One of the downsides of ex-St. Louis Cardinals organization members taking on more responsibility elsewhere is the good people they invariably pull away with them.
Such is the case currently in Washington. When the Nationals removed the “interim” tag and anointed Jim Riggleman their manager for 2010, the next step for the former Cardinals minor league field coordinator was to hand-pick his coaching staff.
As had been rumored, Cardinals minor league hitting coordinator Dan Radison received Riggleman’s call and will be taking over the Nats’ first base coaching box.
In all fairness, Radison, a highly-respected teacher, had worked with Riggleman during the latter’s previous managerial stints in San Diego and with the Cubs, including 1995-1999 in Chicago. The 59-year-old had also been employed by the Dodgers and both New York organizations in a coaching and scouting career that began in 1984.
Radison returned to the Cardinals in 2006 as Johnson City manager after having been away from the organization for 15 years. He moved into roving instructor duties in 2007 and was named coordinator the next season.
With the Cardinals, Radison was the 2007 winner of the George Kissell Award, given annually to the person across the organization who exhibits the highest level of excellence in player development. He was rewarded for his efforts by taking a September tour with the major league club in at least each of the last two seasons.
In his first tour of duty with the Cards, the St. Louis native managed at Johnson City, Hamilton and then-Double-A Springfield, Illinois from 1986 through 1989. Both his JC clubs finished in first place. Overall, Radison has a dozen years of experience as a minor league skipper with a career record of 622-552 (.530). In his playing days, Radison spent three years in the Cardinals system as a catcher after having been drafted in the 10th round in 1972 out of SIU-Carbondale.
With Radison’s departure, only one member of the Cardinals’ top seven in-uniform minor league coordinators and instructors that were in place in 2007 remains today. Decades of experience have been lost as the dean Kissell passed away, Riggleman, former minor league hitting coordinator Gene Tenace and minor league pitching coordinator Mark Riggins moved on and then-baserunning/outfield instructor Tom Spencer‘s contract was not renewed after he managed Palm Beach last season. Of the seven, only new Batavia manager Dann Bilardello, then the minor league catching coordinator, is still in the organization.
Riggleman and the Nats also retained hitting coach Rick Eckstein, the brother of the former Cardinals shortstop and the 2007 hitting coach in Triple-A Memphis.
All around baseball, there is a round robin of job moves, among executives, managers and coaches, scouts, at all levels. New opportunities arise and the coaches and executives will move around, not unlike free agent ballplayers.
The Cards were lucky to have George Kissell serve for decades.
The area scout who signed Colby Rasmus got hired away by the Royals. The Braves scout who signed Wainwright got hired away by Boston. In general, if something good happen, another employer may want you.
The Cards system produced Jim Riggleman. Because valued as a teacher, he will get ML jobs. Its the price to pay for having a good employee. He may get a better offer somewhere else. If he does, he will take along a friend, like Radison. Its just par for the course. If you do not have people being recruited away, that should be a warning sign.
The Cards add good people too. For instance, we hired two scouts away from Baltimore who cover Texas and now we have signed Shelby Miller, Jaime Garcia, Darryl Jones, Tyler Henley, Aaron Luna, etc.
Given his oddball comments upon leaving, the departure of Gene Tenace was a blessing. Sometimes changes are necessary.
Of the 7 minor league instructors at the end of 2007, after which Jocketty departed with a year of severance pay:
1 passed away (Kissell),
2 promoted (Riggleman, Radison),
1 hired for the Cubs minor leagues (Riggins),
1 is working for the Cards (Bilardello),
2 no longer are (Tenace and lately Spencer).
Fick was the West regional scouting supervisor and Rigoli for the East, and they transitioned to scouting in the majors for the Cards. The Cards have been trying to give people fresh challenges, so they do not get typecast in one role for years on end.
There was dissension among the ranks that led to several departures whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, Jumbo. Turnover in key positions has been unusually high. Have you ever spoken with any of these people?
There was the Florida scout, who shifted this year to managing, maybe it was in the Gulf Coast League. And one of the Texas scouts has managed at Johnson City. There seems a bit more of this job movement.
Its a bit like the 8 man rotations at low levels in the minors or more rapid promotions within the minor leagues. The Cards minor league system used to be a bit more traditional and slower paced. Now there are more amateurs signed, more rapid movements between levels by players, more job flexibility among the managers, coaches, scouts. These various indicators are likely linked in terms of energizing the concept of development and encouraging people to think about assuming new challenges.
This is a question of corporate knowledge loss. Has a lot been lost? It depends. It depends on whether those people had unique skills that can not be replaced by outside the organizations (I have my doubts). It depends on whether those people hoarded knowledge an hadn’t shared it with others (In which case I don’t want them anyway). The hardest knowledge to regain in any organization is culture. However, with the exception of Kissell, most of those lost don’t necessarily have Cardinal culture ingrained in them.
I’m a believer that a certain amount of turnover is good. The question is when does it become too much. There may also be a conscious attempt to change the culture which most likely would require replacing people. It is not as if the Cardinal’s minor league system was anyone’s long term model of success. It would seem change has just as good of chance in adding more (good) knowledge than it lost.
Brian, I am aware my friend Uncle Walt had a falling out with DeWitt about issues on the development side. Walt did development for the As so had his own views.
DeWitt replaced Walt’s development guy, Walt kept him on in another capacity, and later they both were obliged to leave. They both landed new jobs. I wish Walt all the best.
Inside business firms, such as the Cardinals, differences of opinion about goals and methods can arise. People have a choice of adjusting to new course directions and supporting them. If instead they resist and undermine, to the detriment of the new directions, then either the employer may ask them to leave or they are doing something different from what the business wants them to be doing.
I acknowledged the dissention involving Tenace, because I read his outgoing viewpoints and they did not encourage me to respect him.
There was an ending to the relationship with Meier (sp), who ran some Cards drafts and was trained under Fred McAlister.
There was a lot of change in 2006-8.
Riggleman seemed respected but wanted to get back to the major league level, which seems understandable. He has recruited Radison. Sounds good for both and the Cards should wish them all the best.
Good questions, CC. Riggins was a 30-year Cardinal, FYI.
You can look at the backgrounds of the folks brought in and compare their experiences with those who left. There is a difference. Not saying which is better, just different. New people and new ideas are good as long as there is a structure.
When I spoke with Jeff Luhnow in Arizona, he was concerned enough to have commissioned a major project to document “The Cardinal Way”. A most noble effort.
I want to make it clear I am not implying that I have any knowledge that Radison’s departure had anything to do with him being unhappy. All indications are that he simply received a better offer. I know for a fact that others were dissatisfied, however.
Not meant to be disparaging, but does Luhnow know what the Cardinal way is? Is he trying to create a knew Cardinal Way? Maybe as far as the minors, we’ve never had a Cardinal way.
Luhnow is just managing the project. Clearly, guys like George Kissell and Dave Ricketts taught The Cardinal Way for years and others picked it up. Ideally, it would have been a better project to have started about five years ago as it could have helped unite an organization that was under some turmoil and captured the thoughts of the aforementioned two before they passed away. Jeff acknowledged he had been thinking about this for some time, but there were other priorities.
Regarding an earlier comment, I think it is unfair to blame the success or failure of the system on its instructors. In my opinion, the quality of the draft and the players in the system is a far greater factor.
I suspect the Cards system will move from a top ten ranking last winter to a bottom ten ranking this winter and it isn’t because of coaching turnover.
This past summer, the Cards gave a brief AA trial to a pitcher who was trained with Mike Marshall. Marshall was a tremendous ML reliever, but has non-traditional ideas about pitching that disturb people who do not share his ideas.
Luhnow does not care. He gave the guy a trial. I was sorry it was not longer, but what harm does it do to test new ideas? You can always end the experiment, as in fact the Cards did.
In general, its good to try out new ideas, because the traditional ones may not be perfect, they are just convention.
The Cards have been doing a lot of experimenting. Moving Skip to 2B. Add a Gulf Coast League team. Hire Dennis Martinez. Recruit in Latin America, sign Wagner Mateo. Draft a high school pitcher, Miller, with their first pick for the first time since 1978.
None of this likely pertains to Dan Radison’s getting the call to Washington. Congratulations to him!
Can anyone provide an idea what this change in direction as to ‘development’ is. Its substantial enough to cause Jocketty and many others to have a problem. So, what is it? Or is from what to what the right question? Keep in mind I’m a bit thick. I know I havn’t done my homework, but wouldn’t know where to start. Without seeming greedy, it would be great if both BW and Jumbo would say something about it. Thanks guys.
One reason why the minor league system’s talent could take a tumble in rankings is success.
In recent years, it has graduated Rasmus, McClellan, Schumaker, Ankiel as an OF, Joe Mather (before injury setbacks), Brendan Ryan., Hawksworth.
We traded Chris Perez, Brett Wallace, Todd the reliever, Mortensen, Petersen, Worrell and Gregerson.
With this much promotion, it understandably takes a toll on system depth. Instructors are probably not much of an issue. More player inputs and outputs.
BB, I mentioned some things: 8 man A level starting pitcher rotations; aggressive promotions since time is money; more talent being ushered up out of Latin America and blended into the US pipeline. In fairness to Walt, he may not have had enough budget for scouting and development, but he must have felt uncomfortable supporting the new emphasis there, so he had to leave.
BB, at its core though an oversimplification, it might be characterized as the somewhat-cliched “scouts vs. stats” debate, or more appropriately, driving a greater element of analytics into a scouting-based heritage. It isn’t unique to the Cardinals though some others were ahead of them.
Jumbo, here you go again with your aggressive promotion “explanations”. Please re-read this to get the facts. By conveniently avoiding the thread at the time, it seems to allow you to continue to believe what has been shown to not be factual.
Thanks Jumbo, gives me some idea.
As an aside, I saw where TLR popped into a downtown club Thursday night. I would have thought he’d be sunning himself at home. He values that down time in his comfort place. I hope DD and his sons are spending time together.
bb, a number of Cardinals, including Wainwright, were planning to come to town for the Cy Young Award announcement on Thursday. My guess is that TLR was among them. Oops.
Interesting thread……………. Pujols isn’t I’d guess…… who is an example on our current roster that is a beneficiary of “the cardinal way”.
WC, we could go through the homegrown players on the roster, but Skip is a name that immediately comes to mind.
Luhnow was once called a stats guy, but thats not quite the case. He was called an Internet guy, whatever that meant. The Cards listened to some guy who was a painter and had ideas about the body movements involved in pitching. Sounds unusual, but its not stats and not the Internet either.
This past summer it was the Mike Marshall protege, who stressed out those wedded to convention. Luhnow is flexible and will try out all sorts of ideas, see if any have merit, and then try out new ones.
Thanks Brian. It follows that Cincy is sticking to the old way. Interesting.
The Cards added more information collection and analysis, especially relevant with college athletes. The Cards had been a college drafting team since 1981, but added more scouts to expand data collection and added data analysts to mine college statistics, to help guide scouts. In short, more information about more players leads to better draft day choices.
Some incumbents might have liked these added components, whereas maybe some others may have felt stressed by changes. The dividing line may be cultural: between the reassuring comfort of traditions versus willingness to experiment with changes.
Jumbo, there is a type of person who will never turn their back on ‘the common wisdom’ no matter what. They will apply it, proffess it and be guided by it without thought to whether it is appropriate in a certain situation, and will continue to do so for decades without thought to whether the circumstances which originally causes that common wisdom to arise still exist. They are comforted and their modus opperandi is reenforced by association with like minded people, but as time marches on these cohorts drop off and our subject finds himself isolated and out of the loop. An anacronism whom evolution has passed by. Think Willy Lohman in ‘Death of a Salesman’. As a college student in the late 70′s, I wrote a paper claiming such men could be identified by whether or not they wore a hat, long after the days when soot and ash raining down in cities gave rise to the need.
BB, baseball is of course a sport with a great history and people value its history, as well they should.
But when it comes to teaching pitchers what kind of throwing program to follow, for instance, there is not a lot of data that identifies the best program. Such decisions have to be based on gut intuition and traditions. This is not wrong, it just shows that there are areas of the game that are open to differing outlooks.
One reason for moving guys around to new areas of responsibility is so they do not get stale and they do not see their loyalties to just their immediate boss, whoever that may be. Ideally, they would serve the organization as a whole.
Its hard to know what is best. Loyalty to people is important and its good to have people who are loyal employees for a long time. But it can get like General Motors, grinding out Oldmobiles until its too late. The Cards have been trying to energize things, make employees more flexible (versus stuck in one job niche forever like GM union employees).
So some of the changes in recent years are simply introducing more up to daet business philosophies within the setting of a baseball team. Luhnow is a business guy (MBA), versus a former ML catcher (Tenace).
In trying to do some homework I found this 2007 article that makes for a good starting point for anyone else out there that wasn’t paying attention to this stuff in the past.
http://stlcardinals.scout.com/2/705501.html
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Right, BB, thats a pretty good article.
Mo spent time running drafts, including the 1999 one, in which Pujols was selected. He was deputy to the 1998 draft, and also ran 2000′s, IIRC. Marty Maier who oversaw drafts after McAlister retired, circa 1993-96, then came back as a consultant for a few years (2002-06). Mo and Luhnow probably teamed up on 2004 draft, with Luhnow running things after this transition. Luhnow and Mo have in common an interest in amateur scouting, and by extension in minor league player development, because you do not want to draft good folks only to see them sidetracked in the minors.
Martese Robinson was a minor leaguer with the As when Walt ran their minor league system; nor surprising he would have left.
If Riggins worked for the Cards for 29 years, chances are, he wanted to find a new venue pretty bad to move to the Cubs. So in a sense its too bad, but the important thing was to find some other good pitching coachs to backfill his departure. Overall, the system needed some jazzing up. Carioca put it well many posts higher.
Lets hope that the Hal departure aids in clarifying a few things about the Cardinal Way.
Personally, I can’t think of another team in the league that has players whose performance is based solely on Platoon strength. Shu is a nice kid. He seems ready to except a role when given. He was not as good in any facet of the game as Kennedy. He will not last after the Tony era.
All of the players that came to the Cardinals from other organizations have been superior to those that came from the Cardinal Way programs, from Lopez in 2008 to the boys last year. Even Thurston looked good until he was overcome by the ” poverty ” of reason that has haunted Cardinal hitting. Enough said. Lets hope change occurs. Your testimonial on Albert’s “masochistic ” workouts being continued is a bad sign in my book. Normal baseball activities aren’t going to rebuild those bone spurs……….it takes a special effort.
I’m not sure I’d want Albert changing anything, not from the neck down anyway.
I’m getting a picture that can be likened to the common (not saying accurate) perception of public school systems where pushing to hard and demanding too much is bad because some of the lesser students will be steamrolled, get discouraged, have low self esteem, whatever; so a system is enacted to avoid this which also fails to seperate the wheat from the chaf and leaves the top tier without the challenges and pressure that they thrive on and need to succeed. You end up with lots of mediocre performers. The problem is I don’t know which system is which, old or new? Of course, I could also be out in left field (where both my fielding and hitting would not be too much more mediocre than what we saw at one point or aother this year).
There is an evolution to virtuosity that is surprising to those that find it BB. Albert must continue to evolve and recognize the risks in that. Whether everyone here recognizes this or not, Albert has now taken a number of very firm position on matters that define his sense of self. Some of these positions are now beyond his comfort zone and personal experience. The strength that he uses now to define himself, could easily become the energy that unmakes him ( Aikido), as we know him anyway.
Schu is too young to be accepting of a part time role. But as BW once pointed out to me, he has hit lefties poorly all through his minor league career so is unlikely to improve much in that area. At least he hits righties at a .320 clip with 800+ops. I noticed Colby hit lefties even worse last year, by a stretch. Couldn’t find his minor league splits. Hope we haven’t produced another accepting part timer. would be a disturbing trend.
C’mon, bb. Colby wouldn’t have been such a top prospect with a huge hole like that. His career minors OPS was .826 against lefties vs. .860 against righties. No worry there.
I’ll officially stop worrying, thanks. I’m no expert but I hope he doesn’t end up down in the order next year. We have such a need for 1-2 guys ahead of Albert. I know RC knows his business, but putting him down there where he can hide and be safe from high expectation and pressure, to find himself or whatever, doesn’t sound right to me.
BB – “I’ll officially stop worrying, thanks. I’m no expert but I hope he doesn’t end up down in the order next year. We have such a need for 1-2 guys ahead of Albert. I know RC knows his business, but putting him down there where he can hide and be safe from high expectation and pressure, to find himself or whatever, doesn’t sound right to me.”
Putting Colby in the 2 hole absolutely is a ridiculous waste of his abilities IMO. He could be a 30 steal guy every year on another club but won’t ever get 5 SB’s if he bats in front of Albert.
Everything seems to be done on this team where if Albert doesn’t do it it won’t get done. You can’t steal a base in front of Albert because then they will walk him. Good. Then there will be two guys on base.
I don’t think putting Colby down in the order is allowing him to “hide and be safe from high expectations and pressure” its allowing him to play the game like he is capable. Putting him in the two hole and saying don’t move, don’t fake a steal, don’t steal, don’t flinch because Albert doesn’t like it, is just about ridiculous. If you asked Colby where he would rather bat in the order he would say 3rd or 4th. He don’t feel like he is a good leadoff guy and doesn’t like hitting in front of Albert. He will tell you can’t squeak out a fart without Albert coming down on you if you bat second. Its not pressure to produce, its pressure make sure Albert is happy. Thats his wifes job, not Colby’s or anybody elses. I say put an old retread in the two hole that is just making his years until retirement and will do everything in his power to just hang on…………..this guy would be the perfect player for the two hole.
It is astounding to me how every position player on the team has a checklist of things that they must do to keep Albert happy. Like I have stated before, only on the cardinals.
And by the way Bling, I actually like a 1-2 of Skip and Brendan.
I’ve mentioned before, RC has an annoying habit of making a good case for what I don’t want to hear. All I know for sure about baseball is what I can see from high up in left field. All the rest I’ve heard or read, and it might all be true but I don’t know it. I like Skip-Brendan too but I also have seen how a lefty in the two hole is better if the leadoff guy is on. Brendan’s makeup may be such that he could deal with the issues of batting second better than Colby but I wouldn’t wish it on one more than the other. The point about the whole offense being geared to having Albert be the hero is of course true. Everybody saw how it worked out last year. I’m hoping niether Albert nor Tony wants more of the same. Nieve maybe. Nothing good happens when the posse rides off on you. I see Colby stepping out of a phone booth with a cape on because that’s what we need and he has the tallent. Something besides just Albert trying to win all by himself. Colby batting 7th would be a depressing development. 4th maybe. Your hitters need to be back to back.
Molina just has to bat 8th…….maybe they pitch around him more often. Brendan should hit 7th.
RC is exactly right about Colby. The arrogance and superstition that holds Albert in he 3slot cripples the rest of the team. We need a lead off guy….. then Shu……then Holiday/Bay???? Albert, a redesigned Luddy/Colby covering 5/6. Lets face it……..we need a good switch hitter up front.
I’m not saying he’s wrong, I just hope so. I’m also not saying you’re both wrong about Albert, just going overboard. When Brendan threw the list out the window we all saw Albert’s reaction. Brendan is still here. He will have no Albert problems next year because he goes out there and kicks ass and takes names.
Of course, we don’t know what the roster will look like opening day. As soon as one move happens the batting order talk starts from scratch. I get the point about Albert chisled into the 3 spot. Without a suitable leadoff, 2 & 4 it doesn’t work. The pitcher 8 thing was about hamstringing the lower part of the order in exchange for Albert sometimes having even more chance to win it for us. Tony did away with that, presumably with Albert’s blessing. Maybe the Albert 3 thing will meet the same fate unless the personnel is suitable. My theory is that it won’t be status quo next year, and I’m sticking to it.
Cool BB………………I went to Norton’s memorial service today. And yes, a strange day it was. Check out on line the concerts in January in Oakland. All the old bands are playing. They sold out night one and added another. That ought to cover any of his debts. Huey Lewis, the Doobie Bro’s Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Raitt…………..it goes on and on.
BB – “I’m not saying he’s wrong, I just hope so. I’m also not saying you’re both wrong about Albert, just going overboard. When Brendan threw the list out the window we all saw Albert’s reaction. Brendan is still here. He will have no Albert problems next year because he goes out there and kicks ass and takes names.”
Bling, I don’t think things have always been the way they are now. It has probably been a gradual change where you don’t really recognize it as its happening and then 6 years later its to a point that you never intended it get. But like we’ve all stated, Albert is a special player and has to be kept happy. There is no other way to handle it at this point. And by the way, Albert will put his numbers up, of that I have no doubt.
Brendan enjoys the attention and he will get plenty of it batting in front of Albert. He will get ripped up plenty, trust me while batting in the 2 slot, but its like water off of a ducks back to him. He is the man for the job if we can’t get a veteran player to slide in that two hole.
Unfortunately another players hustle doesn’t dictate Alberts happiness.
BB – ” Maybe the Albert 3 thing will meet the same fate unless the personnel is suitable. My theory is that it won’t be status quo next year, and I’m sticking to it.”
TLR re-upped for 2010 and that one fact alone means nothing will change. I just don’t believe the cardinals will be able to get the personnel that would allow a change in philosophy and I’m also not so sure Albert would be thrilled with anyone who changed how things work in relation to his numbers. I do believe the cards will sign a couple of veteran guys , who are over the hill, but not at the bottom of the other side of that hill and they will help. But the offense will not be much different unless Luddy has a monster year behind Albert.
Hope it was good in its way Westy. My brother was talking about wanting to get up north to a benefit or remembrance in Paradise. A smaller scale thing I guess. Not sure of the time frame. I read where Norton was making new friends until the very end.
Well RC, nobody could call you wishy-washy, I’ll give you that. Maybe Albert decided Luddy behind him isn’t so bad and maybe he told Tony and Mo to forget about finding him a 799 pound gorilla to play with. In a just world, they’d put Manny behind him and we’d see how he liked that.
I actually think Luddy is going to have a big year. I’m guessing he will come closer to his 2008 numbers than those from 2009. I would love to see Manny behinf Albert, that would make for some fireworks. The closest realistic thing would be Adam Dunn. Both Dunn and Manny are horrible in the OF and both will hit 40+ jacks.
Guys who are horrible in the OF don’t go over well in St. Louis. I’m encouraged that you recognize signing Holliday is not impossible (the other thread), that’s progress. I think Westy recently let such a thing slip as well.
As to the old retreads, maybe Boston ends up doing a Lugo deal with Lowell, nobody is going to take half his salary like they want. Vet to hold Freese’s hand, can still hit. Glaus could end up without a seat and get reasonable. Niether are pacifists though, their copy of the marching order list would get crammed.
Like I say, without a bat to back Albert he will set new high’s in BB’s, and may do it anyway after Torre has laid out a successful blueprint for teams to follow. Without Holliday, I’m not sure who other than Dunn could provide a form of punishment in the event Albert is walked to the tune of Barry Bondsian BB numbers.
And as far as 3B goes, it sounds like Mo wants Freese in that spot so it appears that the OF is the only place to plug in the power bat that this team needs. Who provides the protection for Albert in the event of a failed Holliday signing?
Disagree about the Albert walks in the playoffs. Torrey was just sticking the knife in deeper. They knew Albert was in a funk, they’re the ones that started it.
The Cardinals will make a few veteran acquisitions just to be sure that Holiday can be avoided if he is frozen out to long. They will be the first team to declare that ” we just had to move on”.
The cards were doing a lot of losing for a while before they got to LA, whether Albert got walked or not. Except for Albert, the rest of the offense had gone fishin. Torre’s blueprint worked fine under those conditions. The same strategy worked less well earlier in the year.
The cards have wanted Holliday for a long time so the need to sign him wouldn’t be something they haven’t thought through. Other than him, I think it’ll be either Luddy or something unexpected Mo comes up with to start. Sooner or later we could try a younger guy with potential and find out what we’ve got. I have to believe that the chance of signing Matt all depends on how bad Albert wants to get pitched to. If the cosmic power says sign him, you sign him, right?
Bling, If Albert wants him, I just believe they will make an effort to get him. If thats the case I hope he wants to come back to play here.
I’m pointing to the first meeting in LA, BB. I was field level looking right into the Dodgers dugout. They pitched him on the hand, cutting everything in. Albert couldn’t deal with it, and never did make successful adjustments. Walking him in the playoff was more an attack on Holiday as Albert. If Albert struggles, someone is liable to pick him up. If you walk him, you keep him where you want him and pressure Holiday/Luddy in the process. It worked . When they did pitch to Albert, they shut him down. They had complete control. If Manny would have been hitting, they would have crushed us.
I know the pitch you mean. They used to land in the section right in front of me. Torre and his people sniffed out the elbow and knew how to take advantage. We will see if the drive thru surgery fixed it by the end of April. IMO we did get crushed.
Brian’s article on AFL hitting results, taken together with the just released Baseball America list of Cards top ten prospects, makes for a depressing picture. Mo really cleaned it out with the trades.
He liquidated, not cleaned out. Cashed in……………………. With Miguel Cabrara being dangled, you’re seeing a whole new era at hand. Teams suddenly without cash and without hope, look for simpler solutions to gain fan interest. Tampa toying with dumping Burrell’s contract for a subsidized Milton Bradley. That is rich. Yankee’s are back, and I expect they will show it…….. because it sure looks like Tampa Bay knows it. Tampa knows what an extra 5/6 million will do in this years market. Their only hope is if the Yanks resign Damon and the other relics.
Its too bad that the Cardinals don’t have any money. You would think they would at least release Ludwick and resign him at 2 million. Shumaker and his trick average now have to be arbitrated. That could cost them an extra .5 large. I’m looking at the Cardinals playing rule 5 roulette again. Just a hunch.
WC, we get the fact that you don’t value Ludwick, but you continue to make comments about him that are out of touch with reality.
1) The Cardinals aren’t going to release a valuable player like Ludwick for nothing.
2) If they did, they couldn’t re-sign him for $2 million as he would get double that somewhere else.
3) If they didn’t want him, they would trade him.
I question that a bit, but its neither here nor there. I think that Ludwick might be a trade chip for a salary dumped big name with a few years left on his contract. They must make a move of some magnitude. Length of contract will be the issue. Avoiding lengthy contract demands a priority. Braves didn’t take Luddy, Colorado neither, add SD to that. He is a nice kid though. If Holiday starts thrashing around, they will make some sort of move early to avoid him. My opinion.