Cardinals Minor Leagues Archives - Scoops with Danny Mac: Recent Episodes
Dan McLaughlin
St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois Sports News - St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, Missouri Tigers, SLU Billikens, Prep Sports, PGA Golf and more coverage from around the region.
The COVID-era phone call between 13-year-old Rainiel Rodriguez and Albert Pujols is the stuff of legends: a prophetic prologue that proves the baseball god’s cosmic devotion to St. Louis, or another parable of Cardinals’ devil magic, depending on your denomination.
As Rob Rains reported in a feature story published last summer, Rodriguez moved to the U.S. where his mom worked nights in a food truck. Rainiel was 1,500 miles from home, but word spread to the highest levels of the Dominican baseball diaspora about a talented kid in Philadelphia.
“I just talked to him,” Rainiel said about the phone call. “I kind of pinched myself a little in 2024, or I think it was 2025, I met (Pujols) when he managed winter ball. I talked to him in person, so that was pretty cool.”
Rodriguez’s bat captivated Cardinals’ scouts during a tryout at their academy in the Dominican Republic two years ago and since then Rainiel has ascended higher and faster than the pair of home runs he smashed at Route 66 Stadium on Thursday night.
Rodriguez blasted a 1-2 pitch from Amarillo righthander Daniel Eagen off the manual scoreboard beyond the visiting bullpen in the first inning, then launched a nearly identical 2-run shot in the seventh inning. Rainiel joined elite company; only a handful of prospects since 2005 recorded a multi-homer game at a younger age than Rodriguez (19 years, 158 days) and they include MLB stars Fernando Tatis Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and rookie Konnor Griffin.
🚨TWO HOME RUN GAME RAINIEL RODRIGUEZ🚨 pic.twitter.com/vn3aKXP6I6
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) June 12, 2026
A learning curve is expected for a 19-year-old in Double-A and Rainiel has been no exception. In 23 games with Springfield, Rodriguez is slashing .207/.304/.345 with 3 homers and 11 RBIs. But his work at the plate as a teenager in Cards’ lower levels prompted outgoing President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak to describe Rodriguez as one of the best prospects he’d ever seen.
“(Working) on my defense, and that’s about it. Hitting, I know I can hit,” Rodriguez said before Springfield’s game on May 26. “Trying to stay consistent with my work and just go out and compete.”
Rodriguez has caught 13 games and played 6 games at first base, with 4 starts in the DH slot. Springfield manager Patrick Anderson, a former catcher in the Frontier League, is developing Rainiel behind the plate. Springfield rosters the organizations’ top two prospects – Rodriguez and pitcher Liam Doyle – a unique opportunity for an elite young battery to grow together.
“(Doyle) is great, he throws f’ing heat,” Rodriguez said.
“You don’t find it very often, where (a pitcher and catcher) are so high profile,” Anderson said. “They’re very talented, great personalities – it’s different with this kid. Not to (take away) from Liam because he’s very focused as well, very focused, but (Rodriguez), he’s excited to be here but he wants to get to the big leagues, and you can tell from being around him. This is a steppingstone in his brain, and it’s fun to be around. I don’t say just to say it, it’s through his actions and his work.
“I saw him last year before spring training – I went down the Dominican for a week – I was really impressed with how strong he is. He’s done a really good job doing his homework, identifying beforehand prep-wise what he needs to do for each pitcher, and what we can do in a game – so that’s a lot for a 19-year-old at this level,” he said. “Getting in meetings and talking with our pitching coach, the starting pitcher, starting to really get to know our relievers, and planning and writing things down because it’s a lot of information for anybody, let alone a 19-year-old.”
The post Rainiel Rodriguez joins elite company with two-homer game appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Chaim Bloom led off his first Q&A with the Cardinals’ amateur media with a pledge to be candid. As special advisor to John Mozeliak for the past two seasons, Bloom watched his predecessor’s tenure end on sour terms with St. Louis fans weary of front office apathy – real, perceived, or both – to mounting losses.
The tone, if not the substance, was different on Saturday. Opportunity – not patience – is Bloom’s favorite buzz word.
“There’s 29 other people that get to (direct an MLB front office) and that’s our competition, because you wake up every day and go kick their ass. You never really know if you did it, but like, if that’s your role, what does that mean you have to get out of today? And if you ever lose that edge, it’s like you put a timer on yourself.”
Bloom isn’t satisfied with the Cards’ better-than-expected start to 2026 but his sights are firmly set on the organization’s long-term retooling.
“Hey we’ve gotten off to this good start, but this is not the goal, like we haven’t accomplished a damn thing,” he said. “I think the objective reality is that we’re not anywhere close to where we really need to be. But also, like, the way I’m wired, I will just probably never feel (satisfied). But that, to me, that’s the fun.”
On Early Contract Extensions for Wetherholt, Walker
“When you talk about extensions for young players, like, I think these get portrayed as we’re rewarding guys, right? And yeah, obviously we have to have belief in the player but also belief in the person. But it’s also a risk-sharing arrangement, right? When a player starts his career, the risk is all on him. And when we enter into one of these (extensions), we’re sharing the risk with the player – and we’re sort of going into an arrangement to do this together, and there’s a lot of factors that go into that. Even when everybody wants it, still figuring out the right time, right terms, it doesn’t always come together. Sometimes it does, and those are great. But really for me, its more belief in the player and belief in the person as far as who we approach.”
On Maintaining Progress and Tradition
“Every organization is going to figure out who they are and being the best version of themselves. And it’s on us to do that. When we look at the history of the Cardinals, it’s not something the Cardinals haven’t done – it has to be a little new and a little different every time you want to (have success) again.”
“It’s kind of tough for me because I’m actually a huge baseball history nerd. Like, I love this (stuff)…and the best way we honor that history is by not trying to rinse-and-repeat but trying to figure out what’s next.”
On the use of Artificial Intelligence in Baseball
“Candidly, we still have some work to do to figure out how to leverage this really well. This is one of those things, it’s actually scary in some ways – not just because I don’t see how this doesn’t end with the robots killing or enslaving (us) – like, you know, when I become a battery for a machine, I’d like to have a World Series ring on my finger. So until that happens, we want to try to do everything we can to leverage it to win.”
On the Looming CBA Impact to the Cards Rebuild
“It could (offer opportunities). You know, it’s hard to know what motivates everybody, whether teams or players – when they’re thinking about decisions they have to make – and sometimes if you see opportunities there you want to ask yourself, why are people behaving the way that they do? Could it have something to do with how they’re thinking about (MLB’s economic model). But I think from our end, this comes up every few years when there is a CBA out – could there be changes? What might they look like? There are always opportunities that emerge from that, but the fundamentals of what makes a good organization and what’s winning baseball, those change over time, but I don’t think they usually change because of the CBA…you are probably getting too cute if you start to get too far away from the things that make good organizations.”
The post Chaim Bloom’s competitiveness, long-term vision the feature of first Blogger’s Day Q&A appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Springfield manager Patrick Anderson, then with the Washington Nationals organization, traveled to Taiwan to help friends run a Nike baseball camp. Anderson scouted several “tall, skinny right-handers”, including one that he’d cross paths with again halfway around the world nearly a decade later.
But by the time Anderson took notes on teenage Chen Wei Lin, the eventual first Taiwanese amateur to be signed by St. Louis was already familiar with professional baseball in America. Lin watched his maternal uncle – Los Angeles Dodgers’ reliever Hung-Chih Kuo – “almost every time” he pitched, despite a 15-hour time difference between LA and his hometown of Tainan City, Taiwan.
Now the roles are reversed, and Kuo is trying to help the Cardinals’ No. 24-ranked prospect reach the Major Leagues.
“I train with him in the offseason,” Lin said prior to striking out five Drillers to help Springfield to a 7-2 win in Tulsa on Thursday night. “He teaches me a lot about how to become a better pitcher, like mental things and focus on the game…I’m working on how do I get strikes as fast as I can. It’s great to be healthy because last year I stayed in Florida a long time.”
Chen-Wei Lin final line (89 pitches):
4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
He cruised through the first four frames, but ran into some trouble in the 5th
Overall, a nice start, once again limiting walks and inducing plenty of whiffs pic.twitter.com/J1tiLbS9yo
— Adam Akbani (@AdamAkbani) May 15, 2026
Reliever Brandt Thompson finished Lin’s start and earned the victory, and the Cards (15-21) have won five in a row and 8 of their last 10 games.
Lin has been steady in Double-A this spring; he sports a 3.95 ERA and 1.46 WHIP with 39 strikeouts in 27.1 innings that include five starts and two relief appearances. The 6-foot-7 righthander sits in the mid-to-upper 90’s fastball with movement and his extension adds jump to it. Lin battled forearm injuries last season and pitched just 39.1 innings before reaching Springfield in September. The Cardinals are evaluating whether the rotation or bullpen is Lin’s best role.
“We want to make as many starters as possible, obviously,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to find out fitting for him and how he can develop into either one of the two.”
“He runs a little bit of a sinker, but he powers it, drives through the zone pretty well and guys are taking some, you know, defensive swings at times,” Anderson said. “He’s got some focused player plan that we have for him and he’s really working on that and doing a great job controlling the running game as well.”
Lin caught the Cardinals’ attention with a strong showing in the Northwoods League (Kenosha Kingfish) and Collegiate Summer league (Frederick Keys). He helped the Chinese Taipei national team prepare for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and with the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, Lin has a chance to bring the family baseball story full circle.
““First thing I want is to keep healthy for the entire season, and I’m working on the slider, changeup and splitter,” he said. “If I have the opportunity to play for Taiwan, I would be happy to play for them, but right now I’m thinking how to become a better player, so I can earn the opportunity to play for the country.”
The post Fastball getting “defensive swings” as healthy Chen Wei Lin enjoys solid spring appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Mason Molina learned to slow the speed and increase the spin of his devastating changeup at the University of Arkansas pitching laboratory in 2024. After a dizzying start to his professional career – the 22-year-old was traded twice last year – Molina is back in the Ozarks and he’s looking to slow the pace.
“It’s a huge blessing to be mentioned in some of the conversations with the guys that I’ve been traded for, you know, two amazing guys in the big leagues that have done it out of the bullpen for a decent amount of time and done it pretty well. Obviously, it’s an honor – it’s a little stressful while trades are happening because there’s the growing pains of learning a new staff and program but apart from that, it’s been really awesome to be here; it was pretty seamless here.”
Molina took the mound at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Arkansas Wednesday night as the Springfield Cardinals opened a six-game series against Northwest Arkansas, just up the road from where the former Razorback honed the pitch that’s enticed three MLB organizations (Milwaukee, Texas, St. Louis). Molina threw 51-of-75 pitches for strikes and punched out six batters in 4.2 innings in the Cards’ 4-2 loss. He sports a 3.80 ERA and 30 strikeouts over 23.2 innings (five starts), as he’s worked to build up his workload early in the season.
“The changeup since my junior year at Arkansas is really blossomed into my go-to,” he said. “A glorified mini screwball is kind of the best way to put it. I’m honestly trying to throw almost a slider from the inside of the ball – for me, it works.”
“Our goal when we were building that pitch was being able to make it an outlier…so we were trying to kill some velo and make it consistent, and it ended up a high-spin pitch for me.”
Mason Molina goes to a changeup, throws it right over the heart of the plate, and rings up the strikeout pic.twitter.com/GLHSCzvXdk
— Kyle Reis, 58% Neanderthal (@kyler416) April 23, 2026
Molina is developing secondary pitches to his fastball-changeup profile.
“The change and the fastball are strengths, I’m trying to elevate everything else and take the pressure off those two, so that I’m still able to use them later into games, deeper into lineups. The slider, the gyro, I have two of them now. I worked on the sweeper all off-season, that’s kind of coming to fruition now.”
The California native was drafted by Milwaukee in the seventh round of the 2024 MLB draft; Molina pitched five innings with the Brewers organization before he was traded to Texas for reliever Grant Anderson. Then the Rangers flipped Molina to St. Louis in a 2025 trade deadline deal for Phil Maton.
Springfield captured the Texas League championship last fall thanks to a trio of lefthanded starters – Pete Hansen, Ixan Henderson, and Brycen Mautz – that all moved to Triple-A Memphis this season. Molina, Liam Doyle and Braden Davis are the southpaws Springfield manager Patrick Anderson will call upon this season.
“(Molina) is a professional, he knows what that means,” Anderson said. “It’s a breath of fresh air to be able to see that – it’s cool to be able to see it from somebody who comes from other organizations, bounces around a little bit, but the daily process, what he does, it’s consistent. He’s got a plus changeup and his (fastball) velo was a tick up in spring training and it seemed like we could be able to keep that up there.”
The post Mason Molina enjoys strong start in 2026 as journey spins back to the Ozarks appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Hours before he haunted Midland RockHounds pitchers – and with Rockwell’s famous Trick-or-Treat playlist ballad “Somebody’s Watching Me” jamming on the stadium speakers on “Halfway to Halloween” theme night – Springfield outfielder Chase Davis spoke about his approach at the plate.
“I’m not trying to do too much in the box; just get pitches I can handle and do something with. A lot of teams have been backwards pitching me, so some off-speed early in the count and then some fastballs later,” Davis said. “But, you know, trying to put a good swing on the ball, get the barrel on it, and whether I catch it out front or deep, the ball’s going to go wherever it goes.”
On Friday night, the ball went far over the fences at Hammons Field – soon to be Route 66 Stadium – as Davis smashed a pair of home runs to lift Springfield to a 9-2 win. The Cards’ first round draft pick in 2023 broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning with a mammoth 2-run shot over the grass berm in right center field that left his bat at 109 mph. Then in the eighth, Davis yanked another 2-run blast inside the right field foul pole – the exit velo this time topped 117 mph.
Davis is slashing .254/.405/.524, with 5 home runs after he hit 10 long balls in 113 games at Double-A last season.
“There’s something about this young man, you know, I love his energy,” Cardinals’ manager Patrick Anderson said. “Got to get him to trust certain things, like he could be really, really elite with so many aspects of his game. He can play all three positions in the outfield.”
“He lays off pitches that a lot of players don’t – no matter where they’re at in their career. He just tries to get too big at times, and if he can control that, it is ridiculous what he does. Like you sit there and watch him hit balls and drive the ball to all fields. And if he is able to control it, a controlled aggressiveness, he could be unstoppable.”
Davis battled through ups-and-downs at the plate last season – he slashed .242/.358/.353 with 10 home runs and 48 RBIs – but he’s consistently been a web-gem machine in the outfield. That trend continues this spring as Davis routinely robs hitters and guns down baserunners.
POV you're a bird who flew into the @Sgf_Cardinals game at the exact moment Chase Davis (@Cardinals) hit a TANK pic.twitter.com/PmPXQm60Ny
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 25, 2026
“I was actually telling some of my pitchers this in the shower the other day, after one of the games I made a crazy play. They were like, bro, thank you for being there. And I always tell my pitchers, if my bat’s not there that day in the box, there’s never an excuse for my glove not to be there. I love to play with my hair on fire,” Davis said.
His glove was on display again Friday night when Davis made a diving grab on a soft liner in the fourth inning.
“Everyone has a role and my role is to help (the team win) whether its in the outfield or in the box, that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.
The post Chase Davis smacks a pair of 2-run homers on Halfway to Halloween night appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
A Texas-size steer horn trophy that runs the length of Patrick Anderson’s desk is a showpiece, but rows of stylish shoes in the Springfield skipper’s office are his favorite collectables.
Anderson is tasked with steering the Cardinals to consecutive Texas League championships while herding the development of Liam Doyle, a stoic New England kid turned fiery SEC Pitcher of the Year selected No. 5 overall by St. Louis in the 2025 MLB draft. Anderson the footwear connoisseur saddled up with the left-handed stallion during spring training, and with those goals in mind, a wager was formed.
“I want to give him some cowboy boots for the Texas League,” Anderson said. “You know, be more of a Texas, or southern, type of thing.”
“I don’t know how my parents would feel about that, but we’ll see,” Doyle said. “We made a bet, if it goes his way, I’ll think about getting some…I might (wear them) once, I might.”
Doyle’s debut at Hammons Field on Wednesday night was a mixed bag. He displayed the scorching fastball that generated a 40 percent whiff rate at the University of Tennessee, along with a hard splitter and two pitches under development: a sweeper and curveball. But he didn’t miss many Tulsa bats; the Drillers, a tough assignment for a pitcher with just 3.2 professional innings entering play, tagged Doyle for 8 hits and 4 earned runs over 3 innings and Springfield suffered its first loss of the season.
“No need to overreact about anything, just on to the next start,” Doyle said afterward. “Stuff like that also helps you learn how to take losses like that and bad outings as a professional – you just get to work, and you got five days to turn it around.”
Secondary pitches, like the sweeper and curveball Doyle is working on, may prove the difference between breaking into St. Louis as a starting pitcher or a high-leverage reliever. Doyle worked closely with Uncle Charlie himself when Adam Wainwright visited camp in Jupiter this spring.
Liam Doyle records his first strikeout of the 2026 season for Springfield 🔥#STLCardinals pic.twitter.com/iVWMAfzb7y
— Milb Central (@milb_central) April 8, 2026
“So, I threw those a ton last night – curveball was solid, sweeper still needs a lot of work,” he said. “But, you know, as soon as I feel like I develop those, become a five-pitch guy, become a true professional starter and start really learning how to pitch at a level like this.”
Doyle grew up in the Boston bedroom community of Derry, New Hampshire and led Pinkerton Academy – the high school that produced former St. Louis Blues forward Zach Sanford – to its first state title since 1986 with a 15-strikeout performance in the championship game. Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 185 pounds, Doyle pitched for Coastal Carolina in 2023 while adding power to his frame.
“I was really undersized when I got to Coastal, I definitely needed to put on more weight and muscle – I probably went a little overboard on what I should have been eating – at that point, I was just a rough thrower. I wasn’t even really a pitcher at that time.”
After a season with Ole Miss, Doyle transferred to Tennessee where he thrived under manager Tony Vitello, a St. Louis native and Mizzou alum that is currently the San Francisco Giants skipper. Doyle’s persona on the mound was captured in the late innings of the 2025 Knoxville Regional final when Wake Forest batter Luke Costello called timeout down 1-2 in the count. Doyle waived off Vitello and his teammates, then painted the inside corner with a 99-mph fastball to catch Costello looking.
“He gets locked in, you know, and people might perceive him differently because of how he gets locked in,” Anderson said. “And our organization embraces what he does and how he does it. We’re just going to fine tune it and see what he’s got – his stuff is electric and I think he might have been, even though he might not say it, but he might have been trying to do a little too much (on Wednesday).”
The post Cards’ top prospect Liam Doyle hones arsenal as Springfield looks to ride lefthander to repeat Texas League title appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
A poignant scene from the baseball epic *61 shows an injured Mickey Mantle receiving an extended ovation as he steps into the batter’s box, while two semi-fictional Yankees newspapermen watch from the press box above.
“I’ve never seen him get a hand like this before,” one remarks. The other responds, “He’s never been the underdog like this before.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold posed a question in his excellent Opening Day piece: “Will a scrappy, feisty underdog team finding its stride energize the fan base?” At risk of overreacting to the Redbirds’ dramatic 9-7 win on Opening Day – likely the last time a sellout crowd will fill Busch Stadium for weeks to come – the answer is yes. But central to understanding how the organization finds itself rebuilding its relationship with The Best Fans in Baseball is recognizing why the answer is “yes.”
Goold recounts a century of achievement that created a regional fanbase and built the Cardinals into one of baseball’s premier brands. Most royalty franchises have origin stories where the identity of the clubs and the community merge: the love-able Bums in Brooklyn and cursed Bums in Chicago, the ruthless corporate titans in the Yankees’ Manhattan, the blockbuster glitz of Hollywood’s Dodgers.
But the Cardinals’ story is different: the team is loved by its fanbase because decades of innovation and success defy what it means to be a St. Louisan.
Living in St. Louis means expecting the other (Brown Co.) shoe to drop and drop hard. It means in elementary school you learn that before settling on sunny Orlando, Walt Disney wanted to put Disney World on the St. Louis Riverfront – but the plan fell through. It means living in a place that gets pushed two steps back for every meager step forward, and all you can do is console yourself with the greatest processed cheese product known to mankind.
Sep 7, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Members of the St. Louis Cardinals hall of fame pose for a picture during a pre-game ceremony prior to a game against the Seattle Mariners at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Puetz-Imagn Images
It’s a strange sort of inferiority complex because we know the truth: St. Louis is a gem. We want so badly for everyone else to see it– the blues, the Blues, the booze, the gooey-butter cake and toasted ravs. Meet a diaspora St. Louisan outside the city and you have an instant connection that feels truly unique; you’re members of the same secret club.
When Enos Stanley Kroenke – named after Cards’ legends Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial – packed up the Rams for Los Angeles, the blistering report explaining the move to the NFL pulled no punches. St. Louis was an economic and political hellscape, he said, but the strongest evidence that Mr. Kroenke wasn’t a St. Louis man was the report’s hilariously dismissive characterization of the Lou as “a baseball town.”
You could almost hear 2.8 million metro residents collectively channel Jack Nicholson’s indignation from the final scene of A Few Good Men: “You’re %$#@ right it is!”
Wearing a Cardinals cap is like wearing a Superman cape. 11-time World Champions. Baseball Heaven. It’s about all someone from the 314 can be righteously smug about. We still want the 100-year highlight video with Adam Wainwright’s song “Time to Fly” pumped straight into our veins.
But grappling with lost swagger is the only way to reconcile what happened these past few seasons: entire sections empty at Busch Stadium as far as the eye can see, a sight eerie and depressing and sad. The 2011 World Championship is living memory for most of us, and yet few have the equipment needed to play the commemorative DVD’s collecting dust. It wasn’t long ago and it feels like a lifetime ago.
Slowly, then suddenly, the Cardinals stopped defying their surroundings.
Which brings us back to Mr. Goold’s query – will the fanbase and the team embrace a new identity together? Goold reports that without any veterans in the clubhouse, the players feel “they are all in the same boat.” It’s a boat the city and its fans know very well – we’re in it with them.
– Andy Carroll
The post Why St. Louis Fans Will Embrace an Underdog Team appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle begin with the Sonny Gray trade, and why it one day may be called the “Brandon Clarke” trade. The focus on hitting in Tuesday’s Player Development and Performance hires and promotions is noted. The recent (re)signings of Yohel Pozo, Sem Robberse and Scott Blewitt are put into context and they close with the impact of new TV deals on the timing of the draft.
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 26, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle open with the Rule 5 protection decisions which brought Leonardo Bernal, Joshua Baez, Brycen Mautz and Cooper Hjerpe onto the 40-man roster. Next up is the first three prospects in TCN’s new Top 50 prospect countdown, Mason Burns, Matthew Miura and Ryan Campos. The increased investment in infield coaching is recognized, and they close with a 2026 outlook for the MLB squad.
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 19, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss the Cardinals Arizona Fall League Fall Stars, Chen-Wei Lin, Miguel Ugueto and Darlin Saladin. They note the new Cardinals top 10 prospect list from Baseball America, focusing on differences between their list and TCN’s. The quantity of roster moves made by the Cardinals this past week were touched on with 40-man roster protection anticipation and more!
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 12, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
In the first of two episodes with Brian at the Arizona Fall League, he and Kyle mention a pair of underrated Cardinals there, Darlin Saladin and Miguel Ugueto. The two recognize Gold Glove Award winners Leonardo Bernal and Masyn Winn and touch again on upcoming 40-man roster decisions. They discuss new scouting directors Joe Douglas and Jacob Buffa and The Cardinal Nation’s Players, Pitchers and Manager of the Year for the system. The closing topic is World Series standout Trey Yesavage and whether his one-year rise to MLB can be applied to the Cardinals and Liam Doyle.
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 5, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss Cardinals Rule 5 eligible players, putting them in three tiers – locks, maybes and maybe nots. They touched on the pros and cons of a long-term contract early in JJ Wetherholt’s career. A summary of early participants in winter ball was provided. The pair closed with discussion of a Baseball America study linking throwing harder to a longer MLB career.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 29, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss Cardinals arbitration eligible players, considering possible multi-year contracts and effect on tradability. They return to Jordan Walker in the context of his final option year and if that impacts the plan for him for 2026. Two emerging candidates for the closer job next season were mentioned as is the progress being made by Chen-Wei Lin in Arizona. They also cover The Cardinal Nation’s Starting Pitchers of the Year at the four full-season affiliates.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 22, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss major league news including Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Mike Shildt and Jordan Walker. Three international hitters identified by Baseball America were highlighted. They broke down the surprising no. 1 farm system ranking given the Cardinals by Fangraphs and closed with Statcast-based hitting and pitching organizational rankings by BA.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 15, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss Cardinals on national Top 100 prospect lists from MLB Pipeline and Fangraphs, including changes since summer. They zoom in on catching, with thoughts about what is next for Ivan Herrera and the wealth of players at the position. Next is a review of six Cardinals pitchers who placed among the top Stuff+ leaders according to Baseball America. They close by outlining the nine arbitration eligible Cardinals including potential pitching non-tender candidates.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 8, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle offer their perspectives on Chaim Bloom’s Tuesday press conference and what they are still wondering about. Kyle Leahy to the rotation was touched on as was the return of Oliver Marmol. Springfield’s Texas League title was saluted and were two International League All-Stars and three prospects receiving national recognition – JJ Wetherholt, Rainiel Rodriguez and Deniel Ortiz.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 1, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle recap the 2025 season for the Cardinals organization’s minor league affiliates. Five award winners from Springfield are highlighted – JJ Wetherholt, Ixan Henderson, Joshua Baez, Brycen Mautz and manager Patrick Anderson. The two speculate as to whether we might see more imported arms like Memphis mound standouts Curtis Taylor and Aaron Wilkerson to help build needed minor league pitching depth. They close with mention of a potentially underrated player, Springfield outfielder Miguel Ugueto, who is among those headed to the Arizona Fall League.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 24, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Carrdinals
In the wee hours of a damp muggy overnight haze, Luis Gastelum struck out Tulsa Drillers’ shortstop Sean McLain and bedlam ensued as the Springfield Cardinals hugged each other in the infield and a handful of diehard supporters that endured a three-hour rain delay celebrated the Cards’ 3-0 win in 7 innings that sends Springfield to the Texas League Championship Series for the first time since 2012. Springfield made quick work of Tulsa in the best-of-three semifinal series; the Cards never trailed in either game and Tulsa managed just one run over 16 innings, as Springfield held the Drillers 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position – and dominant pitching that was the theme of a historic 88-win season carried into the playoffs.
Springfield’s pair of left-handed aces dazzled – Ixan Henderson tossed six shutout innings in Game 1 and Brycen Mautz blanked Tulsa through five frames in Game 2. Joshua Baez, St. Louis’ Minor League Player of the Month in September, went 3-for-5 with two walks and an RBI in the series. Chase Davis’s late season surge continued too; the Cards’ first rounder in 2023 chipped in with two hits, a run scored, and defensive gems that have become a trademark. But Springfield’s brilliant 2025 campaign is bookended by another pair of St. Louis’ first round picks – JJ Wetherholt and Liam Doyle.
Doyle was drafted No. 5 overall in June and it was not a sure bet the flamethrower from University of Tennessee would pitch live innings at any level this season. But with Springfield and Memphis playoff bound, Doyle ramped up in Florida and pushed to join the fun.
“It’s definitely what I wanted to do, I told plenty of teams that at the combine – I want to go as quick as possible and continue to play baseball this season,” Doyle said. “After the college season, (I) shut down for about two weeks of throwing and was in the process of building back up (when I was drafted) …I knew I wanted to pitch in games, but knew I had to build up more. I threw almost 100 innings in college this year, so a little rest never hurt.”
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2012, YOUR SPRINGFIELD CARDINALS ARE HEADED TO THE TEXAS LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP. pic.twitter.com/G0nAXj5iEd
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) September 19, 2025
Doyle pitched two scoreless innings in his debut against San Antonio in the final weekend of the regular season. He threw 30 pitches and 20 for strikes, with three strikeouts. Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado were on rehab assignments with the club that week, offering Doyle an opportunity to watch and learn.
“I take it all in; experience what the guys do here that have had great success – really watch what the pros do, guys like Nolan and Donovan yesterday, just watching how they approach hitting and how focused they are on it. I mean, Nolan walked in here today at noon and the clubhouse didn’t open up until 2:30, so that’s pretty cool.”
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Cardinals
Game 1 of the Texas League Championship Series is Sunday afternoon at Hammons Field, and it’s likely Doyle will make an appearance in the best-of-three finale. Though Liam arrived just in time to join the playoff run, Springfield Manager Patrick Anderson said the unassuming Doyle meshed quickly.
“He comes up here last week and he throws a couple innings – and he’s pretty electric as you guys have seen – but he sits back and watches and listens, very respectful, and immediately he got from all these players the respect – they understood he wasn’t this kid trying to prove anything. He was just listening and understanding – kind of like, let me get my foot in the door the right way.”
When it was noted that Anderson similarly described Wetherholt – the Cardinals’ 2024 first-round pick that hit for a .300 average with 22 extra base hits in 62 games with Springfield this season – Anderson smiled.
“JJ is unbelievable, that kid is special. He’s one of the most consistent young men I’ve ever been around, in the sense of how he acts and how he goes about his business. (Doyle) is cut from the same cloth.”
The post Springfield blanks Tulsa in soggy Texas League semifinals; advances to first Championship Series since 2012 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle discuss the Cardinals organization’s Pitcher and Player of the Month for August, Luis Gastelum and Joshua Baez. They touch on Palm Beach’s three Florida State League All-Stars, Rainiel Rodriguez, Deniel Ortiz and Jason Savacool. The closing topic is a review of the eight players selected to the Arizona Fall League and how they differ from previous years, noting parallels to Cleveland’s recent AFL approach.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 17, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle begin with Liam Doyle’s professional debut with Palm Beach and Tanner Franklin’s first start with Peoria. More late-season promotions announced on Tuesday were discussed, including Doyle to Springfield and Rainiel Rodriguez to Peoria. Also covered were Quinn Mathews, Springfield’s record-breaking season and a look back at the 2025 results of the two Class-A teams, Peoria and Palm Beach.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 10, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle start with minor league playoff status, then major league news, including September 1 roster expansion and Jordan Walker. Other topics include a change at minor league hitting coordinator, another draftee activated, a league Player of the Week and The Cardinal Nation’s August Player of the Month.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 3, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
A sharp fastball and 12-6 curveball that he’s commanded since he was 12 years old helped Cade Winquest pile up strikeouts at University of Texas-Arlington and persuaded the Cardinals to draft the righthander in the 8th round of the 2022 MLB Draft. But Winquest knew he needed an expanded arsenal of pitches to climb any further.
The grip on those pitches has been elusive at times – Winquest tinkered with his changeup so much that he lost feel for the pitch entirely – but Peoria pitching coach Will Hawks helped Cade refine his slider, and it’s been devastating Texas League batters since Winquest was promoted to Springfield in mid-July.
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Cardinals
“The grip (for the slider) that I have now is kind of a hybrid between my old one and the new one I have now. I started getting more consistent feel on it, a little bit better shapes movement-wise for a slider. When I got up here (pitching coach Eric Peterson) messed with it even more and that’s when we started seeing the shape we want to see out of it,” Winquest said.
In three minor league seasons, Cade has appeared in 57 games, registered a 9.13 K/9 and seems to have earned a degree in pitching science along the way.
“A lot of guys (grips) are pressure-based. I personally have a hard time feeling pressure, I try not to focus on putting more pressure on certain fingers – I think that sort of throws me off a little bit…slider and curveball I think you put pressure on a finger naturally. I try to let the grip work, let my tilt and my release work.”
Cade Winquest’s breaking stuff was nasty tonight: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, BB, 8 K pic.twitter.com/veRIWY8xn8
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) August 22, 2025
“What I did with my slider, the grip that I had that wasn’t as good in my eyes, I still kept it in my back pocket just in case this new grip wasn’t going to work out. I used the new grip in catch play, bullpens, just until I got a true feel for it, and when I was comfortable to use it in a game, so that’s when I switched over.”
Winquest joined the Texas League leading Springfield club and quickly assimilated into the team’s winning ways. He’s 3-1 with a 2.79 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over seven starts.
Cade struck out 8 batters over six shutout innings at Arkansas last week in a tough-luck no decision and 2-1 Springfield extra-inning loss. Cardinals’ hitters made it up to him on Wednesday night at Hammons Field, scoring nine runs in the first two innings to reward Winquest with a win in the Cards 13-5 victory over Midland.
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Cardinals
“It’s probably one of the best feelings, knowing the team has your back that day and it’s just putting up runs, putting you in the best position to keep them in the game. That’s your role as a pitcher, to keep them in the game – and when they’re putting up 13 runs, it’s easier,” he said.
Springfield enters Labor Day weekend with a 76-47 record, with hopes to secure the team’s first Texas League championship since 2012.
“We’re pumped,” Winquest said. “It’s a good feeling coming to a clubhouse, a team, that’s just winning. It’s nice that they embraced me since I walked in the door. It seems like everyone has been here the whole year, even if they’ve been here for a week.”
The post Cade Winquest gets a grip on slider to take firm hold with Springfield appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle start with recent promotions, including Tanner Franklin and Chen-Wei Lin. They share their fondness for the prior September 1 roster expansion rules and expect this year’s additions will not be what fans want. They close with a discussion of Cardinals hitters and pitchers who are performing well during August.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 27, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle are joined by guest Kareem Haq. The three started with recent promotion, injury and award news across the system. Most of this extended session was spent discussing Cardinals draft picks from rounds 8-20 this year. Not surprisingly, some interesting skills make several of them must-watch players, whether already active in 2025 or officially debuting in the spring.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 20, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Kyle start with recent award winners Quinn Mathews, Brycen Mautz, JJ Wetherholt and Braden Davis. Their primary focus is adjusting their respective Top 50 prospect lists for August. Key changes include performance-related jumps (and slides) as well as incorporating players acquired via trade at the deadline.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 13, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
It is another busy week as Brian and Kyle start with the six minor leaguers the St. Louis Cardinals acquired via trade at the deadline. They discuss a pair of interesting waiver wire moves as well as the implications of another starting pitcher injury at the upper levels. The Cardinal Nation’s Player and Pitcher of the Month are recognized before the two conclude with a review of the newly activated players from the 2025 draft class.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 5, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
The dog days of August arrived with mild weather forecast, and after a scorching July for lefty Pete Hansen and Springfield’s pitching staff, cooler temperatures are the best hope Texas League opponents have for some relief. Hansen went 3-0 and struck out 29 batters against only three walks over 30 innings, and he helped Springfield post a league-best 2.37 ERA and 1.13 WHIP while yielding 3 runs or fewer in 16 of 24 games in July.
On Wednesday night at Hammons Field, Hansen avenged his shortest outing this season by frustrating the Arkansas Travelers with a new weapon.
“I started throwing a new breaking ball – I had a lot of success with that…it’s a gyro breaking ball, more of a tighter slider, a little harder,” Hansen said after tossing a quality start in Springfield’s 6-4 win.
“Last time I faced them, I didn’t get out of the first inning due to pitch count reasons,” Hansen said of the May 8 start at Arkansas when he threw 33 pitches and recorded two outs. “So, this was a “get-back” outing against these guys.”
The Cards’ third round pick in 2022 commands the strike zone with a low 90’s fastball and arsenal of off-speed pitches, and he credits the Cardinals pitching development staff for helping him unlock the gyro.
“We’re always evolving, we’re always trying to add new things,” Hansen said. “(The pitching coaches) see a value in that pitch with me and my repertoire, so they encouraged me – and gave me grips. They give you a grip and ask you what you feel with it and go from there. It’s been pretty great.”
Pete Hansen recorded his fourth quality start in his last five outings, striking out nine tonight across six innings in Corpus Christi. pic.twitter.com/cQM5vomnBu
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) July 11, 2025
No. 18 used his new pitch in critical moments on Wednesday. The Travelers scored first on Jared Sundstrom’s solo homer to lead off the second inning, but Hansen threw the gyro to punchout Sundstrom in the fourth.
“He was seeing my slider pretty well, I threw him (the slider) a couple of times, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to mix in the gyro, and it worked,” Hansen said.
Nolan Gorman and Leonardo Bernal smashed homers to give Springfield the lead, but Arkansas had Hansen on the ropes in the sixth. Freuddy Batista’s RBI double put two runners in scoring position with one out, and after Hansen induced a groundout to third base that held both runners, Josh Hood stepped into the box with the game on the line. Hansen jumped ahead 0-2 in the count but Hood spoiled two pitches and worked the count back even.
“He’s a tricky hitter to pitch to – he’s not going to expand the zone.” Hansen said. On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Hansen’s gyro did the trick and a groundout to shortstop Brody Moore ended the Arkansas threat.
“Yeah, that was just another instance of me going to the gyro, and them not really seeing it on the scouting report,” Hansen said. “Just mixing that in with my other stuff I think just amplifies everything I have in total.”
Springfield (62-37) sits atop the Texas League and the Cards are 14-5 in Hansen’s starts. With the MiLB playoffs and September roster shuffle looming, the former Texas Longhorn might not be around when Springfield chases its first title since 2012.
“This team is something special. We’ve obviously got a ton of new people coming through at this point, it’s an interesting time with a lot of moves being made,” he said. “Obviously we want to win the championship here but every single guy in this locker room is working to get to the big leagues. I love playing September baseball – I eat a ton of innings every year – I definitely want to get to that later stage and be able to give a good outing in the playoffs. There’s nothing better than that.”
The post Pete Hansen miffs Arkansas with new gyro slider, helps Springfield staff close dominant July appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle cover a lot of ground, from Tekoah Roby to the pitching pipeline to JJ Wetherholt. The promotions of Deniel Ortiz and Andrew Dutkanych and the progress of catchers Leonardo Bernal and Jimmy Crooks are discussed, as are expectations for the trade deadline.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 30, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Kyle continue their focus on the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2025 draft. But first, they delve into the major pitching moves of the week, including McGreevy, Rajcic, Winquest and Davis. Brian offers his view of how the Cardinals’ spending was different this year from prior drafts. They conclude with which draftees they place in their personal Cardinals top 50 prospect rankings (Kyle picked 14 while Brian selected six), where they rank relative to others and why. This is another extended edition loaded with information.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 23, 2025 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake first discuss the St. Louis Cardinals prospects heading to the Arizona Fall League. They then move to the news of and ramifications from Chaim Bloom’s new role revamping the organization’s player development and performance functions in 2025 before taking over as president of baseball operations in 2026.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 2, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Speaking with reporters outside the Cardinals clubhouse the day after Springfield’s 4-1 win over Arkansas in Game 1 of the Texas League North Division Series, Bryan Torres humbly recited platitudes when he was prodded to boast about his league-best .331 batting average.
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Cardinals
The 2024 Texas League batting crown is Torres’ third in a row – he led the American Association in 2022 and 2023 with the Milwaukee Milkmen – and the veteran minor leaguer long-ago mastered fictional Bull Durham catcher Crash Davis’ talent for modesty with the media.
But then someone asked Torres what he thought about outfielder Chase Davis, the Cards’ No. 1 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft recently promoted to Double-A, and Torres’ eyes lit up like the question was a hanging curveball.
“Hey man, I’ll tell you this, that’s one of the best talents I’ve ever seen in baseball,” Torres gushed. “Great arm, he can run, he can field, he can hit, he can hit for power: five tools right there I’ve told you. So, he’s young, he’s still young, but he’s going to be so good. That guy is going to be so good.”
“I’ll give him not many years (before you) see him in the show,” he said.
And Torres – with nearly 2,800 plate appearances over a decade-long career that’s included stints on Puerto Rico’s national team – has witnessed plenty of talent. He had a good view of Davis’ RBI-single in the second inning that opened the scoring on Wednesday night and admired the towering 400-foot plus homer that finally gave the Cardinals breathing room.
Springfield left 11 runners in scoring position but starting pitcher Brandon Komar authored a gritty outing, and the Cards clung to a 2-1 lead when former Springfield reliever Logan Gragg came on for Arkansas to face Davis leading off the eighth inning.
Chase Davis OBLITERATES this one An absolute TANK for his first playoff BOMB. pic.twitter.com/azTc7R3PGo
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) September 18, 2024
“It was an 0-2 changeup down the middle, I was thinking all night they would come out of the zone, but he left that one up, I put a good swing on it,” Davis said.
The ball soared off Chase’s bat and over the right field façade at Dickey-Stevens Park, apropos of the lefty slugger’s rise through the Cardinals minor league system in 2024, something he attributes to focusing on the moment at hand.
“Just being where my feet are at, getting better every day and exceling, and being present – introducing myself to the guys and getting close to them as well,” he said.
“I have so much fun in the locker room – these guys are unbelievable, always a smile on my face, always laughing and joking. I would say it’s serious a little bit of the time and joking a lot, but that seriousness is in between the white lines and that’s how it should be.”
The moment at hand now for Springfield is chasing the club’s second Texas League championship.
Kolten Wong, Oscar Martinez, and Oscar Tavaras celebrated Springfield’s lone title in 2012, a time when the organization was enjoying success at the Major League level too, and the Cardinal-Way preached winning high-leverage games in the minor leagues.
Manager Jose Leger says that culture has been present in Springfield’s clubhouse this season.
“There’s no development now, we’re into it to win it. These guys want it, but they’ve been wanting it since the beginning. All the initial meetings, individual meetings, it was a common theme from them when they came into the office saying hey, ‘I want to win’, ‘I want to win’, ‘I want to win’. So, I heard that from many players, that tells you about their mentality coming in – combining that with the everyday comradery – they just became winners…it’s been fun watching them,” he said.
First pitch for Game 2 of the Division Series at Hammons Field is 6:35 p.m. Thursday, with Game 3 on Friday if necessary. The Texas League Championship series is scheduled to begin on Sunday.
The post “That guy is going to be so good”: Double-A newcomer Chase Davis powers Springfield to Game 1 Division Series win appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Three outs away from setting a franchise record for wins in a season – and clinging to a one-run lead over San Antonio on Wednesday night – the Springfield Cardinals called on the Texas League leader in saves to close out a historic win.
Photo courtesy of PJ Maigi | Springfield Cardinals
Matt Svanson notched a pair of strikeouts, but the Missions moved the winning run into scoring position for centerfield Joshua Mears. Svanson fired a first-pitch fastball on Mears’ hands to yield a tapper that rolled halfway to the mound. The towering righty zipped a perfect throw to first and beat Mears by three steps.
Save number 26 to close out win number 78, a 2-1 Springfield victory.
After the regular season finale in San Antonio on Sunday afternoon, Springfield travels to North Little Rock on Tuesday for Game 1 of the Texas League North Division championship series against Arkansas. Game 2 and 3 (if necessary) will be in Springfield next Thursday and Friday.
Svanson is 26-for-26 in save opportunities with a 2.74 ERA and 1.46 WHIP in 62.1 innings. He enjoyed 19 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run, helping Springfield to a 58-1 mark when leading after eight innings. After the Cards’ playoff run, Svanson is slated for the Arizona Fall League, a reward for a stellar 2024 campaign.
A 27th out 20 years in the making. pic.twitter.com/VYvvVCtoXS
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) September 12, 2024
“It’s nice to have a constant routine…I know (I’m pitching) in the eighth and ninth inning every time. It’s kind of nice to have that routine, (but) also with this team, there’s been times where they’ve said I’m in the game if we’re tied, and we’re down by five and then tie it up – it’s nice to have that routine but be ready even if we’re down by a lot, or up by a lot,” Svanson said.
“He’s a warrior, he takes the ball everyday and he throws strikes, he’s not afraid…really good competitor and definitely has good stuff, got up to 97 mph with a lot of movement.” Springfield manager Jose Leger said.
“There’s not much more I want to ask from him, he’s had a tremendous year.”
The scoreless streak ended on September 1 when Svanson labored for 30 pitches and Wichita touched him for two runs, but Leger says his reaction reflected the reliever’s growth.
“That was probably one of his worst outings, and he came into the dugout and said, ‘I’m ready for the next inning’, because we were tied at the moment,” Leger said.
“His ability to go back-to-back and put failure behind, there were a couple times (last season) when he had a bad game, and he wasn’t able to recover well from those. The ability to have a short memory and go work the next day despite having a bad day, he’s amazing.”
He on developed a cutter in the offseason to improve against lefthanded hitters, but the sinker remains an out pitch.
“I’ve kind of changed some stuff throughout the year, I went to more sinker-heavy in the middle of the season, it’s been playing well,” Svanson said.
The Chicago area native grew up a Red Sox fan despite living 30 miles from Wrigley Field, and his 6-foot-5, 230-pound frame resembles Beantown legend Johnathan Papelbon. Svanson leans on a sinker that’s been his go-to pitch since he threw a perfect game in his first varsity start at Lake Zurich High School.
Svanson added size and velocity during the COVID shutdown and Toronto drafted the Lehigh product in the 13th round of the 2021 MLB draft. As the 2023 trade deadline approached, he sported a 4-1 record and 1.23 ERA in 24 relief appearances for High-A Vancouver.
Motivated by an injury to starting shortstop Bo Bichette, the Blue Jays sent Svanson to St. Louis for Paul DeJong.
“We always joked around about (being traded) because we knew the Blue Jays at the time were buyers and they were trying to make a lot of moves. It was kind of shocking to get that call, again you joke about it but kind of weird feeling when it all plays out,” he said.
Springfield pitchers are dominant in the late innings, but starting pitching will be critical for the playoff series.
Tink Hence’s injury-plagued summer continued Wednesday night as he was pulled after just 29 pitches, and his playoff availability is doubtful. Cooper Hjerpe has been on the shelf since early July and Tekoah Roby recently returned from the IL after missing most the season.
The post Matt Svanson closes out Double-A Springfield franchise record win, leads Cards into Texas League playoffs appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, after covering recent transactions with Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby, Brian and Blake focus on the top pitchers across the St. Louis Cardinals system during August. Individual results are compared to consensus Pitcher of the Month, Palm Beach’s Chen-Wei Lin. Among standout pitchers covered are Quinn Mathews, Leonel Sequera, Ixan Henderson, Hancel Rincon, Michael McGreevy, Gordon Graceffo and many others.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 11, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake focus on the top hitters across the St. Louis Cardinals system during August. Players results are compared to The Cardinal Nation’s choice as Player of the Month, Springfield catcher Jimmy Crooks. Among other standout players covered are Rainiel Rodriguez, Mike Antico, Bryan Torres, Darlin Moquete, Matt Koperniak and Ian Petrutz.
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 4, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake open with the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen change with Shawn Armstrong out and Riley O’Brien in. Next up is the many moves across the minor league system and ramifications, currently and looking ahead to roster expansion on September 1. Among the players covered are Michael Siani, Victor Scott, Tekoah Roby, Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal, Sammy Hernandez, Quinn Mathews, Michael McGreevy, Ian Petrutz and J.J. Wetherholt.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 28, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake open with the St. Louis Cardinals’ curious handling of Jordan Walker and the return of Luken Baker. The main discussion is a one-year revisit of the Cardinals’ 2023 deadline trades, which brought six pitchers and three position players, all prospects, into the system. Successes, disappointments and especially injuries come into play.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 21, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss their upcoming St. Louis Cardinals Top 50 Prospect List re-ranking for August, highlighting notable risers and fallers and four new entries. Prospects profiled in depth include Darlin Saladin, Luis Gastelum, Rainiel Rodriguez, Keiverson Ramirez, Leonel Sequera, Ian Petrutz and many more.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 14, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss July results by selected players across the Cardinals system, including the two Pitchers and Players of the Month. Highlighted hitters are winners Thomas Saggese and Rainiel Rodriguez and pitchers Keiverson Ramirez and Jose Davila.
Other notable players covered include Jordan Walker, Victor Scott, Jimmy Crooks, Leonardo Bernal and Ivan Herrera. Additional pitchers discussed are Jason Savacool, Ixan Henderson, Ian Bedell, Gordon Graceffo, Max Rajcic, Edwin Nunez, Matt Svanson, Zack Showalter and Leonel Sequera.
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 7, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake share their general impressions of the Cardinals’ trade deadline moves and a host of minor league transactions announced on Tuesday. The latter is headlined by the activation of nine 2024 draft picks, including first-rounder J.J. Wetherholt.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 31, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake share their general impressions of the Cardinals’ 2024 draft before discussing some of the standout selections. They conclude with where the new signees will slot into The Cardinal Nation’s Top 50 Prospect List, including differing views of the system’s number one prospect.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 24, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake hold their final pre-draft review, discussing a variety of players connected to the Cardinals and the seventh overall selection per various industry mock drafts. Players include Hagen Smith, Chase Burns, Braden Montgomery, Bryce Rainer, Nick Kurtz, J.J. Wetherholt and at least one dark horse.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 10, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
An iconic scene from the beloved movie The Sandlot occurs on the Fourth of July, as boys play baseball while fireworks light up the Southern California sky.
Growing up in Orange, California, Max Rajcic was one of those kids. When his kindergarten teacher asked the young fan of Los Angeles Angels hurler Jared Weaver what he wanted to grow up to be, Rajcic didn’t hesitate.
“I’m already a baseball player,” Rajcic’s mom says he told the teacher.
It’s no wonder the SoCal native and Cards’ 6th-round pick in 2022 from UCLA saved his best Double-A performance for Independence Day. Rajcic sparkled for eight innings in Springfield’s 7-1 win over Northwest Arkansas; he allowed one run, matched his season-high with nine strikeouts, and picked up his seventh win of the season.
“I think it was the longest I’ve gone since college against Washington State, so it’s been a while, but it was really good to go into the eighth – and it was cool to pitch on the Fourth of July, we had a lot of good fans, packed house, it was really cool,” Rajcic said.
“He attacked the strike zone from the get-go, with all four pitches,” Springfield manager Jose Leger said. “The changeup was a devastating pitch and then combining the off-speed pitches with his fastball at the top of the strike zone – he kept hitters in check and off balance all game.”
Rajcic’s changeup has developed into his favorite weapon.
“I would say at the beginning of this year, I’d say it was my worst pitch. And this year, I’d say it’s probably my best pitch, actually. I’ve taken a lot of strides with that pitch and been working on it a lot,” he said.
Rajcic won Cardinals Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors in 2023, thanks to a 2.48 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 23 starts with Palm Beach and Peoria. He finished the campaign in the Texas League playoffs with Springfield, but he stumbled out of the gate this spring.
Four starts in April produced an 8.04 ERA and 1.72 WHIP, which prompted a mental reset.
Max Rajcic delivered tonight at Hammons Field. A career-long eight innings, matches a career-high with nine strikeouts. He allowed just one run on a groundout. pic.twitter.com/l6AStgbTez
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) July 5, 2024
“Kind of restarted my season, middle of the first half, and it’s been way better since and it’s been a good learning experience for sure,” he said.
“Felt like the beginning of the year I wasn’t really being myself, kind of giving the hitters a little too much credit, I would say. You know, it’s the same game I’ve been playing my whole life, just be the pitcher I am. Throw up in the zone, be a north-south guy, and just trust my stuff.”
Rajcic settled in nicely, and with Tink Hence and Tekoah Roby on shelf, Rajcic (7-7, 4.89 ERA, 8.7 K/9) has Springfield’s most dependable starter. He’s thrown 90+ pitches in nine of his last ten starts and five or more innings in 10-of-11 outings going back to May 3.
“It’s pretty cool, we have a really good staff,” Rajcic said. “We just need to all be healthy, and we’ll be a really dominant force together.”
The post Max Rajcic’s ‘devastating’ changeup, renewed confidence on display for Independence Day gem appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake celebrate the Fourth by detailing The Cardinal Nation’s June Player and Pitcher of the Month across the St. Louis Cardinals system, Chase Davis and Keiverson Ramirez. Last month’s results by a number of other hitting and pitching finalists are also covered.
The post Wednesday with Walton – July 4, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
A chainsaw sound effect buzzes over the sound system at Goss Stadium in Corvallis each time an Oregon State pitcher records a strikeout. That was Quinn Mathews first impression of future teammate Cooper Hjerpe.
Mathews picked up his first career save in Stanford’s 1-0 extra-inning win over the Beavers on April 1, 2022, but Hjerpe’s 17-strikeout performance rang in Mathews’ head when the game ended.
“We all talked about having nightmares that night, even though we’d won the game it was still nightmares – we heard that chainsaw playing 21 times in our head and Hjerpe got 17 of those, so it was a pretty good game for him, but the Cardinal came away with the win at the end of the day, so that’s all that matters,” Mathews said.
Now the former Pac-12 rivals are reunited in the Ozarks, and they’ve wasted no time making noise.
Hjerpe earned Texas League Pitcher of the Week honors for the second straight week after he followed up five innings of no-hit ball at Corpus Christi on June 20 with a nearly identical gem at Hammons Field on June 26. Hjerpe threw a season-high 78 pitches and punched out eight Arkansas batters over another hitless five innings.
“I saw a little bit of fire in him pitching, I didn’t see that in spring training,” manager Jose Leger said about Hjerpe’s first month in Double-A. “The season plays out differently when those lights come on and you’re playing for something. I saw a little bit of emotion in him – I like that.”
The Cards first round pick in 2022 remains on a leash – five innings or 80 pitches, whichever comes first.
“He knew he wasn’t going to go more than five innings, so he knew coming in – it wasn’t a hard conversation,” Leger said. “We try to be transparent with him.”
While the Cards are cautious with Hjerpe’s workload – interrupting consecutive no-hit bids after 64 and 78 pitches – durability is a hallmark of Mathews’ game.
Mathews raised eyebrows at Stanford with a 156-pitch complete game win over Texas in the 2023 College World Series Super Regional and he’s thrown 90 pitches or more in six starts this season.
He started the spring in Palm Beach, made seven starts in Peoria, and reached Springfield before Independence Day. Mathews is 6-2 with a 2.03 ERA and 0.78 WHIP over 79 2/3 innings, and he’s struck out 113 (12.8 per 9) against just 23 walks.
Baseball America ranked Mathews in its Midseason Top 100 Prospects List and noted “few players have been as big a surprise in the minors as Mathews.”
On Tuesday, the 6-foot-5 lefty’s meteoric rise continued.
Quinn Mathews is headed to Arlington! Congratulations to the south paw on his first All-Star Future’s Game selection! pic.twitter.com/npSyx4UVnS
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) July 2, 2024
Mathews received an invitation to the MLB Future’s Game on July 13, where he’ll represent St. Louis along with St. Louis’ top prospect Tink Hence, who will make his second appearance in the showcase if health allows.
Mathews – who’s pregame routine includes always tying his right shoe first, a nod to soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo – enjoyed a strong debut in Springfield on Sunday, tossing 5 1/3 innings and yielding two unearned runs on one hit in the Cards’ 8-2 win over Arkansas.
“I saw him a little bit in spring training,” Leger said. “Definitely a big-league arm – very excited (to see) him. When you’re a lefty and you can miss bats, watch out.”
Hjerpe is impressed too.
“The guy’s got velo that came out of nowhere, I’m still trying to pick his brain on that,” Hjerpe said of Mathews. “He’s a great guy, ultimate competitor, he’s going to go out there and shove everything in the zone.”
Springfield already banked a spot in the 2024 Texas League playoffs as the club won the North Division first half race. With a rotation headlined by Hence, Hjerpe and Mathews, expectations for the second half are high – though Tink battled injuries and fatigue and pitched just three innings in two June starts.
“We’re waiting to see what the medical department says,” Leger said. “The second time we had to take him out of the game, the first time (he) was dehydrated, it was really hot – and it was (the same) in Corpus, it was really hot and humid – I don’t have an (update) on how he is currently.”
Tekoah Roby, the Cards’ No. 5 prospect per MLB.com is also on the shelf and hasn’t pitched since May 14. Leger said his return will take time.
“With him its going to be a little slower,” Leger said. “Right now, he hasn’t thrown in a while – hopefully within the next couple of weeks we’ll know where he’ll be with his throwing program.”
The post Former Pac-12 rivals Quinn Mathews, Cooper Hjerpe, off to scorching starts in Double-A appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Springfield’s team bus rumbled south on a 14-hour trek from the Ozarks to the Texas Gulf Coast and Cards’ southpaw Cooper Hjerpe passed time by texting with friend and former Oregon State teammate Jacob Melton, the Houston Astros’ second-round pick in 2022 and now centerfielder for the Corpus Christi Hooks.
Melton gave Hjerpe intel about Whataburger Field, located at the Port of Corpus Christi, where hitter-friendly humidity is sometimes negated by gusty ocean breezes blowing in. A tropical storm forecast to make landfall during the six-game series further complicated matters.
But in his second Texas League start, Hjerpe didn’t need any help from nature.
When Melton stepped into the lefthanded batters’ box in the first inning on Thursday, Hjerpe acknowledged his pal with a friendly nod – then went right at him. Hjerpe jumped ahead 0-2, then Melton fouled off a pair before going down swinging to end the inning.
“I kind of knew how to throw to him, based on the scouting reports I’ve seen in college – I wouldn’t say it was an easy at-bat because he’s a really good hitter, but I knew what to do compared to the other guys,” Hjerpe said.
“It was pretty cool to face Melton in that kind of environment, on different teams, in different colors, and stuff like that – at the same time, there’s always respect and that brotherhood that goes on after (college), so it was pretty cool to play against him for once.”
Melton found himself in good company as Hjerpe dominated the rest of the Hooks lineup, too.
Cooper spun five innings of no-hit ball and struck out six, the only blemish was a two-out walk in the third inning. Andrew Marrero pitched a perfect two innings in relief to complete a combined seven-inning no-hitter and 5-0 Cards’ win – the first no-hitter in Springfield history.
“Changing the eye levels with the fastball – being able to establish that inside part of the plate and the fastball up was the biggest part, and then obviously the offspeed plays off of that,” Hjerpe said.
“Going into that outing, I knew I that I threw a lot of changeups (in his first Double-A start), maybe a little too predictable at some points – so me and (catcher Jimmy Crooks) talked about incorporating the slider and cutter to have something go glove-side instead of both the changeup and fastball that run the same way, to get them off of that plane.”
Hjerpe’s gem earned Texas League Pitcher of the Week honors and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Cooper Hjerpe and Andrew Marrero have combined for the first no-hitter in Springfield Cardinals history! pic.twitter.com/MMJAZOIgcI
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) June 21, 2024
;
The Cardinals had lost eight straight games prior to Hjerpe’s start and were in danger of squandering the first-half Texas League North division race after a franchise record 14-3 start to the season.
But after Hjerpe’s heroics in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader, the Cards swept the night cap to stay in the hunt. Springfield got the help they needed when Wichita beat Arkansas on Sunday prior the Cards-Hooks series finale that afternoon. Springfield overcame a short outing by Tink Hence and trounced Corpus Christi 9-2 to secure a playoff spot in September.
“It’s fun, you play to win,” manager Jose Leger said. “Minor leagues is about developing players and getting them to the next level, but when you develop by winning, it’s always fun.”
The post Cooper Hjerpe spotless in second Texas League start, sparks Springfield run to Texas League playoff spot appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake cover key second half promotions across the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system before shifting to major changes in the June Top 50 Prospect Rankings per The Cardinal Nation. Players highlighted include Quinn Mathews, Chen-Wei Lin, Adam Kloffenstein, Darlin Saladin, Gerardo Salas, Luis Gastelum, Dakota Harris, Nick Dunn and many more.
The post Wednesday with Walton – June 26, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake cover three main topics across the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. They are player moves announced Tuesday, led by Willson Contreras’ Memphis rehab, league Players of the Week Dakota Harris and Chase Davis and a half-dozen names linked to the organization’s seventh overall selection in next month’s draft.
The post Wednesday with Walton – June 19, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Bright sunshine and 4,792 fans – most of them kids on summer camp field trips – burst into Hammons Field on Wednesday morning. With first-place Springfield clinging to a narrow lead over Arkansas in the Texas League North first-half race, the environment offered a stark contrast for the club’s newest member.
Cooper Hjerpe appeared in 21 games in Peoria (High-A) the past two seasons, and after he struck out five batters in four scoreless innings at Fort Wayne on June 6, the Cardinals’ 2022 first round pick from Oregon State was ready to leave the last-place Chiefs behind.
“It feels good, I mean, to start my career in Peoria and then start there this year – its kind of like almost a broken record. To finally get out of there and experience another part of the Cardinals’ organization, it’s obviously a huge step,” he said before Wednesday’s game.
Hjerpe flashed filthy movement from a self-described “funky” delivery, but the lefty’s Double-A debut was marred by lack of control and Northwest Arkansas hitters made him pay.
Hjerpe issued four walks and surrendered four hits and five earned runs over 2.2 innings, taking the loss in a 7-2 defeat. Most of the damage came in the third inning after Hjerpe gave two free passes to load the bases before Dillan Shrum’s 3-run double cleared them.
Photo Credit – PJ Maigi
There were positives to build on, too.
The southpaw had Peyton Wilson picked off in the first inning, but first baseman R.J. Yeager’s throw to second was high and Wilson was credited with a stolen base. Hjerpe caught Shrum looking to end the first and struck out two more in a scoreless second inning.
Hjerpe’s ability to miss bats at Oregon State was legendary.
He led the NCAA with 161 strikeouts in 2022, a program record for the baseball powerhouse in Corvallis. One of Hjerpe’s performances with the Beavers had Bob Gibson flair.
Stanford would reach the 2022 College World Series with a lineup full of future MLB draft picks, but in the Pac-12 regular season game on April 1, Hjerpe gave them fits. He struck out 17 Cardinal batters over eight scoreless innings and 118 pitches.
Stanford won 1-0 in extra innings, with future Peoria teammate Quinn Mathews earning the save.
“I don’t remember much from (that game),” he said. “I remember the result, but when I was out there pitching, it was kind of like a blur. I was in that flow-state, tunnel vision – I just know everything was on and I was dialed-in, and everything was working for me that day.”
Hjerpe throws a four-seam fastball from a deceptive arm slot, a cutter, slider, and circle changeup. The cutter was a work-in-progress from college that used to “blend in” with his slider but since he turned pro, the pitch has developed into a consistent weapon. Hjerpe said his changeup has less ride this season and is “diving under the barrel” of hitters.
Oregon State pitching coach Rich Dorman called pitches for Hjerpe in college and the 23-year-old had to adjust to calling his own game.
Photo Credit PJ Maigi
“A couple of my first (pro) outings, it was like trying to figure out how to read swings – try not to get too robotic in certain pitch counts,” he said.
The Cardinals have been cautious with Hjerpe’s workload following elbow surgery in 2023 that cleaned up a “loose body” in his pitching arm. None of his 12 starts this season have gone deeper than four innings and his highest pitch count was 67 on April 25.
“Whatever his pitch count was in Peoria, is what we’re going to continue – is what we’re going to continue to build him up, according to that,” Springfield manager Jose Leger said.
Cooper’s K/9 rate continues to impress; he’s averaging 13 strikeouts per game in 2024. But the BB/9 rate (5.4 per game) is a concern in the hitter-friendly Texas League.
“I like him, he’s funky – if he’s able to command the strike zone, with that funky delivery, its going to be uncomfortable for (opposing) hitters.”
The post Cooper Hjerpe reaches Double-A, “funky” lefty joins loaded Springfield rotation appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake doubled their usual time as they discussed the first half races for the four full-season teams in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system and highlighted many of the key pitchers and hitters at each level, whether excelling or struggling.
The post Wednesday with Walton – June 12, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak spoke with Bloggers & Podcasters covering the club for 45 minutes prior to Saturday’s game at Busch Stadium against Colorado. The interview covered a range of topics, including his future, a role for Yadier Molina, the looming draft and trade deadline, and if a hot dog is considered a sandwich.
On the Triple-A Memphis rotation and Cards need for fifth starter
“When you think about Memphis right now, there really hasn’t been that one starter that just jumps out and grabs it. There are times where you get a good start out of one of those guys but then they just don’t have the ability to repeat and do that consistently. And that’s been frustrating because as we’re looking for that fifth starter, it would be nice for one of those young guys to come up and grab it.
If you squint hard enough you probably end up seeing a couple of those guys look more like relievers than starters, but in the end, we need some of those guys to contribute, and contribute soon.”
On the approach to the trade deadline
“As the calendar turns to June, the opportunities to do something on a more proactive front start to open up. I think teams are starting to really understand who they are, what they are, and where they are going. You’re starting to see clubs that realize that breaking up their team now, or in July, probably makes the most sense. We are not one of them.
Even if they are just small wins, and I would define small wins right now as maybe trying to find someone to give us some innings in that fifth (starter) role. Is there some righthanded bat we can add that can play centerfield from time to time? That would be helpful as well.”
On number of teams over the MLB salary cap
“I just think a lot of teams are being much more aggressive. What’s sort of interesting about the whole thing is, right now revenues are almost static – there’s a lot of uncertainty in the TV market and where that’s going. I’m pretty optimistic of the future of baseball, especially if you go to a more streamlined streaming model.
We have to square that circle. Once we do that, I think there’s going to be brighter days ahead. Ultimately, as revenues grow, so should the luxury tax. It’s almost like a handicap in golf, if done right and done honestly, it should be effective and helpful.
On his future
“Change is inevitable. Things are going to happen within this organization. I’ve been here for 29 years and, you know, as I tell ownership – it’s probably going to be helpful to have a new voice at some point. That’s coming sooner rather than later.”
On a role for Yadier Molina
“I don’t want to get into details, obviously he’s dealing with some stuff at home and that’s why he’s not been around. But the door will always be open for Yadier Molina. At some point, I would imagine he’s probably going to want to jump in with both feet. But right now, he just doesn’t have the time to do it, but yeah, I do communicate with him pretty regularly.
St. Louis Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak speaks at a press conference announcing that the Springfield Cardinals have been sold by the St. Louis Cardinals to Diamond Baseball Holdings on Monday, May 1, 2023.
Tcards Presser00080
On Jordan Walker
“Up here is about production, you either do or you don’t. I don’t look at it as a demotion – he got rushed and now he has to get himself to where he can be a productive player. I get this question a lot, what do we need to see? It’s really two-fold. There are some physical adjustments he has to make to be a productive, consistent hitter here. The other thing you would like to see is just some performance – he shows signs of it on given nights, but when you look at some of the more successful hitters in this league, when you look back at what they were able to do at the minor league level – it’s a very simple saying: hitters hit.
He’s an amazing physical athlete that I wouldn’t bet against him. He’s not one of those guys I’d want to give up on because I know he’s going to do it.”
On Masyn Winn
“Masyn Winn, I think, is a future superstar, he’s a complete player. I think last year, as miserable of a year as it was, the one blessing was we were able to get Masyn up here. And so he got two months to sort of understand what this is about and made a lot of adjustments this offseason to prepare himself for the season. And I think we’re all getting to enjoy watching those skills – its amazing.”
On the 2024 MLB Draft where Cards hold the No. 6 pick
“Randy Flores is knee deep in preparing for the Draft. Obviously, we got to hit it this year – we can’t have a swing and miss. Look at a lot of his college drafts, they haven’t been what we had hoped or moved as quickly as we hoped. His 2020 draft is going to end up being historic (Masyn Winn, Jordan Walker, Tink Hence).”
On the reduced Minor Leagues footprint impacting player development
“The reason you saw a reduction in minor leagues was because at the ownership level, they felt like there’s a lot of waste going on in development. When you think about success rate of a draft, and you’re sub-20 percent, you’re looking for a better ROI. Reducing teams, number of players, and hopefully increase that percentage. What ends up happening though, you do start to speed up (advancing players in the minor league system).
You’re also seeing a new breed of ownership come into the game and how they address their own payrolls is different. The evolution of that level is also going to start to change.”
On Cards approach to developing pitchers
“It’s not hard to understand what people are having success (with) and how. I think the tradeoff is, we built our team on defense. Obviously last year we didn’t show it, but the intention was that. Putting the ball in play, we valued. We think that’s ok. But as you look at what’s happening around the league, swing-and-miss is still something that’s driving a lot of decision-making. And the other thing you think about is velocity. Tie those two things together and then try to balance that with injury risk.
There are teams that are much more experimental, where you see somebody throwing 70 percent breaking ball, 30 percent fastball. But there is some unintended consequences there and it usually ends up being injury risk.
But now think about yourself as that player, you’re that individual – you find yourself stagnant or not moving. What are you going to do? You’re going to try to do something different. Ultimately that made us start to think internally, shouldn’t we be more experimental? Especially with someone that’s been two years at A-ball.”
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
“I would say no. But I haven’t really thought about it.”
The post John Mozeliak talks trade deadline, MLB Draft, future role for Yadi in wide-ranging interview on Bloggers Day appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss the top pitchers and hitters in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system during the month of May. Pitchers profiled include Darlin Saladin, Tanner Jacobson, Jason Bosiokovic, Zack Showalter and Ixan Henderson. Position players covered are Luken Baker, Cesar Prieto, Miguel Villarroel, Johnfrank Salazar and Jose Suarez.
The post Wednesday with Walton – June 6, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Nathan Church stood underneath an oval “2012” plaque on the clubhouse façade that commemorates Springfield’s lone Texas League championship title, and an hour before Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader at Hammons Field, he pondered goals for 2024.
Church’s play lately has been divine – he was a robber baron in the outfield against Midland last week, stealing multiple extra-base hits and pulling a home run back over the right field wall. In the series opener against Tulsa on Tuesday, Church crushed a hanging off-speed pitch for two-run skyscraper in the third inning, then gunned down two Drillers on the basepaths from right field.
A nightly highlight reel on the Cards’ homestand has Church on the short-list for Texas League Player of the Week honors, and he’s slashing .313/.358/.479 with a team-high 31 RBIs in 39 games.
But individual accomplishments weren’t on his mind.
“Goals this year is to win a championship for Springfield, that would be awesome,” he said. “We have a really tight-knit group, it’s really cool. It’s probably one of the better teams that I’ve been with in terms of camaraderie – we just want to win every game.”
In the first inning of Game 2 Wednesday, Church bells were ringing again. With Bryan Torres at first, the Cards’ 11th-round pick in 2022 launched another two-run shot, a bomb to deep right off Tulsa righthander Christian Romero, for his sixth home run of the year.
Power adds another dimension to Church’s game – a prolific gap-to-gap hitter at U.C. Irvine, his speed is a weapon that plays offensively and defensively.
Kiss that one goodbye! Nathan Church has now homered in back-to-back nights as he gets us started real early in game two. pic.twitter.com/eYzCvrGjFQ
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) May 23, 2024
“He wants to hit some homers, (but) he wants to get on base, so he can let his speed play out,” Springfield manager Jose Leger said. “He came with a purpose – he wants to steal 30 bases this year, that’s something he told me.”
The Newport Beach, California native has swiped 10 bags so far, but a grateful pitching staff is the real beneficiary of Church’s wheels.
“I really pride myself on defense – if you make a really good play, you’re helping the pitchers and you’re helping the team win,” Church said.
Springfield (23-18) leads the Texas League North first-half race by one-half game over Arkansas and, while Hammons Field’s laboratory has funneled plenty of talent to St. Louis recently, championships have been harder to come by.
“That’s one thing that during the first individual meeting that I had with (players), not the team meeting, but the individual meetings that I had with them – most of them brought that to the meeting,” Leger said.
“They all said, ‘Hey, I want to win, I want to win, I want to win.’ They want to create that winning culture from here, you know, and hopefully they can continue with that mentality when they get to St. Louis.
The post Nathan Church says he wants to win a championship with Springfield in 2024 – and he’s playing like it appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss Top 20 prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system per the May rankings at The Cardinal Nation who are not yet meeting lofty expectations. Ten players are profiled – Tekoah Roby, Victor Scott, Thomas Saggese, Cooper Hjerpe, Gordon Graceffo, Chase Davis, Won-Bin Cho, Michael McGreevy, Max Rajcic and Ian Bedell.
The post Wednesday with Walton – May 22, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Bryan Torres watched the first two offerings from Midland Rockhounds reliever Wander Guante whiz by for called strikes.
Springfield enjoyed a 4-1 lead in the seventh inning on Friday night, thanks to Torres’ two-RBI single with two out in the second inning when he ambushed a first-pitch changeup and lined it into left-center field.
With a runner at first base, Torres was in an 0-2 hole in plate appearance No. 2,402 of his nine-year professional career. The pesky 5-foot-six lefthander fouled off the next two pitches from Guante, then smacked a 1-2 delivery deep to left field. Torres rounded first base and watched the ball clear the left field wall but land in the glove of Rockhounds left fielder Colby Thomas, who scaled the fence and robbed Torres of two-run homer.
“I wasn’t upset, I was impressed, he made a great play, you know?” Torres, Springfield’s leadoff hitter with a team-high .311 batting average but just 18 career home runs, said afterwards.
“It was my first (Double-A) homer, it’s incredible my first homer got robbed.”
The play was a turning point. Midland scored six times in the eighth inning and closed the door on a 9-4 victory that spoiled a gem from Cardinals’ starter Ian Bedell. Springfield (22-16) sits atop the Texas League North division and begins a six-game series at home against Tulsa tonight.
For the 26-year-old Torres, the disappointment was another small bit of adversity in a long career that’s had plenty.
“It’s an amazing story because he’s a guy that has shown that resilience – he doesn’t quit,” said Springfield manager Jose Leger. “I’m just proud and enjoying his journey right now. He said he’s going to play in the big leagues this year, so that’s a great thing.”
Bryan Torres gets it done with a two-run single to extend our early lead. pic.twitter.com/m21ONmf22e
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) May 18, 2024
A catcher from Puerto Rico, Torres has played all nine positions in a baseball odyssey that began when he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2015 at age 17. Torres spent three summers in the Dominican Summer League – an atypical assignment for a long-shot Puerto Rican player.
“He basically hit his way out of the island,” Leger said. “He got an opportunity to come here to the States and played a little bit, but he didn’t receive that much opportunity.”
Torres toiled at Rookie League stops in Helena, Montana, and Colorado Springs. He was released by the Giants organization in 2021 after he hit .280 in 43 games with the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Double-A), his future in doubt.
“I almost retired, man. And my family just, they just told me ‘Hey, go play’, he said. “That was my push to keep doing it…I think that was the toughest moment in my career.”
He caught on with the Milwaukee Milkmen of the independent American Association in 2022 and led the league with a .374 average against competition that included former big leaguers, like Cards’ playoff heroes Matt Adams and Pete Kozma (Kansas City Monarchs).
Torres went home for winter ball and represented his native island in the 2023 Caribbean Series in Venezuela, where he delivered late inning heroics.
Puerto Rico trailed Cuba 3-2 in the ninth inning when Torres hit a ground rule double that would have won the game; the tying run scored but the decisive run was sent back to third base when the ball stuck in the fence. The next batter was Emmanel Rivera, currently with the Miami Marlins, and he brought home the game winner.
“That’s one of the best moments, emotional moments in my career. There are a lot, man. I’ve been playing this a while, but that one – wearing the colors of my country – is one of the best ones.”
But an independent league batting title and strong showing in winter ball didn’t yield an affiliated contract for 2023, so Torres returned to Milwaukee and led the American Association again with a .370 average and 71 stolen bases last summer.
The Cardinals took notice and signed Torres in the fall. He spent the winter in good hands, playing in the Caribbean Series again, this time for manager Yadier Molina.
Torres has been as advertised: a reliably tough out at the top of the lineup and solid play in centerfield with versatility and a desire to contribute.
“If I need him to catch, he’ll catch,” Leger said. “The other day we were down a catcher and he said, ‘Hey, I can catch if you need me to.’”
The post “I almost retired, man”: Perseverance pays dividends for Bryan Torres and first-place Springfield Cards appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss rising and falling prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system per the upcoming May Top 50 rankings at The Cardinal Nation. Players profiled include Quinn Mathews (promoted after this was taped), César Prieto, Zach Levenson, Austin Love, Ian Bedell, Travis Honeyman, Moises Gomez, Sammy Hernandez, Chen-Wei Lin and Ixan Henderson.
The post Wednesday with Walton – May 15, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss the top pitchers and hitters during the month of April in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. Pitchers profiled include consensus Pitcher of the Month Quinn Mathews, Juan Salas, Nick Raquet, Joseph King and new St. Louis reliever Chris Roycroft. Top hitters discussed include winners José Fermín (The Cardinal Nation) and Nathan Church (Cardinals organization), plus Sammy Hernandez, Bryan Torres, R.J. Yeager and César Prieto.
The post Wednesday with Walton – May 8, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss players coming off and onto the injured list in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system, the relief pipeline at Triple-A and provide a spoiler as to the identity of our Pitcher of the Month for April. Players profiled include Alec Willis, Adari Grant, Alex Iadisernia, Michael Curialle, Jimmy Crooks and more. We close with a preview of the rookie-level Florida Complex League, which opens this Saturday, May 4.
The post Wednesday with Walton – May 1, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake discuss a league Pitcher of the Week and a Player of the Week in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system along with strong performances from the Palm Beach rotation. Players profiled include Sem Robberse, Nathan Church, Quinn Mathews, Jason Savacool and Chen-Wei Lin. We close with a discussion of several players the Cardinals may consider selecting with the seventh overall pick in the July draft.
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 24, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake look at a quick prospect promotion and a league Pitcher of the Week in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. Early stats leaders are recognized, including hitters R.J. Yeager, Bryan Torres, Anyelo Encarnacion and Cesar Prieto. Pitchers profiled include Alec Willis, Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence and Jose Davila.
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 17, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Only two teams in all professional baseball entered play on Sunday unbeaten in 2024 – and one survived.
Matt Lloyd smashed a 3-run homer in the eighth inning to rally Springfield past Wichita, 8-7, and – with the High-A Spokane Indians falling to Tri-City – the Double-A Cardinals (9-0) stand alone.
Ian Bedell pitches for the Springfield Cardinals – April 14, 2024 – Photo by PJ Maigi
“This is unbelievable, the way the guys are playing right now – and you know, they’re not satisfied. They’re going day-by-day, they’re enjoying the moment, obviously,” Springfield manager Jose Leger said.
“Our pitching has been the cornerstone – what we like out of our pitchers is the fact that they’re attacking the strike zone. They’re just having fun hanging zeroes there. Yeah, definitely a great start.”
A warm breeze gusted out of hitter-friendly Hammons Field during the six-game series, but the Wind Surge looked uncomfortable against Springfield’s young guns. Cards’ hurlers boast a 1.10 WHIP and they’ve turned the opposition into Mario Mendoza, yielding a paltry .201 average over 78 innings – best in the Texas League in both categories.
Tink Hence (2-0, 0.90 ERA, 11 Ks) fanned eight over five innings in Springfield’s 3-1 win in Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader that set the tone for the weekend.
“We have a heck of a staff – top to bottom, from Tink to anyone of the guys in the bullpen,” righthander Ian Bedell said after he struck out seven and earned the decision in Game 2. “We can feed off that energy for sure, everybody is pounding the zone.”
Ian Bedell’s got that dog in him.
Final line in his Double-A debut: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K pic.twitter.com/zziYtMuVpT
— Springfield Cardinals (@Sgf_Cardinals) April 13, 2024
The rotation is anchored by four prospects in the Cardinals’ Top 20 per MLB.com: Hence (No.1), Tekoah Roby (No.2), Max Rajcic (No. 13) and Bedell (No. 19). All four starters picked up victories during the Cards’ nine-game streak.
“Mizzou-made” Bedell dominated Wichita with the slider in his Double-A debut after an ominous start.
Wind Surge DH Emmanuel Rodriguez took an outside pitch over the left-field wall for a lead-off homer and the Wind Surge loaded the bases with one out in the second inning. But the Cards’ 2020 fourth rounder yielded a sacrifice fly, then escaped further damage.
“Third inning, the focus was ‘win each pitch’, and that helped settle me in a little bit better,” Bedell said. “I was working incredibly quick and not giving myself enough time to breathe and think through what I’m trying to do. Once I settled in, everything started to go smoothly.”
Bedell punched out a pair in the third inning and induced a double-play ball that erased a lead-off walk in the fourth.
Bedell rung up the last two hitters he faced in the fifth inning; he caught Rodriguez looking at a fastball on the inner half, then brought first baseman Andrew Cossetti to his knees with an off-speed pitch to notch his seventh K.
“I wanted to land more changeups than I did, the goal was to land some right-on-right changeups and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that overly well. But the slider was working so I decided to stick with that and then just try to elevate some fastballs and get in on their hands to keep them honest with the slider,” he said.
Bedell grew up a Cardinals fan in Davenport, Iowa hoping to be the next Colby Rasmus.
“I had a dream of being a centerfielder and it was not in the cards – nowhere near a good enough hitter,” he said.
Instead, he developed a four-pitch mix with a low 90’s fastball and embraced the science of pitching.
“I like to look at first-pitch strikes and what I do in 1-1 counts. The goal is to win over 65 percent of both of those – so get ahead and get to 1-2 or 0-2 as quick as possible. And then being able to put guys away.”
Springfield is off Monday and travels to Amarillo for a six-game series against the Sodpoodles starting Tuesday.
The post “They’re just having fun hanging zeroes”: Ian Bedell, Springfield pitchers, shove Wichita; Cards rewrite history books with perfect start appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian Walton and Blake Newberry concentrate on the rosters of the three St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliates which began play on Friday, April 5. The teams are Double-A Springfield, High-A Peoria and Low-A Palm Beach. Key prospect additions for 2024 are noted, as well as emerging players to watch and early season promotion candidates on all three clubs.
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 10, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
In Jupiter for spring training, Springfield Cardinals’ manager Jose Leger observed camp and he started counting.
“I was doing the numbers – fourteen players that played (in Springfield) from 2021 when I started here – have gotten to the big leagues with us,” he said. “It’s definitely something to feel good about.”
Most of those players – like Brendan Donovan, Jordan Walker, Ivan Herrera, and Victor Scott II – share something in common.
They don’t pitch.
Springfield (3-0) hosts Wichita (1-2) in the 2024 home opener at Hammons Field tonight and everyone’s eyes in the Ozarks this season are fixed on the mound.
Springfield’s rotation is headlined by a pair of right-handed starters that sit atop the Cardinals’ Top Prospect Rankings by MLB.com: 21-year-old Tink Hence (No. 1) and 22-year-old Tekoah Roby (No. 2).
Hence dazzled in the Cards’ 6-1 win over Arkansas on Friday night. The Pine Bluff, Arkansas native reached 98 mph and tossed five shutout innings, surrendered no hits, and struck out three.
“It’s about me trusting my stuff within the zone, I feel like I get behind a lot of hitters and set myself up for a worse position that makes me more predictable,” he told the media earlier in the week.
“My stuff, a lot of times my stuff plays better within the zone. Me trying to be perfect sometimes makes me worse than what I am.”
Hence averaged more than nine strikeouts-per-game last season but he faded down the stretch as a career-high 96 innings-pitched took its toll. Hence went 0-3 with a 10.62 ERA in five August starts and he spent the winter regaining the confidence to attack hitters.
Tink Hence’s final line:
5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Hence was phenomenal in his 2024 debut, pitching 5 no-hit innings. He only had 3 strikeouts but he induced a ton of groundouts and had remarkable control. His fastball got up to 98 mph. pic.twitter.com/1vP0iESCoc
— Kareem (@KareemSSN) April 6, 2024
“I’m throwing the same (pitches), it’s just timing,” Hence said. “I’d do a lot of things that made me think I had to do this, or try to do that, to make (a pitch) better, when in reality I already got it. I just have to find that touch and be consistent.”
“For Tink, coming back I think showing a little more consistency – last year he had his struggles, and he was limited to five innings. So, we’ll try to get him deep in games and see what he can do,” Leger said.
The organization has been careful with Hence so far. He threw eight innings in 2021, then 52.1 with Palm Beach in 2022 before nearly doubling that total last year. Tink spent the offseason strength-training in Atlanta, building the core and leg muscles required for him to sustain a full workload.
“I definitely believe I’m going to have an appearance in the show (in 2024). “I feel like this year is the year I make an appearance. I’m very excited and I’m ready to work,” he said.
The Cardinals acquired Roby from the Texas Rangers in the Jordan Montgomery deal in July, and he recorded 19 strikeouts over 12 innings in four starts with Springfield. Roby boasts a four-pitch mix and touches the upper 90s with his fastball – like Hence, he’s determined to improve the mental side of his game.
“A lot of what I did this offseason was not pitching related,” he said. “I basically had to sit down and be really honest with myself. What I came to was – it wasn’t really, like, my stuff. I think my stuff is good enough to compete at whatever level you want me to compete at.”
Through his agent, Roby found a mental coach to help overcome adversity and sustain success.
“I used to think it was a game-to-game kind of thing. I would go out for a game, have a really good game and then the next game would be bad, and I would be like, the whole game was bad. You go back and look under a magnifying glass and its very pitch-to-pitch.
Every pitch is incredibly important. I think there were times I didn’t really think about that – I would look at a game like, man, I hope I do well in this game. Now I’m going to commit and try to execute every pitch. It’s no longer, like, ‘the game was bad’ – I didn’t execute that pitch. Now it doesn’t unravel, its pitch-to-pitch, I can make adjustments and recommit to my process.”
Roby’s debut in 2024 is a good test of his new approach.
He was brilliant for four innings in the Cards’ 6-5 win on Saturday, but he ran into trouble in the fifth. Roby hit a batter, balked runners into scoring position and surrender a two-run homer. He left with the Cards down 4-3 and took a no decision.
Max Rajcic (No. 13 ranked Cards’ prospect) and Ian Bedell (No. 19) will be on the bump for the Wichita series. Cooper Hjerpe (No. 6) starts the season in Peoria but is expected to reach Springfield this season.
“We have a really good pitching staff…we’re deep. When you have pitching, you always have a chance,” Leger said.
The post “It’s about trusting my stuff within the zone”: Tink Hence and Tekoah Roby headline talented Springfield rotation appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake focus on the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds roster. Key additions to the team for 2024 are noted, as well as the trial of Thomas Saggese at shortstop, the hot bat of Jose Fermin, the power of Luken Baker and speed of Mike Antico. The rotation is discussed, including who might be in line for a promotion to St. Louis, and they close with a look at Memphis’ late-inning relievers.
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 3, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian and Blake review how the Cardinals finished spring training by the numbers, highlight three prospects recently cut from camp and recap the six-man Opening Day injured list. Next is the outfield, with Victor Scott and Michael Siani in center, with Brendan Donovan and Alec Burleson in left. Pitching topics include strengths of Matthew Liberatore in the pen and Zack Thompson in the rotation, plus Rule 5 reliever Ryan Fernandez. To close, key minor league names and dates are outlined.
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 27, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake review how the Cardinals’ system stacks up against the rest of MLB per six major national sources. They discuss Oliver Marmol’s contract extension, standouts in the Spring Breakout Games, including Tink Hence and Joshua Baez, and Tuesday standouts Victor Scott, Riley O’Brien and Kyle Leahy. The discussion shifts to the roster cuts needed over the next week and the potential impact of Keynan Middleton’s injury to other bullpen candidates.
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 20, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
This week, Brian and Blake review how the St. Louis Cardinals’ top 10 prospects are ranked by major national sources compared to The Cardinal Nation, with a focus on Won-Bin Cho and Max Rajcic. The related roster implications between major league and minor league camps as well as minor league spring game schedules are discussed. They close with four players who are opening eyes in camp – Riley O’Brien, Thomas Saggese, Alec Burleson and Victor Scott.
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 13, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Brian Walton and Blake Newberry discuss the ramifications of the injuries to Tommy Edman and Sonny Gray, explanations of new pitches or adjustments made by Zack Thompson, Andre Pallante, Max Rajcic and Michael McGreevy, the first cuts from spring camp and much more!
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 6, 2024 appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Victor Scott II made history with his legs in 2023.
Scott II topped all Minor League Baseball with 95 steals – only two players since 2005 – Billy Hamilton and Delino DeShields – have bagged more loot in a single season. The son of two collegiate track stars, Scott II was born with wheels but baserunning and gold-glove defense are crafts that require more than horsepower alone.
Victor has plenty more under the hood. Take, for instance, his offseason job.
The Cardinals’ No. 4 ranked prospect by MLB.com and Atlanta-area native landed a gig at a bowling alley, and it wasn’t long before a hobby became an obsession.
“I got a strike ball and a spare ball, I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to it,” Scott II said.
Victor throws a mean left-handed hook and his best game to date is 242, but that’s just a milestone in his pursuit of a perfect 300.
Focus is key, he says, and “being able to adjust to the oil patterns as you continue to wear out a specific oil pattern.”
Scott II takes a meticulous approach to baseball, too – especially the art of the steal. Like an anchor delivering a strike in the tenth frame, Victor was clutch when the Cards needed him most.
He paced Springfield with a team-high 36 hits and 17 steals over the final 24 regular-season games; he slashed .336/.385/.533 as the Cards won 11 of their last 15 games to snag the North Division second-half title and spot in the Texas League playoffs.
“Unbelievable, unbelievable – to come from where we came from, with all the excitement, walk-off wins, late comebacks. In one word – exciting,” Scott II said.
Springfield popped champagne in a tent that was setup outside the clubhouse at Wolff Stadium on Sunday after a 7-5 come-from-behind win at San Antonio.
“That’s lovely, that burning in your eyes, it’s the best feeling in the world,” Springfield manager José Leger said.
“I almost forgot how fun it is to pop the champagne bottles until I was doing it,” said slugger Chandler Redmond, who won a championship with Johnson City (Rookie League) in 2019.
Redmond (7 home runs) and Cards’ outfielder Mike Antico (27 hits, 19 runs, 9 steals) also played pivotal roles in the Cards’ offense that exploded for 6.5 runs per game down the stretch.
“It’s a table-setting atmosphere,” Scott II said. “If I bring the plates, (Antico) brings the silverware…if we are in scoring position, guys like Pedro (Pages) and Redmond can drive us in.”
The fleet-footed duo study opposing pitchers and push each other, but the question of who is faster remains unsettled.
“We haven’t (raced) but everyone that interviews us wants us to, so maybe we’ll race for charity or something,” Antico said.
Victor thrives on friendly competition, and he needed all 95 steals to emerge victorious in the one that mattered most. Scott II nipped his friend and former summer ball teammate Chandler Simpson, who swiped 94 bases this season in the Tampa Bay Rays farm system.
The rivalry extends to the bowling alley too, where they play often and Victor holds an edge.
“Me,” Scott II said when asked who usually wins. “He’ll be able to tell you that too if he ever sees this.”
The post Victor Scott II caps prolific 2023 season, leads Springfield to Texas League playoffs appeared first on Scoops Sports Network.
Perhaps nobody in Springfield is happier to see the calendar flip to September than St. Louis’ top pitching prospect.
Tink Hence surrendered six runs in the first two innings at Arvest Ballpark in Northwest Arkansas on Thursday night and took the loss as Springfield fell 8-4 to the Naturals, a sour ending to a bitter August for the Cards’ prized righthander.
The young sensation – Hence turned 21 on August 6 – went 0-3 with a 10.62 ERA and 2.16 WHIP in five August starts.
“A couple of rough outings before so just trying to get back in a good space, just brush it off and see what I need to do to be more consistent and elevate my game,” Hence said prior to Thursday’s game.
“I’ve been paying attention to a lot of my data that I get back from the game, deeper in the season your body starts to get tired on you…I feel like it’s a little slouchy in mechanics that kind of throws of the timing of stuff. When it gets to the game, I expect it to be there, but sometimes it’s just not there.”
“Just trying get more consistent and figure out what it is that makes me so effective,” Hence continued.
“Usually, I get a lot of ride on my fastball. Recently, in a couple of those outings, it’s been a little more “cut-ish” or sinking. So just working on my grip and figuring out what I can do to consistently get (ride) and consistently throw pitches where I want to throw them.”
The dog days of summer in the Texas League are the first blemish on what has been a meteoric rise for the Cards’ No. 2 ranked prospect.
Hence dominated opposing batters in Palm Beach and the Arizona Fall League last year. Success continued in Peoria this summer and earned Tink a trip to Seattle where he tossed a scoreless inning for the National League in the MLB Future’s Game.
Through nine starts in Double-A, Hence boasts a 2-4 record with a 6.47 ERA and 1.59 WHIP in 40.1 innings. Texas League hitters have touched him for 29 earned runs and seven homers, while Hence has walked 19, thrown five wild pitches and hit one batter.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned was just, here everything is a little bit smaller – (less) room for error. In High-A, maybe you get away with little things here and there. But (in Double-A) you make a bad pitch, or you don’t get the pitch where you’re supposed to, these guys are putting on good swings.”
Cards’ fans concerned by the numbers can find comfort by comparing them to the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner.
Sandy Alcántara went 2-4 with a 7.09 ERA and 1.64 WHIP in 47 innings over his first nine starts with Springfield in 2017. Alcántara was mashed for 61 hits, nine home runs and 37 earned runs during that span. He threw 15 wild pitches, walked 16 and hit six batters.
Of course, the rest is history.
Hence – who entered the season with just 60.1 professional innings (he’s thrown 82 innings and counting this season) – said his biggest success this year has been staying calm under the pressure.
Springfield manager José Leger has been equally impressed with Tink’s demeanor.
“He’s learning, he’s learning. He’s getting adapted to the level. He’s had a taste of Peoria then coming in here, it’s different. Better hitters, more polished, more veteran players that he’s facing now.”
And the learning never stops – even off the field.
Hence was drafted alongside Jordan Walker and Masyn Wynn during the COVID-year 2020 draft class. Hence and Winn make time to play video games together online – among their favorites is MLB 2K, and for Hence the video games aren’t just for relaxation.
“I learned how to play baseball through the game,” he said. “On the game I usually throw a lot of fastballs at the top of the zone – it translates (to real baseball) and keeps my mind going.”
Tink is expected to make one more start in Springfield when the Cards finish the 2023 home schedule next week.
The post Tink Hence stays calm, grinds through growing pains during rough August appeared first on Scoops.
On the eve of his Cardinals’ debut Tekoah Roby pondered the changes since he last took the mound on June 3 – a sore shoulder sidelined the 21-year-old righthander for 12 weeks and while rehabbing Roby was traded to St. Louis by the Texas Rangers. Then he remembered what remained the same. “Just reassuring myself […]
The post Tekoah Roby sharpens slider in “impressive” Springfield debut appeared first on Scoops.
José Leger steps into his office inside Hammons Field – a cramped room with cinder block walls more suitable for high school coaches than the 41-year-old Springfield Cardinals’ skipper named Best Manager Prospect by Baseball America last year. But Leger – a former NCAA Division-II standout that played four minor league seasons in the Minnesota […]
The post Springfield Cardinals’ manager José Leger reflects on baseball, analytics, and his career appeared first on Scoops.
The Cardinals got their first glance at one of the prospects hauled in by the trade deadline selloff on Tuesday night. Thomas Saggese (pronounced “soo-JAY-see”) – an infielder acquired in the trade that sent Jordan Montgomery and Chris Stratton to the Texas Rangers on Sunday – went 1-for-3 with a single, walk and run scored […]
The post With Top 10 prospects Thomas Saggese and Tekoah Roby, St. Louis loads up on 2020 MLB Draft class appeared first on Scoops.
An hour before the first pitch of Springfield’s 9-7 victory over the Arkansas Travelers on Thursday, Chandler Redmond stood outside the Cardinals’ clubhouse and said all the right things. He flashed a smile and spoke calmly but with hulking arms folded across his chest, tension under the surface was palpable. As the MLB hot stove […]
The post With MLB trade deadline looming, Texas League home run leader, Chandler Redmond, must wait and see appeared first on Scoops.
Mike Antico led off Game 1 of a Saturday evening doubleheader against Amarillo with a towering home run and before the ball landed on the Cardinals’ clubhouse beyond the right field fence, Antico was aware of its significance. St. Louis’ 8th-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft needed 239 career games to become the first […]
The post Mike Antico and Victor Scott II give Double-A Springfield lineup a “Whiteyball” look appeared first on Scoops.
As fans filed into Hammons Field for the series-finale against Wichita, Springfield Cardinals’ infielder Noah Mendlinger paused his pregame routine. “I go out and do my stretch, one of the first things I do is look at the stadium, look at the crowd – I never thought I’d be in this situation,” he said. “I […]
The post “He’s a grinder, he’s earned a spot here”: Noah Mendlinger’s hot start in Double-A sparks Springfield appeared first on Scoops.
Could we see Moises Gomez in St. Louis this year? We start there with Brian Walton today. An update on power-hitters, Jordan Walker and Luken Baker. Brian names his “Player of the Month” and it may surprise some. We also get into some pitchers up and down the minor leagues. Hjerpe, Hudson, and more.
The post Weekly with Walton – Jun 1, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
With one out in the fifth inning at Hammons Field on Friday night, Wichita Wind Surge leftfielder Alerick Soularie was on the ropes. Springfield Cardinals’ righthander Wilfredo Pereira had struck out nine of the first 15 Wichita batters – including Soularie on four pitches in his first at-bat. Now with the tying run at first […]
The post Wilfredo Pereira strikes out 10 in shutout victory to cap brilliant month on the mound in Double-A appeared first on Scoops.
Brian Walton is here with an update on the Cardinals minor leagues. The latest on Jordan Walker and his swing adjustments. We look at Oscar Mercado‘s promotion and his hot bat plus Dakota Hudson’s return to the Redbirds rotation. More good news on Luken Baker but not so for Zack Thompson. Listen here:
The post Weekly with Walton – May 24, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
When Matt Koperniak stepped into the left-handed batters’ box to face Adam Wainwright, his parents and girlfriend watched from the stands – the only ordinary piece of an otherwise surreal scene for the 25-year-old Cardinals’ farmhand.
Trayce Thompson had just smacked Uncle Charlie’s trademark curveball over the fence at Chase Field in Phoenix to give Great Britain a 1-0 lead over Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic opener.
Thompson returned to the British dugout sporting the team’s royal home run crown and robe as 39,650 stunned Americans settled into their seats.
One could easily forgive Koperniak for being consumed by the moment.
Surely Wainwright’s mid-80’s fastball that cruised belt-high would look like a beach ball, too enticing not to unleash an aggressive swing.
Surely the Cardinals’ minor league player of the month last August was itching to make a statement against the organizations’ beloved big-league ace with nearly 200 Major League wins.
Surely the London-born undrafted free agent from Division-III Trinity College accustomed to playing for a smattering of fans would be disoriented by the big stage.
Surely not Matt Koperniak.
Patient, relaxed, and disciplined – he never took the bat off his shoulder. Wainwright nibbed with the fastball up, but just outside the strike zone, and Koperniak walked on five pitches.
“That was awesome, I don’t know if this is his last year or not, but it was a crazy experience and definitely something I will remember for life,” Koperniak said prior to a Double-A game in Springfield in April.
“I never played in front of that many people – (the U.S. team) definitely had the edge on us with those guys being a little bit more experienced and being in that atmosphere, but we played a good game against them. It was just cool to be out there in front of all those people.”
“That kind of tells him you’re not that far away if you can play under than kind of pressure and atmosphere,” Springfield manager Jose Leger said.
Koperniak returned to Springfield this spring and he’s picked up a scorching bat right where he left it.
The Cards’ lefty is slashing .325/.394/.447 with four homers and 14 RBI’s in 29 games. His batting average leads Springfield (13-17) and is good for fifth in the Texas League though May 11.
Koperniak finished 2022 red hot; he posted a .371 average with six home runs, five doubles and two triples in August – including the August 9 game against Amarillo when he hit for the cycle, the first Springfield player to accomplish the feat since 2011.
Koperniak had a short stint in Triple-A before joining Great Britain in Germany for the WBC qualifying tournament in September.
“Just trying to pick up where I left off last year, getting good weather. Just trying to hit the ball, hit the ball hard, keep things going. I feel a little bit more relaxed being up here for the second year,” he said.
Leger recognizes Koperniak’s comfort at the plate, and typically slots him into the heart of the Cardinals’ lineup.
“He’s got the ability to make contact, he’s a more mature hitter with a better knowledge of the strike zone,” he said.
Team USA beat Great Britain 6-2 in the opening game, but the British defeated Colombia in pool play and secured an automatic spot in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Fans in the U.K. will also see the Cardinals and Cubs play a series in London in June.
“(The WBC) put Great Britain on the map for baseball,” Koperniak said.
“Our coach right from the beginning said, ‘You guys are already winning by just being in this tournament’. They are definitely trying to grow the game there, so for kids to be able to see us play – I think it’s definitely going to help.”
The tournament offers minor league players like Koperniak an unparalleled opportunity.
“It’s a great experience for the players. The whole world is watching – maybe if you play for an organization, you’re getting all 30 organizations to look at you, and maybe other teams from overseas. Let’s not kid ourselves, it might work out that you go play in Japan or in Mexico and make good money too,” Leger said.
The post “Relaxed” Matt Koperniak swinging hot bat after World Baseball Classic run with Great Britain appeared first on Scoops.
An uncharacteristically poor start to the Cardinals season leads us to look at who may be available in the minor leagues. Brian Walton talks about Jordan Walker’s move to Triple-A, the signing of Motter, injuries to Tommy Parsons and Dak Hudson. Plus why DeJong is a mainstay for the team now. We also look at Nolan Gorman’s different swing and success this year. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 27, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
In the second inning of Springfield’s 3-2 win over the Midland Rockhounds on Thursday, Michael McGreevy experienced déjà vu.
McGreevy jumped ahead 0-2 on Midland RockHounds’ first baseman Logan Davidson, and Springfield catcher Pedro Pagés called for a slider down-and-in to the left-handed batter.
Pagés motioned to the desired location. McGreevy toed the rubber and his mind flashed to June 12, 2022.
“I was pitching that Sunday and Davidson was up, and he was on a hot streak last year,” McGreevy recalled.
It was McGreevy’s fourth start in Double-A, and he had the Oakland A’s 2019 first-round pick in an 0-2 hole. Then he hung a slider and Davidson blasted it for a two-run homer.
“I thought to myself, this is the same exact at-bat right now. Two fastballs for strikes and then a slider back-foot,” McGreevy said. “I’m like hey, trust it, rip it.”
McGreevy did. The ball dipped sharply below Davidson’s knees as he swung and missed for the strikeout – one of McGreevy’s nine victims over six innings pitched Thursday.
Springfield Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy as the Cardinals take on the Wichita Wind Surge during the home opener at Hammons Field on Thursday, April 6, 2023.
Tspringfield Cards00041
“It makes it fun. You see that, especially that pitch – I saw the video on it after – I pointed to the spot, he executed there. It worked,” Pagés said. “That makes him feel good, that makes me feel good.”
Hitters chased McGreevy’s slider all night and he says the pitch was a focus during the offseason but remains a work in progress.
“To be honest with you, it’s not really where I want it right now,” he said.
“Kind of dealing with – not mechanical issues, but just pitch shape difficulties…how much it’s breaking, how much it’s dropping. The nice thing about it is it’s been hard. I’ve been throwing it hard.”
Springfield manager Jose Leger is impressed with the stuff, but he raves about the 22-year-old’s maturity.
“For him to remember (the at-bat last year), that tells you right away that he pays attention to details,” Leger said.
“I’m glad he was able to recognize that, and he made better pitches last night, he was aware of it, he worked quick – it was another great outing.”
McGreevy will take his quality start streak on the bus to Memphis, as the Cardinals promoted him to Triple-A on Sunday, a reward for posting a 1.45 ERA and 16 strikeouts over 18 2/3 innings in three starts this spring. There he will join Matthew Liberatore and Gordon Graceffo to give the Redbirds a trio of first-round picks in the rotation.
Something else happened during his final Double-A start that shows McGreevy is ready for the next step.
Midland scored in the top of the first inning on three groundball singles, and McGreevy returned to the dugout frustrated.
“I wasn’t really trusting my stuff, wasn’t really throwing it with conviction at all, and that kind of led to some ticky-tack hits that squibbled through,” he said.
“I was (ticked) off and had to hit a reset button in the dugout. (In the second inning) I walked out there and said ‘So what? Hey, so what?’ It had already happened, nothing you could do about it now.”
Then Davidson stepped in to lead off the inning.
The post “I’m like hey, trust it, rip it.” Michael McGreevy slides up to Memphis thanks to dominating slider appeared first on Scoops.
Adam Wainwright’s line at Hammons Field: 3 innings pitched, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 59 pitches and 5,581 memories made.
Wainwright said his sore groin felt fine and with the Cardinals off to a rocky start, he’s anxious to get back to St. Louis.
“I only have 25 or 26 more starts when I get back in and I need to make the most of them. I don’t want to waste any more time.”
But for locals in The Queen City of the Ozarks, the first stop on Wainwright’s 2023 farewell tour was anything but wasted time.
Waino’s appearance in Double-A against the Midland RockHounds (Oakland) was pushed from Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon – field trip day at the ballpark for Springfield area schools – and the stands were packed with kids of all ages.
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright signs autographs after making a rehab appearance with the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Wainwright threw 59 pitches over 3 innings. Tsgf Cards00167
Fans arrived early and hung over the railing above Springfield’s bullpen clutching cell phones. 2021 first-round pick Michael McGreevy was out there too, snacking on a Dole fruit cup that was not part of the steak-and-lobster spread delivered to the Cards’ clubhouse on Wainwright’s dime.
The Baby Shark theme song hummed in the background and as the veteran loosened up, the atmosphere felt more like recess than a rehab start.
“Those kids don’t know who I am,” Wainwright joked. “They don’t care about me. I think they were just glad to be out of school.”
Uncle Charlie delivered the first pitch at 12:05 p.m., or right about the time Cyndi Biellier’s 2nd grade class at Disney Elementary school would normally start math.
From their seats on the third-base side of home plate, the kids counted two quick outs before consecutive singles put No. 50 in a jam. Chase Calabuig grounded sharply to Springfield first baseman Chandler Redmond, who led Waino to the bag to retire the side.
Wainwright tossed the ball over the protective netting into the waiting hands of Cards’ fan Kevin Perez – he skipped general education class at Missouri State University to see the three-time All-Star pitch.
“I’ll hang it up, put it in a little glass box right next to my bed,” Perez said of his reward for playing hookie.
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright warms up in the bullpen before making a rehab appearance with the Springfield Cardinals at Hammons Field on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.
Tsgf Cards00260
RockHounds’ second baseman Jeremy Eierman – Oakland’s second-round pick in 2018 from Missouri State – reached on a fielder’s choice in the second inning. Wainwright struck out the next batter but surrendered a two-run homer to Michael Guldberg for the game’s first runs.
Springfield took a 3-2 lead in the bottom frame, thanks to a two-run double to the gap in left-center by Pedro Pages.
Waino induced a flyout to start the third inning, then froze the next batter with a looping curveball. Wainwright stuck out J.J. Schwartz swinging on a 2-2 pitch, and he walked to the dugout to a standing ovation.
Redmond smacked a two-run homer in the fifth inning, his fourth of the 2023 campaign. Redmond shed more than 20 pounds in the offseason and before the game, he said he’d abstain from Wainwright’s lavish post-game feast.
Most of the crowd had departed on school buses by the time Midland (5-6) rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to top Springfield (4-7) by an 8-7 score.
Wainwright won’t miss the hitter-friendly confines, but he shared a warm sentiment for Springfield.
“It’s been a treat to be here, unless the wind is blowing out,” he said. “I love being in Springfield, it’s a wonderful place…the crowd has always treated us like royalty here and it makes us feel very loved.”
The post Adam Wainwright strikes out three in Double-A rehab, delights kids on “field trip” day in Springfield appeared first on Scoops.
Jordan Montgomery takes the loss last night. What’s Brian Walton’s take on the Cardinals underwhelming April? He talks about the starters in Memphis and potentially why they haven’t been called up. He compares Jordan Hicks to Tink Hence. The Jordan Walker dynamic continues to evolve. Is the league figuring him out already? We get into the farm system’s outlook across the league for the Cardinals and the first few weeks of games in the minors.
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 19, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
We dive into pitching depth at Memphis with Brain Walton today. Who are their starters and how close are they to majors?
Hudson has an ERA over 4 and has not done well. Matthew Liberatore has been excellent. Connor Thomas has started well and Graceffo has shown promise, but it’s too early to think about him moving up anytime soon. Is the key for Liberatore establishing the fast ball? In particular, inside to righthanded hitters? What has Graceffo done well to move so fast through the minors?
Tink Hence arguably earned a promotion but starts the season at Peoria and has still been limited in pitch count for whatever reason. Masyn Winn has kicked off the season at the top of the lineup for Memphis, although he’s not hitting particularly well. We talk about Paul DeJong’s rehab assignment in Palm Beach. He hasn’t really hit at the level it takes to return to St. Louis. Is it decision time for his future? Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 12, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
Brian Walton runs down the Cardinals prospects to watch as minor league seasons get under way. He also talks about the pitching rotation in Memphis and who could be on the move soon. News on power-hitting Luken Baker, Masyn Winn and top pick, Joshua Baez. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – April 6, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
A few blocks east of Hammons Field – or about the distance of a towering Chandler Redmond home run – is the famous “Route 66” Steak ‘n Shake that dishes out the slugger’s favorite indulgences.
A Western BBQ Steakburger and Butterfinger milkshake.
Redmond returns to Springfield for the 2023 campaign looking to build upon a historic performance last season, but don’t expect to find him lugging Takhomasak’s back to the Cardinals’ clubhouse this year.
When Chandler spoke to the media about shedding 31 pounds under the tutelage of a weight and nutrition coach this offseason, the hulking biceps looked familiar, but his 6-foot-1 frame had been radically altered.
“Last year I played way too heavy, I was like 235-240 (pounds) and right now I’m sitting about 220-225,” he said.
“Shout out to my wife, she cooked everything and prepared it into little bins for me, so she’s the real trooper. I just had to eat it.”
The plan to transform his physique nearly worked too well. Redmond’s weight dropped to 217 pounds, but he added some back after noticing a dip in his strength.
The Cardinals’ lineup can ill-afford to lose that.
Springfield must replace production from the departed Jordan Walker, Moises Gomez, and Malcom Nunez and manager Jose Leger will depend on Redmond for power, but even he can’t help but marvel at the transformation.
Photo courtesy of the Springfield Cardinals. Chandler Redmond bats against Tulsa at Hammons Field on Saturday, July 16.
“He’s now focusing on his speed,” Leger said. “We’re talking about, when you look at a first baseman, that’s something they don’t think about.”
“He wants to get better at all aspects of the game and that speaks volumes for him.”
Redmond vaulted into baseball history on August 10, 2022, when he became the second professional baseball player ever to complete the Home Run Cycle – that’s a solo, two-run, three-run and grand slam home run in the same game.
“It was just one game – you can’t make a career off of one day,” he said. “It’s cool to talk about and everything but it doesn’t really affect me day-to-day.”
Chandler took his infant son to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York over the winter to visit his bat, now on display alongside the most timeless baseball treasures.
The trip offered pause for reflection but did nothing to impede Redmond’s offseason mission to develop the trait prized above all others in the Cardinals’ farm system – versatility.
“Fun fact, I was drafted as a second baseman…I wanted to get back to a more versatile role this year and at least give them the option to play me back in the outfield or at second or at third, kind of like I did in 2021.”
Redmond has stocked up on groceries and is ready to incorporate his new lifestyle into the daily gameday grind. Major League Baseball and the players union recently agreed to changes that will make it easier for Chandler to shun the extra value meals.
Double-A player salaries more than doubled – from $13,800 per season to $30,250 – and housing for the season is included. Redmond’s wife, Kristan, is a registered nurse and the young parents are reliant upon her income to raise their 8-month-old child.
“For me personally, it means everything…we’re stressed about money all the time,” he said. “It makes it easier on me to play – I can kind of take a step back from that and just focus on baseball.”
The Double-A Cards’ home opener against the Wichita Wind Surge is on Thursday.
The post Chandler Redmond made history, then transformed his body to climb depth chart in 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
Jordan Walker gets to experience his first opening day in St. Louis tomorrow. We talk it all over here with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com. He also gives us some insight on how far away Masyn Winn really is from the majors. But will there be a spot for him, when he’s ready? We also talk about Tink Hence, and other relief pitchers like Zack Thompson that could make an impact for the organization this year. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 29, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
We get into Cardinals minor league camp this morning with Brian Walton. Why was Freddie Pacheco cut in one of the more surprising spring moves? We take a look at the potential rotation for Triple A Memphis. Brian also talks about Tink Hence’s camp so far and more. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 15, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
We talk Tink Hence’s spring debut, Masyn Winn’s playing time, Jordan Walker in left and a lot about the changes we’ll see to spring training this year because of the WBC. All here with Brian Walton.
The post Wednesday with Walton – March 1, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
We’ve finally got baseball this month and we talk it over here with Brian Walton. His analysis of the non-roster invites to spring training and the many changes in coaching staff up and down the Cardinals system. Plus we talk about those first rounders who maybe didn’t pan out like they could have. I’ll look at the pairing groups of prospects and major leaguers in spring training camp, too. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton – February 1, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
A run-down this morning of some of the top prospects we just learned will be at big league Spring Training. Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com talks about the outside chance that Gordon Graceffo makes the St. Louis roster. We also get into Connor Thomas’ spot for this year- is it in Memphis or St. Louis? Plus a look at Jordan Walker’s trajectory and maturity beyond his years. News on Masyn Winn, Tink Hence, Ivan Herrera, Matthew Liberatore and more. Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton and Martin Kilcoyne – January 18, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
Jul 16, 2022; Los Angeles, CA, USA; National League Futures shortstop Masyn Winn (1) makes an out in the second inning of the All Star-Futures Game at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
We catch up with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com ahead of this weekend’s Cardinals Winter Warm-Up. We talk about which prospects will be at Winter Warm Up and the new set-up at Busch Stadium. We get Brian’s thoughts on Tink Hence and when he’ll be “big league ready” and the upcoming arbitration deadline/potential hearings. We also chat about Matt Holliday’s experience and role with the ballclub. Has there ever been another wild off-season like Carlos Correa has had? Listen here:
The post Wednesday with Walton and Martin Kilcoyne – January 11, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
Our first check-in with Brian Walton of 2023 and we take the chance to look at the top three prospects for the Cardinals. How soon will each make an impact the big league team? Talk has ramped up lately of Jordan Walker – does that mean will see him make it out of spring training to St. Louis? Brian Walton fills us in on Masyn Winn’s placement, and Tink Hence’s trajectory. What about pitching? Brian drops a few names that we may see sooner rather than later including AFL Pitcher-of-the-Year, Connor Thomas. Listen here.
The post Wednesday with Walton and Martin Kilcoyne – January 4, 2023 appeared first on Scoops.
This is a deep dive with Brian Walton on the rule changes you can expect to see in MLB games this year that were used last year in the minors. Pitch clock, Shifts, Limited Pickoffs, the potential of an Automated Strike Zone, etc. A whole new game is coming.
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 30, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
Alex Reyes is a free agent. We talk about that surprise with Brian Walton. He watched Alex rise through the Cardinals systema and has insight. We also talk about the speedy Mike Antico and his projection as a center fielder. How far away from the majors is he? Ryan Loutos, a physically fit Wash U […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 23, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
An interesting look at some of the Cardinals prospects from Brian Walton at thecardinalnation.com. An “In Your Own Words” angle from Masyn Winn, Pedro Pages and more. We also talk today about losing Delvin Perez and the adjustments to the 40-man roster. We get into the Rule 5 draft, the trade for Fermin and more, […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 16, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
Great stuff here today from Brian Walton covering the Cardinals minor league system We get details on Jordan Walker, Connor Thomas and others who could be a big factor for St. Louis as early as next season. We also get into a few players surprisingly cut recently from the 40-man, Kodi Whitley and Kramer Robertson. […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – November 2, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 26, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
We visit with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com to talk MLB playoff format and minor league standouts for the 2022 season according to his organization. The Cardinals organization “Player of the Year” for 2022 is Moises Gomez, a free agent pickup from the Rays last year. He’s a great corner outfielder who hit a ton of […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 19, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
What does it means that Jordan walker is the “priority player” in the Arizona Fall League? A look at Connor Thomas (the Cardinals AFL starter), Pedro Pages’ future, Mike Antico’s role with the Salt River Rafters and more with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com. We also talk about Pujols’ incredible season, the Cardinals players headed to […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – October 5, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
An hour before I asked my girlfriend to marry me, I paced the living room of our apartment. I needed to leave to meet her, but the Cardinals were down to their last strike. It was September 24, 2011. Chicago Cubs’ closer Carlos Mármol had Yadier Molina against the ropes. With a full count, Yadi […]
The post An era ends for us all appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
The Cardinals have clinched the NL Central. We take a look at some of the newest to the big leagues and how they contributed so much this year. Brian Walton points to Brendan Donovan as the most surprising. We talk about Nootbaar and how the outfield isn’t as set as we thought at the top […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 28, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
A look at the players headed to Arizona this fall. All of the players that went last fall, made it to the majors this year. So what can we infer from that? We talk Tink Hence’s inning restriction and Mike Antico’s stolen bases. Plus Brian details a few minor league teams that made a push […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 21, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
Alex Coil catches up with pitcher Connor Thomas about heading down to the Arizona Fall League. He talks about his second season at Triple-A Memphis, his pitch-to-contact style and where he is health-wise. What has heard about the AFL and what is he looking forward to the most while there?
The post Connor Thomas appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
In a classic scene from Bull Durham, journeyman catcher Crash Davis is shooting pool when his protégé – highly-touted prospect Nuke Laloosh – enters the bar after receiving a call-up to the big-league club. Realizing this signals the end of his career, Kevin Costner’s character imparts a final lesson. “You know what the difference between […]
The post Michael McGreevy, Gordon Graceffo, Chandler Redmond and other Cards’ minor leaguers have season to remember in 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
RHP Tommy Parsons, of the Memphis Redbirds, improved to 11-3 this week after allowing just 3 hits and 1 run against Iowa this week. Alex Coil visits with him here. His 11 wins ties a career-high and is one win shy of leading all Triple-A pitchers. He talks about his reliance on the change-up and […]
The post Tommy Parsons appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
As the minor league seasons wrap up, we visit with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com. He’s got insight into the upcoming Arizona Fall League and new rankings for Cardinals top prospects. We also take a look back at Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina as they made their way to the big leagues years ago. Brian talks […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 14, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
A mural decorates the scene outside Hammons Field, a map of Missouri painted powder blue with two red symbols: one small heart in the southwest corner and the legendary STL logo where the Colosseum of a baseball empire beckons. In between them it reads: 214.7 miles. The gap is as figurative as it is physical […]
The post As 2022 season closes, Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn dream big while Brady Whalen savors the moment appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
Cardinals minor leagues talk each Wednesday with Brian Walton. Will Jordan Walker will head to the Arizona Fall League instead of Memphis? We also talk about Dakota Hudson’s start in Memphis and how he handled the pitch clock. Brian tells us a little bit more about speedster Ben Deluzio. We get into the players of […]
The post Brian Walton – September 7, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
We catch up with Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com about the month of August for the Cardinals. We also get into his recent visit to the Florida teams. He names a few guys that stood out to him and talks about how coaches are adapting to the many format and rule changes this year. We talk […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – September 1, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
From a dugout perch at Hammons Field on Wednesday night, the Cardinals’ first round pick in the 2021 MLB draft studied St. Louis’ first round pick in 2014. “Watching the way Jack goes about his business, it’s like a fighter pilot,” Springfield righthander Michael McGreevy said prior to Jack Flaherty’s final tune-up before he joins […]
The post With Cards’ top pitching prospects watching, Flaherty sharp in final rehab start appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
WashU grad, Ryan Loutos, talks about his path to the Memphis Redbirds and his knack for analytics. He turned down a job in software engineering for baseball and now he’s helping the Cardinals develop programs for players like him. He’s moving quickly up the ranks in the Cardinals farm system too.
The post Ryan Loutos appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
An update on some of the top prospects in the Cardinals minor-league system here with Brian Walton. How has Matthew Liberatore done since heading down to Memphis? Brian has seen his name drop a bit in national rankings. We also talked about Zach Thompson, Gordon Graceffo and the outlook for Alec Burleson with only two […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 17, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
Kramer Robertson was napping in a hotel room in Norfolk, Virginia on May 9 when his phone rang. Robertson had gone 1-for-4 with a stolen base in the Redbirds’ 6-3 loss at Jacksonville the day before – the 446th minor league appearance for the Cardinals’ fourth round pick in 2017. Now, his off-day slumber was […]
The post Memphis, St. Louis, Gwinnett, Syracuse, New York and back: Redbirds’ infielder Kramer Robertson’s wild season continues with homer in Memphis’ return appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
We discuss a few players in the minors who some are clamoring to call up. What’s the situation for Alec Burleson, Zack Thompson and Jordan Walker. Brian Walton of thecardinalnation.com talks about Walker’s transition to outfield. Does that create an opportunity for him in St. Louis sooner? We also look at the future for Zack […]
The post Wednesday with Walton – August 10, 2022 appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.
In the top of the first inning at Whataburger Field on Sunday, Springfield Cardinals’ infielder Nick Dunn was in a tight spot, albeit a familiar one. With Mike Antico at first base and one out, Dunn took a called strike and then fouled off the second offering from Corpus Christi righthander Jaime Melendez. The baseball […]
The post Springfield infielder Nick Dunn grinds at the plate, helps Cards top Hooks appeared first on Scoops with Danny Mac.