Precocity

the “glory days” change was a mini-sellout…and how did he not play born in the USA…i mean how did the NFL not make him sing it

i agree that an organizational change in how to deal with promising prospects should lead to a change in how we look at them…i’m of the opinion that a prospect isn’t a big time prospect until he has had success at AA…but i could be wrong

As it was, I found it to be a nice diversion. I was rooting for Warner and the birds of course, and I was very impressed at how close they made it. I’m also glad I wasn’t the only one who thought the officiating was kind of messed up… ah well.
I can’t stand Keith Olbermann. I really just don’t like NBC. Madden and Michaels are fine, and I wish Costas would go somewhere else… OK, no more NBC soapboxing from me, promise.
I really don’t understand the Bruce Springsteen following, so that was boring for me. What really made me laugh though was that he went right up there with Prince in the “veiled phallic gesturing in a Superbowl halftime” competition. Did anybody see at the very beginning where grabbed the mic stand, leaned way back, and held it between his legs? And why did everybody make a ruckus about Prince and totally ignore this year? Come on people, be consistent, this is important stuff.

I look at it this way — I’d rather speed the guys ahead as much as possible for two reasons:

1. You find out a lot quicker how good they actually are, and
2. You see exactly how they deal with frustration and failure.

Baseball, more than any other sport is about dealing with failure. The best hitters in the world only reach base half the time and only hit their way on 35% to 40% of the time. If an NFL QB or an NBA shooting guard had those type of percentages (completion and shooting, respectively) they would be considered below average. If a player dominated in high school, dominated in college, and dominated in Rookie ball (I’m looking at you Brett Wallace), I want to see how they respond when they get thrown to the wolves against players who are more developed, seasoned, and coached up. If they struggle and put themselves to work at getting better every day by taking extra batting practice, preparing more between starts, improving their least effective pitches in the bullpen workouts, then they have the chance to succeed at the major league level. If they don’t, and they can’t get by on natural talent like Griffey, Bonds, etc., then they shouldn’t be considered a top prospect. This is part of the reason I think that Wallace should get every chance to start the season at 3B while Glaus is out. Maybe he’ll get a taste of the big leagues, find out he needs to refine his game a bit, and then work harder at getting better in AAA, where he might dominate right away just based on natural talent.

I still believe that Anderson is going to get there. Power is generally the last thing to come to a young player, and he’s been pushed ahead of his curve a bit as well. I think we may see him blossom in 2009 to the point where he could be really good trade bait in a deadline deal, should the Cardinals be contending.

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The other player that’s been pushed along is Clayton Mortenson. He started in Springfield last year, didn’t set the world on fire, and then got moved up to Memphis at mid-season, where he didn’t fare well at all. I think this may be the case of pushing a player too far too early, even though I generally disagree with that notion.

It was obvious that he hadn’t figured it out against AA hitters yet, who are generally talented but less refined than AAA hitters, so spending a full season in AA probably would have been a good thing for him. Instead, the club pushed him to AAA, where he struggled mightily and saw his walk rate skyrocket. In other words, those good AAA hitters who know how to work counts and take good AB’s aren’t fishing around early in the count for his sinker and instead wait on a good pitch that they can hit. Since he got a lot of swinging strikes with it at the lower levels, he never had to pitch behind in the count and didn’t have to worry about throwing his secondary stuff for strikes while behind in counts. I still think Clay’s got the goods, but we’ll see how he adjusts in his second year at AAA in 2009 — hopefully he’s improved his repertoire and is ready to face the challenge, we’ll see how he responds to the adversity he faced in 2008.

But i also understand the value of youth, or getting younger as a team. I also agree that the franchise has to change the way it values talent. Becoming a more prospect rich team, that team can differ its approach to young talent. I also must say that I enjoy the fact that the cardinals can have a conversation about the farm team with out it being that it is really bad. Its such a good feeling.

As for the superbowl, as a steeler fan I got to say it was a great game. I went from almost dying to a awesome high. I also don’t understand the love for arizona, the bidwells had awful teams in St. louis and left the city. I am a blues fan, a cards fan, and a steeler’s fan (2 reasons when i got into sports no stl team, and dad’s family originally from pa). Is it just simply man-love for Kurt Warner? I know the guy won in stl but, he was also ran out of town on a rail. It just boggles my mind.

This is a great post DanUp….something I hadn’t really considered before. Just to clarify, is it your position that the Cards’ front office is advancing their minor leaguers rapidly to avoid any one of them achieving the “pedigree” that would affect scout perceptions of them? This is what I got from your post.

If there is a conscious effort on the part of the Cardinals to achieve this effect, it’s quite a novel idea…at least to me. I couldn’t say for sure whether other teams do or don’t practice the same philosophy with the same intent. Moreso, if the effort is conscious, it took a great piece of insight for someone not in the office to pick up on it. Kudos on that.

A question arises from this, however: given that a minor league player’s trade value is a function of their pedigree, does this rapid advancement philosophy hurt the prospect status of the Cards minor leaguers as viewed from other front offices? It would seem to me that while we’re advancing Anderson, Mortensen, et al. aggressively, their perceived value to another team decreases. While it can be recognized that players like this are young for their level, they will always be regarded as sleepers instead of legit prospects because they haven’t “dominated” their level.

For players that will someday be a major component to the big league team, this isn’t a problem as there’s no harm in other teams undervaluing a player you’ll never trade. But for players that are not critical, this would hurt their reputations outside the org. and decrease the return value should they be traded.

Anderson would be a good example for this: given Yadi’s reputation and contract, it seems unlikely that Anderson will get a legit shot at winning a starting gig in STL. It’s commonly agreed that Anderson has more value to the Cards as a trade chip than a player. But the rapid advancement of Anderson through the minors has not allowed him to put up that dominant season or two that would have other teams drooling over him.

If the rapid advancement is a conscious attempt by the front office to keep perceptions of their own players fresh, I would hope they make caveats for players whose value is greater in a trade…otherwise, in any trade involving our minor leaguers, we’d always be selling low.

Sigh.

The P-D write-up about aggressive player promotion is a good read. But, in concert with the article about teams just not spending on free agents, it looks more and more like Pinero is going into ST as our #4 starter and Boggs/Todd/McClellan as our #5, unless Carp can pitch.

I’m the kind of guy that hopes in the young guys. But reading discussions about Boggs and Todd over at FR have not been inspiring. McClellan, maybe, I’m in favor of trying, although as many here have noted you have to expect a few bumps in the road stretching him out to be a starter again.

The Cardinals can do better than that (at least improving over Pinero). For now. But if they really plan to wait until the exhibition schedule to maybe-possibly make a move, I question if they will still be able to improve. Do teams really trade good starting pitching (#1-3 starters) in spring training? For what return…. Will Looper/Wolf/Sheets still be there?

Doing what you can with what you have is a good strategy, except when what you really need is something you just haven’t been able to produce.

But only 11+ days until pitchers and catchers report. The glass is half full.

that this offseason kind of reminds him of the one in the 80’s where the players sued the owners for collusion and they won.

The cold open was some of the best stuff they’ve ever had on the show, and that’s saying something. Kevin raiding the vending machine, Oscar going SWAT to get out of the building, and Angela’s cat falling through the ceiling, and so on and so forth…I was damn near rolling on the floor. Plus my wife cried at the end of the Jim and Pam storyline with Pam’s dad. Great episode.

anywhere near Johnson City? Of Jefferson City? I’ve caught glimpses of it from the highway, but every time I head over there, it seems to disappear, like Brigadoon.

Deckenger’s call in the World Series.
The fumble-non review in the Super Bowl.

Man, that was a terribly officiated game. Shame on the NFL. Shame on them for being the only North American sports league that doesn’t release it’s rule book to the public.

I only recognized one song that he played (Glory Days), and I didn’t like the football change. I also thought he would play Born in the USA, and he instead played stuff that not many (except for the die-hard fans) knew. I’m surprised that the last play for the Cardinals was not reviewed, because I thought it was a pass – and it would’ve been a better last play of the game. Zona would’ve won if they didn’t have so many penalties.

I rooted for the Steelers since I’ve always liked them (but they’re not my fav. team) even though I felt like I should’ve rooted for Arizona (because of Warner and the fact that the Cards and Rams are in the same division). I hoped for a better ending for Kurt Warner. At least he won a Super Bowl with the Rams in 99… hard to believe that it was so long ago.

come on, somebody had to do it.

was that it was so hyped up for having jack black and jessica alba on it, and theirs was by far the worst part of the show. Jack Black is one of the funniest men alive, and he had almost no comedic opportunity, plus alba was only on for about 5 seconds. the beginning was funny, but not enough to overcome the disappointment of a cardinals loss.

language. As of now, googling “precocity”, this page is the seventh hit, and I think the first one that’s not to a dictionary site.

So, you’re OED-bound, DanUp!

86 years old today, according to my sports trivia calendar.

also, today in 1968, wilt chamberlain became the only player in nba history to record a “double-triple-double” (20 or more in three offensive categories). 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists.

nice error. That ball was closer the the RF’er than his brother the Firstbaseman.

161 strikeouts and 91 innings pitched between AA and AAA. 2.27 ERA and 0.87 WHIP. RIDICULOUS. Maybe he should be trying to pitch again?