Ogando came over from the Texas Rangers in the off-season trade that also included shortstop Leury Garcia. Ogando wants to earn a spot in the rotation, rather than in the bullpen like most of his time in Texas. Game time is slotted for noon. ------------ Very happy to see some things in this one. Particularly, our pitchers bouncing back from rough innings. Shelby, Zep and Boggsie all finished strong after facing some adversity. I'd like to see them have 2-3 great innings every time of course - but it's good to see they aren't letting it get out of hand. All three of those guys are expected to be key for us. Jhan Marinez continues to turn heads, though the sample size is very small, there is reason for optimism. Good to see Matty Adams come through a few times as well. All in all, a good game. And, I'll say it again, just glad we came out healthy. ------------ @Brewers Welcome David Murphy, the newest Brewer to the family! He signed a 1-year deal today and will join big league camp immediately. #BrewCrew @MatthewLurchMLB Murphy hit .265-7-53 in 423 AB's for #Rangers last season. Can play either corner OF position. Depth add. #MLB @MLBDepthCharts Updated #Brewers off-season page with the addition of David Murphy. He'll compete for a backup OF spot. Should make the 25-man. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-07-2014, 07:20 AM	#152
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Here is yesterday's game post. Got busy. Going to post today's game later tonight. @SFGiants Looks like Panda (Pablo Sandoval) will miss the rest of Spring Training with a strained hamstring. More on his status as we hear of it. #SFGiants @InjuryExpert Sandoval has had hammy issues in the past. Depending on the severity, he should be ready for Opening Day. #MLB #Ouch @KenRosenhaus The #Astros have signed veteran closer Fernando Rodney to a one-year, $1.82 Million deal. Likely serves as set-up man to Dotel and eventually close himself. @JohnHayman You can mark Jon Lester off your starting pitching FA want lists now. He signed a six-year extension with the #RedSox today. Details coming… @CotsContracts The extension for Lester is 6-years, $84 Million. Get’s as high as $15,875,000 in final year of deal. Will be 36 years old when it expires. #MLB Spring Training Game #6: 3/6/14 vs. Cincinnati Reds After a nice off day yesterday, we’re back at it. Mike gave the guys some time to get away and be with family and just take an R&R day. Most guys showed up at the complex at least for an hour to get a lift in or play catch. That’s the kind of group this is. It’s a testament to how Mike runs things and the focus remains on the task at hand. We’re taking on the Reds today. We’ll play this one like it’s a real game. Get our main starters in there for a while - but probably not the whole game. It will be good to see what Alexi Ogando comes with in his first Spring start. He wants to earn a rotation spot - so here is his first chance to make a good impression. LINEUPS CARDINALS (3-2) 1. Leury Garcia, SS (S) 2. Jon Jay, CF (L) 3. Allen Craig, 1B 4. Matt Holliday, LF 5. Yadier Molina, C 6. Nelson Cruz, RF 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Kolten Wong, 2B 9. Alexi Ogando, RHP MM: We’re going to send out as close to an Opening Day roster as possible today and let them get a few AB’s each. Hopefully, they’ll be timing up Cueto. Cruz gets the veteran nod over Taveras, who has plenty of early AB’s. It’s not an indication that he is “beating out” Taveras at this point, though, I’m sure twitter is blowing up with that rumor as we speak. It will be good to battle with our rivals today. @dgold Opening day-looking lineup for #stlcards today vs. #Reds. Of note, Cruz starting in RF over Taveras. Hint? Maybe. REDS (4-2) 1. Billy Hamilton, SS (S) 2. Ryan Hanigan, C 3. Joey Votto, 1B (L) 4. Jay Bruce, RF (L) 5. Ryan Ludwick, LF 6. Zack Cozart, 2B 7. Jack Hannahan, 3B (L) 8. Josh Fellhauser, CF (L) 9. Johnny Cueto, RHP -------------- 1st Inning Good start for Ogando who struck out the speedster Hamilton, then got Hanigan and Votto on ground outs. ///// Cueto matched him with a K of Garcia and then Jay and Craig popped out easily. 2nd Inning After a Jay Bruce ground out, Ogando issued a free pass to Ludwick and then Cozart singled with Luddy going to 3rd. Ogando beared down and got Hannahan to GIDP. ///// We went 1-2-3 at the hands of Cueto again. 3rd Inning After getting Fellhauser and Cueto easily, Billy Hamilton singled and it set up the first (of many) showdowns between the new premier base-stealing threat (Hamilton) and the best defensive catcher (Molina). This was our first look at how well Ogando holds runners and keeps them close. With two outs and four steals already under his belt, Hamilton was almost certain to run. It would be Ogando’s last batter regardless (pitch count). Hamilton never got going but Ogando was clearly too worried about him and walked Hanigan in front of Votto. A big no-no. This is a good time to use Mr. Choate - our lefty-specialist. He got him on three pitches. Very nice to see. ///// After a Freese ground out, Wong singled. We pitch hit with Matt Carpenter - which we plan on him doing a lot this year. Matt went up there hacking and doubled. 2nd and 3rd with one out for Garcia. He singled home Wong and Carpenter was held at 3rd on the hard hit ball. 1-0. Garcia comes through. Now that sets up another fun match-up with Garcia, our new speedster and their quality backstop - Ryan Hanigan. Garcia won the battle and swiped his 4th bag of the Spring - matching Hamilton. Jay then singled to make it 3-0. Jon’s 7th and 8th RBI of the Spring already. @JoseSantos #stlcards show no signs of hangover following off day. L. Garcia gets an RBI 1B and steals his 4th base. Then Jay gets RBI’s 8 & 9. 3-0 in 3rd off Cueto. Nothing else after that. 4th Inning We kept Matt Carp in the game - moved him to 1B and took Craig out. Carlos Martinez takes the mound and hits in Craig’s vacated 3-hole. Jay Bruce lofted his 2nd Spring homer off Carlos to welcome him to the game. He then struck out Ludwick and walked Cozart. The struggles continued as Hannahan doubled home Cozart to make it 3-2. He got a ground out from Fellhauser and then struck out Cueto. He was clearly not happy with his outing - and he has trouble containing his emotions. ///// Nelson Cruz singled and then Freese grounded out - moving him over to 2B. Wong then walked and Carpenter couldn’t net his second big hit of the game, grounding out. Then it was up to Garcia - who came through again. @JoseSantos If early season Spring stats mean anything, the #stlcards have to be happy with Leury Garcia - another RBI base hit...and 2B is open. Normally, I don’t think we would take the bat out of Jon Jay’s hands (again) but it’s Spring and a good test for Garcia to try to run on Hanigan. This time, Hanigan threw him out. He’s vincible! 5th Inning That’s good for Garcia on the day, 2-for-3, a run, 2 RBI and a SB. So, since he just hit and the P slot due up 2nd, we put Kozma in at short and brought in Fornataro for an appearance. We’re currently leading 4-2. He K’ed Hamilton (2nd on the day) and grounded out Hanigan before Votto put a charge into one in the gap for a stand-up double. Normally, maybe we’d consider taking it easy with Jay Bruce - but, again, it’s Spring Training...let’s see what this kid is made of, right? And, he got him to fly out. ///// Jay-Kozma-Holliday all grounded out. 6th Inning Fornataro struck out Ludwick, then walked Cozart. With Yadi still in the game, we’ll see if they test him. After a good battle with Hannahan, he struck him out but it was enough to allow Cozart to steal 2nd on Yadi and get into scoring position. Fellhauer then came through with an RBI base hit to score Cozart and make it 4-3. They pinch-hit with Brandon Phillips and “Fornie” got him to ground out weakly. ///// They brought in Aroldis Chapman, who has struck out 11 in 4.2 IP so far this year. Just sick. Yadi singled. We pinch ran with Justin Christian. Nelly Cruz struck out and Freese flew out (but made contact!). Wong then furthered his clout with a two-strike triple down the line to make it 5-3. Very good at-bat. A perturbed Chapman struck out Matt Carpenter. 7th Inning Mike went with Joe Kelly, who got pinch-hitter Todd Frazier to ground out - Hanigan to follow suit and then walked Emmanuell Burris, who stole second base on Tony Cruz - who entered this inning for Yadi. Kelly got out of it with a weak fly out. Decent inning ///// Nothing happening in the bottom of the 7th for us. Though, Jon Jay did get another base hit. He was stranded. Still leading 5-3 heading into the 8th. 8th Inning Cleto was the new pitcher in a tough spot. He got Ludwick, but Cozart then doubled. He battled and struck out Hannahan and Fellhauer flew out to end the threat. ///// Justin Christian (entered to pinch run for Yadi and took over in RF for Cruz) doubled to start the 8th. Cleto’s spot was up next so Shane Robinson “Suga” bunted him over to 3rd on the first pitch from Jonathan Broxton. Freese then singled him home to make it 6-3. Wong and Matt Carpenter then struck out and it sets up a save situation for Mr. Rosenthal… 9th Inning After a strike out - Rosenthal gave up a triple to Frazier and then hit Hanigan with a pitch. Burriss then delivered with an RBI base hit to make it 6-4. with 2 on and 1 out. He then K’ed Heisey and Ludwick (3rd of the game) to finish it. Not a sharp outing from Rosie, but he got the job done in the end. Ball game. We win this one 6-4 and now have won four straight. -------------------------- +Randy Choate showdown with Votto - struck him out on three pitches with 2 on and 2 out. +Leury Garcia RBI base-hit +Jay continues to mash +Good inning from Cleto in the 8th -Carlos Martinez a rough go and a worse reaction to it. -Rough outing from Rosenthal - despite picking up the save and 3 K’s Biggest plus - no injuries! Back at it tomorrow with the Padres and Michael Wacha back on the mound for his 2nd start and a higher pitch count allowed - 60 pitches. We’ll also have our first cut of the Spring following the game tomorrow. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic) Last edited by OOTPRealTime; 03-07-2014 at 07:22 AM.

03-07-2014, 03:07 PM	#153
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	[B]Spring Training Game #7 - 3/7/14 - vs. San Diego Padres[b] It’s cut day. We’ll have four total cuts to get us down to our 25-man roster that we’ll be bringing with us to start the season in Cincinnati. This first cut will be mainly the non-roster invitees that helped out catching bullpens and used as extra bodies in intrasquad games. There won’t be any earth shattering news coming from today. Mike and I will meet immediately following the game today to discuss and finalize these and he’ll then call them each into his office to have a conversation with them. Today, Michael Wacha will get the start and Mike has decided to make it a “back up” day where most of the backups will play the entire game. This gives the every day guys a break - even though they just had a day off - but let’s us get a better look at some of these players that we haven’t seen much of. The ones trying to avoid getting sent to minor league camp. LINEUPS CARDINALS (4-2) 1. Thomas Pham, CF 2. Juan Lagares, LF 3. Matt Carpenter, 1B (L) 4. Matt Adams, DH (L) 5. Jermaine Curtis, 3B 6. Daniel Descalso, 2B (L) 7. Pete Kozma, SS 8. Audry Perez, C 9. Shane Robinson, RF MM: We’ll get some of our guys playing time that haven’t had much of it to this point - and give our vets a bit of an extended rest as we embark on the next stage of the spring training schedule. This is a tough day because I’ll be cutting people after the game. I think most of these guys see it coming - but that doesn’t make it any easier. Hopefully Michael (Wacha) can go out there and put on a good show - he’ll be limited to 60 pitches today. PADRES 1. Everth Cabrera, SS (S) 2. Chase Headley, 3B (S) 3. Yasmani Grandal, C (S) 4. Carlos Quentin, RF 5. Will Venable, LF (L) 6. James Darnell, DH 7. Jason Hagerty, 1B (S) 8. Everett Williams, CF (L) 9. Logan Forsythe, 2B ---------------------- Not a very exciting one, though based on the discrepancies in the number of starters playing, we were happy only to lose this one 2-1 - with a good chance to have won it. Michael Wacha wasn’t too sharp today. He walked three batters and gave up a couple of hits in (1 ER) in 3.0 IP today. Eduardo Sanchez also struggled. Rafael Dolis and once again, Jhan Marinez were good. Marinez is really making a case for himself to make the team. The bats could only muster six hits (tied with them) and one run. Audry Perez was able to get a couple of those hits. Again, we were healthy! CUT DAY #1 After some deliberation, we decided to send back the following players to minor-league camp to get them some work: RHP Seth Maness RHP Keith Butler C Cody Stanley C Travis Tartamella C Juan Castillo C Casey Rasmus OF Xavier Scruggs IF Greg Garcia SS Jake Lemmerman OF Mike O’Neill OF Stephen Piscotty OF James Ramsey That means we have 18 (healthy) arms in camp right now. We’ll be will getting that down to 12 eventually. We have four (4) catchers - only two will go north with us (most likely the Molina bros.) and 17 non-catcher position players. We’ll be getting that down to 11. We have 15 games left to make those tough decisions. @KenRosenhaus Heard that Kendrys Morales is ready to sign. Hearing it’s narrowed down to SEA, OAK and BAL. Can DH in AL. No NL teams in mix. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic) Last edited by OOTPRealTime; 03-07-2014 at 03:08 PM.

03-09-2014, 08:55 AM	#154
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Traing Game 8 @KenRosenhaus Morales headed to Baltimore on a 3-year deal with around $21 Million. Split LY bt SEA/OAK hitting .280 w/ 24 HR and 81 RBI. #GoodGet @MattLurchMLB Not surprised to see #Os upgrade at 1B. Steve Pearce/Travis Ishikawa weren’t going to cut it there. Spring Training Game 8: vs. Los Angeles Dodgers We are progressing to the point of camp that we'd like to see what we have in the players expect to move North with us. Mike said that he'd like to have three of four games in which the "starters" play the entire game. This was the first of such games. The only exception is that we're using the DH in this one to get more AB's for the guys that need them. LINEUPS CARDINALS (4-3) 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Jon Jay, CF 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Oscar Taveras, RF 6. Matt Holliday, LF 7. David Freese, 3B 8. Nelson Cruz, DH 9. Kolten Wong, 2B SP: Adam Wainwright DODGERS (5-3) 1. Carl Crawford, LF 2. Luis Cruz, SS 3. Adrian Gonzalez, 1B 4. Hanley Ramirez, SS 5. Yasiel Puig, RF 6. A.J. Ellis, DH 7. Alex Castellanos, CF 8. Tim Fedorowicz, C 9. Joey Sellers, 2B SP: Chad Billingsley ----------- TIMELY HITTING ELUDES CARDS IN LOSS TO DODGERS By: Jose Santos, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Staying true to his plan for Spring Training, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had his regulars out there - the entire game. This included a DH and he made no substitutions. This is normally a recipe for success. Not on this sunny day in Jupiter, Florida. The Cardinals regulars managed eight hits off of Dodgers pitching, including starter Chad Billingsley. They also failed with 2-outs and runners in scoring position four different times. Lineup stalwarts Jon Jay, Yadier Molina, Allen Craig and Matt Holliday were the culprits. As a team, they finished with 10 left on base. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright battled through three and a third innings when he hit his pitch count limit for his second spring start (60). He gave up four hits, one earned run and one walk. He struck out one and gave up the only home run of the game - a solo shot to Adrian Gonzalez in the first inning. "I didn't have my best stuff and I haven't introduced my curve yet this spring. Still, I left one over the heart to their best hitter and he deposited it," Wainwright said with a slight smile. In a few weeks, when the Cardinals report for regular season duty, rest assured, there will be no smiles of any kind when discussing opponents home runs allowed. Oscar Taveras recorded three of the Cardinals eight hits (all singles), upping his Spring batting mark to .350 (7-for-20). Jon Jay continued his early onslaught with a double and he now stands at .529 with two homers and eight RBI. Mitchell Boggs was the most effective hurler in the game for the Redbirds. He went two and a third, gave up just one hit and struck out three to finish the pitching end for the Cardinals. Fernando Salas gave up two runs in his three and a third innings - laboring most of the way. He is battling for a spot in the bullpen. A battle that has added such names as Jhan Marinez and Rafael Dolis. When Matheny was asked after the game if the outing set Salas back, his answer was simple and direct, "Yes. Sure. Every outing is key for those guys. We are blessed with a deep bullpen and some new arms have entered that race. Everybody needs to be as sharp as possible at all times. There isn't that much time left. That said, we know Fernando. He has a track record with us." Matheny never mentioned if that was a positive or negative for Salas. The Cardinals will continue their Spring slate with a matchup against the Colorado Rockies. Lance Lynn will make his second Spring start in that one. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic) Last edited by OOTPRealTime; 03-09-2014 at 10:49 AM.

03-10-2014, 09:02 AM	#155
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Here we are at Spring Training game #9 already and we have a lot of questions to answer. So far, we have remained healthy. We're going to get a look at some other options at positions today and get some AB's for a lot of players. Lance Lynn makes his second Spring start after a decent outing his first go around. We will face Jhoulys Chacin from the Rockies. LINEUPS CARDINALS 1. Jon Jay, CF 2. Oscar Taveras, RF 3. Matt Holliday, LF 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Yadier Molina, C 6. David Freese, 3B 7. Matt Carpenter, DH 8. Pete Kozma, SS 9. Daniel Descalso, 2B MM: We are going to get another look at Jon Jay leading off. He and Leury Garcia have been doing a great job there. Oscar will hit 2nd for the first time this Spring. I can see him developing there. Holliday gets a chance in the 3rd spot as Craig's struggles move him down to clean-up. Yadi will hit 5th. The final three are guys battling for spots so we'll need to see something out of them relatively quickly. SP: RHP Lance Lynn ROCKIES 1. Josh Rutledge, 2B 2. Jordan Pacheco, 1B 3. Corey Dickerson, LF 4. Carlos Gonzalez, RF 5. Eric Young Jr., CF 6. Chris Nelson, SS 7. Michael Cuddyer, 3B 8. Wilin Rosario, C 9. Tim Wheeler, DH SP: RHP Jhoulys Chacin ---------------------- 1st Inning Jay reached on an error and Oscar followed up with a base-hit. Holliday then grounded into a double play on a 2-0 pitch. Jay to 3rd. Craig then flew out and no damage. ///// Rutledge led off with a single off Lynn. Then Lance got a fly out and hit Corey Dickerson with a pitch. This in front of one of the most feared hitters in the league, Carlos Gonzalez. Lynn looked like he wanted no part of him, even if it meant loading the bases with one out in the first inning. This, we don't like to see. EY Jr. followed up with a single, plating one. Nelson then got a base-hit to make it 3-0. Rosario later singled and made it 4-0. Mike was so disgusted with Lynn's demeanor, body language and just about everything he saw, that he went out to the mound and pulled him. I back this move. He had Joe Kelly up after the walk to CarGo and he would go to him. Kelly got out of the inning with a fly out. 2nd Inning The offensive funk continued with a 1-2-3 from Molina/Freese/Carpenter. ///// After two quick ground outs, Kelly gave up a base-hit to Dickerson and set up a matchup with CarGo. This time, Kelly beared down and went after him. A 9-pitch at bat ended in a harmless fly out. That was a statement from Kelly that he wants to be considered for the rotation. 3rd Inning Two quick ground outs from Descalso and Kozma. Jay then singled to up his Spring average to .526. Taveras then flew out to end the inning. Chacin crusing. ///// 1-2-3 inning from Kelly. 4th Inning Molina came up with a 2-out double but Freeser couldn't knock him in. No damage (again). ///// Kelly came out and got two quick ones before a 2-out base hit from Rutledge, their good leadoff man. Pacheco then singled and advanced to second on the throw to third. 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs for their 3-hole hitter Dickerson. This is another statement time for Kelly if he can make it...and he came through with a ground out. 5th Inning Carpenter drew a walk to start the 5th against new pitcher Edgmer Escalona. Kozma then grounded out weakly and Descalso doubled. Oquendo held up Carp at third. Jay then came through AGAIN with an RBI base-hit. @dgold Jon Jay continues hot spring with an RBI base hit to make it 4-1 #Rockies. Scores Matt Carpenter who reached on a walk. #stlcardsST Oscar then hit a pill to 3rd at Michael Cuddyer who committed his second error of the game, allowing Descalso to score, making it 4-2. Holliday flew out. Then a passed ball by Rosario and a wild pitch by Escalona allowed another run to score to make it 4-3. Craig then flew out. His frustration clearly starting to show through. ///// Kelly, at 51 pitches, comes back out to face CarGo one more time. And he got him to ground out again. He got EY Jr. to ground out and then walked Nelson. That was it for him. A statement was made today by Joe Kelly. Rosenthal needs some work (just 2.0 IP this Spring) and got a fly out to end the inning. 6th Inning A couple of 2-out base hits from Carpenter and Kozma, but DD struck out to end our half inning ///// Rosenthal then came out and got a quick strikeout and ground out. Then Walt Weiss (Rockies mgr) brought in Troy Tulowitzki off the bench because he wanted him to face Rosenthal. Tulo singled. Then he brought in another regular, Dexter Fowler, who Rosie blew away with a 101 MPH fastball to end the sixth. Good outing from Trevor. 7th Inning Jay doubled to lead off the 7th - this is getting out of hand. Mike pinch hit for Oscar with Shane Robinson, who then bunted to get Jay over to third, but he ended up beating it out for a hit. 1st and 3rd nobody out. Juan Lagares pinch hit for Holliday - who was 0-for-3 on the day. Lagares struck out looking. Then Craig, needing the AB's in these situations to try to break out - walked. Jose replaced his brother Yadi with the bases loaded and he grounded into a D.P. ///// Robinson (RF) and Lagares (LF) stay in the game defensively. With a couple of LHB coming up, Mike went to Choate. He walked the first (Charlie Blackmon, pinch hitting for Dickerson) and then struck out CarGo. He then went to Cleto who struck out Wheeler and Brignac to end the inning. 8th Inning Jermaine Curtis entered in Freese's spot after an 0-for-3 day (.136 so far). Curtis doubled and then Adams entered in the DH spot for Carpenter and he walked against Rex Brothers. Kozma successfully bunted them both over and it was a big spot for Descalso. He couldn’t put the ball in play, striking out. Jay’s day was over and a chance for Thomas Pham to show us something. He walked and then Suga Shane hit a sharp grounder to shortstop, which Tulo booted and allowed the tying run to score. Lagares then flew out to end the inning ///// Dolis entered and quickly gave up a double to Herrera and then a walk to Wilin Rosario. Then he got Wheeler to fly out and struck out Tulowitzki. He then battled with Fowler to get a fly out to end it. What looked like big trouble for Dolis didn’t end up that way. 9th Inning Mike really wants to see Allen Craig bust out so he left him in this one. He walked to start the 8th and then Jose Molina reached on the Rockies’ fourth error of the game. Then Jermaine Curtis, Matt Adams and Pete Kozma all struck out. ///// Dolis walked Charlie Blackmon to start the 9th but then struck out CarGo to end his day. With a couple of lefties coming up and Choate not available, Mike went to Rzepczynski. Zep got Wheeler but then Brignac singled setting up 1st and 3rd for Jonathan Herrera. Zep got out of it with a ground out. ///// 10th Inning We went 1-2-3. ///// Zep then got Rosario, Wheeler and Tulo in order. ///// 11th Inning We managed a base runner with a walk but didn’t score. ///// Zep walked Dexter Fowler to start the 11th. He then stole 2nd on Jose Molina. Blackmon singled and then Carlos Gonzalez struck out again. He is now 0-for-5 with three K’s. Zep battled back and got both Wheeler and Brignac to get out of it! Zep made a statement today. Finally, Colorado ended it in the 13th with a Charlie Blackmon RBI triple off of Eric Fornataro. ----------------- The negatives in this one were the offense, again, struggling to get runners home. We saw some solid pitching performances from Joe Kelly and Marc Rzepczynski today after a dismal start from Lance Lynn. Not sure what Mike is thinking about doing about it but we'll have to have that conversation. Back at it tomorrow against the Giants. Jaime Garcia makes his second spring start and we'll get a look at Matt Cain. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-10-2014, 05:05 PM	#156
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Before the game today, I wanted to speak with Mike regarding where Lance Lynn stands. That conversation went something like this: Me: What are you thinking about Lynner? Mike: Not much, really. That was just one of those bad days. He just looked disinterested that that’s not going to fly. Me: Want me to trade him? (jokingly) Mike: (laugh) Maybe. Me: Well, we have plenty of options. Mike: Yeah, he’s not out of it. He’ll get another start but right now I am leaning towards bullpen for him. I haven’t seen enough of Ogando yet to decide whether it’s him or Kelly that replaces him. Me: Well, like you said, we have time to figure that out. He better come up with something next outing. Did you talk to him? Mike: Nope. I took the ball and told him to hit the showers. I figure at this point, if he doesn’t see the urgency here, we’re better off without him in that role. Me: Agreed. That was it. Quick and to the point - as most of my interactions with the manager are. The media back home (of course) was all over it. Gold wrote about the rotation and how it is shaping up. How important each of these Spring starts is going forward. At this point, nothing has been determined. We have three more games before our next scheduled cut. Spring Training Game #10 -- 3/10/14 - vs. San Francisco Giants (5-4) Taking on the Giants here today. Jaime Garcia is on the mound with a pitch limit of 60 today. We’ll see how far into it he can go. Mike mentioned that he wants to get our starters/regulars a good amount of at-bats in this middle section of Spring Training and then wane them off as we get closer to the regular season to make sure they are rested. LINEUPS CARDINALS (4-5) 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Oscar Taveras, RF 3. Jon Jay, CF 4. Matt Holliday, LF 5. Yadier Molina, C 6. Matt Adams, 1B 7. Nelson Cruz, DH 8. David Freese, 3B 9. Kolten Wong, 2B SP: LHP Jaime Garcia MM: I wanted to reward Jon Jay for his great Spring start by giving him a shot at hitting in the 3-spot. That, and nobody else seems to want to post claim to it right now. I have a feeling (unfortunately) that it may be a revolving door this year. Excited to see the bookends of Leury Garcia and Kolten Wong at leadoff and 9th in the order. We'll give Allen Craig a mental day off today and let Matt Adams play first base. That will give us a chance to get Nelson Cruz in there as well. GIANTS (5-4) 1. Brandon Crawford, SS 2. Gary Brown, CF 3. Buster Posey, C 4. Hunter Pence, RF 5. Brian Roberts, 2B 6. Juan Perez, LF 7. Nick Noonan, 3B 8. Brett Pill, 1B 9. Jackson Williams, DH SP: RHP Matt Cain ------------------- ADAMS BELTS GAME-WINNING HOMER IN SPRING VICTORY By: Derek Gold -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch Matt Adams has had the flair for the dramatic in early Spring camp for the Cardinals. A week ago, he delivered the game-winning hit against the Reds in a 5-4 win. This time, he delivers a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning to give the Cardinals an exciting 6-5 win over the Giants at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter. The Cardinals stuck with their starters for the entirety of this one, much to the approval of the near 7,000 in fans in attendance. It was Matt Adams, who was 0-for-3 on the day at the time, stepping in against veteran reliever Grant Balfour with one on and one out. He deposited 0-1 delivery over the right field fence and a one hop off the Cardinals clubhouse to give the Cardinals that 6-5 lead. The game was a seesaw affair with the lead changing hands multiple times after the Giants staked out a quick 1-0 lead with a Buster Posey double scoring Brandon Crawford in the first off of Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia. Spring sensation Leury Garcia led of the Cardinals half of the first with his first Spring homer against Giants starter Matt Cain. The Giants re-captured the lead with a Hunter Pence double, plating both Gary Brown and Buster Posey and handing them a 3-1 advantage in the top of the 3rd - still against Garcia. Again, the Cardinals cut into that lead with a David Freese homer (1st of Spring) to lead off the bottom half of the third off of Cain. Kolten Wong gave the Cardinals their first lead with a 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom of the 4th only to see Brian Roberts drive home two of his own in the top of the 5th off of new Cardinals hurler Carlos Martinez. The Giants took a 5-4 lead. There was no more scoring until the Adams blast in the bottom of the 8th. Then it was in the hands of a pitcher making headlines early in camp, Jhan Marinez. He pitched a successful 8th inning and then came right back out in the 9th and closed it out for the win. Marinez now has four appearances, posted a win and a save with just one hit and one walk allowed to go with 8 K’s in 6.0 innings pitched. He is making a case to join a crowded Cardinals bullpen. At least, he’s making the decision a difficult one. Kolten Wong and Leury Garcia led the way with three hits a piece. Garcia is now hitting .526 (10-for-19) and is running away with the “battle” for the shortstop position. Pete Kozma, his competition is just 2-for-18 thus far. Jon Jay earned the right to hit in the 3-hole in this one after his hot start to the Spring season, he responded with his first hitless game (0-for-3 with a walk). The Cardinals are back in action tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. St. Louis will throw Shelby Miller against Philadelphia right-hander Tyler Cloyd. Game time is 12:05 CT. --------------------- Happy to see Leury Garcia continue to make an impact early in camp. Though, we look at it with tempered expectations. He is certainly separating himself from Pete Kozma and he has a good chance to be our starting shortstop come Opening Day - which is what we wanted him to be when we made the deal. Jhan Marinez continues to impress in a small sample size as well. Good to see Matty Adams get another big hit. Mike wanted to give Allen Craig a mental day off today. He’s trying a bit too hard to get his timing down. Still plenty of time to work out any kinks. He’s 4-for-24 this Spring so far. We are at the point of camp that we are sitting back and watching body language and not as much hard line stats. Though, by the end of it, the stats will play a part in our decision making process. We’ll play two more games before we cut anybody else. @DodgersBeat The rumors are true. #Dodgers going to ink Joba Chamberlain to a 2-year deal worth just over $8 Million. @MLBDepthCharts We expect Joba Chamberlain to be in a set-up role for closer Kenley Jansen this year. Solid signing after good year in the New York in ‘13. #STDepth I see that Joba got what he wanted - and there was no doubt that he would. He can get to camp late - miss some workouts and still get paid handsomely. I’m sure we’ll run into him at some point this season and I’m sure he’ll remember that we pulled the plug on our deal. Right now, we have plenty of competition for the bullpen as it is, so we’re just fine. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic) Last edited by OOTPRealTime; 03-10-2014 at 05:07 PM.

03-11-2014, 02:46 PM	#157
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 12 - 3/11/14 - vs. Philadelphia Phillies Moving on to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, who are struggling this Spring with a 2-8 record so far. We're continuing to evaluate our players and taking a look at some of them in different roles in case they are needed to take on a new identity as the long 162-game grind rolls along. Again, we want to stay healthy first and foremost. LINEUPS CARDINALS (6-5) 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Kolten Wong, 2B 3. Allen Craig, RF 4. Matt Holliday, DH 5. Matt Adams, 1B 6. Nelson Cruz, LF 7. Oscar Taveras, CF 8. David Freese, 3B 9. Tony Cruz, C SP: RHP Shelby Miller PHILLIES (2-8) 1. Ben Revere, RF 2. Cesar Hernandez, 2B 3. Darin Ruf, DH 4. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C 5. Domonic Brown, LF 6. Freddy Galvis, 1B 7. Kevin Frandsen, SS 8. Cody Asche, 3B 9. John Mayberry Jr., CF SP: RHP Tyler Cloyd ------------ 1st Inning After a Leury Garcia strikeout, Kolten Wong tripled and then Allen Craig got him in with a perfectly placed weak ground ball. Again, still waiting for something to click with Craig. Holliday then flew out. ///// Shelby got them 1-2-3 with a strikeout of Revere. STL 1, PHI 0 2nd Inning Adams was given the green light on a 3-0 pitch and he drove a base-hit to right field with it. N. Cruz then singled - Adams to 3rd. Taveras then struck out and Freese grounded into a double play to end what looked like a promising 2nd inning. ///// After two quick outs, Freddy Galvis singled and then stole 2nd base on Shelby/Tony Cruz. Shelby got out of it with a ground out. STL 1, PHI 0 3rd Inning Kolten Wong grabbed his 2nd hit of the game with 2 outs (now hitting .519). Craig flew out. ///// Again, Shelby got 2 quick ones and then allowed a base hit to speedster Revere. He easily stole second base. Shelby got out of it with a ground out. STL 1, PHI 0 4th Inning Nothing happening outside of a 1-out base hit by Matt Adams. ///// For the 3rd straight inning, Shelby got the first two outs and then this time Domonic Brown took him deep. He then hit Galvis with a pitch before getting Frandsen. PHI 1, STL 1 5th Inning Tony Cruz got a one out base hit off of new pitcher Manny Parra. He was sacrificed to 2nd by Garcia and then Kolten Wong flew out. ///// Shelby entered the 5th at 57 pitches. So, he'll face just one batter in this inning. He finished strong, striking out Cody Asche. @dgold Shelby's line today: 4.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 K, 1 HR (D. Brown)on 63 pitches (40 strikes). #solid Eduardo Sanchez enters and quickly gives up a base hit to Mayberry. Ben Revere then delivered an RBI triple to make it 2-0 Phillies. Sanchez pitching his way right out of contention for the bullpen. Rollins scored Revere from third with a ground out. 3-0. Ruf then doubled before the inning ended on a fly out. PHI 3, STL 1 6th Inning Craig struck out - dropping him to .148. Holliday flew out - dropping him to .167 and Matt Adams singled, bringing him up to .300 on the Spring. Nelly Cruz then struck out. ///// Fernando Salas takes over for Sanchez. Base hit for Brown. Galvis sacrifices him over to 2nd. Frandsen grounded out and then Asche flew out. No further damage. PHI 3, STL 1 7th Inning Taveras - Freese - T. Cruz went 1-2-3 without much of a fight. ///// Salas gave up a one-out base hit to pinch hitter Mike Napoli. He then walked Rollins before K'ing Ruf. With 2 outs he got Salty to ground out to end the inning. PHI 3, STL 1 8th Inning All the backups come in as we hope to mount a comeback. Kozma grounded out. Descalso singled. Pham GIDP. ///// Fornataro got them 1-2-3. PHI 3, STL 1 9th Inning They brought in their closer Jonathan Papelbon. We have Justin Christian-Matt Carpenter-Shane Robinson due up in our last chance. Christian led off with a double. Matt Carpenter then struck out looking. Shane Robinson struck out looking but then Juan Lagares singled home Christian to keep hope alive. With Curtis coming up, Lagares tried to get into scoring position by stealing second base, but Saltalamacchia somehow threw him out to end the game. FINAL: Philadelphia 3, St. Louis 2 ------------------ A solid outing from Shelby. Two hits from Wong has him hitting .500. The real concerns are early struggles of those who struggled in 2013: Craig (.148), Holliday (.167) and Freese (.143). How much do we worry? Right now, it does us no good. But is it time to consider taking a look at Matt Carpenter at third base? He isn't great defensively there - and doesn't have much experience, but David Freese just doesn't appear ready to take that on full time. He hit .246 with 23 HR last year with 60 RBI - and a career high 163 strikeouts. Is a platoon in order? Matt Carpenter (the lefty) against RHP and Freese against LHP? It at least has to be considered. Last year, Freese hit .259 against LHP and .241 against RHP. Not a huge difference. Matt Adams has really started to come along and with three hits today is really putting up a fight to be the starting first baseman. That would mean Allen Craig has to play in the outfield. Which would mean that Oscar Taveras would probably start the season in Memphis. We'll see what happens. Still some time to make these difficult decisions. -------------- @MLBInjuryReport The #Indians will be without Michael Bourn for 6 weeks with a herniated disc in his back. @MLBDepthCharts Michael Bourn to projected DL. Michael Brantley to projected starting CF. Tim Fedroff to projected starting LF. #Indians @MLBInjuryReport The #Mariners aren't ready to diagnose Dustin Ackley's shoulder yet, but he'll be shut down for the time being. #MLB __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-13-2014, 01:39 PM	#158
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 12 - 3/13/14 - vs. Chicago Cubs It’s cut day number two of four after today’s game with the Cubs. We have some tough decisions to make and while it won’t be as tough as the one five days and then ten days from now, it’s still never easy to crush dreams. Regardless, nobody that is cut today will be surprised by it. Yesterday during the off day, I saw plenty of our guys coming in and getting their workouts in. In fact, I’m fairly certain every single player in camp showed up at least for an hour. I confirmed that with our trainer and strength coaches. That’s a good sign. Regardless, rest is still important and that’s Mike’s job to stay on top of that. There were a couple of newsworthy happenings around the league yesterday: MIAMI SIGNS GAVIN FLOYD -- rotoworld.com Gavin Floyd finally finds a home and it is in South Beach. The Marlins agreed to terms with the former White Sox right-hander on a four-year, $24+ Million deal. Advice: He moves to a pitcher-friendly park in the National League so you can expect his numbers to get a bit better. At 31, he’s nearing that “over the hill” for starting pitchers - but he isn’t there yet. The wins won’t be there in Miami but he could keep that ERA under 4.00 and close in on 10 wins. @RedSox Happy to announce that we have locked up CF Jacoby Ellsbury for five more years! The extension is worth $67.5 Million. @KenRosenhaus Love the locking up of Ellsbury. BOS signed him to a one-year deal this year to keep him around and negotiated to keep him there thru ‘19. #MLB Alexi Ogando gets the start for us today. His 2nd outing as he battles for a spot in the rotation. This is a big audition for him. He’ll get 70 pitches max today as we want to see how he does in a bit more of an extended outing. We may make a decision on the rotation after today’s game so as to start putting guys in their correct roles and get work there before the season starts. We will definitely need to see how Lynn does in response to his terrible outing last time out. LINEUPS CARDINALS (5-6) 1. Leury Garcia, SS 2. Kolten Wong, 2B 3. Yadier Molina, C 4. Allen Craig, 1B 5. Matt Holliday, LF 6. David Freese, 3B 7. Juan Lagares, RF 8. Justin Christian, DH 9. Thomas Pham, CF SP: RHP Alexi Ogando MM: I want to see Leury Garcia get comfortable atop the lineup. Wong is working his way into the 2-hole as well. That’s a young combo up there, but it could work. Molina back to the 3-hole and Craig-Holliday-Freese will try to break out of their funks in the 4-6 spots. Lagares, Christian and Pham are going to get AB’s today with two of them likely headed back to minor league camp after the game. Looking forward to seeing Ogando’s second start as well. CUBS (4-7) 1. Jose Vargas, RF 2. Scott Hairston, CF 3. Mike Morse, DH 4. Ian Kinsler, 2B 5. Junior Lake, 3B 6. Steven Clevenger, 1B 7. Logan Watkins, SS 8. Dave Sappelt, LF 9. Luis Flores, C SP: RHP Casey Coleman ------------------------- 1st Inning After a lead off walk (ugh), Ogando settled down and got a fielder’s choice and a GIDP to get out of the first inning unscathed. ///// Garcia singled to lead off the game - now hitting .500 on the Spring. Because it’s Spring Training and we’re working on things - he will try to steal just about every time he’s on base. That will change (obviously) in the regular season. He stole his 7th base (in 8 tries) on the first pitch. Wong struck out looking and then Yadier came through with an RBI base hit - his first RBI of ST to make it 1-0. Craig then GIDP. Struggles mounting. STL 1, CHC 0 2nd Inning Another walk to start the 2nd for Ogando (Kinsler). Then he struck out Lake and got another GIDP to end that inning! How often does that happen? ///// Holliday grounded out before Freese doubled (great to see). Lagares and Christian couldn’t get him in. STL 1, CHC 0 3rd Inning This time, he got the first two and then allowed a base-hit to the 9-hold hitter Flores before getting Vargas to fly out. He’s through three innings at 38 pitches - aided by the two GIDP. ///// Pham K’ed, Garcia grounded out and then Wong singled (.500). Molina then flew out. STL 1, CHC 0 4th Inning Ogando got a quick out of Hairston and then Mike Morse unloaded on him to tie the game - a shot to left field. He then struck out Kinsler and then Junior Lake singled into the gap and he tried to stretch it into a double but Pham cut him down there to end the inning. ///// Craig singled (finally!) and then Holliday struck out before Freese drew a walk. Juan Lagares, who clearly wants to make this team, doubled in Craig to make it 2-1. Christian then doubled in two more to make it 4-1. Pham and Garcia flew out to end it. STL 4, CHC 1 5th Inning Clevenger singled before Ogando got two outs. Then Flores singled for the 2nd time. He was at 73 pitches and Mike had seen enough. It was a good outing. With a lefty coming up (Vargas) we wanted to insert Choate in this scenario. He singled home Clevenger though to make it 4-2. Choate stayed in to face Hairston and he got a ground out. ///// Wong-Molina-Craig went 1-2-3. STL 4, CHC 2 6th Inning Eduardo Sanchez, who is most likely getting cut after the game is given a chance to show us something enough to keep him around. He got a quick out and then walked Kinsler and gave up a base-hit to Lake. Clevenger then doubled to make it 4-3. Mike has seen enough. That sealed Sanchez’ fate - he’s just not quite ready. He wanted to see how Spring sensation Jhan Marinez does when he enters in some hot water (runners on 2nd and 3rd in a one-run game). His other appearances have been his own innings. Most likely, if he makes the team, he’ll be more so used in this role. He faces Logan Watkins. He got ahead of him 0-2 and was filling up the zone early. Watkins eventually popped out. Now it was Dave Sappelt. Again, he got ahead 0-2 and wasted one before striking him out looking! Marinez is really impressing. ///// Nothing happening for us in the bottom half. Freese did draw a walk and Lagares sacrificed him over but Pham couldn’t get him in. STL 4, CHC 3 7th Inning Marinez stayed in and got them 1-2-3 with relative ease. ///// Mike changed up the lineup with Kozma going to SS; Descalso to 2B; Jose Molina to C; Matt Carpenter to 1B; Oscar Taveras to LF and Jermaine Curtis to 3B - in that order. Kozma-Descalso-J. Molina went 1-2-3. STL 4, CHC 3 8th Inning With a rested bullpen this is a good opportunity to use these players in their projected roles. So, that means Boggs in the 8th and Rosenthal in the 9th. We’ll see how that goes….Boggsie struck out Morse and then got pinch-hitters (and starters) Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro to each ground out. A very solid set-up performance from Boggs. ///// Looking for a little breathing room, we didn’t get any. Carpenter/Taveras/Curtis went quietly. STL 4, CHC 3 9th Inning Instead of going to Rosenthal, Mike wanted to see how Boggs could do in two innings - again, its Spring Training and we know what Rosenthal can do. He was wild and walked the lead off man (Brett Jackson). Logan Watkins then sacrificed him over to second base. Alfonso Soriano then pinch hit and delivered a 2-run home run to give the Cubs the lead. Ouch. Didn’t want to see that. Rosie then came in and got out of it. ///// Lagares and Christian flew out before Pham (in his last AB in big league camp) walked. They have Christian Villanueva behind the plate and I’m fairly certain that I could steal second base on him. Pham has good speed too. We already ended one game this Spring on a caught stealing and don’t want to do it again - but, come on. So, Pham swiped second base with ease and it was up to Kozma. He flew out and that was it. FINAL: Chicago Cubs 5, St. Louis Cardinals 4 WP - Bobby Parnell (1-0) LP - Mitchell Boggs (1-1) SV - Joel Hanrahan (3) HR: CHC - Mike Morse (1), Alphonso Soriano (3) ---------------------- The positives include continued solid work out of Leury Garcia and Kolten Wong at the top of the lineup. David Freese seems to be seeing the ball better (2B and a couple of walks). Jhan Marinez came through again in a big way. The negatives include Allen Craig’s struggles, Mitchell Boggs giving up the lead - though he was stretched out (again, it’s Spring!). I’m getting together with Mike to go over our next set of cuts and will update this later with who we will be sending back to minor league camp today. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-13-2014, 01:47 PM	#159
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Round 2 of Cuts After some discussion, we have decided to cut five players today. P Eric Fornataro P Eduardo Sanchez C Audry Perez 3B Jermaine Curtis OF Thomas Pham These five players will obviously remain a part of the organization and remain a part of our future plans. Fornataro just didn't quite do enough to warrant sticking around. Sanchez flat out struggled (12.60 ERA). Perez is a depth cut. It was between him and Tony Cruz and we decided to keep Cruz around. Jermaine Curtis was a long shot - though he hit well during camp (.268) and Pham was overmatched at this level. @jenohgosh #Cardinals cuts today include Fornataro, E. Sanchez, A. Perez, J. Curtis and T. Pham. 16 pitchers remain / 18 hitters. We will make two more cuts. One more after five more games and then the final cut down (the hardest one) will take place after our final Spring Training tune up. We hope that no decisions are made for us via injury and so far we have been fortunate - knock on wood. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic)

03-14-2014, 03:46 PM	#160
OOTPRealTime Minors (Double A) Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 147	Spring Training Game 13 - 3/14/14 - vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Our “ace” Michael Wacha will get his longest leash of the spring, now allowed to stretch it out to 80 pitches. We’re all excited to see how he responds against the Pirates today. LINEUPS CARDINALS (5-7) 1. Leury Garcia, 2B 2. Oscar Taveras, CF 3. Allen Craig, RF 4. Yadier Molina, C 5. Matt Holliday, DH 6. Matt Adams, 1B 7. Nelson Cruz, LF 8. Matt Carpenter, 3B 9. Pete Kozma, SS SP: RHP Michael Wacha MM: Getting a look at guys in their backup positions - those who have them. Never know when we’re going to need them to play there. Obviously, Yadi needs to catch Michael and really doesn’t have a second position. Matt Carpenter is now vying for a starting spot over David Freese as far as I’m concerned. I’m happy that we’ll get a look at Francisco Liriano, who handled us pretty well last year. PIRATES (7-5) 1. Eduardo Nunez, SS 2. Jose Tabata, LF 3. Starling Marte, RF 4. Neil Walker, 2B 5. Michael McKenry, DH 6. Travis Snider, CF 7. Josh Harrison, 3B 8. Russell Martin, C 9. Juan Miranda, 1B SP: LHP Francisco Liriano ------------------ WACHA SURRENDERS 10 HITS; CARDS OFFENSE STYMIED By: Derek Gold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sure, it’s just Spring Training and the stats and even the game itself doesn’t matter - but don’t tell that to Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny. Matheny was clearly perturbed more so than a normal mid-March loss, but why? Well, the team fielded a “starter filled” lineup against the Pirates and their “ace” on the mound. You’d expect better than a 5-0 beating at the hands of mainly backups in the Pittsburgh lineup. There is more to it than that. “A lack of effort. We only have nine more tune-up games before we start playing for real. They just went out there and went through the motions today. It’s time to start showing what we can do,” said Matheny. It’s not just the field manager that took the loss hard. Cardinals GM Parker Campbell had a few quick jabs at the players who they fielded today, “Just no passion was shown by any of the starting nine. Joe Kelly was the only player I’d give a passing grade to today.” Kelly, who is battling for a spot in the bullpen - and remains a long shot for the rotation, relieved starter Michael Wacha and looked like the “ace” of the staff in comparison. Kelly tossed 3 ⅔ scoreless frames with two walks and two strikeouts, not allowing a hit. Wacha, however, struggled. He gave up 10 hits and five earned runs. He didn’t issue a walk and struck out six in his 5 ⅓ innings, totalling 84 pitches (58 for strikes). “We were excited to get our first extended look at Michael today and he completely flopped,” said Matheny. The offense wasn’t much more inspiring. The most glaring example came in the bottom of the seventh, facing a 5-0 deficit, though loaded the bases with nobody out. Pete Kozma, who has all but lost any chance of winning the starting shortstop job struck out looking - dropping his Spring average to .083. He had two strikeouts on the day. That was followed by a Leury Garcia infield pop-out and then an Oscar Taveras weak ground out to end the “threat”. Matt Holliday’s struggles continued with an 0-for-3 day with one whiff. He’s now hitting .133 this Spring. Holliday was also picked off first base to end the sixth innign with Matt Adams at the plate and runners on first and third. Spreaking of Matt Adams, he continued to hit the ball at a nice pace with two hits - the only Cardinal with multiple hits. “Sloppy. Just slop. We had a caught stealing (Garcia’s 2nd of the Spring), got picked off (Holliday) and even found a way to see just three pitches in an inning, with three weak ground outs,” Matheny piled on. That was in reference to a fourth inning in which Pirates starter Francisco Liriano got the heart of the Cardinals order out on three pitches. Allen Craig grounded out on a three hopper to second base; Yadier Molina followed that with a routine grounder to shortstop and then Matt Holliday - not to pile on - swung at the first pitch and grounded to third base. “It was like we were hitting them infield practice,” joked Campbell. Neither found even their own quips very funny. They stopped short of saying that the focus may have been more on getting out of the complex and to dinner and/or the beach. Regardless, the Cardinals can put this one behind them and come out behind Adam Wainwright tomorrow against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals will look to break a three game losing streak. --------------------- A very frustrating performance today. It’s one thing to get beat. It’s a whole other thing to be embarrassed by a divisional rival who didn’t even play most of their starters. Wacha ran into some bad luck but Matt Holliday looks downright disinterested. Either way, we’ll just have to put it behind us and come out to play tomorrow. __________________ OOTP in Real-Time - St. Louis Cardinals View Current Organizational Depth Chart (dynamic) Last edited by OOTPRealTime; 03-14-2014 at 03:47 PM.