I gotta vent here.
I was reading something about the Cardinals last week and a frustrated author was ticked off by the Cardinals’ plan to emphasize a return to the draft-and-develop model that was a key to their long run of success earlier during the Bill DeWitt Jr. ownership era.
This decision to go back to the successful DeWitt philosophy was long overdue. But this strategy also means a lower payroll for now, which makes sense. Because, well, you know …rebuilding.
I’m unaware of a rebuilding team raising payroll in a significant way during a rebuild … because if they did something like that, it isn’t a rebuild.
This is what caught my attention:
“The problem is that the Cardinals have never truly been a draft-and-develop franchise,” the author noted. “The team has not had a homegrown superstar since Yadier Molina rose through the system at the beginning of the 21st century. Rather, the team developed solid pieces and then flipped some of them for stars. Scott Rolen, Matt Holliday, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado all flourished with other teams before they were dealt to the Cardinals.”
Wow.
The author apparently was unaware that the immortal Cardinals executive Branch Rickey actually INVENTED player development – his reason for creating the first team-run, team-owned farm system in major-league history.
Bill DeWitt Sr., was Rickey’s farm director who would travel with Rickey around the country looking in on all of the Cardinals’ developing players. The player-development heritage runs through DeWitt DNA, which is why DeWitt Jr. used to accompany Reds’ scouts on scouting trips when his father ran/owned the team. DeWitt Jr. also created a primitive but helpful database to store organized, easy-access information to assist the scouts.
Some of the early graduates of the Cardinals’ player-development system invented by Rickey included Sunny Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey, Taylor Douthit, Eddie Dyer, Ray Blades, Tommy Thevenow, Les Bell, Heine Mueller, Wattie Holm and Flint Rhem. All were key members of the 1926 Cardinals team that won the first World Series in franchise history.
Many more pennants and World Series would follow, with home-developed players being prominent in the mix.
And it was Rickey who hired the legendary teacher-instructor George Kissell. The system/tradition created by Rickey was an innovation and a breakthrough that carried the Cardinals to a historically prominent run of success that lasted a long time.
DeWitt went back to his roots in recruiting Jeff Luhnow from the corporate world in 2003 to modernize the Cardinals’ scouting, drafting and player-evaluation process to come up with a more efficient roster that would, among other plusses, greatly improve the big-league roster depth. For the first time, with DeWitt’s urging, Luhnow created an analytics department that gave the Cardinals an advantage in a number of ways including their success in scouting and analyzing potential draft picks.
In 2003, DeWitt hired Luhnow as the “Director of Development.” And as DeWitt wrote in a memo distributed within the organization to announce Luhnow’s hiring:
“I have been concerned for some time that our player procurement process and professional player evaluation system have not been at a level to give us a competitive advantage within Major League Baseball and in certain areas have in fact been below average. It is critical to the success of our franchise that we endeavor to correct this, and my goal would be to put us at the forefront in these areas to take advantage of what is certainly an inefficient market.”
As DeWitt once told me, he was especially bothered by the Cardinals’ failure to develop pitching within their system for at least a decade, and he made that initiative a top priority. It took a while, and there were some bad draft picks early on, but this area became a source of strength, with the Cardinals producing a large quantity of internally developed pitchers that played a huge role in the team’s success from 2009 through 2022.
From 2000 through 2015, a span of 16 seasons, the Cardinals led the National League in regular-season wins and were No. 1 in the majors for most postseason victories. They made the playoffs 12 times in 16 years, winning four NL pennants and two World Series. Breaking news: they didn’t do this by making a bunch of expensive free-agent signings. With Luhnow’s advanced approach, the Cardinals began to find players in the draft that the other teams overlooked or mistakenly downgraded.
If we begin in 2000 and go through 2022, the Cardinals made the postseason 16 times in 23 years, were tied for second in MLB for most postseason wins, and were No. 3 in postseason wins.
From 2000 through 2022 here is a list of pitchers that were drafted and developed by the Cardinals … or signed as international prospects by the Cards… or who made their major-league debut for St. Louis after being acquired as young prospects from another organization.
Matt Morris
Lance Lynn
Adam Wainwright
Jaime Garcia
Shelby Miller
Michael Wacha
Carlos Martinez
Joe Kelly
Bud Smith
Dan Haren
Jack Flaherty
Rick Ankiel
Trevor Rosenthal
Ryan Helsley
Jason Motte
Seth Maness
Kevin Siegrist
Tyler Johnson
Josh Kinney
Dakota Hudson
Jordan Hicks
Austin Gomber
Marco Gonzales
Sandy Alcantara
Zac Gallen
Alex Reyes
Anthony Reyes
Adam Ottavino
Chris Perez
Chris Narveson
Clayton Mortensen
Johan Oviedo
Mitchell Boggs
Braden Looper
Sam Freeman
Tyler Lyons
Kyle McClellan
(Apologies if I unknowingly left any out.)
OK, and here are drafted-developed position players as well as those who made their MLB debuts for St. Louis. This group was paramount in making the Cardinals a top-three team in baseball for nearly a quarter-century of competition.
In no particular order:
Albert Pujols
Yadier Molina
Matt Carpenter
Allen Craig
JD Drew
David Freese
Ray Lankford
Colby Rasmus
Matt Adams
Skip Schumaker
Chris Duncan
Daniel Descalso
John Mabry
Tommy Pham
Oscar Tavares
Kolten Wong
Harrison Bader
Tyler O’Neill
Dylan Carlson
Juan Yepez
Lars Nootbaar
Pau DeJong
Nolan Gorman
Brendan Donovan
Again: not all of these fellows were stars. But let’s not miss the point here, OK?
Virtually every name on these lists – pitchers and position players – were members of St. Louis postseason-bound teams. Many performed well in the postseason for the Cards during one of the greatest eras in franchise history. Some were prominent in the team’s postseason success … even if we’re talking about some big, isolated moments. In the postseason those isolated moments can be massively important. They can be a tipping point. They have been tipping points. Have we forgotten about that too?
Others – who didn’t do much here – were indeed flipped in trades for prominent players who came here to make the Cardinals even more formidable.
Which, you know .. is a positive thing …
A partial list of players who became Cardinals in exchange for St. Louis prospects includes Matt Holliday, Jim Edmonds, Mark McGwire, Darryl Kile, Larry Walker, Edgar Renteria, Scott Rolen, Adam Wainwright, Jeff Weaver, Octavio Dotel, Rafael Furcal, Will Clark, Marc Rzepczynski, Steve Kline, Ronnie Belliard, Edwin Jackson, Paul Goldschmidt, Marcell Ozuna, Chuck Finley, Nolan Arenado, Giovanny Gallegos, Jose Quintana, Jordan Montgomery, Jon Lester, J.A. Happ. And I am sure I could name at least others.
Isn’t that a GOOD outcome?
Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that another valuable part of having a lot of prospects? You know, trading these prospects in deals for upgrades that kept the Cardinals rolling on and on and on? Why in the heck would anyone minimize something so important?
Sure, some transactions went the wrong way – like acquiring Ozuna from the Marlins for Alcantara and Gallen. But the trade made sense at the time, even if some fans and media fib about that now.
No question, it’s a substantial benefit to have so many drafted-developed prospects to make your team better by playing ‘em or trading ‘em.
Let me narrow the window here, taking a look at 2009 through 2015 to zoom in on the postseason rosters over that time.
The Cardinals made the postseason six times in seven seasons, winning two pennants and a World Series and competing in the NLCS four times. They led the NL in regular-season wins over the seven years and were second in the majors to the Giants for most postseason victories.
By my count, the Cardinals had 21 drafted-developed position players who were members of those six postseason teams for various lengths of service. Those 21 position players combined to play in 477 postseason games. (Hey, but nothing to see here!)
The Cardinals from 2009-2015 had 14 homegrown pitchers who combined for 177 postseason pitching appearances. And the relievers in that group – Motte, Rosenthal, Siegriest, Martinez, J. Kelly – were fantastic. As for the starters, Wainwright, Lynn, Wacha, Kelly, Garcia and Miller combined for 38 postseason starts over that time.
In addition, the Cardinals traded prospects for veteran players that helped them win in the postseason including Holliday, Rafael Furcal, Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Edward Mujica.
But …
The Cardinals have never truly been a draft-and-develop franchise?
Do DeWitt and Luhnow know about this?
Maybe we can have a seance in an effort to contact Branch Rickey and George Kissell for comment?
Luhnow said this in a 2008 interview with Baseball Prospectus:
“In one sense, the Cardinals are doing exactly what we have always done,” Luhnow said. “Every great Cardinal team has had major contributions from homegrown players–who tend to be young–including the 2006 World Champions.
“Our scouts and development staff aspire to continue that tradition and provide impact players who can help St. Louis win more championships. The industry is evolving, as several clubs are focusing on internal player development rather than relying on free agency, and for some that seems to work well. We have a long and rich history of producing our own players, and we plan to continue that in the future.”
As Dewitt said in a 2013 interview when asked about recruiting Luhnow in 2003:
"Our Minor League system was suffering during that time, and I knew it myself, but third parties knew it as well just based on rankings," DeWitt said. "We were ranked 25th-30th for a number of years in a row. I knew that [the success in the majors] wasn't going to last forever and that we needed to refocus on the Minor League system and the draft.”
Yeah. The attempt to revise history aside … that actually happened!
Pitching is kind of important. And if you can develop your own pitchers at a large volume, your franchise will likely prosper.
As Theo Epstein once told me when he was running the Cubs and building a World Series champion in Chicago, the Cubs were mystified and frustrated by the Cardinals’ ability to develop pitching … over and over again. The Cubs front office tried to figure out the formula, the STL secret, and failed. And that bugged Theo.
As another rival front-office executive told the Beyond the Box Score blog in 2019: “Those (St. Louis) pitchers come up quietly and just seem to never miss a beat. They’re not necessarily the Baseball America darlings after the draft, but they move quickly and they turn into big-league contributors.”
On the 2011 World Series champion Cardinals, homegrown-prospect pitchers handled 44 percent of the postseason innings. And if we include the hurlers acquired by the Cardinals by trading prospects, the load of innings handled in the 2011 postseason increases to 67 percent.
During the 2011 postseason, internally developed players (non-pitchers) took 55 percent of the plate appearances. That number rises to 64.5% if we include Holliday, who was obtained from Oakland for prospects. The homegrown hitters – plus Holliday – accounted for 83 percent of the team’s postseason homers, 77% of the RBIs, and 73% of the runs scored.
But hey, the Cardinals have never truly been a draft-development franchise.
From 2012 through 2019, the Cardinals generated more Wins Above Replacement from internally developed pitching than any team in the majors. (Source: baseball analyst Travis Sawchik.)
“They’ve used their drafts to select quality arms — and the value of their homegrown pitching is on display again,” Sawchik wrote.
And though the draft-developing results have been stronger on the pitching side, the Cardinals did well enough with position players over the same period of seasons.
I must say I was unaware that drafted-developed assets shouldn’t be viewed as important unless they become big stars. I think having good, complementary starting players or role players matter. I think having quality depth matters. But what do I know?
In July 2011, the Cardinals traded their former first-round draft pick, center fielder Colby Rasmus, in a three-team deal that repaired a problematic bullpen and rotation … and the season was saved. Result: World Series champs. No big deal, right? So the Cardinals “flipped” a former prospect and they got a World Series trophy out of it. Who cares?
Do the Cardinals need two or three big stars now? Of course they do. And ownership-management screwed up what they had going, and that’s their fault. But that’s one of the reasons for installing a new front office that will take a different approach. This is one of the main reasons why they’re fixing the player-development and farm system in every aspect of the operation. This stuff matters.
I liked what the Cardinals did for a long time – mining good – if not always elite – talent. And they should be commended for it. Even teams with legit superstars need to be surrounded by effective cast mates who make meaningful contributions.
As someone who was there for every postseason game, I vividly recall many big moments … almost too many to remember.
— I think it was positive to have someone like Jon Jay to plug in at center field after the Rasmus trade. Jay slashed .286/.335/.405 over the final three months of the regular season.
— Remember the 2011 World Series and what Jay and Descalso did late in Game 6 to keep the Cardinals alive?
— Remember what Skip Schumaker did in the first inning against Roy Halladay in the classic Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS? Reminder: Skip drove in the only run in the game in the top of the first to send the Cards to Milwaukee for the NLCS. Important, yes? Even though Skip wasn’t a “star.”
— Was it important that Schumaker batted .381 in the 2011 postseason? Yeah, I think that deserves a compliment. Same with Descalso’s .333 average in the 2011 tournament.
— And what about Allen Craig coming to the rescue in the 2011 postseason after Holliday was lost to an injury? I believe that Craig’s four home runs, eight RBIs and nine runs scored in the ‘11 postseason counted in the box score. But he wasn’t a superstar, so …
— The Cardinals survived a 2012 NLDS drama with the Nationals because, in large part, they got a combined 20 RBIs in five games from Jay, Descalso, David Freese, Craig and Schumaker. No Cooperstown-bound dudes in there.
— Freese was a decent but unheralded prospect playing at the High Class A level in the San Diego system when John Mozeliak got him in a trade for the unhappy Jim Edmonds. I think the Cardinals get a lot of credit for that trade, and as far as I’m concerned, Freese can be considered a Cards prospect because he joined them early in his trek through the minors. Luhnow and his strong analytics staff advocated for the trade.
— I also seem to recall Freese carrying the 2011 Cardinals with one of the truly great postseason hitting performances in franchise history. I liked watching every moment of that. Freese was virtually unstoppable. Wasn’t a star – until then he was a really, really big star at the most critical time of the baseball season.
— Do we remember what Pete Kozma did as an emergency shortstop for the 2012 Cardinals with a wild-card playoff spot on the line and the team struggling? Well, I do remember it, actually. Kozma unexpectedly hit up a storm in the final month of the regular season? Did that matter? No, not to the uninformed among us. Why? Because Kozma wasn’t a great player.
— Yeah, as a first-round draft pick, he was disappointing. But Kozma had a great month when the Cardinals needed every win they could get; in 24 September games in 2012, Kozma hit .343 with a .586 slugging percentage, 10 extra-base hits, 11 runs and 14 RBIs. And then he delivered the game-winning hit at Washington in that famous Game 5 to put the Cardinals in the NLCS. Did that count? I think it did. I think Kozma’s shortstop defense was important for the 2013 NL champions. But he wasn’t a great player, so …
— Anthony Reyes, Game 1 of the 2006 World Series? Out-pitched Justin Verlander. The Cardinals won that game, and couldn’t be stopped after that, putting the Tigers away in five. Chris Duncan’s big go-ahead double in that same Game 1? Huge.
— Jeff Weaver, who won a game in every 2006 postseason round including World Series Game 5? He was acquired for a prospect. And the dream Weaver was a big reason for STL’s first World Series title since 1982.
— Oscar Tavares? He hit the game-tying homer against the Giants in Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS, and then Matt Adams won that baby with a homer of his own.
— Remember when the visiting Cardinals trailed the Dodgers 6-1 in Game 1 of the 2014 NLCS? Yeah, they came back to win that baby 10-9 with Matt Carpenter hitting a homer, and then a bases-clearing three-run double, off Kershaw to put the Cardinals in the lead to stay.
— What about Adams, famously rocking a Kershaw curve for the home run that launched the Cardinals to the 2013 NL pennant? Wasn’t a great player, so …
— Have we forgotten about Carpenter’s impeccable work as the leadoff man from 2013 through 2018? Not me. Carpenter brilliantly set the table for a fantastic St. Louis offense. I guess I’m being Fredbird but I like a leadoff man who has a .389 onbase percentage, .495 slug, .884 OPS and a 143 wRC+ from the top spot over six seasons.
— Those are superb numbers for a leadoff man. But Carpenter wasn’t Pujols. Wasn’t Molina. So … was he just a contributor? I need a ruling. Carpenter is a lock for the Cardinals Hall of Fame. Does that count? Or is he just a guy, or something.
I could keep going. These pitchers and hitters – the non-superstars – played important roles for a franchise that was the envy of baseball for a long time until ownership-management failed to maintain the high standards.
These pitchers-hitters are worthy of respect for their legitimate roles on some classic Cardinal teams, and they were baseball heroes for some extraordinary moments. And you can tell it bothers me to see all of this drafting-development success be waved off as unimportant.
With the drafted-developed-acquired-signed prospects cultivated by the Cardinals and their roles in the success, here’s how the team stacked up from 2000 through 2022 in the major-league rankings for pitching and hitting over 23 seasons.
PITCHING, 2000-2022, NL RANKING
Team ERA: 2nd to the Dodgers
Starting pitching ERA: 2nd to the Dodgers
Starter innings: 1st in NL
Quality starts: 4th in NL
Win Probability Added: 3rd in NL.
Bullpen ERA: 5th in the NL
Bullpen Win Probability Added: 4th in NL
And much of the outstanding work over 23 years was turned in by home-schooled pitchers. From 2009 through 2022, St. Louis had a top-three rotation in the majors. And over those 14 seasons, 61 percent of the starts were made by homegrown hurlers. Does that warrant a compliment?
OFFENSE, 2000-2022, NL RANKING
Runs scored: 2nd to the Rockies*
wRC+: 1st in NL
Batting average: 2nd to the Rockies*
On-base percentage: 1st in NL
Slugging percentage: 2nd to the Rockies*
OPS: 2nd to the Rockies*
* Coors field factor.
The Cardinals’ player-development quality has lapsed, especially in the starting-pitching category. And they have to do much better. That’s why Chaim Bloom was hired. And that’s why he’s hired a bunch of smart people to restore the strength of a weakened area. The Cardinals have made quick progress on that front; FanGraphs recently placed the Cardinals at No. 1 in the major-league farm system rankings.
Let’s make something clear: until fairly recently, the Cardinals have absolutely been a robust draft-and-develop team under Bill DeWitt Jr. It’s a shame that he let that slide, and I’ve criticized him (and Mozeliak) many times for that.
I’m an oddball – and proud of it – because I like to study history and learn from it instead of making sweeping generalizations that are incorrect.
There are plenty of failures to rip the Cardinals for. So why peddle factually incorrect hokum to gin up a reason to blast them under a false premise?
Just one request:
Please know thy history.
Thanks for reading … if you missed yesterday's column on the NBA-style Dodgers, click HERE!
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Bernie covered every Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and Randy Karraker.