JUPITER, Fla. — The number of souvenirs collected in those new bullpens out beyond the outfield fences at Roger Dean Stadium was as telling as the scoreboard.
The Miami Marlins lofted five home runs, three of them off Cardinals starter Erick Fedde, to romp against their spring training housemates, 12-5, on Tuesday afternoon. Marlins second baseman Otto Lopez hit two home runs, including one that got up into the air and carried in a stiff breeze over the wall in right field.
As if to remind everyone about the new dimensions at the Dean, two of the home runs hit in the exhibition game traveled 332 feet or less and would have been a home run in zero of the 30 big-league ballparks.
That's not to say that the Marlins didn't rake.
Miami jumped on Fedde's first pitch off, barreled up multiple hits, and tagged the right-hander for six runs on seven hits in four runs. He walked one and rarely got deep into counts because of the Marlins' approach.Â
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The Cardinals' willingness to listen to offers for Fedde as this spring and season unwind was a topic of discussion in the weekly baseball chat at StlToday.com.
Closer Ryan Helsley allowed an unearned run in his one inning, and then in role reversals the right-handed relievers jockeying to be part of Helsley's setup followed the All-Star into the game. Against his former team, Roddery Munoz allowed two home runs and allowed those two runs. Gordon Graceffo kept the all from leaving the ballpark, but he too allowed two runs on two hits in his inning.
Nick Anderson, a veteran setup man, had his best outing of the spring.
He struck out two of the three batters he faced in a perfect inning.
For the Cardinals, the more revealing part of his outing came in the metrics, where he was able to combine improving velocity (93.9 mph max) and strong vertical break (17-inch max) that make his fastball difficult to track for a batter.
Offensively, Jose Barrero continued his push for the bench spot by pulling a two-run, two-out single to left. The Cardinals have been working with the Reds' former top prospect to chase less of the power and look for contact in those situations, and the recent stretch of games have been considered a success. The hard grounder that slipped through for RBIs was offered as an example.
The Cardinals are batting .210 as a team. They have the fewest hits in the majors this spring and after a four-game winning streak they've had back-to-back duds.
They have allowed eight home runs in their past 18 innings at home.
They are 6-3 at Roger Dean, where average crowd size has been 5,102.Â
Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold gives columnist Jeff Gordon three positives and three negatives from the spring training to date.
A guided tour of the drills and tools the former Cardinal center fielder used to improve during his career and is now tasked with doing for young outfielders.
"I was not really pleased with our offensive performance at the beginning," new hitting coach said as Cardinals hit .184 through nine games before a few bursts this week.
Saggese, one of the team's top prospects, is playing well to win a utility role, but Cardinals are considering whether he should start regularly at Class AAA.