JUPITER, Fla. — The players who will open the season with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds, left this afternoon for Tennessee, where they will be joined tomorrow by the (newly revealed) big-league club. They took six starting pitchers with them.

Do the math and you’ll have a good idea that all six won’t be starting.

Adam Ottavino flew north with the Triple-A rotation — a bump up for the righthander from the original plan for him this coming season. Clayton Mortensen remained back in Florida, but only to pitch on his scheduled day, not because he was being shifted back to Class AA. He’ll join the rotation in Memphis. The pitcher who apparently isn’t going north as a starter is … Jess Todd. The major-league staff’s evaluation of Todd was that he could be a contributor in the big leagues as a reliever sooner and possibly better than as a starter. So, the Cardinals are expected to start that transition. He’ll work out of the Memphis pen (setup for Chris Perez?), and he’ll get that experience now rhater then waiting for it to happen during a promotion.

The other starts headed up with Memphis were Blake Hawksworth, P.J. Walters and Mitchell Boggs.

Memphis leaving this afternoon left the minor-league complex lacking one team — and it allowed the other affiliates to play up a level against the New York Mets system.

Cardinals Class AA played the Mets’ Class AAA … and so on.

Minor-league camp is racing to a close just as the major leaguers leave town, too. There will be games early Friday morning before both Springfield and Quad Cities head north to open their seasons against one another in an exhibition series. Palm Beach will remain behind, playing its final games against players arriving for extended spring. After Friday, there will be no more games against other organizations until the regular season. So, almost another full season of Vuch Reports, provided through the work of Cardinals executive John Vuch, comes to an end in the coming days.

Here’s the latest:

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Buffalo 2, Springfield 1

– For Springfield, righthanded starter Clayton Mortensen pitched five innings and allowed four hits, two earned runs and no walks. He struck out two. … Tyler Norrick had a line of 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BBs. … Eduardo Sanchez followed with a scoreless inning of relief that included a strikeout. … Casey Mulligan pitched an inning, allowed one hit and no runs. He walked one against two strikeouts.

– James Rapoport 2-for-5. … Andrew Brown was briefly listed as a callup for the big-league game, but he instead ripped up the Mets’ Triple-A team. He doubled, tripled and scored. … Steve Hill doubled. … Mike Folli singled and had the lone RBI. … Third baseman Brett Wallace singled and walked.

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Binghamton 9, Palm Beach 2

– Brandon Dickson allowed six hits and five runs (four earned) over his four innings of work. He walked one and struck out one. … Nick Additon had a line of 3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 Ks. … The Cardinals will be going with a piggyback rotation at both Class A clubs, Palm Beach and Quad Cities. It will last at both places as long as there is a need. Last summer, the piggyback (or tandem) rotation faded in Palm Beach as pitchers seized starting roles and became stronger. … George Brown pitched a perfect inning. He needed just seven pitches to coax three meager grounders from the batters. … David Carpenter had a line of 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K.

– Shane Peterson, who will play primarily (if not exclusively) in the outfield for Palm Beach to start the season, was 1-for-3 with a run scored. … Charlie Kingrey was 1-for-2 with a run scored. … Francisco Rivera went 1-for-4 with an RBI. … Farm director Jeff Luhnow said the PB team could be rich with athleticism and have an aggressive, go-go style — if it goes according to the early plans for the roster.

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Quad Cities #2 5, Quad Cities #1 3

– Pitcher Gary Daley went three innings, all scoreless. He allowed one hit, walked two and struck out three. … Eric Fornataro had a line of 2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB. … LaCurtis Mayes followed with an line of 2 IP, 2 H,1 R 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 Ks. … Osvaldo Morales was 2-for-3 with an RBI. … Jon Edwards, who could play his way into the Palm Beach outfield at some point this season, was 2-for-2 with two walks. … Alex Castellanos doubled, scored and drove in a run. … Niko Vasquez doubled and scored a run. … Brian Buck doubled. … Charlie Cutler and Ryde Rodriguez each had singles.

– For QC2, Anthony Ferrara had a line of 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 Ks. … Brett Zawacki followed with a line of 2.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 Ks. … Joel Pichardo pitched a perfect inning. … Jason Buursma had a line of 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 Ks.

– At the plate, St. Louisan Travis Mitchell was 2-for-3 with a run, continuing what has been a solid spring. He has gone a long way to hit his way back into a position with the club. Of course, it needs to translate in approach and production during the regular season. … Jairo Martinez 2-for-2 with a walk and two RBIs. … Ivan Castro doubled and had an RBI. … Edwin Gomez was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored. … Jose Garcia was 1-for-3.

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