When he took the mound for Class High-A Peoria on Wednesday, Cardinals prospect Cooper Hjerpe flashed more of the swing-and-miss qualities that intrigued Ƶ ahead of the 2022 MLB draft.
The lefty with a “funky” delivery collected seven strikeouts against the 13 batters he faced. He kept Beloit hitless and scoreless across 3 1/3 innings as Peoria’s starter in the first game of a doubleheader. Hjerpe, a former first-round draftee in 2022, struck out the side in order in the first inning with two of those being swinging strikeouts. He totaled four swinging strikeouts in Peoria’s 3-2 loss to Beloit. He induced eight swinging strikes during the afternoon.
Hjerpe’s outing ended following back-to-back walks with one out in the fourth inning. He threw 65 pitches — 38 of which were strikes.
People are also reading…
With the seven strikeouts against Beloit, Hjerpe has totaled 28 in 18 2/3 innings through his first six starts of the season. He has fanned 34.1% of the batters he faced and owns a 13.50 K/9. Through his six starts, Hjerpe has a 4.34 ERA. He has not logged more than four innings in any start this year.
Here are other notable minor-league performances:
Right-handed pitcher Sem Robberse, Class AAA Memphis: Coming off his third consecutive quality start of the year, Robberse once again completed six innings but had trouble limiting the home run ball. The 22-year-old surrendered six earned runs on four hits, all of which were homers by Norfolk hitters, and had two runs score against him on a pair of sacrifice flyouts. Robberse, whose record dropped to 4-1 and ERA jumped to 2.81 in Memphis’s 12-3 loss, allowed solo home runs in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. He had allowed two home runs in his first 35 2/3 innings before facing Norfolk. Of the four home runs, three came against Robberse’s cutter. Entering Wednesday, that pitch had a 27.1% swing-and-miss rate but the batting average (.364) and slugging percentage (.424) allowed against it were both the highest of the righty’s four-pitch mix, per Statcast.
Infielder Cesar Prieto, Class AAA Memphis: In a start against the organization that traded him at last summer’s deadline, Prieto went one-for-two with two RBIs that came on a first-inning home run that traveled a projected 388 feet, per Statcast. Prieto’s two-run blast was his second since the start of May and his sixth of the year. The 24-year-old utility infielder’s sixth homer of the season puts him five shy of matching his career-high. The former Orioles prospect belted 11 home runs in 115 games during the 2022 MiLB season. Through 30 games in his first full season within the Cardinals system, Prieto owns a .319/.358/.526 slash line and 19 RBIs.
Catcher Sammy Hernandez, Class Low-A Palm Beach: The 19-year-old continued his productive start to 2024 with a two-for-four game that included a pair of hard-hit singles and an RBI in Palm Beach’s 3-2 loss to Jupiter. The multi-hit game, Hernandez’s ninth in 20 games, improved him to a .354 average through 79 at-bats. After batting .339 in April, Hernandez is nine-for-23 (.391) with a .462 on-base percentage in his first six games of May. Hernandez was acquired in July in a trade with the Blue Jays after Toronto claimed former Cardinals reliever Genesis Cabrera once he was designated for assignment.