I would rather have Dave Duncan as the Cards pitching coach as opposed to not having Dave Duncan. However, it appears that he has limited skills. He is one of the best gameplanners there is (the best in my book). Whatever pixie dust he has found to revive the careers of veterans such as Williams, Kile, Lohse, Pineiro, and others is one-of-a-kind and a great asset. However, he is not the perfect pitching coach. He (and part of this falls on La Russa and maybe even Mason) allows veteran pitchers who have proven they cannot get the job done to continue to hurt the team while ignoring the alternative options either due to stylistic preferences (Welly over Boggs), sentimentality (Izzy over everybody else) or “veteranness” (both).

The St. Louis media is remarkably tame. When I am able to catch the post-game press conferences, few if any questions challenge the mighty authority figures. The PD writers have every right to call out players who are not performing. Fans have every right to expect to see the best product on the field and should critique the moves of the team. Duncan should be able to withstand the pressure that comes from a fanbase to make the best move. To me, this is simply part of being a coach in the major leagues.

On Chris Duncan; he has not been healthy since his breakout year 3 years ago. His performance since then has been atrocious. 2008 wOBA .318; 2009 wOBA .306, with UZRs well below average. He should not have been on the baseball field witht he types of injuries he has had. Plain and simple. That Chris Duncan was hiding injuries, hurting the team by playing as a shell of his potential with these injuries, and even refusing to take medical advice this year by skipping the appointment with the surgeon is unnacceptable.

It is interesting that Dave Duncan can see himself as a coach on a team that is not managed by Tony La Russa. I certainly have trouble envisioning that scenario.

Dave Duncan is not the Gerneal Manager. He is not front office figure. He is a pitching coach. To me, this means he is to coach the pitchers, assist the manager, be subordinate to the manager and the GM. Dave Duncan should not be involved in personnel decisions. it is Mozeliak’s job to bring in the best talent and create the best team. Duncan should not, therefore, have sway in the direction of the minor leagues, the free agents sought after (unless asked) the financial direction of ownership, the organization of the minor league pitchers and coaches, or the general philosophy of the organization. Jocketty may have given him privileged input into the direction of the team, but he should not expect that just because of his tenure or success.

If it’s in-division, well. Our offense still hasn’t figured out how to hit Dave Duncan style pitching…

Honorable for little league, yes. Immature and too proud in the majors.

between player, manager and father, combined with misplaced bravado on the part of a player who should have been rehabbing instead of forcing himself on the field, created a bad situation in which a few fans (a very few fans) went over the line with their vitriol.

But for TLR and Duncan Sr. to try and pawn this off on the training staff, the media, the fans and the front office is just weak horseshit. Presumably Dunc Sr. knew the extent of his son’s injuries. Why couldn’t he tell TLR how bad the player was feeling? And why does TLR, who in that article admits he didn’t fully know the extent of the injuries, get a free pass too? A couple of pointed questions to the right people would have given him all the info he needed.

And re the fan vitriol, apart from those classless few who dove into personal abuse against the player, the real anger was at a manager who kept trotting a clearly nonperforming player out on the field over and over. That issue is the 800 lb. gorilla in this case.

Sorry, this is one pity party I’m not going to attend.