Todd Van Poppel v. Anthony Reyes

felone — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:14:12 -0000

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 :-)

SB Nation User Blog: felone

Todd Van Poppel v. Anthony Reyes