Continue reading this post »

My friends / co-workers were just playing a baseball trivia guessing game thing that we do all the time & the question I posed was:
"Who led the National League in strikeouts in 1989?"

The answer, of course, is our own Jose DeLeon with 201 K's!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/SO_p_leagues.shtml
If you look closely, he's the last Cardinal pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts & was the first one since Gibby in '68 to do so..

I remember how much I liked DeLeon at the time; how he had that deliberate, low-leg lift and slinged the ball towards home plate, definately a Latin thing. If I recall correctly, he had a low-mid 90's tailing fastball & a killer forkball, as well as a lollipop curve & a slider that would flatten out sometimes to obviously bad results..

In digging a little deeper, I found out DeLeon's line while with the Redbirds over 4 3/4 years:
43 W / 57 L / 3.59 ERA / 7.5 K per 9 / 3.5 BB per 9 / .65 HR per 9 / 7.63 H per 9 / 1.24 WHIP
(Geez.. here's the link...)
http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/PitcherInfo.py?StartDate=07%2F23%2F1983&EndDate=09%2F18%2 F1995&GameType=all&PlayedFor=28&PlayedVs=0&Park=0&PlayerID=100684

Looking at his peripherals, he looks like exactly the sort of pitcher that the Cardinals never ever have, which might explain why he stands out so much in my memory. He struck guys out; he didn't give up many hits & he didn't give up many home runs, while also walking maybe a few too many guys.. Sort of the anti-Tewksbury, if you will.. More like a Kelvim Escobar guy...

Whitey pulled off the trade to get him, sending Lance Johnson & Rick Horton to the White Sox before the '88 pennant defense..

Another oddity about DeLeon was that he was a Latin starting pitcher for the Cardinals, something that we haven't really had around these parts for a long time, if memory serves me correctly. Other than Andujar, can you remember the last good Latin stater we had? I can't.. The only thing I remember is Jose Jimenez's no-hitter..

I guess this diary is a comment on a few things:

Just how bad / non-existant our Latin programs were in the 80's / 90's..

How the Cardinals have failed to really produce anyone like DeLeon, other than Ankiel.. And we didn't even produce DeLeon!

Pitchers like DeLeon haven't really been targeted by the Cardinals in free agency or through trades for some reason... We seem to have had a policy of "pitching to contact" since Steve Carlton was let go 35 years ago...

I don't know. I just saw his name & all sorts of good memories came back to me...
Share some good Jose memories if you want or tell me that my glasses are certainly too rose-covered..

http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/deleojo01.shtml

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/deleojo01.php

Boomer.

Here's the link:
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/mp_tpl.jsp?w=mms%3A//a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/15 03/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2007/open/features/inside_the_game/itg_stats_400.wmv&am p;pid=gen_video&vid=7759&cid=mlb&v=2&mType=w&urlstr=&mUrl=&type=v_free&a mp;_mp=1

Interesting stuff from the senior "numbers" guy with the Redbirds.

Plus, look at that World Series ring.

Boomer.

Found this article today where DeWitt kind-of gives some hints as to what he's looking for:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/5629776255CD3C068625736B001259D0 ?OpenDocument

So, we have "10 or fewer candidates with emphasis on 30-40 somethings with experience in player developement."

The article throws out a few names:
Mozeliak - current interim GM
Antonetti - Cleveland Asst. GM
Woodfork - Arizona Asst. GM
DePodesta - Ex-Dodger / current San Diego front office
White - Dodgers Asst. GM

All of these guys seem like worthy candidates to me, although I find it hard to believe DeWitt would hire one of Jocketty's old boys for the job. What do you all think?

IMPORTANT NOTE: I intentionally left out "new manager" for obvious reasons.

Boomer.

Poll

Who do you like?

• Mozeliak?
• Antonetti?
• Woodfork?
• DePodesta?
• White?
• Someone else?

  135 votes | Results

Found this on mlb.com today:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070807&content_id=2134769&vkey=news_mlb&fext=. jsp&c_id=mlb

May or may not happen, but I've seen Byrnes's name on a few free agent wishlists around here.

3 yr /30 M. Considering it would have taken more than that for him to sign elsewhere, do you Byrnes supporters think the Cardinals would have gone higher, like say 4 / 40 M?

Thoughts?
Boomer.

I didn't check the game thread & I've been having fun at my daughter's 4th birthday party, but saw this nugget here from Cardinal Diaspora & thought maybe it deserved a diary all it's own over here..

http://www.cardinalsdiaspora.com/?p=1782
and here...

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/07/phillies-scout-.html

Reyes for Bourn? What do you guys think?
Here's a link to Bourn's minor league stats:

http://thebaseballcube.com/players/B/Michael-Bourn.shtml

Looks like he gets on base & runs a little bit. Is that enough for our most colorful twirler?

Boomer.

162 games played since being called up for good on May 21, 2006. Here's his line...

512 AB / .291 / .371 / .570
150 H / 38 HR / 100 R / 90 RBI
65 BB / 137 KO / 7 GIDP

In that time span, Duncan ranks 12th in MLB in slugging percentage, ahead of Hafner, Holliday, Vlad, Soriano, Utley & Berkman to name a few...

At this point, he seems to be our own Adam Dunn, what with the monsterous bodies, the adventures in LF & the massive HR/Flyball ratio (21.9% this year; 5th in MLB).. Dunc strikes out a little less, but doesn't walk as much & hits for a higher average than Dunn, but I think the comparison holds a bit of water & if Chris Duncan = Adam Dunn, I'm really pleased...

I guess the reason I'm posting this is to see if you all think that Chris Duncan is a "core" guy, & by that, I mean do you all think that this 162 game sample is what Chris Duncan really is?.

I know I thought last year had "fluke" written all over it, but after watching him this year, I'm not so sure about that at all..
His line drive rate is down from last year (21.1% to 16.7%), as is his prodigious HR rate (29.3% to 21.9%), but he's getting much bigger hits this year (.183 RISP in 2006; .346 RISP this year) & doesn't seem to be as clueless on the breaking stuff as he was late last year.

Is he getting better? How much better can he get?
What do you think?
(stats courtesy of Baseball Musings & Hardball Times, so you all don't think I'm makin' these up...)

http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/CompareInfo.py?StartDate=05%2F21%2F2006&EndDate=07%2F08%2 F2007&GameType=all&PlayedFor=0&PlayedVs=0&Park=0&SortField=CASE+WHEN+AtBats+%3E0 +THEN+%28Hits%2BDoubles%2B2.0*Triples%2B3.0*HomeRuns%29%2FAtBats+ELSE+0.0+END&SortDir=desc&M inPA=502&MinG=0&MinGS=0&MinAB=0&MinR=0&MinH=0&MinDB=0&MinTP=0&MinHR= 0&MinRBI=0&MinBB=0&MinIBB=0&MinHP=0&MinK=0&MinSB=0&MinCS=0&MinSH=0&a mp;MinSF=0&MinGDP=0&MinCI=0

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/stats/players/index.php?playerId=2722&firstName=Chris%20E& lastName=Duncan

http://www.hardballtimes.com/thtstats/main/index.php?view=batting&linesToDisplay=50&orderBy= hrPerF&direction=DESC&qual_filter=1&season_filter%5B%5D=2007&league_filter%5B%5D=2&a mp;pos_filter%5B%5D=All&Submit=Submit
Boomer.

Went to the game today & took in batting practice from my view in the Redbird Roost luxury suite (natch!)
Ever the fashion contrarian, Bonds steps into the cage wearing a grey t-shirt instead of the usual BP jerseys that the other Giants had on.
Well, he starts whacking baseballs into the seats & on one such swing, blasts one towards the walkway in right-center field, just beneath the scoreboard....
Meanwhile, a poor unsuspecting lady in a white shirt is leisurely strolling on the walkway, when...
BAM!! The ball smashes right into her, knocking her over as if she had been on the receiving end of a sniper rifle. People from the section out there (just above the patio seats in CF, just so we're clear here..) start rushing up to see if she's ok. After a few more swings, Bonds steps out of the cage & fixes his gaze out there, even wandering a few steps toward the mound to get a more definitive idea of the wrath he had brought down on some poor Cardinal fan....
Anybody else notice this? Wow.
Oh yeah. And Omar Vizquel sucks at BP... Remember when Bart traded Milhouse a torn Omar Vizquel card for a Carl Yastrzemski? Classic..

Here's the link from Rosenthal, who's just about the best in the business nowadays...
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6901918

What do you all think Walter is doing with this move? The bullpen's been really good so far.. Could Franklin be moved? Looper? Could the trade of a starter be far off?
Should be interesting whatever happens. Depth is always good with pitchers, especially with trade time looming...
Maybe Dunc thinks he can teach Troy the 2-seamer & Tony will put him in the rotation...

Apparently, Bill DeWitt doesn't like to be second-guessed in the national media...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jon_heyman/06/05/scoop.tuesday/index.html

Nothing really new here, other than Heyman's surprise at being taken to task by the Cardinals owner..
What do you all think?
I suspect that, as with most things, the answers lay somewhere in the middle....