Weekend Farm Report: Redbirds Shine during Opening Weekend

In defense of their 2017 Pacific Coast League Championship, the Memphis Redbirds are a perfect 4-0 to start the 2018 season. In much contrast, the Springfield Cardinals are 0-4. The Palm Beach Cardinals and Peoria Chiefs sit at .500, as they are 2-2 and 1-1, respectively.

Peoria’s games on Friday and Sunday with the Kernels were postponed due to inclement weather. They will be made as part of two doubleheaders in the final week of May.

Some notes from the weekend:

-The Redbirds won 17-4 on Friday, 11-6 on Saturday, and 4-1 on Sunday. I’m sure the Express are ready to conclude the five-game series on Monday evening.

-Jack Flaherty was excellent on Sunday. In seven innings of one-run ball, Flaherty whiffed 11 batters and issued no walks. Shall St. Louis need an a starting arm, Flaherty will be the guy.

-Greg Holland and Luke Gregerson pitched in Saturday’s Palm Beach game. Holland allowed one run in his lone inning of work, striking out one. Gregerson whiffed two in a clean frame.

-Springfield outfielder Lane Thomas is off to a hot start, even though his team collectively is not. Thomas has four doubles and a home run through four games.

-Outfielder Nick Plummer has three doubles in two games for the Chiefs, including two on Thursday and one on Saturday.

-Tyler O’Neill is off to a monster start. Through four games, O’Neill has as many home runs. Here is a clip of his third; he hit this on Saturday.

-Conner Greene made his organization debut on Saturday. Serving as Springfield’s starter in a bullpen game, Greene allowed three runs in 1 2/3 innings. Greene walked two and struck out two.

-Palm Beach outfielder Johan Mieses homered in Friday and Sunday’s contest for the Cardinals.

-Redbirds outfielder Randy Arozarena stole three bases in Sunday’s game. He reached base three times via the walk, and he stole second base each time. Express catcher Cameron Rupp must have been fuming.

-Chiefs hurler Johan Oviedo had about as poor of an outing as a starting pitcher could have. In Saturday’s outing, Oviedo recorded just one out - and walked five batters. After two runs scored, Oviedo was removed and his runs (he left the bases loaded) later came around to score. With five earned runs charged to his name, Oviedo owns a 135.00 ERA. Don’t you just love small sample sizes?

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Monday’s probables:

MEM: Daniel Poncedeleon

SPR: Connor Jones

PMB: TBD

PEO: Evan Guillory

The video is credited to the official Minor League Baseball YouTube channel.

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