Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Jim Irsay: We Can Make It Work With Peyton Manning

Photo_2

felone

Apr 09, 2008 May 28, 2009 1 51

a fan of

St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball Team

St. Louis Rams National Football League Team

Missouri Tigers NCAA Men's Football Division 1A Team

rss icon RSSUser Blog

Viva El Birdos Todd Van Poppel v. Anthony Reyes

When the Cardinals traded Anthony Reyes it got me thinking about another high profile RHP who didn't seem to do to well under LaDunc - Todd Van Poppel.  

I'm curious (and can't find any anecdotal evidence one way or another) as to what was the problem with Todd Van Poppel and why he didn't live up to the hype.  Was there any of the "pitch to contact" philosophical differences?  Was his stuff not as good as advertised?  How did he get along with Duncan?  

Does anyone recall this?  Is Duncan ever blamed for his poor results? I recall the hype and lack of success, but too young to remember and can't find (alas before the days of instant blogification) the reasons why.

As a separate question - Can anyone think of starting pitchers who have been developed in the organization and had great success as pitchers under Duncan (either in Oak or STL)?  The only one that comes to mind for me is Matt Morris (Wagonmaker's on his way, even though he wasn't drafted by the Cardinals).  Duncan's greatest successes that I can think of seem to be 'Duncan specials' (Suppan, Bottenfield, Welch, Stewart, Carpenter, Lohse, etc,) and didn't come up through the system. 

1st fan post, please be kind :-) 

41 comments  |