Maybe it’s just me. Maybe my interest in the minor league system has arisen over the last year and so I figure everyone else’s has too even though they haven’t. But I’m guessing that’s not the case. . . There are several factors that can be attributed to the growing interest in minor leaguers from St. Louisans.
The approach of Colby Rasmus to the majors as the best position prospect the Cardinals have had since JD Drew plays a big part. In the past when prospects were mentioned it was as part of a trade or as a role player. Now the Cardinals are looking at a player that has been marketed as the centerfielder of the future.
The Front Office pushed the idea of building from within since the departure of Walt Jocketty; you could even trace it back to the emergence of Jeff Luhnow as being in charge of the draft. That idea has at the very least stuck with the fan base if not resonated. The success of other teams (Rockies, Red Sox) with homegrown players isn’t lost on the crowds. While the Cards have been remarkably successful during what was initially termed a “transition year”, the PR machine has, at the least, succeeded in transitioning fan’s perspectives towards the minors.
I think the addition of sites like FirstInning, Minorleaguesplits and Fangraphs with their statistical data for the minors has played a huge role with that. The one site that’s really behind the curve here is the site that has perhaps the most to gain — Baseball Prospectus. They have a well of resources far exceeding what any of the other sites do and yet the most they come up with is some poorly formated text stats and translations. The room for growth there is tremendous as well as the room for statistical studies in that area. Too much of prospect watching remains clouded in scouting vagueries.
At the end of the day, you can attribute the increased interest to whatever you want but the Cardinals would be wise to capitalize on it and use that to draw in fans. Increased attendance to minor league games, increased merchandise sales when a player first comes up, as well as other marketing opportunities are all areas that the Cardinals can shake the minor league money tree. Here’s a few suggestions I thought up.
1: Paul DePodesta has his own blog for the Dodgers Padresand I would never expect the Cardinals to do that. There’s something really simple (and similar) that they could do, however, that would make it a lot easier for people to follow the minors. Start a blog and post the transactions. Disable comments and don’t offer commentary but letting people know when player X has been moved from Palm Beach to Springfield goes a long way toward making fans feel connected to the minor leaguers. We want to revel in their promotions as much as anyone. The flip side of that is posting when (and why) a player is going to the DL. Elaborate explanations are not a requirement but I’m sure someone, somewhere in the Cardinals Front Office is tracking when players hit the DL in their system. CTRL+C and CTRL+V a brief note to the public. It takes an extra 60 seconds but dropping a note like “Rasmus - day to day - groin” would answer a lot of very common questions.
2: Bring your minor league clubs to St. Louis. I’ll leave the logistics of this to someone who knows the contracts with the minor league clubs and their schedules better but it couldn’t be that hard to bus in Memphis and Springfield and have them play each other in Busch. I’d like to think there’s enough interest that you’d draw a good sized crows — 20,000 maybe? — so that it’s profitable in terms of ticket sales. Have it during the All Star break or when the Cardinals have an offday in April or September.
You can spin this a hundred different ways too. Make it a charity game or lower ticket prices since it’s the minors but there is an opportunity to let some people who normally can’t afford to see the big league club come down to STL and experience baseball in Busch. The Cardinals are first and foremost a business so I want to be clear that I’m not advocating they give away money but I would think someone could come up with a way to make some profit from a game like that.
Beyond the potential monetary benefits, I’d like to think it would mean something to the minor leaguers too. A taste of what it could be like if the make the bigs. Get some exposure to the major league park and the St. Louis crowd. Maybe when they are actually called up, the bright lights won’t be quite so intimidating and the nerves won’t be quite so stressed.
3: Make Memphis a home to real prospects. This is as much about building up the farm system in general as it is anything specific about Memphis. As far as I know, Memphis and the Cardinals have not re-upped as affiliates for next year yet. Part of the reason behind that is Walt Jocketty used Memphis as a stashing ground for the tired, the sick and the poor during his tenure, which was a very common way to use AAA affiliates throughout baseball.
That said, the more time that you have players playing together before they reach the majors, the better, imo. I’ve heard interviews from several minor leaguers on the radio (especially bullpen guys) about how much easier it was since they knew someone like McClellan when they came up. Someone that could show them around a bit. Someone they already had a comraderie with. If you’re a team chemistry person, you can start that concoction right by having near-MLB ready prospects play together for extended periods of time in Memphis. There’s limits to that based on the major league clubs immediate needs but I think there are benefits to be had there.
4: This one is selfish. Well, more selfish than the first three. I don’t know how many viewers they have for the recorded Memphis game but I watch at least one of those games a week. The annoucers for those videos in Memphis are probably my favorite pair of announcers I’ve heard. They’re really great. Humble, not condescending, kidsters — they just seem like good people. So I have a real incentive to watch the games. What I’d love though, from the deepest depths of my robotic processor is to see radar gun readings on the broadcast. I have no idea what kind of technical requirements that would impose — I’m just an idea man. But it would make it a lot more interesting when I’m trying to watch someone like Walters with a good changeup.
That’s just one robot’s ideas. I really can’t express how excited I would be if the Cardinals did something like #2. I’d drop a lot of $$$ to see that. Those may be totally unrealistic suggestions but I hope that the Cardinals realize that have a unique opportunity to foster interest in their minor leaguers right now. They’d be foolish to let it pass them by.
Filed under: editorial
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DePo’s blog is for the Padres, not the Dodgers.
These are all good ideas. I love #1 and #2.
Regarding #2; Some teams are already doing something like this. The Red Sox have a ‘Futures at Fenway’ day where they schedule a doubleheader of regular season games featuring their their low A team in one game and their Double-A or Triple-A team in the other game. The fans show up and of course the players love performing for tens of thousands of fans at a major league ballpark.
I’m sure it’s a scheduling nightmare, but maybe an exhibition game between two teams within the org. (like you suggest) would be easier to pull off.
I agree with your suggestions. One editorial tweak though - DePodesta blogs for the Padres, not the Dodgers.
What the Cardinals should do is have a mini tournement with their minor league teams and the winning team plays the Cardinals. The games don’t even have to be the full 9 innings.
What would be really cool is if there would be a Cubs and Cardinals “Futures” minor league all star game that could alternate between Busch and Wrigley. It would be a great way to further the rivalry and give fans of both teams an opportunity to see their organization’s best prospects. It would also give me an opportunity to start hating the Cubs minor league players. I’d love an opportunity to cheer Felix Pie strikeouts again. I know it will never happen but that would be really cool and no doubt would go.
What I would like to see is, perhaps just before the season begins, to have a game where the rosters are comprised of players from all levels in the organization, major-leaguers included. I understand there’s certain risks when you allow your big league guys to play in exhibition games, but seeing *some* familiar faces might be enough to get a few extra fans in the gate.
Imagine going to see something like these two teams:
Team A
C: Bryan Anderson
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Jarrett Hoffpauir
SS: Pete Kozma
3B: Brett Wallace
OF: Daryl Jones
OF: Rick Ankiel
OF: Jon Jay
P: Jess Todd
P: Clayton Mortensen
P: Nick Additon (3 innings each)
Team B
C: Yadier Molina
1B: Francisco Rivera
2B: Niko Vasquez
SS: Tyler Greene
3B: Troy Glaus
OF: Ryan Ludwick
OF: Colby Rasmus
OF: Shane Robinson
SP: Jaime Garcia
SP: Tyler Herron
SP: Lance Lynn (3 innings each)
——————————————————–
Another, much easier to apply idea, is just to flash a graphic of the minor-league teams and their standings during Cardinals games. Maybe do a “last night on the farm” kind of thing. I think Houston does this during their games.
Good ideas, all of them. Here in Norfolk, VA, the Orioles are trying to capitalize on that very thing.
Baltimore took over the Norfolk Tides organization in about Jan 2007 after the Mets continually screwed them over. What has Balitmore done since?
1) The last spring training game (both in ‘07 and ‘08) is played between the Tides and the Orioles in Norfolk. This helps generate fan interest by letting the locals at the AAA level see the MLB club with no harm done to the schedule.
2) Baltimore sponsors ticket packages (including transportation costs) which pay for Norfolk Tides fans to see games in Baltimore. They usually give 1 away every other game or so.
3) When the Orioles have off-days, usually 1 or 2 players (never the same two, though), come down for meet and greets before games. The Orioles are careful to not send the guys that actually need rest.
4) The O’s staff befriended the local ESPN Radio affiliate so now, if the Tides and Orioles games are on at different times, both games are aired on the radio.
Basically, the Orioles are doing things to keep the AAA fans involved in enjoying not just the Tides, but the Orioles as well. It seems to be working here in Norfolk, so far.
It would be nice to see St Louis do something similar, or along the lines you suggested.
I can’t shake the DePodesta/Dodgers connection loose from my memory. I made that same stupid mistake when referencing his blog the last time. . .
Wow another Norfolk Cardinal’s fan, was beginning to think I was the only one here : ) To bad the Orioles don’t have any players worth watching at AAA, might actually go to more games.
i know this doesn’t have anything to do with this thread, but mulder just left after facing three batters. how many people just threw their dinner plate in the sink and grimaced in disgust like myself? i feel for the guy, but jeez turn the page guys.
i’d love to be a fly on the wall of mozeliak’s office right now.
#2 would be nice, but there’s not many off days in the minor league schedule — they play 144 games, and they finish around September 1.
The other thing you could try to do would be to move a series to St. Louis, but you’d have to do a lot of haggling with the minor-league club — if Memphis makes, say, 500k on a typical home game for that day of the week, you have to guarantee them that much plus cover the travel of both teams, and that’s before your own expenses (stadium staff, utilities, etc.).
Even with that, teams might not agree to playing a single game in STL and the rest of the series elsewhere, because of the travel issues that would be involved.
Not saying you can’t make it work anyway, but it’d be a lot simpler, and cheaper, to do what they did a few years ago and play an exhibition game before the season starts.
I absolutely agree about the Memphis announcers — great people and very good at their job.
The Cardinals usually play an exhibition game or two against their minor league teams after spring training every year. They did it in Springfield this year if I remember right, and did it last year in Memphis (I remember Waino pitching against Hawksworth).
The Cardinals actually have been showing their minor league affiliate scores at the bottom of the scoreboard at every game along with starting pitchers and some player stats. I don’t think I have seen any standings.
I love some of these ideas. The internet has made it very possible to get info for those of us living away from MO. You could find stats of the players, but not a lot of infomation about which players were the real prospects. As we know, sometimes stats don’t translate to big league potential.
Next, you could have the minor league clubs play a real series(or game) in STL every year while the Cards are on a road trip. Similar to ideas above, but you might get to see the players in more of a game mode.
My interest in the minors really jumped though after the organization started looking that direction more. When the organizational focus shifted to internal development I really took a stronger interest so I could track the development to have a better understanding of our team and the future players.
If I’m not mistaken, the first ball game played at the new diggs was with Springfield and Memphis. I liked the idea back then and still like it now. It was attended pretty well from what I remember but you can’t judge interest in such a game considering. I would imagine if tickets were cut more than half from the regular games the place would could be reasonably full for a weekend played by our affiliates. JC vs the Quads and Springfield vs Memphis for a Saturday/Sunday exhibition. Like you said, logistics aside, this would be a heck of an idea to showcase the new economics of the team and baseball in general.