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You’re right on a number of points, Jnevel. I like Gary LaRocque, but he’s 71 years old and has been in the business for almost 50 years. The game has gotten a lot more sophisticated from an analytics standpoint, and who knows whether the game passed him by or he simply wasn’t given the resources in equipment and personnel to compete with other systems. Perhaps there was too much loyalty given to Gary by Bill and Mo, based upon past successes. But they’re getting on the right track now with Bloom, Day, Cerfolio, Kochan, Pierpont, et al. That’s the most important thing.
Well, I guess the pipeline sure does dry up when you don’t hold onto some guys like Gallen, Alcantara, Flaherty, Wacha, Hudson, Reyes, Martinez, Oviedo, etc. But perhaps these things come in waves and Pallante, McGreevy, Hence, Matthews, Graceffo, Hjerpe, Rajcic, Bedell, etc. will reverse the home grown dry up.
Here are the starters for the 2006 World Champion Cardinals –
Carpenter
Marquis
Mulder
Suppan
Reyes
WeaverNumber of homegrown, Brian? One out of six.
The Cards starters in 2011 were –
Carpenter
Lohse
Westbrook
Jackson
Garcia
McClellanOnly 2 out of 6 were home grown.
The pitching side has dried up before. How many of the Cardinal starters on the 2006 and 2011 World Championship teams were originally drafted by the Cardinals?
Brian – You and I both know that it’s been a perfect storm against a lineup that was structured to win. Who could have predicted the sharp decline of Goldy and Arenado, the backward slide of Walker and Gorman, and the injuries to the pitchers picked up at 2023 trade deadline. All happening at the same time. Was all that BDW’s fault?
BDW felt that he could hopefully get back into a championship run by beefing up the MOTO with the acquisitions of Ozuna, then Goldschmidt, and Arenado. It didn’t work, even with a 93 win season just two years ago. Some fans seem to forget that the Cardinals have had seasons of 90 or more wins in 3 of the last 5 full seasons. Now, with the big market teams going crazy with payroll, he knows that the only way back is through strengthening the minor league system, in a big way, by making major investments in equipment and personnel. And he’s doing just that.
BDW has shown loyalty to the fans, KCB, by giving them winning Cardinal teams in all but 2 seasons this century, as well as 2 World Championships. Where do the Cardinals rank in MLB in both regular season and playoff wins this century?
But if Koperniak hits even better against left handed pitching than right handed pitching, shouldn’t that make a difference, gscottar? It’s almost like we would hope a right handed batter would hit.
BDW didn’t get to be extremely wealthy by making poor business decisions along the way. Perhaps, though, in his senior years he has become both more loyal and more conservative.
I imagine that would be the case with most left handed hitters, gscottar. I think only about a quarter of professional pitchers are left handed.
If that’s the case, then his wallet gets fuller if he puts a winning team on the field to keep the crowds high, and goes deep into October for the playoff money.
Koperniak’s 2024 splits are interesting.
vs. LHP – .333/.418/.539/.956
vs. RHP – .301./.354/.503/.857A relative of mine is the POBO of a major league team. At the winter meetings, Boras approached him about a very good free agent client player and said that the GM of the arch rival team in the division was close to signing him for a certain figure, but if my relative could beat that offer he could sign him. My relative passed on the opportunity and later in the day ran into the GM of the rival team. That GM said they had never talked to Boras about the player. The Presidents of Baseball Operations and GMs around the league have no respect for Boras.
BDW,Jr. (especially at his age) doesn’t want to go multiple seasons in the tank just to plant seeds for the future. He wants to get back in the hunt, while at the same time that he invests a bunch of money to strengthen the pipeline. That’s why it’s called a “reset”, and not a total rebuild. He knows that the team needs to have a decent season and be in the playoff hunt to keep the turnstiles moving. There’s plenty of good pitching in the pipeline. What needs to firm up is the position prospect side of the equation. The development of players like JJ Wetherholt, Jimmy Crooks, Chase Davis, Victor Scott, etc. is key.
Building for the future should probably include all the money spent for sophisticated equipment and the coaches who know how to implement it properly to enhance the development process. Building for the future also might include specialized roving instructors with techniques to help different position players – catchers (framing, stance, arm slot, arm strengthening exercises, etc.) outfielders (angles, body position when releasing a throw, etc.), etc.
You just never know, gscottar.
I’ve been wrong with specific predictions like that many times, as I’m sure you have been.There are cycles, but the major change I see is that MLB has allowed salaries to get way out of hand. The Mets, Dodgers, etc. have blown things way out of proportion. The Cards have no choice but to get back to strengthening their player development system as much as they can.
To me, the most interesting part of this next season will be to review possible enhanced performances of individuals I’m tracking on teams in the minors. Are there any Arozarena, Garcia, Alcantara, Gallen types whose cream will rise to the surface through much better development techniques?
What’s more of an indication of his capabilities – 513 PAs in AAA ball in 2024 or 49 PAs in winter ball?
I don’t think 2025 is going to be a total tear down and build up. BDW doesn’t want a repeat of 2023 under any circumstances. He wants to build up the player development system in the minors while still staying in the running for the Central title.
Fernandez wasn’t “horrible the last half of 2024”. He had a rough August, but that was his only bad month out of 6.
