Reading Time 5 Minutes:
* The departure of pitching coach Dave Duncan is a blow to the 2012 Cardinals. We'll have much more to say in Saturday's print edition of the Bits, which will also be available on STLtoday.com. But during Duncan's 16 seasons as the PC, the Cardinals ranked third in the majors in overall ERA, and No. 3 in starting pitching ERA. And unlike the Atlanta Braves, who had the No. 1 starters' ERA over the last 16 seasons, Duncan had to do a lot more work than simply roll out future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.
* From 1996-2008, Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz made 765 starts for the Braves -- or nearly 36 percent of the starts made for the team over the 13-year period. All three made over 200 starts for ATL. In St. Louis, Duncan had only one starter, Matt Morris, who gave the Cardinals more than 200 starts. Chris Carpenter is close, with 194. But after that, there's a big drop to No. 3 on the list for most starts; Andy Benes made 123. What does this mean? Duncan, for the most part, was changing parts of the rotation from year to year, and he adapted on the fly. He recycled. He took loose parts, assembled them, and turned them into a fine machine. And if he had to take it apart and rebuild it again the following season, no problem.
* During Duncan's 16 seasons in STL, here's a list of the 10 starting pitchers that provided the most innings for the Cardinals: Matt Morris, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Andy Benes, Jeff Suppan, Jason Marquis, Kyle Lohse, Woody Williams, Todd Stottlemyre, Darryl Kile. (The same names also formed the top 10 list for most wins during Duncan's era.) Of the 10 pitchers, only Morris was drafted and developed by the Cardinals. Eight of the pitchers came here from other major-league teams. They were mostly reclamation proects that had broken down along the way. That, or they'd never been able to establish a consistent level of performance. All of the eight had their best MLB seasons under Duncan. The 10th name on the list, Wainwright, belongs in a separate category. The Cardinals acquired him from Atlanta in the J.D. Drew deal. Wainwright was a good prospect, but didn't exactly dominate in the minors. But Waino has been a special starting pitcher for Duncan. These pitchers weren't finished products when they came to Duncan. In fact, many were defective products. And he got the most out of them. How many pitching coaches can do that?
* Here are a few of my favorite "Greatest Hits" from the Duncan collection: 18 wins from Ken Bottenfield in 1999; 16 wins from Garrett Stephenson in 2000; 18 wins from Woody Williams in 2003. Let's not forget that Darryl Kile went 20-9 in his first season as a Cardinal (in 2000) after going 21-30 in his two previous seasons with Colorado. The Cardinals went 63-30 in Williams' starts, and his won/loss record as a Cardinal was 45-22; before that the Woodman had been just an average guy during various stops.
* The Duncan masterpiece was the 2002 season. That was the year of Darry Kile's tragic death. Woody Williams and Andy Benes spent time on the DL. The Cardinals had to use 14 different starting pitchers. Matty Morris made 32 starts and pitched 210 innings. The Cardinals brought Jason Simontacchi out of oblivion and he started 24 games and pitched 143 innings. Simontacchi went 11-5. No other starter made more than 17 starts, or pitched more than 103 innings. Cardinals relievers had to make multiple starts. We mentioned Kile, Morris, Simontacchi, Benes and Williams. Here are the other guys who started games for the 2002 Cardinals, with the number of starts in parenthesis: Chuck Finley (14), Bud Smith (10), Travis Smith (10), Stephenson (10), Luther Hackman (6), Josh Pearce (3), Jamey Wright (3), Mike Crudale (1), Mike Timlin (1).
Duncan cobbled all of this together and got a starting-pitcher record of 64-44 with an ERA of 4.04. That ERA ranked 11th among 32 MLB teams, and 7th among the 16 NL teams. How was that even possible? The Cardinals won 97 games, beat Arizona in the NLDS, and may have gotten to the World Series except for a fluke injury to 3B Scott Rolen in the NLDS.
* One more thought: for purposes of continuity, the Cardinals have to promote Derek Lilliquist to pitching coach. He's already there. He filled in for Duncan last season. He has earned respect among the pitchers.
More on the loss of Duncan in Saturday's column.
Quickie NFL thoughts:
Winners on Saturday: Cincinnati over Houston; New Orleans over Detroit.
Winners on Sunday: NY Giants over Atlanta; Pittsburgh over Denver.
Have a nice weekend...
-Bernie
