PostCards Returns: Your Turn to Ask VP Jeff Luhnow
JUPITER, Fla. — This morning, the St. Louis Cardinals minor-league staff is bunkered in here at Roger Dean Stadium for the final hours of their pre-camp meetings. This afternoon, about the time the meetings end, pitchers will start reporting and within the next couple days the backlots will bloom with minor leaguers. Even as minor-league camp opens for 2009, there are certainly plenty of questions about who is headed where and what is expected when and how from which prospect?
The makeup of the Triple-A rotation is one area of intrigue, and so is the planned destination of highly touted prospects such as 3B Brett Wallace, SS Pete Kozma — could the first-rounders share the left side of the infield in Class AA Springfield? — OF Daryl Jones and RHP Adam Reifer.
The Vuch Report, an annual staple around these parts for four years, will return when games begin. To mark the opening of the minor-league portion of spring training, however, Cardinals farm director and vice president Jeff Luhnow has agreed to take questions from readers in the format we used last year. Think of it as a chat without the tsunami of immediacy and spread over an entire week.
Send your questions to me (dgoold@post-dispatch.com) or log them in the comments below.
We will try to get to as many as possible as minor-league camp opens and games begin. Check back throughout the coming week for the answers.
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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. 
With the outfield situation at the ML level, what are the plans for Daryl Jones? Will he see a quick promotion like Bryan Anderson last year (some of that was due to AAA injury) or will he stick around AA for awhile?
Mr. Luhnow, thank you for taking the time to answer questions, I am impressed with the Cards efforts to reach out to online fans. Do you foresee a time soon when minor league trades become more common? It seems that with the focus on growing talent creating a real position by position pipeline a team could make good use of areas of surplus (outfielders, 3rd base) and trade with a team that has a surplus of minor league 2nd basemen or left handed pitchers. Is there a philosophical or contractual reason not to do this? PS I am impressed with the job you and your team have done with our minor league system…don’t let up!!!!
Q1:
What is your opinion on drafting guys you know will want a major league contract? While some of them are phenomenal talent, it seems that it handcuffs the team because it only works out in a best case scenario. Having a 22 year old on your major league roster because he is out of options not because he is ready seems like it would hurt a team more often than help. It seems its better to pass on these guys and roll the dice in the Caribbean.
Q2:
At the end of the deadline last year, teams were willing to not trade player and let the guy walk in free agency and grab a top pick. Also, teams avoided some good free agents over the draft pick compensation issue. I don’t ever remember a time when teams valued picks. Has scouting evolved to the point where teams are more confident in drafts? And do you see any changes in the CBA in regards to trading draft picks (at least first round).
Two questions, if you please, that are related.
Where are the strengths of this years draft?
What are the primary needs the Cards want to address in this years draft?
What do you project for Amaury Marti in 2009 and beyond?
Jeff:
Thank you for taking the time and helping build the farm system since 2005. We don’t appear to have much depth at 2b. Are there any candidates coming down the pipeline, that can play or switch to second base? Why has this been a difficult, yet important, position to fill?
Jeff-
Thanks for taking the time to do this so that Mozy doesn’t have to. He has the emotional maturity of a 13 year old and the wit of a peanut chub.
Onto real baseball…
I am all for the “youth movement” that has suddenly befallen our beloved Redbirds. If you consider some of the contracts issued from our club this decade…it certainly makes sense to make this a viable approach.
However, isn’t there a difference between giving a young player who’s ready the chance to play versus what has been employed so far which appears to be forcing youth on to the field because there is no other answer within the organization to fill the holes? I for one believe these “holes” large enough to drive a truck through. Some healthy starting pitching would be nice, and maybe a 2B?
Or do you as Cardinal management get a kick out of seeing Albert kicked in the face chasing errant throws from 2B?
Ben,
Nice choice of tack. Somewhere in there is a good, solid question, and I’ll pass it along. But all that false machismo makes it tough to make any promises. Too bad really, because I think that’s a worthwhile issue to explore.
At least you didn’t sign it with some handle like SkeletorLovesOrko. Kudos.
dg
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Jeff - Where’s Jose Martinez? About a year ago, he was a fast rising middle infielder. I’ve heard nothing about him, this spring.
I’m very interested in the Freese - Wallace log-jam. Now that Freese is back in minor-league camp, does this mean Wallace will play OF? And what about Allen Craig? Where does he figure in? Kosma and Tyler Greene form an interesting keystone combo. Which one projects as the SS? Thanks.
Mr. Luhnow,
I think many Cardinal fans have read the Michael Lewis book ‘Moneyball’ which glamorizes the ‘quant’ method of baseball research an of which you are said to be an advocate. We are in the midst of a significant financial market collapse brought on to some degree, many say, by a number of institutions that didn’t adequately prepare for the Black Swans - i.e. the large deviations from norm that occur in the tails of distribution curves. Can you tell us about some ‘upside’ Black Swans in the Cardinal’s organization? Some players that didn’t or don’t show some characteristic that you might otherwise be looking for but that have been a welcome ‘outlier’. PS - I recognize this question may leave you open to criticism in a round about way, but hope you might give us some insight nonetheless.