ST. LOUIS -- With the official opening of the Cardinals’ alternate training site in Springfield, Mo., on Thursday, the club announced its first reassignments of Summer Camp.
The Cardinals sent lefties Rob Kaminsky and Zack Thompson, as well as righty Seth Elledge and catcher Ivan Herrera to Springfield's roster. They will join the dozen other prospects added to the Cards' player pool last week at the Hammons Field complex for the first workout Thursday night. Intake testing began two days ago in Springfield, and the four players reassigned have been going through testing protocols at Busch Stadium and will be able to join workouts when they get to Springfield.
José Oquendo, longtime third-base and infield coach now a roving Minor League infield instructor, will run the camp, with help from Minor League pitching coordinator Tim Leveque and Minor League hitting coordinator Russ Steinhorn.
The Cardinals intend to keep most of the position players, including top prospect Dylan Carlson, through the end of camp for intrasquad lineup purposes -- the big league team will still need an opposing lineup to play against until Opening Day on July 24.
Kaminsky and Elledge threw live batting practice on the field at Busch Stadium on Wednesday, and Thompson was able to get in live batting practice on Sunday. The Cardinals brought the three pitchers to Busch Stadium for pitching depth after two 40-man left-handers, Génesis Cabrera and Ricardo Sánchez, tested positive for COVID-19. Alex Reyes and Giovanny Gallegos are also not at Busch workouts for undisclosed reason, so the Cards wanted to add a few arms to camp with Thompson, Elledge and Kaminsky.
Thompson was the Cardinals’ first-round Draft pick in 2019. The University of Kentucky starter impressed in Spring Training and could contribute at some point during this season. Kaminsky was St. Louis' 2013 first-round Draft pick and was traded to Cleveland in ‘15 for Brandon Moss. The Cards signed Kaminsky to a Minor league free agent contract this offseason.
Cards announce 2020 broadcast schedule
Fifty-five Cardinals games in this shortened 60-game season will be broadcast on FOX Sports Midwest, the club announced Thursday. The other five regular-season games will be aired exclusively on FOX (locally on KTVI) and ESPN, including the Field of Dreams game against the White Sox on Aug. 13.
FOX Sports Midwest broadcasters Dan McLaughlin, Jim Edmonds, Ricky Horton and Brad Thompson will call games from the booth at Busch Stadium for home games, and they will remain in St. Louis to call road games. Longtime broadcaster and Hall of Famer Tim McCarver, 78, has elected not to travel from Florida and broadcast Cards games this season.
KMOX 1120 AM and most stations on the Cardinals Radio Network will carry every regular-season game, with broadcasters Mike Shannon and John Rooney calling the games at home and Rooney and Horton calling road games from St. Louis.
All 30 home games will feature a live Spanish broadcast, with play-by-play announcer Polo Ascencio and color commentator Bengie Molina returning for their fifth season. Their broadcasts will air locally on WIJR 880 AM and be streamed via cardinals.com and the MLB app.
Extra bases
• The Cardinals used the new extra-innings rule for the first time Thursday night, when the team switched the scoreboard to the 10th inning and Dexter Fowler started on second base. He moved to third when pitcher Junior Fernandez overthrew on a pickoff attempt and scored when Tommy Edman made an error at third base. Tyler O’Neill started on second for the home team in the bottom of the inning but was stranded on third when Lane Thomas struck out to end the game. The new rule is in place for the regular season this year only, and if the designated runner scores from second, the run does not count against the pitcher.
“I don’t think that’s representative of what you’d expect on a consistent basis for our team in an extra-inning situation,” manager Mike Shildt said. “There’s a lot of factors to [managing] it. I can tell you we’re working on it clearly and we’ll be ready for it. It’s all about execution.”
• The crowd noise piped into Busch Stadium was more prominent Thursday, with cheers over the loudspeaker in between each at-bat and the team’s songs and chants heard in big moments, like two-strike counts.
“I was not a fan of it yesterday when I was sitting in the stands,” Adam Wainwright said. “It was kind of like a sound machine, like white noise. I was trying to focus, but I felt like I was nodding off to sleep every two seconds. But today, I didn’t hear anything, didn’t recognize it, so it’s not going to affect my pitching at all. I don’t think I heard a single thing.”