[azru]: I was excited when roarke contacted me about writing again. He’s an old hand at this having been a regular DFR contributor in the past. Alas, he was waylaid by two little girls (my words not his) and children beat blogging every time. What follows are some of his notes from Jupiter and a great set of photos. Welcome back, roarke!
Hello my internet friends and acquaintances, it has been a long time. As some of the long-time visitors to this site may recall, I used to be a regular contributor here (back in 2008, which, not coincidentally, was the last baseball season before children entered the roarke household). Writing for Future Redbirds was not the only thing that fell by the wayside as real life intervened; my annual trips to Jupiter for Spring Training also ceased for a few years.
Until this year, that is.
I was able to sneak away for a few days and catch some games and practices last week and azru has been kind enough to let me share some pictures I took and my observations. So, without further ado, words and pictures are after the jump.
One of the players that I was most eager to see was Tyrell Jenkins and I got the opportunity to see him in a game against the Mets on Saturday. As azru noted in the DFR, Jenkins got hit around a little bit during the game. He flashed the stuff that has made him one of the Cardinals top prospects, but he was inconsistent with his command, leaving offspeed pitches up in the zone that led to hits.
I was able to position myself so that I could see the gun readings that the players were getting on Jenkins and his fastball was usually between 90-92 and he hit 96 once while I was watching (of course, I only stood there for parts of two innings, so perhaps what I saw wasn’t representative). His curve clocked in at about 77 and he threw a changeup around 83. Here is a sequence of pictures of his pitching motion:
Jenkins had a nice, easy delivery and was about what I expected: raw, with flashes of brilliance. He struck out one Met on a curveball that was a thing of beauty. He definitely has big league ability, but he’s still quite a way off from being able to consistently put out that level of performance, which is expected at this stage of his development.
Another player I was anxious to see was Oscar Tavares. I was able to see him bat a couple of times in an inter-squad game and once as a pinch hitter in the big league game. OT (as his teammates called him) showed a little bit better plate discipline than I expected, but when he unleashed his swing, there was definitely a bit of violence in his swing (as I think Kevin Goldstein described it).
He was overmatched in the big league game and struck out, corkscrewing himself into the ground on the third strike. Below is a sequence of pictures from the inter-squad game where he hit a bullet to second base (which, incidentally, Kozma made a fantastic diving play on to get OT to end the inning):
I don’t believe I ever saw Kolton Wong in game action, but I did see him take BP (no good pictures, though) and I did watch him participate in DP drills. He appears to be fundamentally sound in all aspects. Nothing about him really blew me away, but he sprayed line drives and he and Kozma were clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the second basemen participating in the drills. Here are a couple of pictures of him taking a grounder and feeding a shortstop for a double play:
As a side note, during the middle infield drills that I watched, Wong, Kozma and Jackson all looked great; and everyone else looked ok, except Kenny Peoples-Walls, who was very sloppy and booted several grounders. Perhaps he was having a bad day, but he looked unfocused and lazy in comparison with the rest of the group.
I also saw Zack Cox take BP and I really like the look of his swing. To me, his swing looks like it should generate more power than it does, but, true to form, he hit line drives and warning track fly balls without any home runs during the time that I saw him (again, small sample size warning).
I never saw Shelby Miller pitch (or Carlos Martinez or Trevor Rosenthal – I was a little unlucky), but I watched him take part in some drills and he seemed to carry himself with a confidence that some of the other players didn’t have. Perhaps it was just the assurance that he wasn’t going to get cut, but he seemed comfortable.
I did see Shooter Hunt pitch during the intra-squad game. He was wild early, but his catcher came out to talk to him and he pulled it together, getting out of a jam and throwing two really nice curves for strikeouts. I was impressed with his stuff, I just hope he can maintain consistency. Here is a picture sequence of his motion:
Another guy that impressed me was Ramon Ulacio. I didn’t know anything about him before going to Jupiter, but I saw him throw a side session in a group that included Scott Gorgen, Brandon Dickson and a couple of other guys, and Ulacio’s pitches just sounded different from the rest. There was no gun on these guys, but I put Ulacio as the hardest thrower in the group. His slider is still a work in progress – it wasn’t especially sharp and could been seen coming a mile away, but his fastball seemed like the real deal. His strikeout numbers in the Gulf Coast League last year are nothing to get excited about, but I’m interested in seeing what becomes of this guy after seeing him in person.
Finally, on a somewhat different side note, some Cardinals dignitaries came out to watch Tyrell Jenkins pitch – in one golf cart was John Mozeliak and in another was Whitey Herzog. Mo actually sits in the row in front of my Dad at the big league games, so seeing him wasn’t that big of a deal, but Whitey was another story. As someone who grew up in St. Louis in the 80′s, Whitey is an icon – a living legend. This was the first year that he had returned to Cardinals camp (because of LaRussa), so it was pretty cool to be that close to him. My Dad went over and talked to him and said “Mr. Herzog, does it get any better than this – watching baseball on a beautiful day like today?” Whitey paused for just a second and then said “Well, I think I’d rather be fishin’.” I stood nearby for a while and listened to him tell stories to Dyar Miller for a while (note: Mr. Herzog has a potty mouth), which was about as cool as it gets. Then, I approached and asked him for his autograph.
Now, I am not an autograph guy – I haven’t asked anyone for an autograph since I was 12 and I got Danny Cox to sign prior to a Cardinals game – but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to interact with Whitey Herzog. He was very gracious and signed a foul ball that I had picked up a few minutes earlier:
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Thanks, roarke! A very good read.
“Well, I think I’d rather be fishin’.” One of the things I always loved about Whitey: a healthy sense of self-deprecation.
This sounds like ENORMOUS fun. By ST time next year, I expect to be retired, and will see if we can make it down there to do as you’ve done.
Gorgeous autograph – he has a perfect signature! I like the dirty ball too :) I went to the intersquad sunday and then again monday vs the mets, liked reading your view of the games! xo
Roarke’s back!
I agree the backfields are great. I was watching Carlos Martinez pitch when I look to my left do a double take and see that Red Schendiost is in a cart carefully watching Martinez pitch. A few minutes later Mo drives up on his cart and parks right on my right side to watch Martinez. I leave to another field to watch someone else pitch during the Cardinals half of the inning. I look over I see DeWitt standing talking to Mo. I go back to the Martinez field in a differnet position. A few minutes later Mo and DeWitt pull up on the other side of me(I had moved in relation to Red) and I hear them talking watching Martinez.
Thank you all for the kind comments. I had a great time down there – I just wish I could have stayed longer. Gruntosaurus: you should absolutely go if you get the chance, especially if you follow the minor leagues. The big league games and practices are fun, but it gets pretty crowded with fans now (which has changed in the last five years, I don’t remember it being as crowded before), but the minor league camp is still pretty open – most of the time there were less than 25 fans hanging around. I’m extrememly lucky because my parents are both retired and rent a condo on the beach for the whole month of March and get season tickets to the Cardinals Spring games. Even at my age, I’m not too ashamed to mooch off of them for a week or so.
Whitey’s autograph.
A long time ago (I think Whitey was still the manager), my dad played in the Ken Boyer Memorial Golf Tournament and won an autographed authentic St. Louis Browns cap during the fund-raising portion of the evening. The cap was donated and autographed by some old Brown by the name of Frank Oft or Orft or something (none of those names result in anything on b-r so I’m probably mis-remembering it).
Anyway, after the banquet and event and stuff, my dad is walking back to the car (it must have been a bit of a walk) and a golf cart pulls up and the guy in it says “wanna ride?”. It was well-primed Whitey Herzog.
(now that I’m thinking about this, this story is starting to sound like that David Allen Coe song “The Ride”….anyhoo….)
My dad says “sure” and hops in the golf cart. So, Whitey starts going on and on about Lord knows what and notices the Browns hat and asks to see it. He checks it over and in a very inebriated way says, and I quote, “You got a kid?” My dad says “yeah”. So, without hesitation, Whitey whips out a black magic marker and slaps his signature right across the bill of the cap.
My dad just kind of laughs, says thanks, gets out of the cart (they had arrived at his car) and tells Whitey to have a good night. Whitey says, “alright” and speeds away.
So, now I get this authentic, wool St. Louis Browns cap with “Best Wishes, Frank Orft (or whatever the name is)” with “Whitey Herzog” written right across the original signature.
It’s actually pretty cool.
I love a good research project, so I went digging through some Browns references and came up as baffled as you by that cap. Do you have a sense of when it was used? That might help, but if you’re sure the first name really is Frank, then your best choices are these two guys:
Frank O’Rourke, long-time major-league catcher who played for the Browns from 1927 to 1931. He died, full of years (age 92!), in 1986, which would make him marginally capable of donating a cap to a team that White managed.
Or: Frankie Pack, who had a grand total of one (1) at-bat for the 1949 Browns. (He struck out, naturally; these were the Browns, after all.) He lived until 2000 and could easily have been around to autograph a cap.
Otherwise, the few Franks or Frankies that played for the Browns either had names that couldn’t possibly be confused with O**t, or had passed from the scene long before this incident.
Great story, regardless.
TB – I think that’s one of the souvenirs where the story behind it makes it more valuable than the mere signatures.