The Cardinals Way (31 page)

He also had to overcome that when Arango saw him, he didn't pitch well.

“There's a couple of things that I want to bring up, and I want to leave the last one that happened the other day, because there's something that needs to be checked,” Arango said of Gomber. “I might be a jinx for this guy. Every time I go see him, in the third and fourth inning he had troubles. You were there. Remember that? Matt Slater was there. The same thing happened. Now, he's got ability and he's a young guy and all that. But I find out—Charlie and I are driving together—that he came out that he was sore. So I checked in their Web site and all of that and the question was “FAU wins. Is Gomber lost for the season?”

Gonzalez objected as Arango continued, returning to the questions about Gomber's health, an emphasis of how the Cardinals project potential draft picks.

“And—that's what it was, Charlie. I got it on the text. And then, find out there's a text from the coach that says that he has sore body and a tender rib, okay? And they say okay. He's going to pitch there. So I went to see him pitch. He touched ninety-two once. He mostly pitched with his fastball and changeup. He was eighty-eight, eighty-nine with the fastball. He threw four curveballs. Only one was a strike. In three innings. Which makes you wonder, too. Why isn't he throwing his curveball more? And it wasn't the curveball that he's shown that's better than that. And what I put on the report, relied on his fastball and change. His use was struggling in the third inning. He did it again. And I said, ‘Would have him checked by a trainer and doctor if possible.'”

After a discussion to drill down into precisely what the information was, how much credence to give the report, and precisely how to determine whether Gomber still had an issue, Gonzalez proposed the solution.

“Okay. Listen. I think the kid's perfectly healthy. He's going to be here tomorrow to throw. I spoke to Mack. I've known Mack for twenty-five years. He said, ‘Charlie.' I said, “Shoot me straight. What's with the seven curveballs?' He says, ‘Charlie, I'm going to get the numbers and see how many curveballs.' He said he's perfectly fine. He goes, ‘Check him out. Bring him to any doctor.' He's throwing tomorrow at our workout. And he says clean bill of health as far as we know. He said check him out if you want.”

Arango agreed. “And listen. I'm not trying to kill the guy. All I say is have him checked out. That's all I'm saying because that's something that needs to be addressed.”

Gonzalez concluded, “I bet that writer got fired that put that on the Web site.”

Gonzalez finished around five fifteen; or more accurately, Kantrovitz waved him off at that point.

DAN: Okay. Well, we went a little bit over, Charlie, because you've got a great area and you talk so, you know. It's great to hear you talk about your players.

JAMAL: You owe me a steak dinner.

DAN: Why? Because he's over time?

CHARLIE: We didn't go—we didn't stay under fifty-five minutes?

JAMAL: He said fifty-five minutes.

DAN: You broke your old record.

FERNANDO: Holy shit. He did. It's five fifteen. We started at noon.

After a five-minute break, it was Ty Boyles's turn to present. This was his first season as an area scout, but he clearly knew the business well. If his presentation lacked the voluminous details of Gonzalez's, he was ultraprepared and knew which questions needed answering on each of his players.

It started to get dark outside, and another player came up who looked good the previous summer, changed his approach with his high school coach, and saw his performance and projection suffer.

“We need to make a study of all the guys that we liked offensively in the summertime and then their performance in the [following] spring that changes our mind again,” Almaraz said. “Because he's not the only player we talked about this [happening with], you know? We repeatedly talked about this. Then after that, to see how many guys go on to have success on the original mold that we had from the summer. Because this kid—I liked this kid.”

A few minutes later, Boyles began his presentation on another arm who'd eventually become a Cardinal.

“Jordan DeLorenzo. Left-handed pitcher at University of West Florida. Fell in love with this guy early. Left-handed pitcher. Plus command, plus pitchability. Average fastball, eighty-seven to ninety-one. Curveball's a bit of a slurve pitch. Somewhere between a slider and a curveball. Seventy-six to eighty. Changeup, eighty to eighty-one. Just a guy that went out and pitched. I mean, he's absolutely pitched. The stuff was average for me across the board. I liked the way that he went about it. He went about it like a big leaguer. But I think at the end of the day, it's—he's not a big kid. There's not a lot of projection left in the body. He kind of is what he is, and I think that's what he's probably going to be. I think he's always going to have that kind of stuff. But I think he can go out and do well. And he's a competitor. Ultracompetitor. Keeps the ball down. Keeps the ball out of the middle. Knows how to pitch. Knows what he's doing. I mean, I think he's got a chance to go out and do well.”

Arango agreed:

“Tell you what. I like this kid. He goes after it. He pitched with an average fastball. His curveball, I think, is going to get better. He has one of those sweeping curveballs that goes into the back foot of the right-handed hitter. And his makeup is off the charts. I mean, I really liked him. And he's a stocky—what, five-feet-ten, five-eleven guy?

“But I tell you what, he's got that face on the mound. The mound presence. And he just stands there and says, ‘Let's go.' And I mean, he's stocky. Not big, but he's stocky and strong. So he's one of those guys—we might be able to get this guy in the fifteenth round. Around there. And if you want a lefty that can really come in here and win for you.”

Kantrovitz recalled the excitement in Boyles's voice when they first discussed DeLorenzo on the phone and wondered what round the Cardinals would need to start thinking about drafting him.

“I think you got to take him in the top ten rounds,” Boyles said. “I think there's been a lot of teams who have been there to see him. I know cross-checkers have been there to see him. The guys that have seen him, I think that's what they're asking for is top-ten-round slot money.… I mean, I would say seventh to ten, somewhere in there. But I don't think he'll slip after that.” Arango's projection slipped a few rounds—all because of an inch of top height.

“I would wait until the eleventh or twelfth round. I think that's where he fits. If he were a six-footer or something like that, maybe, more potential for his fastball. But I think this kind of guy's usually taken after the tenth round.”

The evening grew later. As Ty got near the top of his list, the conversation grew fuller, with most players seen not only by Boyles, but by Arango, the Southeast cross-checker, and often by Almaraz and Strong, the two national cross-checkers, as well.

That allowed for a deeper dive into not just what kind of player each prospect was, but what everybody thought about what kind of person each one was.

Take one player, who went on to be drafted in the first round, but not by the Cardinals:

“I mean, it's a tough one 'cause he's just dripping with tools that we like,” Kantrovitz said. “I think Ty said earlier, in terms of what kind of kid he is. And I didn't talk to him, but I went down to the batting cage before he took it on the field, when he was in the cages, and there was another scout there that was just like grilling him. It was basically three of us and I'm just standing there listening. And I'll give the kid the benefit of the doubt and say that he was immature. Because if you're not saying he's immature, he has no aptitude, no ability to really carry on a coherent, intelligent conversation. To give you any indication that he's going to, like, make some adjustment. I mean, it was very unimpressive.

“I know he's a baseball player, high school kid, and he doesn't have to be a rocket scientist, but you talk to the other guys we've drafted like Mercado and Carson Kelly, high school kids, and these guys are like mature adults almost. And, I mean, I think when we invest a lot in a high school kid, that that's the one thing we can certain of. We don't know if he's going to hit or not or all the other uncertainties, but we can know that he's this mature individual. I didn't get it from that. I mean, if you said otherwise 'cause you'd know better than I would, I would just go with that.”

But Boyles agreed; the player had a strange lack of confidence in his own ability.

“And that's a strange combination, though, when you're that talented and it's a natural and you don't have confidence in it,” Gonzalez added. “That's a bizarre coupling of stuff. There could be complications somewhere. 'Cause you don't have to be flamboyantly confident, but at least have some inner confidence.”

Almaraz spoke up: “All players, I don't care where you play, all players have insecurities. Period.”

“Even the big leaguers,” Strong added, and he'd know—he was one.

“But the confidence of your tools that you have give you that confidence to play the game with some kind of confidence,” Almaraz said.

“Yeah, I mean, when Mercado, Carson Kelly, Rob Kaminsky, came to Busch Stadium after we signed them, and as I'm sure you guys were, I'm proud of them,” Kantrovitz said. “I might be afraid to leave this guy alone, with the media or front office.”

Yet, everyone agreed, the tools were undeniable.

“We can laugh about this now, but two years from now we might not be laughing,” Arango said.

Kantrovitz concluded, “I know. Yeah. Well, I don't think we're going to figure it out.”

But it
was
Kantrovitz's job to figure it out—not just broadly, whether the kid would be a bust or mature, but precisely how much money to bet on whether he ever would. To determine whether even making that bet would be a good idea, or if the Cardinals should be placing their wager on another player altogether.

So the meeting continued until nearly 9:00
P.M.
, each scout getting full say on every player mentioned, Kantrovitz cross-referencing his data, speaking those two languages back and forth as he translated them in his mind.

“There was something with this guy,” Kantrovitz said about a player the Cardinals didn't draft. “It wasn't a medical. I don't think he's liked very well by the video right now. One of our worst. I'll talk with those guys and see if there's a reason why he's—ends up being lower than you guys like him. That's a pretty good bet.”

“So the video grade is incorporated into, like, an overall STOUT-type thing?” Gonzalez asked.

“No,” Kantrovitz answered. “I just did it in my head, and I can estimate where he's going to come in relation to some other guys we're looking at.” That meant Kantrovitz was capable of replicating the process created by the Cardinals over roughly a decade and apply it, balancing all the information—statistical, scouting, medical, and mechanical—in his own head.

It helps to have someone making the picks who can do that.

When Ty was finished, well after 8:00
P.M.
, Kantrovitz made sure to praise him for the presentation, as did the rest of the group. The other scouts also took the opportunity to needle Charlie Gonzalez.

DAN: Fair enough. Okay. Let's go get dinner. Ty, that was an excellent job.

JAMAL: Heck of a job.

DAN: That was one of the best we've had.

JOE: Two hours.

DAN: You were concise. You were to the point.

JAMAL: Good job, Ty.

DAN: You spent time on guys that you liked and you were prepared. That was outstanding.

JAMAL: Charlie, take some notes.

DAN: Thank you, Jamal.

JOE: You weren't elaborate, you know, unnecessarily.

May 27, Jupiter, Florida

Nearly fifty area players gathered on the main field at Roger Dean Stadium early Tuesday morning. This was the final chance for the Cardinals to ask questions and to observe, and for each player, it was the final chance to make an impression on the group of scouts and Kantrovitz, all of whom had been tracking the prospects for a year, often longer.

Charlie Gonzalez was utterly in his element. Gonzalez's red complexion, honed through years in Florida sunshine on surfboards and in the stands at baseball games, actually paled in comparison to his bright red, button-down shirt, Gonzalez protected from that sun by a tan panama hat.

He seemed to be moving in every direction at once, lining up the would-be shortstops to make the throws from various distances at the position, along with the few second basemen. (Generally, if the players weren't shortstops, they weren't getting drafted. You could always move a shortstop to second, but not the other way around.)

A name is called, a coach hits a grounder, the prospect fields and throws. Everybody watches, none closer than Kantrovitz, standing in a striped polo shirt and dark Cardinals hat, a few feet from the first baseman.

A few of the prospects were moved to second base—those the Cardinals thought might have to move there sooner rather than later if drafted.

“Okay, we're going two!” Gonzalez declared. “Game-time speed, fellas!”

Turco's Gulf Coast day had been canceled. It was all hands on deck at the combine. A group of the coaches saw one shortstop's throws that reminded them of Jeter's at that age, and they speculated about whether Jeter would have enjoyed the same success on another team.

“How do you know he's gonna be what he is?” Davis said. “Would he have wanted to be the shortstop for the Houston Astros?” Another intangible question they'd all gathered to answer.

A catching prospect, a switch-hitter and a
Baseball America
Top 100 amateur prospect who ultimately went to college, drew raves in the box. He wanted $2 million to forgo school. He wasn't drafted high, as his skills warranted, because teams chose not to give it to him. And yet …