Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 01, 2009
Prompt Promotions

Derrick Goold pens an excellent article on the Cardinals propensity to promote minor league players quickly. The Cardinals understand a fundamental truth:

"When you look at the age at which the best players in baseball reach the big leagues, it's younger than most people think," Luhnow said. "The Scott Rolens, the Jim Edmondses, the Yadier Molinas -- all of those players -- they make it to the big leagues at 21, 22 or 23. So, that has to factor into it a bit. What it means more importantly is we're drafting younger players, we're developing them ourselves. And, we're pushing them aggressively through the system."

"Young is good," Luhnow continued. "There is no doubt. (Players) who make it in their late 20s are often serviceable guys, a bench guy, a late bloomer, but stars tend to make it young. ... We differentiate ourselves as a system if we're producing stars at the big-league level -- average to above-average performers, and those guys tend to be younger guys when they get here."

My only worry here is that they mistake success in a small sample size for talent. However, I agree that if a player has nothing to prove at his current level, he should move up. Younger players are just as good as older players, and come at a much lower cost.

This team won't make the mistake the Red Sox made with Wade Boggs and the Mariners made with Edgar Martinez.

Correction: Fixed link.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:30 AM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

If I were a GM, I'd do it that way. Even if the player doesn't have a lot of talent, many teams will be willing to trade for the player once they've had some big league experience 'cause they'll think maybe they can develop the young player into a star. Which means you can get something decent by trading him away. Trading someone already in their peak (26-30 yrs), everyone knows their downside is coming soonish.

Posted by: Devon Young at February 1, 2009 09:37 AM

David,

That is a nice article by Goold, and I'm looking forward to it paying off for the Cardinals in years to come. I thought you'd want to know, however, you've inadvertently inserted the link to the River Ave. Blues graph again.

The Goold link is here: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/D920CA9D5B4143F98625754F0012BF3B?OpenDocument

Thanks for one of my favorite daily stops,

Brian Welker

Posted by: Brian at February 1, 2009 09:41 AM

What's wrong with having the six years before free agency start with about age 24 or 25 or 26? Bring up a guy at 21, and if he's good he's making huge bucks, either for you or for someone else, at age 28.

Posted by: jim at February 2, 2009 08:09 AM
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