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St. Louis Cardinals Prospect Report: Reyes dominates, Wick homers, Scruggs goes deep twice

Affiliates go 3-0 on Wednesday.

By Eric M. Johnson
Alex Reyes
Alex Reyes
dplbaseball

Editor's Note: I will be scouting the Peoria team tonight and tomorrow night against the Cedar Rapids Kernels in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. If any F-R readers are interested in joining me and potentially shooting some video of Chief players like Magneuris Sierra or Collin Radack, hit me up on Twitter or email.

Memphis 4 Omaha 2

Notables:

  • Dean Anna (SS): 1-4, R
  • Ty Kelly (LF): 1-2, R, 2 BB, SB, CS
  • Stephen Piscotty (RF): 0-3, BB, K
  • Xavier Scruggs (1B): 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K
  • Marco Gonzales (SP): 4 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, K, HR
  • Mitch Harris (RP): 1 IP, S (2)
Not a great outing for Marco Gonzales, who needed 86 pitches to get through four innings and coming out of the game after walking former Redbird Ryan Jackson to start the fifth frame. Anna and Kelly form a formidable pitch taking duo at the top of the Memphis lineup that Stephen Piscotty hasn't been able to take advantage of to this point, but Xavier Scruggs certainly has -- the two homers in this game give him four in the first six games of the season. He might hit 40+ homers in a full AAA season this year, which would be a Redbirds record.

Palm Beach 5 Lakeland 0

Notables:
  • Bruce Caldwell (3B): 1-4, R, HR, RBI, K
  • Luke Voit (1B): 1-3, 2 R, BB
  • Rowan Wick (RF): 2-3, 2 R, 3B, HR, 2 RBI, K, HBP
  • Mason Katz (2B): 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, HBP
  • Alex Reyes (SP): 5.2 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 10 K
  • Chase Brookshire (RP): 2.1, H, BB, 4 K
Rough night for the Flying Tigers (one of the more ridiculous looking logos in all of baseball): Just 5 singles against Palm Beach against 15 strikeouts. This is the kind of dominance I expect to see from Reyes until he gets bumped up to the Texas League in a month or so. His stuff is too overwhelming for most of the hitters in the Florida State League and the Cardinals will likely have to bump him up a level to test him. Still, command in this game wasn't great and is still a work in progress from start to start.

Bruce Caldwell continued his early season tear at the plate and Rowan Wick and Mason Katz came through with extra base hits to drive in the other four Cardinal runs.

Peoria 3 Cedar Rapids 2 (12 innings)

Notables:

  • Magneuris Sierra (CF): 1-6
  • Oscar Mercado (SS): 1-4, R, 2 SB
  • Collin Radack (RF): 2-5, R, SB
  • Andrew Sohn (DH): 0-5, RBI, SB, 4 K
  • Darren Seferina (2B): 2-5, 2 K
  • Luis Perdomo (SP): 5.2 IP, 2 H, ER, BB, 6 K
  • Jhonny Polanco (RP): 1.1, H, BB, 2 K
  • Zach Loraine (RP): 0.2, 2 H, ER, K
  • Kyle Grana (RP): 1.1 IP, 3 K
I think it's pretty clear that Peoria plans to run a lot this year to create scoring opportunities, and if they continue to have success at this rate (5 for 5 last night) it's a very good strategy in a league known to be stingy on runs.  Radack, Seferina, and Mercado are riding hot starts to the season while Sierra and the hitters in the heart of the order (Diekroeger, Thompson, and DeLeon) have all struggled to drive them in (2-13 last night with RISP).

Still, Peoria handed Cedar Rapids it's first loss of the season and is 5-2 on the year, mostly due to good pitching and creating runs in the running game.  Looking forward to seeing Gomber in person tonight to get a better feel for him as a prospect.

Thursday Probables:


AAA: Omaha (Blanton) @ Memphis (Cooney)
AA: Springfield (Mayers) @ Corpus Christi (Appel)
A+: Palm Beach (Kaminsky) @ Lakeland (Longstreth)
A: Peoria (Gomber) @ Cedar Rapids (Curtiss)


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