I mean, the man has turned around an uncountable number of players’ careers. For example, if it were not for Duncan being able to make Kent Bottenfield an 18 game winner in 1999, a player who had never won more than 4 games and had been in the rotation for 1 year before, we would never been able to see Jimmy Ballgame in cardinal red.

Look at Carp’s career before he came to the Cardinals for god sakes. He sucked, but once he was able to work with good ol’ Dave, he became one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.

As you mentioned, LaRussa wouldn’t have been nearly as successful throughout his career if it were not for Dunc and his reclamation projects. He still would be a great manager, but maybe not HOF great.

A list of pitchers over the past few years whose careers/seasons were turned around under Duncan: Soup, Dream Weaver, Carp, Lohse, Looper, Woody WIlliams, Hermanson, Tomko, and so on. Without Duncan, the Cardinals of the 2000’s would not have found as much success as they had.

Yes, there was the whole Reyes debacle. And he has also been unsuccessful with Kip Freakin’ Wells, but every coach fails once in a while. If it were up to me, Dunc will get in the hall his first year of eligibility.

if its actually the coach’s abilities. maybe they just get lucky? or they’re just good at picking out pitchers that might be able to turn things around. is that worthy of the hall? there’s no direct way to quantify a pitching coaches success, there are so many variables

IMHO, he’s far more failures than successes. And many of his successes were short term at best.

For instance, Weaver. He was horrible in the regular season for the most part. But he did good in the playoffs. Is that a success or failure? Reyes pitched well in the playoffs, too.

And some of the pitchers called successes by the above poster were not. Hermanson? He was below average while in St. Louis. Tomko was terrible here.

The only real successes I think you can give him credit for are Woody Williams, Carpenter, and maybe Suppan. (And Carpenter is a maybe, some pitchers come back with more zip on their fastball after surgery, he was one of them)

Andy Benes had a turnaround, but it was done solely himself, by ignoring Duncan’s advice.

DD belongs in the Hall there is no arguement. He is the best pitching coach in 30 years or more.

I think this is what individual team Halls of Fame are for. And I would be just fine with a Dave Duncan plaque or exhibit in the Cardinals Hall of Fame. Put George Kissel in there too as an instructor! This could almost be a separate post – besides Cardinals in the HOF – who should be in the team HOF? I know Simba would finally get his due!

Actually, I have never been to the Cardinals HOF / Museum. Do they induct players at all – and do they even call it a HOF? And if you’ve been, how was it?

Then do we put in fielding coaches? What about bullpen coaches? What about bench coaches? Strength coaches – in that case, wouldn’t LaRussa’s strength and conditioning coach from the A’s merit inclusion?

Agree with Hoosier Cards – team hall of fame, at best.

sounds like the NY Times was trying to fill some inches.

... but not a HOFer. very few field managers even make it in. opening it up for coaches would just be silly.