Future Redbirds

Recently I asked John Vuch of the Cardinals to do a little Q and A with me over email, and he was nice enough to oblige. A very big thank you to John for taking the time to answer some questions, I hope you all enjoy it.

I imagine you have a pretty busy schedule, so thanks for taking the time and answering questions for us fans. First of all tell us a little bit on how long you have been with the Cardinals, and how did you became the director of minor league ops?

I was born and raised in St. Louis, and naturally was a huge Cardinals fan. I actually started working for the Cardinals in 1979 when I was in 16 years old. Mike Bertani hired me as a “runner” on game days, taking messages down to the clubhouse, running off stats, taking tickets to the ticket windows, etc. I did that all through high school and college, and then was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time when there was an opening in the Sales Department in 1985. I worked in Group/Season ticket sales for a few years, but Joe Cunningham (Director of Sales) knew that my passion was the baseball side of the game, so he mentioned my name to Lee Thomas as a possibility for an opening in the Player Development department in 1988.

Initially I started in a primarily administrative role, but Lee and Dal Maxvill were pretty quick to give me more responsibilities in all aspects of Baseball Operations including Player Development, Scouting, contract negotiations and salary arbitration. In my early years in Baseball Ops, I worked with some tremendously knowledgeable baseball people such as Ted Simmons, Mike Jorgensen, Freddy McAlister and George Kissell, and tried to learn as much as possible from all of them. Those first few years, I did a whole lot of listening and not too much talking, as I wanted to soak up as much as I could from those guys.

When we had the restructuring in Player Development a few years ago, I moved from a more general baseball role into my current role, which is more heavily geared specifically toward Player Development. Working with the minor league players is probably the most rewarding job in baseball, as there’s definitely a feeling of pride when we see one of our players reach the majors after working so hard to get there in our minor league system.

What duties does your job encompass?

I pretty much handle the day to day operations of our minor league system. In addition to getting daily game reports from our managers, I’m in near-constant contact with our staff, trying to get their point of view on their club’s performance - who they feel the proper choice would be for promotion (or demotion), what they feel their team’s biggest needs are, anything that we need to know about our players from an on-field (or off-field) perspective. Obviously, decisions concerning player movement are normally handled through discussion with the managers and instructors that best know the players, so whenever possible we try to get as much input as we can from our field staff rather than simply making unilateral decisions.

I’m also the main front office contact for our minor league players (and their agents) as well as for our minor league affiliates. We try to make sure that things are running smoothly with all of our clubs, so if there’s any problems, I’m normally the first line of defense.

Off-season, I’m heavily involved with our Rule 5 and minor league free agent preparation, so I spend a lot of time poring over our pro scouting reports, blending it with our performance projections in an attempt to identify potential candidates for acquisition.

You mentioned the Rule 5 draft. How surprised where you to see Brian Barton fall into the team’s lap?

I think all of us were surprised to see Barton available when we picked - he was our #1 pick on our Rule 5 draft list, and we had even discussed the possibility of trading up in order to improve our chances of getting him.

Barton’s selection was a good example of how we try to incorporate as many of our personnel into the decision making process. We send the Rule 5 susceptible list to all of our pro scouts for them to identify anyone who would be of interest to them, and we have our performance analysis ts do the same. While they’re perusing the list, I’m reading through every report that our scouts and PD personnel have written about any Rule 5 eligible player during the last two years - it’s a labor intensive job, but it’s important to do in order to make sure that we don’t miss anyone of interest in the draft. It’s also important because it lets the people writing the reports know that their hard work isn’t being ignored, and that their opinions are vital in the decision making process that we use in the front office.

The thing that stood out about Barton was that he popped up in all three methods. We had very positive scouting reports from the past, our pro scouts mentioned him as a current player of interest, and he was one of the top performing players available in the Rule 5 according to our analysts. After talking with the major league staff and identifying roles where we might have room to carry a Rule 5 drafted player, Barton wound up at the top of our list.

Honestly, we didn’t think he would be there when we picked, as many of the outside sources were indicating that he would be taken long before we picked, so we had a few other names ready if Barton was not available when we picked. A few days before the draft, we had heard some rumblings at the Winter Meetings that teams were backing off Barton, as he had off-season knee surgery, so we had our people do some investigating to see if he truly was going to be hampered or if it was merely some disinformation that was being spread. Based on some good work by our scouts, we were reassured that the knee surgery had gone well, and if anything, he should be healthier in 2008 than he was in 2007, so we were comfortable selecting him.

He’s a very interesting player, with a good blend of power, speed, and on-base ability. Since he’s always been one of the best hitters on his team, he typically has hit in the middle of the lineup, but his skills could also make him a viable candidate to hit at the top of the order as well. He’s got good plate discipline to take his walks, and has a Ron Hunt/Don Baylor-esque propensity for the HBP, which help to push his OB% well over .400 for his career.

Obviously, it’s always an uphill battle for any Rule 5 player to make a major league club, but Barton is going to be a fun player to watch this spring, and we’re happy to have him in the organization.

[ed. note-i asked lboros from VEB for a couple questions he'd like to ask. this is his first] This June the Cards will have their highest drafting position in many years. Last year, Jeff Luhnow cited “signability” as an important factor in the Cards’ evaluation / selection process, particularly with respect to the first-round selection. Will signability apply in the same way, to the same degree, given the Cards’ higher draft position?

As that is really more of a Scouting department issue rather than Player Development, that’s probably a question that is better answered more specifically by Mo or Jeff, but in general terms, knowing a player’s “signability” is vital for any team to make an intelligent decision. There’s generally little point in selecting a player if he makes it clear that he’s not interested in signing a professional contract at all, or if he is looking for a signing bonus that far exceeds his perceived value to the selecting club. Determining whether we should gamble on a “tough sign” really depends on the individual player, and ultimately comes down to a basic “risk/reward” analysis, but that analysis will be handled by our scouting department.

From a Player Development perspective, we’re excited about this year’s draft, knowing that we’re going to be getting another quality player to add to the system. A player development department can only be as good as their team’s scouting department, and in recent years the scouting department has done a good job of getting us more quality players to work with.

There’s been a little shuffling going on in your department and with the minor league coaching staff. Who are some of the new guys, and what will their duties include?

We’ve had quite a few changes, but I’m excited about our staff for this year. Brent Strom joined our organization as a roving pitching instructor. He’ll work with Dyar Miller, who shifted over into a new role as Pitching Coordinator. Those two will oversee all of our pitchers, working closely with the individual teams’ pitching coaches. We added several other pitching coaches, Ace Adams at Quad Cities, Doug White at Batavia and Tim Leveque at Johnson City. All have a strong background with mechanics and are comfortable with the use of video to better identify areas where we can help to reduce injury risk and maximize performance. On the offensive side of things, Mark Budaska will be our hitting coach at Memphis and Joe Kruzel will handle the hitters at Quad Cities.

I think the common thread among all of our new hires, and something that they have in common with our returning staff members is a willingness to be open to new ideas and to use all the tools at their disposal to improve our players. George Kissell is probably the perfect example of what we look for in a Player Development staff member. He had an background in education, so he was a teacher by nature. There’s nobody who knows more about the fundamentals of the game, but despite his vast knowledge about developing players, he’s the first person who is open to new ideas and techniques, and was never afraid to adjust one of his drills. George would be the first person to tell you that while there are definitely some basic fundamentals that don’t change, he didn’t teach the same way in the 70’s as he did in the 50’s or 60’s, and that his teaching techniques were always evolving. Even though George isn’t involved on a daily basis anymore, I think his spirit of always looking to improve how we teach our players is a perfect example to all of our staff, and is why we honor our top staff member each year with the “George Kissell Award”.

With the winter leagues wrapping up, I see that there were several current Cardinals who played in the Caribbean. We have the stats, but that’s about all we have. Is there any news of note involving any of our players down there?

With the Puerto Rican Winter League suspending operations this year, winter jobs were a little more scarce, but Rico Washington and Hugo Castellanos both did a nice job for their clubs. Their performances over the winter helped earn them non-roster invitations to major league camp. Jose Martinez was impressive in Venezuela, and by all accounts was solid defensively at SS.

While we’re talking about Latin America, there’s widespread info about prospects here in America, but the Latin guys are more inscrutable, at least for outsiders like myself. We’ve heard a thing or two about Ryde Rodriguez and Luis de la Cruz, can you tell us a little bit more about them? And who are some of the other guys coming from Latin America that we should be keeping an eye on?

I was able to see Ryde at Instructional League, and he’s an impressive physical specimen. I can certainly see why he caught our scouts’ eyes when they worked him out. He’s still a bit raw, but there’s a lot of ability there. I like DeLaCruz, especially his arm strength behind the plate. As he gains more experience, development with his footwork and receiving give him a good chance to be an above-average defensive catcher. Offensively, he really improved dramatically the last month or so of the season. He definitely opened some eyes with his performance this year.

As far as players to watch for this year, Francisco Samuel has a tremendous arm, and Romulo Ruiz began to show some power this winter in Venezuela. Looking forward to seeing their improvements carry over into 2008.

I know fans have various hopes for Colby Rasmus this season, and I’m sure Colby has his own expectations. What are the Cardinals realistically expecting?

Obviously, everyone in the organization was excited with Colby’s progress in 2007. Playing most of the year at age 20 at AA is a tough assignment, and Colby not only survived, but thrived against much older and much more experienced players. He’s put himself in a position where it’s realistic to think that there’s a chance that we could see him in St. Louis at some point this year. Whatever decision is made would be made with Colby and the organization’s long-term best interests in mind. With the number of veteran pitchers in AAA these days, whether Colby is playing in Memphis or St. Louis he’s going to challenged no matter where he’s playing - but he’s shown the ability to handle any challenge we’ve put in front of him throughout his career, and I’d expect that wherever we ask him to play, he’s going to compete effectively.

To me, the biggest thing he showed last year was his ability to play a well-above average defensive CF. Many times when a player is a top of the line offensive prospect, he won’t pay as much attention to working on the other aspects of his game, but Colby made significant improvements defensively which solidified his status as an elite all-around prospect and not just a great hitter.

While we’re talking about former 1st round draft picks and their expectations, where should we expect to see Pete Kozma play this season and what are the Cardinals hoping to see him do this year?

I think spring training will play a big role in determining where Pete starts off this season, so it’s too early to definitively say where he’ll be assigned come April. With just a half-season of pro experience, he’ll likely start the year either at Extended Spring Training or with our Quad Cities club. Despite his young age, he’s a polished, well-rounded player, so really the main thing for him is to just get more experience and to adjust to the rigors of a 140+ game professional season.

Clayton Mortensen and Jess Todd both had about as good of a debut as we could’ve hoped for. Where do you think they will start their seasons, and what do you feel their upside is?

While we are constantly penciling in projected rosters, ultimately we let the players’ performances dictate where they begin their season. As you mentioned, Mortensen and Todd both had tremendous first seasons as professionals, and in the last year or two we’ve tried to be a bit more aggressive with our promotions, so I certainly don’t want to put any limits on where either of them could break camp. Since starting pitching is so hard to come by at the major league level, ideally we’d like to see both of them stay in that role as long as possible. Mortensen’s three plus pitches makes him a very good candidate to be a middle to upper part of the rotation starter in the major leagues. Todd’s slider is going to be a strikeout pitch wherever he goes, so organizational needs will ultimately determine his long-term role. But both guys are going to be fun to watch this year.

David Freese and Allen Craig are both likely ticketed for AA. Both play third base. How do you see that playing out? Will they split duties, or is Craig headed for another position?

I like seeing guys play as demanding of a defensive position as possible, so I wouldn’t be in a hurry to move either of them to a less demanding spot. I think both of those guys are more valuable at 3rd base, assuming they can handle the position defensively. It’s not unrealistic to think that one of those two could push their way to AAA, so that both could get play regularly at 3rd . If it appears that AAA would be too aggressive of a move for either of them, then an arrangement would need to be made to ensure that both get ample time at 3rd base, while getting a nearly everyday supply of AB’s.

While we are talking about possible position changes- with the long-term extension of Yadier Molina, will Bryan Anderson be asked to move from catcher or will he stay put?

I think the extension of Yadi allows us to be a bit more patient with Bryan’s development. He played last year at 20 years old in the Texas League, which is difficult for any player, but especially for somebody playing as difficult of a defensive position as catcher. Bryan had a very good offensive year, and was capable defensively, but with Yadi signed long-term, we have the luxury of allowing Anderson to really hone his skills without having to rush him. Bryan threw out about 26-27% of the opposing base stealers, and he shows good arm strength and a quick release at times, so it’s not a matter of his defense being a liability. I think sometimes the fact that he’s been so precocious offensively in his brief career, people sometimes forget that he’s playing AA ball at the age when many players would be college sophomores, so there’s plenty of reason for optimism that his defense can catch up with his offense.

I spent a lot of time reading Bill James’ books when I was in school and am a firm believer in having guys play the most demanding defensive position that they’re capable of handling. To me, Bryan’s offense is much more valuable as a catcher than it would be if he were playing a less demanding defensive position. When Bryan becomes major league ready, I think Mo would be OK with the “problem” of having two quality major league catching candidates. Any kind of decision concerning a position change will ultimately be an organizational decision, but I certainly don’t think there’s any imminent plans to start making a position change for him.

Can you furnish us with health update on Jaime Garcia?

At this point we expect all of the above to be ready to go for spring training with no restrictions. Garcia responded well to rest - his situation was very similar to Adam Wainwright in 2005 in that he was shut down for precautionary reasons, but there was nothing structurally wrong with the elbow. But as with Adam, when you’re talking about a prospect the caliber of Jaime, it’s much better to err on the side of caution, rather than risk him actually injuring himself due to compromising his mechanics by pitching through discomfort. If it was a September pennant race in St. Louis, Jaime likely would’ve been able to pitch, but we weren’t going to risk having him pitch through it at 21 years old in Springfield.

P.J. Walters is a guy who is hard to argue with his results, despite having below average velocity. How does he do it, and can he keep doing it at the higher levels?

P.J. is a perfect example of what a pitcher can do with the ability to change speeds and locate his pitches. Hitters need to have balance and timing to be successful. What P.J. does so well is mess with both balance and timing, and he’s had a lot of success with his approach. He’ll upset their balance by commanding his fastball to both sides of the plate, so the hitter can’t get comfortable, thus upsetting their balance. It prevents them from diving for the outside pitch, or sitting on the inside pitch. Then, adding his above average changeup to the mix upsets their timing. His ability to work the hitter in and out, back and forth keeps the opposition from getting good swings at him.

Everybody loves for pitchers to have plus velocity, and given the choice between above average or below average velocity, obviously it’s nice to have a power arm, simply because it gives the pitcher more margin for error. But I also remember watching Doug Drabek throw a 3-hit or 4-hit shutout at Busch in the early 90’s without topping 87 MPH on his fastball by making our hitters look silly with his command and ability to change speeds - so it certainly can be done. Conversely, I remember quite a few guys in our organization who could light up the radar gun, but didn’t know how to “pitch” and they ended up never sniffing the big leagues.

P.J. Walters certainly isn’t the typical major league pitcher, but it seems like every level he goes to, people expect the lack of velocity to catch up with him, and he proceeds to prove them wrong. He’s one of those guys that is going to have to earn everything he gets, but the Cardinals didn’t “give” him their Minor League Pitcher of the Year award - he earned it. Scouts that don’t know P.J.’s makeup will argue that his lack of velocity will eventually catch up with him, but from what I’ve seen from him so far, and knowing his competitive nature, I’m not about to bet against him.

I wanted to ask you about some of our relief prospects. After Chris Perez the Cards look to have some pretty nice depth with Worrell, Motte, Maiques, Gregerson, Dew, Reifer and so on. Who do you think could close down the road, who could set up, and who is better suited for situational relief?

Right handed relief has really become an area of depth within the organization and there’s a lot of exciting arms that are starting to get close to the big leagues. Perez is probably the best candidate to close, as he was virtually unhittable last year, allowing just 17 hits in 40.2 IP with 62 K’s at Springfield. His stuff is filthy, and once his command improves, especially vs lefties, he could be a force at the major league level.

Our Springfield club last year had the ability to shorten a game to six innings, by throwing McClellan, Motte and Perez for an inning apiece with a lead. With all three possessing above average FB’s, it was sort of like the AA version of the “Nasty Boys”. When Perez was moved up to Memphis, Gregerson filled in and they didn’t miss a beat. Gregerson was a guy who was intriguing to me after his first pro season in 2006. He was a conversion guy who had limited college pitching experience - when he got to pro ball, he exhibited a plus FB with heavy sink and a good slider to go with it, and he really responded to the challenge of starting his first full season at Palm Beach and ultimately earning a promotion to AA.

As far as which RH reliever profiles for which role, it’s really a bit too early to say, and I think we may try our relievers in various roles at times this year, so that they have the ability to handle whatever role is asked of them at the major league level.

Right now it’s looking like a real logjam with all the starting pitchers. Can we see a return of the 8 man piggyback rotation? And of the pitchers who started last season, do you see any of them being asked to go to the bullpen and if so, who?

We’ll evaluate the rotations again in spring training, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some use of the piggyback at some levels in the organization. It was successful at Quad Cities for us, and distributed a bigger bulk of the innings among the top eight guys on the staff, without overloading any one individual pitcher.

As far as starter/reliever decisions, that will be something that gets evaluated during the spring. Sometimes it’s a situation where we might want to challenge a pitcher to get to a higher level, but there’s no room in the rotation, so he winds up in the pen at the higher level rather than starting at a lower level. So, it’s a bit premature right now for me to speculate about which starters from 2007 might wind up in the pen in ‘08.

Some of the players in the system are long on tools but haven’t quite been up to par on results just yet, IE Daryl Jones, Tommy Pham, Jonathan Edwards and Tyler Greene. Do you see any of them turning the corner soon?

I’m still optimistic about all of them actually. There’s a lot of examples of players, especially HS guys, that seem to languish in the low minors for years until it clicks for them, and then they take off. The key is to have patience with the younger players, as everyone matures as ballplayers at a different pace, and that’s something we always stress to our staff. We sometimes get spoiled when we see Colby Rasmus or Bryan Anderson having success in AA at age 20, but sometimes forget that Chris Duncan spent four years in A-ball before maturing into the kind of hitter he is today. Joe Mather spent three years at Extended Spring Training and didn’t escape A-ball until his 7th professional season - but then hit a combined 31 HR’s this year and wound up on our 40-man roster. Bernard Gilkey played three years in low-A, so players progress at their own pace. All four of the guys you mentioned have a lot of ability and a lot of physical talent, and I’m excited to see all four guys progress this season.

Mitchell Boggs was reportedly throwing very hard in the Arizona Fall League-94, 96 from what I heard Keith Law say. Was he dialing it up because of the shorter outings there, or is that his normal velocity? With his pure stuff, why doesn’t he miss more bats?

Mitchell has a plus fastball with sink and a plus slider. He’s been working on developing his changeup, and if he can add that pitch to his arsenal, it would give him a huge weapon by making his other pitches that much more effective. As he learns how to add and subtract with his pitches, I think we’ll see him have even more success in the future - not that he’s been too shabby in the past. If he develops that 3rd pitch, he’ll be an effective starter, but even if that doesn’t happen, his two plus pitches would allow him to pitch effectively in an important relief role at the big league level.

Shaun Garceau got off to a good start and then fizzled out toward the end of the season. I had the privilege to see him pitch early in the year and he looked good I know he was coming back from injury this past season. Was he fatigued, or was did he just hit a “rough patch”?

I think it was a little bit of both. Shaun took a big step forward in ‘07, but it was also his first season throwing 100+ innings, and it may have caught up with him a bit by the end of the year. He was roughed up for 6 or 7 runs in the first inning of his last start, which unfortunately tacked about ½ run on to his ERA at the end of the year. The key thing from the Cardinals perspective is that we were happy to see him healthy and pitching the way we had envisioned when he was drafted.

You may have seen some of the prospect watchers putting out their ratings this time of year. How much of that stuff do you pay attention to? Is there anyone you think they are underrating?

I like to read a lot, so I always enjoy seeing an outsider’s perspective on our players. I try to read various sites as time permits, and I frequently find myself more impressed by the depth of knowledge that many of our fans have than I am by the “experts” that authoritatively dismiss a player’s chances. As an organization, I think it’s important to pay attention to see how our players are perceived outside of our organization, since that can help to gauge how much value one of our players might have if we were looking to make a move. I think the fans and media are much more sophisticated about the minor leagues than they were 10-15 years ago, so I think it’s important for the organization to be as honest as they can when discussing their players, rather than blowing smoke about how we’ve got 200 guys that we’re sending to the big leagues.

I’m optimistic by nature, and I like to focus on what a player can do rather than focus on what they can’t do, because I figure that it’s our role in Player Development to help them with those things that they struggle with. Clearly, 90-95% of our players aren’t ever going to reach the big leagues, but I think it’s important to let the players themselves succeed or fail on the field before we decide that he’s not going to make it. I’ve seen too many cases where somebody will say, “sure, he’s doing OK at A-ball, but wait until he gets to AA…”, only to have the player keep experiencing success at each level. There’s a lot of players who have had lengthy major league careers who wouldn’t fit into the stereotypical mold that you would expect of a major leaguer. We don’t ever want to be too quick to give up on a player until he’s shown us that he’s not going to make it. Some guys will get more chances to fail than others, based on their physical talents, but if a player is succeeding, there’s no reason not to keep giving him the chance to prove his detractors wrong.

As far as underrated players in our organization, I think that’s happening more right now than in preceding years, simply because I think we have more prospects now than we did a few years ago. One thing that I’ve noticed in the last year or two is when we compile our internal “top prospects” list, it’s gotten a lot tougher. There were times in the early 90’s where I would struggle to come up with a Top 20. Now, I’m at the point where there’s guys who I like, but can’t fit into a Top 30 list, so I think that speaks volumes about the depth in the organization.

Name your favorite under-the-radar prospect in the Cardinal system — someone who the fans aren’t talking about today, but who they will be talking about 6 months from now; someone who’s poised for a breakout, or who has more potential than people realize. [and that was lboros's other question]

I think there are a lot fewer guys that can slip under the radar these days, in large part because of the increased attention minor league baseball has received in recent years. Last year, Luke Gregerson would have been one of those type of guys, but due to sites like this one, that do a good job covering all levels of our system, there’s not many guys that you don’t already know about.

Heading into this year, we’ve might have a few guys who might fit that description, however. One would be Nick Additon - a draft and follow lefty who has good size along with an outstanding changeup and control. He’ll pitch all year at 20 years old, but he’s got a great idea of how to pitch, and it will be fun to watch him progress this year.

Another would be D’Marcus Ingram, an outfielder who played for our GCL club last year. He had a nice year for us in the GCL, but really made even more improvements at our Instructional League program.

Finally, the trifecta of high school pitchers that we had at the GCL last year, Blazek/Hooker/Zawacki are names that may not be all that well known, but really showed promise based on their first half season of professional ball.

Obviously, whenever we talk about players that are this young, they’re going to progress at differing rates, but all of these players are worth keeping an eye on in 2008.