Says Walt.

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Yadi

A friend of mine last week reminded me of a quote from Branch Rickey that said, “it is better to trade a player one year too soon than one year too late.” With that in mind let’s talk about a topic that doesn’t get much coverage?

Should the Cardinals consider a trade offer for Yadier Molina? What could they get in return for this All Star catcher? Are the current catchers in the system capable of having an adequate major league season?

First thing that comes to mind is his defensive prowess. His ability to block balls in the dirt, his apparent trust he gets from the pitchers and his talent for throwing out runners. Do they equate into winning games or just darn good job? I think we could safely say he has been able to win some games for us with these abilities. How many is a bit harder to figure, although some statistical analysis has most likely been done on that. I am guessing 3-5 games per year.

Offensively, Yadi would rate about average to slightly better than average at a lifetime .268 clip and about a half dozen homers. Yadi has averaged just short of 50 RBI’s in his career. Are these stats that another catcher could attain for us? Considering our current system we have Pagnozzi, Anderson and Hill in the pipeline. Our they offensive enough?

What could we get for him? I believe some quality player or players. He would be sought after by several teams looking to upgrade. It is widely reported that Molina and Pujols are almost joined at the hip. If Albert cant be signed, would we lose Yadier down the road? If Yadi is traded, would Pujols look more quickly to jettison out of St Louis?

I believe it should at least be a consideration. I did hear Mozeliak say, in person, that four spots are set… one of them is catcher. I don’t believe it will happen, but should it?

Maybe I should see what my friends at Casey’s General Store think?

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This is back to an earlier column I wrote a few months ago. As we prepare to go to the off season, here is my summary in what went wrong in as few words as I can.

Ok, just for point of reference, I recently retired after 34 years of teaching in the public school system. I understand, i see the value of repetition. that is one of the best ways to learn.

Practice.

Someone shows you how to do something correctly. This doesn’t appear to be what the Cardinal coaching staff does very well or maybe not at all. The team is struggling in defense this year. The errors are mounting up.

Situational hitting appears to be left out of the equation. We can teach them to swing from the heels. To turn on a pitch at every count of the at bat. But we can’t seem to move runners along to get in scoring position.

Baserunning is horrid. One thing that would help is for them to watch their base coach and actually do as they are told. Quit this looking over the shoulder while rounding second base and trying to score when the “stop sign” is put up. Another thing is attempting to steal bases because you ‘thought” you could make it. A very few should get the green light and the rest go on a sign.

Now is the pitching. Can’t we talk to pitchers about not throwing the same pitch 6 times in a row? one change-up or two are fine but it doesn’t remain a change-up if it is your pitch a half dozen times in a row. Reliever need to understand they are in the Major Leagues and their fastball is as overwhelming as it was in lower leagues.

Teaching is important in ALL profession in order for them to be successful.

Tony LaRussa has a propensity to surround himself with veteran players and I feel it is so he doesn’t have to “teach” them the ways of the game. I can attest to the fact that I have coached different levels in the school setting and you actually say the same thing over and over at each level. Some more advanced than others but it is really the same thing.

That is my rant for the 2010 Cardinals. They just didn’t learn. Before you remind me they are professionals, I am telling you they need teaching and repetition too.

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I admit I am not always traditional in my thinking. This is not a list of those “sure things” or people on the “hot list”. This is about players that had pretty darn good season and should be considered for the list to “watch” their progress. These are guys that had some “eye popping” stats in some categories or consistently ground it out day in and day out with better than decent numbers.

Here goes in no particular order: I start at the Rookie League in Johnson City with Ryan Copeland. He is a graduate of Illinois State University where his career numbers for 4 years had him walking 46 and striking out 251 batters. He carried that success to the professional side. At 5’11” 185 lbs, he throws from the left side. Lefties are at a premium. He ended with a perfect 7-0 record in 13 games where he started 6 of them. Ryan tossed 53.1 innings, gave up 39 hits, 11 ER’s, 3 HR’s and opponents hit .202 against him. To top that, he walked 7 batters and struck out 48. This is a tremendous ratio. For these numbers, I make Ryan Copeland a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Next up is pitcher Kevin Thomas. Born in 1986 he is 6’3” 215 lbs and throws right. At Palm Beach he had some great numbers. His record was 10-2 in 107 innings where he started 14 games. His ERA was 2.27 and he gave up 93 hits and opponents hit .238 against him. His 38 walks to 94 strikeouts are numbers that deserved accolades. For these numbers, Kevin Thomas is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Alex Castellanos was also at Palm Beach this year. He is a right fielder with some consistency. He is 5’11” 180 lbs and throws and bats right. Alex was in 129 games, hit 13 homers, 7 triples along with 35 doubles. He drove in 57 RBI’s and had 19 stolen bases with a .481 SLG. What he needs to work on it appears is he struck out 112 times. For this consistant season, Alex Castellanos is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

How can you improve on a 10-0 record? Daniel Calhoun pitched at the Quad Cities this year and remained perfect. At 6’3” and 220 lbs, this lefthander had some impressive stats. He started 6 games and pitched 96 innings with a 3.75 ERA. He gave up 9 HR’s and opponents hit .283 against him. Get this…. 19 walks and 83 strikeouts makes this jaw dropping. For this, Daniel Calhoun is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Matthew Adams is a first baseman. What must it be like to see Albert Pujols in line ahead of you? Adams played for the Quad City Bandits with some very good numbers. He is 6’3” 230 lbs and throws right and bats left. He hit .310 in 121 games with 22 homers and 41 doubles with 88 RBI’s. He ended with a .541 ALG. For these numbers, Matthew Adams is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Blake King was a right handed thrower this season for the Springfield Cardinals. At 6’1” 195 lbs the throws right and had a 4-3 record in 68 innings. He posted a 2.91 ERA, giving up 40 hitsm 23 runs and 5 homers. His ratio was 48 walks to 84 strikeouts and opponents hit .173 against him. Blake King is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Next up is Matt Carpenter a third baseman. Between Palm Beach and Springfield he contributed with 13 homers, 5 triples and 31 doubles. A .316 batting average with 69 RBI’s in 133 games. He only had 8 errors in that time. Carpenter is 6’3” 200 lbs and bats left and throws right. For this season line, Matt Carpenter is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Lastly, I end with a Memphis Redbird player. We have catcher Steven Hill. He hit .271 with 24 homers, 1 triple and 28 doubles. In 102 games, he drove in 92 RBI’s. This right handed hitter, Steven Hill is a PLAYER TO BE WATCHED!

Several other players are worthy, I am sure. I will give a short list of others to be considered: Of course on everyones list is Shelby Miller and then Daniel Delscalso, Lance Lynn, Nick Addition and Phillip Cerreto. I could have included many of the players that yo-yo’ed back and forth to the Cardinals but chose not to include them.

Feel free to get my attention and show me the errors of my ways in this post with your thoughts and comments.

I am not as “down” on the prospects as many others seem to be.

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Wow, what a great night! I would like to thank the Cardinals for their gracious invitation to attend this and the tickets to the game. I would say just over 100 people were in attendance and got to hear some wonderful thoughts.

Hearing from Derrick Goold and Matthew Leach was golden. They talked about how their job has changed and the affect twitter and Facebook has had on it. It is a delicate balance to give information out through those means and to wetten the appetite to read their complete thoughts at the newspaper or website. Both of these writers are well written and well spoken. It is nice to have beat writers of their caliber.

John Mozeliak was cautious. He didn’t answer the question of whether he is looking for a 3rd baseman, SS or 2nd baseman next year due to the fact that he said it would be all over the media before he finish his talk, What he did say was he knew the team had trouble scoring runs this year and would be looking for offensive help in whatever position it came. I wish I would have asked him about our hitting coach and how much that may have caused the less scoring. He wouldn’t have answered that anyway!

Mo also said we would not likely trade Rasmus. To paraphrase he said that Colby had too much talent and was at an affordable price and to replace that would be difficult. He mention Colby was probably just frustrated and wet behind the ears to ask for a trade.

Soon after the season he plans to meet with Tony LaRussa to get his intentions of managing next year. He felt it needed to be right away so he could plan accordingly. As far as the budget, he felt they had room to increase it over the next few years.

Sadly, I didn’t win any of the prizes!

It was great to meet many of the other bloggers and a group picture is coming soon! Be sure to visit those wonderful sites. (even if a few got better seats than I did).

All in all, a great time was had by all!

BTW: I am more of an off-season writer and I will begin cranking those out soon!

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They St. Louis Cardinals announced their 2011 schedule today.  The Redbirds open up on March 31st against the San Diego Padres.  Overall it looks like a pretty tough schedule for the Cardinals in 2011.  Everyone is always interested in the Cubs and Cardinals schedule so we’ve listed out those dates below:

2011 Cardinals vs. Cubs Schedule

• May 10-12 @ Wrigley
• June 3-5 @ Busch
• July 29-31 @ Busch
• August 19-21 @ Wrigley
• September 23-25 @ Busch

2011 St. Louis Cardinals Schedule

View the entire 2011 Cardinals Schedule here.

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