chirpchatter.mlblogs.comChirp Chatter | Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphi

s Redbirds! Chirp Chatter Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphis Redbirds! About birds2005 November 14, 2014 Cardinals Organization All-Star Outtakes MiLB.com’s PROSPECTive Blog A common theme throughout our St. Louis Cardinals Organization All-Stars story, which rolled out today on MiLB.com , was the number of players who had earned this year’s honor after a position change in their careers. Catcher Carson Kelly and outfielders Tommy Pham , Rowan Wick (pictured) and Stephen Piscotty all began their Cardinals careers at different positions from their current ones, and that list doesn’t include 2014 draftee Danny Diekroeger, who settled in at third base after playing around the infield while at Stanford. St. Louis Player Development Director Gary LaRocque and Double-A Springfield manager Mike Shildt had more to say on that topic, the loss of former top prospect Oscar Taveras and more on additional prospects in the system. View original post 945 more words Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized October 28, 2014 Minoring in Twitter: Players mourn, remember Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras MiLB.com’s PROSPECTive Blog By Danny Wild / MiLB.com St. Louis Cardinals rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic on Sunday afternoon. The news was crushing to the baseball community as players, coaches and teams reacted on Twitter to the stunning tragedy: Just in shock. I will always remember you like this. Smiling and making me laugh. You will be missed… http://t.co/IzYyCApvRx — Xavier Scruggs (@Xavier_Scruggs) October 27, 2014 Wow..RIP Oscar Taveras. One of the best players I’ve ever played against taken way too young #BaseballFamily — Dustin Geiger (@D_Geiger) October 27, 2014 Thoughts and prayers go to Oscar Taveras and his family. A phenomenal player/student of the game. RIP Oscar, may your legend live forever — Anthony Giansanti (@GianSanity) October 27, 2014 Thoughts and prayers go out to the Taveras family. What an exciting player. So sad to hear. Don’t ever forget how precious life is. #RIP View original post 833 more words Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized October 15, 2014 We knew him when: Kolten Wong B3: Big, Bald and Beautiful With the amount of contributions from rookies the Cardinals are getting, I suppose we could stay with them throughout the rest of their run. Given Kolten Wong’s ninth-inning heroics in Game 2, and the fact that we’ve spoken with the rookie second baseman a TON since his draft year in 2011, he was the obvious choice. Let’s take a look: It started with a pre-Draft story on Wong, who was coming out of the University of Hawaii and ready to show that his size really didn’t matter . He had a huge junior season with the bat and we ranked him No. 25 on the Draft Top 50 in 2011. Wong really wanted to attend the Draft in 2011, but a family illness kept him from making the long trip to MLB Network. Instead, he joined the broadcast via phone: He had a huge first full season in the Minors… View original post 208 more words Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized September 30, 2014 17 awesome things about the St. Louis Cardinals Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized September 15, 2014 2014 Season In Review The baseball year has come to a close and the 15th season at AutoZone Park has concluded. Thanks to all the fans who made us apart of your summer. Take a look back at the 2014 season with a breakdown of the numbers and statistics during the Redbirds’ Division Championship campaign. http://memphis.redbirds.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140909&content_id=93856352&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_t235&sid=t235 Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized September 2, 2014 The Redbirds Are Division Champs! Written by chirpchatter Leave a comment Posted in Uncategorized July 12, 2014 July 4th Recap at AutoZone Park Written by chirpchatter 1 Comment Posted in Uncategorized July 10, 2014 Guest Post #3: Xavier Scruggs Xavier Scruggs ( @Xavier_Scruggs ) was drafted by St. Louis in 2008 out of UNLV and is in the midst of his seventh professional season. He grew up in California and attended Poway High School in San Diego. The infielder spent the past two seasons with the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate, the Springfield Cardinals, where he is the all-time career home runs leader with 59. A few years ago I was blogging for Scout.com and had a great time doing it,” Scruggs said. I wrote about winter ball and my season in Springfield. When the Redbirds Media team ap proached me about blogging, I immediately thought about how awesome it would be to give fans an inside look on a player’s thoughts and everyday experiences.” From June 17, 2014 One of my favorite parts of playing this game is the opportunity to develop relationships with my teammates, coaches and others associated with the team. I know some of these guys better than others from playing with some longer than others. For example, I have been playing with Jermaine Curtis since I was in high school. We played on the same travel team back in Southern California (Orange County Shockers). We played against each other in college multiple times as well. Eric Fornataro is another guy in the same boat. He was in the same draft class along with Jermaine and I. Eric and I have been to every level of the minors together and have even been roommates. We have both spent the past few off-seasons working out in Tampa, as well as running camps and giving lessons. Being Eric’s teammate for so long I get to see the type of work he puts in. Whether it is in the weight room or on the field before the game even happens, he is easily one of the hardest working and strongest pitchers I have ever played with. It’s cool to see the work that a lot of people outside of our team aren’t privileged to witness. The best part is seeing it pay off on the field. Fans can’t even begin to understand how enjoyable it is to be around players like Greg Garcia and Oscar Taveras because of the strong energy they bring to the clubhouse. Both guys always seem to be smiling and keeping things loose. I admire how hard they work and the will to push their teammates to be better. It’s contagious to become a better hitter when you are around guys who are constantly working on their swing like Tommy Pham and Steven Piscotty. A lot of people don’t get to see the work that is put in the behind the scenes before it gets transferred out onto the field. Many would be in awe if they saw the practice hours put in on the same swing. If fans saw the way Pham works on his defense, not letting a single ball drop that comes within his radius during batting practice, they would have a better appreciation for when he makes a difficult catch look routine. Teammates are just what make this game what it is. There are so many different personalities and so many different backgrounds but they all come together. It’s almost surreal that we have guys on our team with so much time in the big leagues. I learn so much from being around guys like David Aardsma, Pedro Feliciano, Scott Moore, Shane Robinson and Pete Kozma. I don’t take moments around them for granted. My eyes and ears are always open around them, taking every opportunity to retain information that will help me better my own game. There are also those guys that in my own biased opinion, are just flat out my favorite to watch. I love seeing Jorge Rondon pitch just because he throws so hard and has so much movement. Often times it looks as if the opposing hitters don’t even have a chance. He is constantly slinging the ball and throwing flames. I love to watch Luis Mateo on defense as well because of the pride he takes in his game. His glove work is smooth and the way he fields the ball is always in rhythm. True fans of the game can notice how his fluidity on defense is as good as it gets. Often times it’s so...