The Cardinals Way (30 page)

“You know, he had a really good year. He hit .402. He had 164 at bats; .402. On base, .482. Slugging, .494. And he stole thirty-two bags. Okay? He's a top-of-the-order guy and he can get things nutty out there when gets on the bases. Now, can he drive a ball? Listen. He's not real strong, but to win the game, you got a guy throwing a ninety-two or a ninety-five and he took a ninety-four-mile-an-hour fastball and went oppo with it over the shortstop's head. He doesn't back down and I got the money on him that I have, and every bit of that I leave on him. He's another guy that says, Dan … he would like to get a little more than the hundred thousand bucks. Maybe two hundred or something like that. I think it's a little bit of a smoke screen. And we can get him for around the hundred or a hundred whatever. He's got an agent. He has no problems going back to school next year at Miami Dade. He even said to me, he goes, ‘Well, if I go to school, I can get a little stronger and come back.' And I think he's completely right. I mean, too bad he's not going to be here [tomorrow]. He's in the World Series right now.”

“We've got a guy from California watching him right now in the World Series,” Kantrovitz replied. “So we'll get a report on him in his final games.”

The consensus, Gonzalez included, was that Seferina didn't have the arm for shortstop.

“Everything else is there,” Gonzalez continued. “The hands are good enough. The range is good enough. But he doesn't have the arm. He's perfectly suited for two places. Second base and center field. But I think this guy can stay on the dirt at second base. I know he can. I've seen him do too much there.”

The question then turns to how long they can wait and still get him.

“Well, if we're interested in this guy, and not without me getting any new information that I should get plenty more before the draft, I would say we wouldn't have to take him before the fifth, you know? Start talking about him at the fifth. And I would say between the fifth and the ninth round.”

On the other hand, Kantrovitz appeared unmoved by the enthusiasm from Gonzalez and Arango on another prospect, one the Cardinals ultimately didn't draft.

“Yeah, I love this kid,” Gonzalez said. “He's one of these guys where—okay, let me break down his tools first. He's about five feet ten. He's a blond-headed Cuban kid from Key West. Talks with a Cajun accent. For some reason down in Key West, they do that. And this kid—he was around last year. He played at Key West High School. Was a tough, tough kid. Pitched. Closed games. Up to ninety-one. Played shortstop. He's not a shortstop. He played shortstop a lot this year, too. He's definitely not a shortstop. And he's good enough to hang at second base. And he might hang there for his whole career. He can definitely go out and play center field, too. He's got a plus arm. He's a plus runner. This guy's got some pop in his bat. He's got an approach like Pete Rose. You know, Pete Rose and the guy—[David] Eckstein. Kind of Eckstein-y. He kind of—he crowds the plate. Loves to get hit. He's just a dirtbag, and I love this kid, the way he plays the game. I don't really care where's he's going to play. I think he's got a chance to stay at second base. He is not as good a defender as Seferina at second base. He doesn't have as soft hands. However, I'm not saying he can't stay at second base his whole career. You talk to him and he says, ‘Well, you know, I play at second base, but you're wasting my arm, you know? 'Cause I got such a—' You know? He hits. He hits on base. He runs. He's superaggressive.

“And let me tell you something. He can drive some balls out of the yard. I—he has a little bit of Lenny Dykstra, that tough kind of ‘Let's brawl' kind of thing. I think our player development people will love him. He's an above-average runner. Let's see what he's got: 190 at bats. He hit .400. He hit three home runs. Twenty-six strikeouts. Fifteen walks. On base, .451. Slugging, .574. He stole twenty of twenty-three bags. He doesn't play the game to be passive. You know what I mean? And he wants to be the guy in the box with the bat in his hand to win the game.”

Kantrovitz responded, “I want to point out, Charlie, those are not good numbers for—in the level of competition that he's facing—to suggest he's going to do well in pro ball.”

“Well, that I can't argue, not with the numbers,” Gonzalez said. “The numbers are what the numbers are. I'm telling you this much, Dan. You watch that kid play five games, you want him on our team. I do. We can sign him for a hundred grand. One twenty maybe. Dan, he's going to play center field or second base. He can spot you some third. He played short, third, second, and center field this year. Dan, let me tell you something. The strongest thing about this kid is his whole approach to the game. He hits. He hits balls hard. He's not pretty. You might laugh when you see him in the box tomorrow. To me, big league teams need a guy like this guy, you know? It's a no-brainer for me to want him to be in a Cardinals uniform.”

Arango was clearly enamored by the guy as well:

“He hit a triple the first time up through center field. And he hit a home run off of a curveball.”

“At a big park!” Gonzalez added.

“He run a four-two. He's got a hose for an arm,” Arango continued. “And this guy comes to play. He's going to try to beat you any way he can, okay? That's all I got to say. Because this guy—the ball just jumps.”

Kantrovitz remained skeptical. “Is carry tool just intangibles?”

“No, man,” Gonzalez replied. “This guy hits, Dan. This guy hits. This guy hits. He runs and he's got a plus arm. And then you throw the intangibles in there with it and—look at Eckstein's tools. He used to hold the ball like a little trophy-case thing and frickin' launch it. I mean, you know?”

The problem with a David Eckstein comp is that almost all players with Eckstein's tools do not, ultimately, reach the major leagues, let alone have a long career.

“I'm trying to like him,” Kantrovitz said. “I mean, guys that we overlook the numbers on typically have loud tools. And it doesn't sound like he's got loud tools.”

Ultimately, he went to another team in the draft, but never hit minor league pitching.

“And don't think I didn't get the
look
from Charlie!” Kantrovitz e-mailed me shortly after it happened.

Gonzalez would not have much cause for complaint once the draft was complete, however.

Matt Pearce came up a few minutes later, and Gonzalez immediately declared Pearce would be “one of my gut feels.”

“You only get one,” both Almaraz and Arango called out. The other scouts needled Gonzalez throughout his presentation, but Gonzalez didn't engage, kept brushing them off and charging forward, starting to sweat through his Hawaiian shirt. These were max-effort scouting reports.

“That's the most frustrating thing every year for me,” Gonzalez said. “I swear to God. No. We usually get three, I'll tell you. How do you do this? How do you do this? Okay. Listen. This guy here is a guy that—I knew him in high school and played for Frank Turco, Steve's brother over there. And he's got a really, really good delivery. He was a skinny kid, about six feet one, 180 pounds. He's now six feet three, about 215 pounds. He's got, in my opinion, I think [Cardinals minor league pitching coach] Paul [Davis] thinks the same way, one of the best deliveries on my list. He's six feet three, about 215 pounds. He's eighty-eight to ninety-three. I think he's got a little bit more in there, but that's not what this kid's about. He throws—pounds the strike zone. He's got a curveball, twelve to six, a slow roller. But it's a get-me-over pitch. Go through the order once or twice and you start getting me over early. Eighty-two innings, seventy-three strikeouts, nine walks. I love that. Two point six one ERA … I went out and saw him early. I always knew the kid. I saw him in the fall. God, I just love his mechanics. He just reminds me of one of those old, high, three-quarter classic delivery pitchers that doesn't blow you away with the velo, but it'll get you downhill. And you know what? Everyone tell me, he never shows you his changeup is his best pitch.… Talked to the coach. He said, ‘Charlie, his changeup is his best pitch.' He had a slider for Fernando and I, I think up at seventy-nine, eighty-one. The curveball is twelve to six. But we got there late and I talked to a few friends of ours who were sitting right there. They tell me the truth. They said he had a couple ninety-threes. And he had several ninety-twos for us. He's always been eighty-seven to ninety-two for me and he's throwing harder. He's downhill.

“I love this kid. I love his delivery. There's nothing electric about him, but he's a starter and he's like flipping a switch. He's got one of the best deliveries I got here, and he's got his stuff. And he doesn't walk people. And he's the one with the number. I go to the family, I say, ‘Listen, what's the deal?' And I'm sitting there with the parents and they say, ‘Well, we have a number.' And I said, ‘What's the number?' They said eighty thousand dollars, and I about shit. He goes to the Padres' workout the other day, and he throws for them and I heard he was lights-out at their workout in a bull pen. And they talked to him about the money and he said—he told them and he said—I told you the rest, Dan. They told him, ‘We'll work something out. Tell people different. We're going to take you.'”

Arango, too, talked about Pearce's mechanics, and Kantrovitz reminded everyone that the mechanics grade is separate from the scouting grade.

“I want to make sure that we're liking him because you see his stuff now, and know that he's going to improve,” Kantrovitz said. “So at what point in the draft do I need to start thinking about him?”

“Well, for me, I think kid's going to go,” Gonzalez said. “Guys like the—like the Padres and people like that. I would say the sixth round. Get him by the sixth round. And if I find out, Dan, and I feel that it's later, I'll let you know. You know, you start throwing eighty grand.”

“I'm hearing you,” Kantrovitz said. “And I want to try and get him.”

“This guy's a strike thrower and he's got four distinct pitches. I really—like I said, I would take a gut feel and slap it on this guy,” Gonzalez concluded.

It would not be his only gut-feel guy. Not even close.

Another player Charlie Gonzalez liked, Austin Gomber, almost got devalued by a stray news article and his coach's preference for changeups over curveballs.

“Austin Gomber is a twenty-year-old, twenty-point-six junior. He's a year ahead. Six-feet-five, 210–pound, left-handed starter. Eighty-eight to ninety-five is his range,” Gonzalez said. Then: “What happened?”

FERNANDO: Nothing.

CHARLIE: What?

DAN: Fernando just said Gomber got hurt?

FERNANDO: He was hurt for a week.

CHARLIE: Hurt?

FERNANDO: He was hurt.

CHARLIE: Oh, no.

FERNANDO: There was text by the coach that said his elbow has bothering him. And the way he hit the last time, he wasn't here. We'll talk about it later.

Gonzalez continued, painting the picture. “Yeah. No, no, no. He's here. He'll be here tomorrow. He's throwing tomorrow. I talked to [Florida Atlantic coach John McCormack] about it. He was—he missed one start because he was sore and flu-ish, and then they said, ‘Do you want to miss the next start?' But then he said no and he threw.

“Okay. Austin Gomber. Six feet five, 210–15 pounds. He's a young kid. A year ahead. Eighty-eight—the range is eighty-eight to ninety-five. He probably pitches at around ninety. Well, used to pitch at a higher level—a higher velocity. He's got a curveball. It's turned into a pretty good curveball. I don't know, mid to higher seventies, and he's got a good changeup. I don't like the way this guy's been used. I don't like the pitches he's used this year. I don't like the way that they have groomed him. He had a good year last year. He was throwing the hell out of it this year in the fall. Ninety-threes, ninety-fours. And he's now—we saw him last week and he was eighty-eight, topped out at ninety-two. And the curveball was good. He only threw seven curveballs in six innings.

“I talked to Mack yesterday for about forty-five minutes about him. He says there's nothing there other than the fact that him and [Florida Atlantic pitching coach] Jason [Jackson] have come together with a game plan of what they think the way to attack people is. They thought they should throw more changeups than the curveball. He said have him throw as many curveballs as you want. He says curveball to death. Let it rip. Clean bill of health.

“Big young kid and he's got decent delivery. He's got a little bit of a leg jolt when he comes back. It's a little different, but he's clean from here throughout there. For me, he had a hard time keeping the ball down this year. He's not a real finesse kind of dude. He doesn't have a great feel for anything. But he's a six-foot-five lefty that's young and he throws hard and he throws strikes. I like Gomber. I'd like to get Gomber. He's a country boy. Wants no part of school. He's signing wherever the hell he is. He would take two grand.… But he's not going to get near there.

“This guy can hold 245 pounds. So, some things about him I like. I've got any medical that he's had. I talked to the people. I talked to Mack about him missing the start. They said, ‘No. In fact, we asked him, ‘Do you want to miss the next start? Are you feeling—' He said absolute not, and they threw him out there on six days' rest. I like this guy. We have to reinvent him and teach him how to pitch a little bit, but the package is there. But he's signable. And that's that. He's a blue-collar kid from Orlando.”

But the concern had been planted—the FAU site had a story when he missed the start, “Gomber Lost for Season?” Now Gomber wasn't throwing his curveball much. They'd have to see what the curveball looked like at the following day's workout. Gomber's entire future with the Cardinals might rest on it.