Camp Cards: Waiting on Juan
JUPITER, Fla. — He’ll wear No. 22, probably take plenty of batting practice alongside Albert Pujols, and he’ll get ample opportunity to show he still has some pop in his previously presumed retire bat.
Little else can be guaranteed when it comes to Juan Gonzalez.
Oh, one other thing:
“He’ll come here in great shape,” Yadier Molina said Wednesday.
The Cardinals’ catcher was one of the most recent arrivals at Roger Dean Stadium and in addition to some comments that will be covered in tomorrow’s paper he said he’s seen the former All-Star and knows the Cardinals can expect him to be in condition to play. Molina said he is fit and strong. Molina added that Gonzalez looked good in the batting practices they took together, but there’s a difference between batting practice speed and spring training speed and … of course … game speed.
Molina did offer some insight on Gonzalez that was previously sketchy. The 38-year-old outfielder has been taking fly balls in the outfield and looks good moving out there, Molina said. Also, the two played on the same team a year ago in winter ball. Gonzalez’s power numbers were hardly eye-catching, but Molina explained that the size of the ballparks had a role in that. Molina described some of the ballparks they played in having a center field some 435 feet out and gaps of 385 feet.
Gonzalez had seven home runs and 23 RBIs in 45 games for their winter team.
Having Gonzalez in camp will already put the Cardinals ahead of the last major-league team the former MVP signed with. In 2006, Gonzalez signed a deal with Boston but was a no-show at spring training. He played 36 games that year with an independent team.
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It was three years ago that Michael Witte came to spring training, toting the tapes and his drawings that composed the beginning of a massive research project for the Cardinals. The implementation of some of his work and the “classic pitching mechanics” he has attempted to define is a large part of the mini-camp going on here in Jupiter and detailed in today’s paper.
Wanted to elaborate on Witte’s role here in the blog.
Witte, an illustrator whose work has been seen in Money magazine and elsewhere, is a St. Louis native, a lifelong Cardinals fan, a graduate of Country Day and friend since high school with a handful of the Cardinals owners. Several years ago, Witte began studying film of great pitchers and identifying shared traits of their deliveries. He saw what he believed was the importance of motion, momentum, but also balance and pelvic location. His study of the form and motion for the purpose of drawing the human figure helped him see and connect what was going on in the deliveries.
It’s also helped the Cardinals communicate their findings and their beliefs when it comes to the “classic mechanics.”
Brent Strom, the Cardinals new roving pitching instructor, and Witte have known each other before Witte joined the Cardinals as an advisor. Witte was part of how Strom got in touch with the Cardinals and has been hired this year, replacing in some way longtime pitching coordinator Mark Riggins. Strom said Witte’s ability to draw what they are trying to communicate to the pitchers has been invaluable — it’s part of the visual learning and visual instruction the team is also doing with video.
More on Witte’s first brush with the Cardinals was in this article from The New Yorker in 2005.
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Catcher Molina and outfielder Skip Schumaker were the position players who arrived today.
Molina is working in some new catching gear, including a chest protector that he said will take a couple weeks to get softened and comfortable. Molina plans to use the same hybrid mask that bullpen catcher Jeff Murphy fashioned for him last year. The mask has the hockey-style shell and cage, and it also has the substantial padding from the old-school mask.
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Former Cardinals pitcher Matt Morris stopped by campus and played catch with his former teammates for a bit. Morris is scheduled to report to Pittsburgh’s spring training Thursday, and the Pirates — promising a “change of culture” in their clubhouse — begin workouts at noon Friday.
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Baseball Prospectus’ Bryan Smith handicapped the group of Omaha contenders who did not qualify for the College World Series last year, including this snapshot of the highly regarded (though under-ranked) Missouri Tigers:
Missouri (#24 BA, #27 CB, #23 USA)
Key Losses: Brock Bond, 2B; Evan Frey, CFRemember that it was Missouri, not Louisville, that hosted a regional last year, and Missouri won the first of their meetings; to get out of the regional, en route to their Cinderella Omaha run, the Cardinals had to win two games in Columbia off of the Tigers. They did, and went on to make history, but if they hadn’t, we might be talking about a repeat Missouri run. Instead, we’re talking about the pre-season Big 12 favorite finally doing it this time around, as they haven’t yet under Tim Jamieson’s tutelage, and that despite the coach building up Missouri as one of the nation’s powers. This could be the year to do it, as the Tigers have two fantastic arms at the top in Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson, along with some solid bats like DH Jacob Priday and sophomore catcher Trevor Coleman.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
You beat me to the punch on that New Yorker column on Witte! Oh, well.
It really sounds like an organizational paradigm shift with Strom. Strom was with working with Ron Wolforth, and they are all about the moving back to the old school, studying the mechanics of Ford, Gibson, Koufax, Drysdale, etc. Lots of long tossing, building arm strength and letting the pitcher utilize their athleticism and not put them in a box. Sounds pretty interesting.
Did Mr. Smith say anything about the Missouri State baseball team?
[...] Unfair Park wrote an interesting post today on Camp Cards: Waiting on JuanHere’s a quick excerptSmith handicapped the group of Omaha contenders who did not qualify for the College World Series last year, including this snapshot of the… [...]
Brian,
Nope. Went through the recent BP writings on the upcoming college baseball season and saw no mention of Missouri State. Feel free to fill in that blank …
A Google search on Ron Wolforth and Brent Strom brings up a lot of interesting pitching talk from various programs the former has conducted and the latter has assisted.
dg
Among the position players I was wondering if guys like Ryan and Kennedy, who are either fighting for a roster spot or fighting to regain their form, have arrived in camp early?
Does Juan play any first base? With Albert’s unstable elbow and his vow not to push through escalating pain the way he did last year, there may be a need, heaven forbid.
Just thought I’d share this with you all…
JackPa (Oakland, CA): JERRY, MY MAN!!! I need TWO things from you, brother: 1. A reason to watch the A’s this year. 2. A reason to have hope in my beloved Redbirds. Please provide both. THANKS!
ESPN.COM’S Jerry Crasnick: JackPa,
1) Daric Barton and Carlos Gonzalez; 2) Mark Mulder and Chris Carpenter returning to full health and Dave Duncan working his magic on Matt Clement. And oh yeah — that Albert Pujols guy is pretty good.
Yeah…I know, Captain Obvious, but it’s good to here that other pundits still give the Birds a fighting chance. Young ones, old ones, injury recovery intrigue…
Thank GAWD for Spring!!! It was a LONG Winter.
DG,
Have you heard, does the “classic mechanics” approach address the slide-step? I have had several conversations with others about the high incidence of pitcher health issues since the introduction of the slide-step. I would be curious to see what this in-depth study has concluded on this topic.
Thanks, as always.
DG, does this talk about classic mechanics and all that mean they are changing everybody’s mechanics, or is it more of a tweaking? obviously if a guy like perez was able to come up with something that helped him to throw more strikes he could take off, but a guy like pj walters seems to have a great idea of what he is doing with his delivery. it just seems like this is something they should implement in instructional league instead of when these guys get up to AA and AAA.
Rich, I’ll keep track as best I can with who arrives in camp each day. Joel Pineiro, for example, has not arrived as of this afternoon, but is expected to report with the other pitchers Thursday. Brendan Ryan and Adam Kennedy are not among the position players here. But don’t think this is some junior-high point-scoring for showing up early. Doesn’t always work that way.
Though Kennedy could probably use some goodwill with the manager, however he gets it.
Joe G, Gonzalez has played exactly zero games at first base. It’s probably enough for him just to prove he can hit major-league pitching again, not play a new position as well.
Elliott, Didn’t ask. But I will.
FGC, They insist that it is tweaking and refining, not changing. Though some of the players may see alterations to their mechanics. One of the things that is clear is that they would like guys to settle on a tempo to their movements, an “athleticism” to the deliveries. The examples given were Feller and Gibson. The “classic mechanics” study and approach is about identifying shared elements of successful deliveries, it isn’t — they say — about molding pitching automatons.
Remember, according to the Cardinals own practices, many of the recent draft picks (including all six in the minicamp) should already have elements of these “classic mechanics” or they wouldn’t have been drafted. Ottavino, for example, was relieved to hear that from the coaches — that he had a delivery they liked and that he could return to it, or something improved from it.
dg
DG, thanks for the response. just one follow-up question, when you say ottavino is relieved to hear they like his delivery and that he could return to it does that mean that the previous field staff had changed his delivery? i know you had written about them having him focus on a 2-seam fastball, but i don’t really remember anything about changing his mechanics. i do remember luhnow talking about how much they liked his mechanics after the 2006 draft though.
DG, have you been to the Waterway Cafe yet this year?
Derrick,
Are there any plans for Larry Walker to join camp? I would think some of the young guys, particularly Duncan, might pick up a point or two from him. He sure seemed to be operating at a different level than the average guy playing the outfield.
Hey, try to stay warm down there Derrick.
Derrick,
Since they’re using this “classic mechanics” approach to evaluate pitching talent for the draft, it would be interesting to know how they evaluated Rick Porcello. You may not be able to get a straight answer on the subject, but if they determined that his mechanics were poor and therefore made the projection that he wasn’t a “can’t miss” prospect as most scouts seem to think, it would make it easier to see their side of passing on him in the draft. You don’t mind if they have an evaluation process that they believe in and will stick with until results prove otherwise. Even if their evaluations prove to be in error, at least you can feel like they’re working hard to find an edge in a very competitive field. If on the other hand, they did evaluate him to have good classic mechanics, and project him to be a top-of-the-rotation major leaguer, but just didn’t want to spend the money, well, that would be why some fans think the organization works on the cheap.
Jackson,
If they said that now, it wouldn’t jibe with the information reported and conveyed from that day. The Cardinals had Rick Porcello rated as the No. 1 prep pitcher ON THEIR BOARD. According to their own evaluations, he was the best player still available at that point in the draft. Also, they called him before picking Kozma and made an offer that was not satisfactory to Porcello’s camp. The call was apparently from Luhnow directly and he asked if they could get a deal done at a designated bonus, etc., etc.
Porcello’s answer is obvious. The Cardinals picked Kozma.
The reason wasn’t in the mechanics.
dg
P.S. And remember with Porcello it wasn’t just about money. He’s on Detroit’s 40-man roster. That means he has to be optioned to the minors after his first spring training, that starts his option clock and his arbitration clock. There’s a lot more that Porcello wanted than just a considerable, slot-busting bonus.