Future Redbirds

Amaury Marti update: Playing for the Mexican Red Devils, Marti is hitting .459/.568/.743 in 74 at bats. Really, I should say the Mexican Red Devils play for Amaury Marti.

When Cardinals collide: 9th round pick pick Aaron Luna took 18th round pick Jared Bradford deep when Rice faced off against LSU this afternoon in the College World Series. Luna went 2-for-3; Bradford allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks with 10 strikeouts over 6.2 innings. Rice couldn’t hold on via a Cole St. Clair meltdown and LSU won 6-5. You can read more about the game here and here.

The Midwest League held their All Star game tonight. Charlie Kingrey tripled and scored the game tying run in the 5th and went 2-for-3 total.  Pete Kozma went 1-for-3. Mark Diapoules pitched a third of an inning and allowed a hit. In the end, the West (the bad guys) beat the East 5-4 in 10 innings. 

You can read about Lance Lynn’s bullpen session at Busch Stadium at the official site. 

The short season teams are starting up as Batavia and Johnson City debuted tonight. The GCL starts Thursday. Here’s the rosters, I’ll have some thoughts on a post about them Wednesday around noon.

Springfield loses a coughs up the TL North Division 1st half title in an extra-inning heartbreaker. Palm Beach on the other hand had some extra inning heroics. And Batavia and Johnson City started their seasons off on a weird foot by their hitters racking up an unusually high number of strikeouts. It’s all in your DFR. 

Memphis versus Albuquerque was postponed.

Springfield 6, Arkansas 7 (11 innings)

Jess Todd 7 IP, 2 ER, 7 hits, 4 K, 1 HR, 1 HBP.
Fernando Salas 2 IP, 2 ER, 2 K, 2 HR.
Luke Gregerson 1.1, 5 hits, 3 ER, WP, 1 K.
Justin Fiske 0 IP, 1 hit, 1 BB.
Shane Robinson 1-for-5, 2B, SB.
Jon Jay 2-for-5, 2B.
Allen Craig 2-for-6, 2B.

The S-Cards went with their ace Todd in hopes of winning the 1st half TL North division. He did okay, but unfortunately his night was spoiled by a very rare Fernando Salas implosion. The 2 homers Salas gave up took the game to extras. Shane Robinson hit a go-ahead RBI double in the 10th to make it 5-4, then scored on Jon Jay’s double to make it 6-4. Then Luke Gregerson happened, and Justin Fiske wasn’t able to clean up his mess. He will be a lonely man on the bus ride home. I guess there is always the 2nd half to contend for.

Palm Beach 8, Daytona 7 (10 innings)

James Rapoport 3-for-5, SB.
Daryl Jones 3-for-5, HR.
Brian Cartie 2-for-5.
Nicholas Derba 2-for-5.
Tony Cruz 1-for-1, 2B.

Tony “don’t call me Arnoldi” Cruz hit a double with the bases loaded to take the game into extra innings, and Daryl Jones hit the game-winning HR in the 10th inning. James Rapoport brought his average up to .340, and now has 11 steals in 25 games.

Batavia 2, Auburn 4

Xavier Scruggs 0-for-4, 4 K.
Shane Peterson 1-for-4, 3 K, CS.
Blake Murphy 0-for-3, 3 K.
Beau Riportella 1-for-3, 2B, BB, CS.
Jose Garcia 3 errors.
Arquimedes Nieto 4 IP, 1 hit, 3 BB, 2 K, 7 GO to 3 AO.
Zach Pitts 2.1 IP, 2 ER, 2 hits, 1 BB, 2 K.
Jason Buursma 1.0 IP, 1 hits, 1 BB, 2 K.

Not a great debut for the Muckdogs, who collected a total of 15 whiffs against Doubleday pitchers. The X-Factor gets the Golden Sombrero, but in spite of that I was happy to see his name in the lineup, as I thought he would be a tough sign. And how cool is the name Arquimedes?

JC 6, Bristol 3 12 innings

Deryk Hooker 4 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
Brett Zawacki 4 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB 4 K.
Jared Bogany 2-for-5, HR.
Guillermo Toribio 1-for-3, 2 BB, 3 SB.
Brett Lilley 2-for-6.
Travis Mitchell 1-for-5, 4 K. 
Osvaldo Morales 1-for-6, 2B, 3 K.

Not to be outdone by Batavia, the JC Cards struck out 19 times in this game. Blame it on rust, I guess. That lineup will look a lot more exciting with Niko Vasquez in it, who did sign. Toribio is a walks machine, he has 34 in 53 games last year in the GCL, and posted an OBP of .389 despite a BA of .257. Jared Bogany was a top 100 draft prospect three years ago, and has to be one of the toolsier NDFA’s to be signed in a while. Nice to see the Hooker/Zawacki tandem get off on a good foot.