Under Dave Duncan's guidance, Dave Stewart, a career spot starter and long reliever, became a Cy Young contender and World Series MVP.Dennis Eckersley became a Hall of Famer.
Chris Carpenter went from a broken down and forgotten piece from Toronto to a Cy Young winner in St. Louis.
Jeff Weaver went from being the Billy Bibbit of baseball to having ice water in his veins, winning the clinching game of the World Series.
Each year a new pitcher goes to St. Louis to see if Dave Duncan can do for them what the Cocoons did for Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley and Hume Cronyn.
Joel Pinero, Ryan Franklin, Kyle Loshe, Woody Williams, Garrett Stephenson and many more all saw their careers almost instantly improve when they put on the Cardinals uniform.
And now...
Brad Penny.
Yes the same Brad Penny who did his best to torpedo the Red Sox playoff chances last year before Theo waved the white flag.
Yeah, he pitched well for the Giants down the stretch, but today he shut them down, raising his record to 3-0 with a 0.94 ERA. He pitched into the 8th today and threw at least 7 innings in each of his 4 starts.
I refuse to put him in my NL Cy Young Award conversation just now.
Seriously... how does Dave Duncan do it?
Is he just smarter?
Or does he have a magic potion?
I would accept either answer.
Dave Duncan understands that you only need to get an out. You don't have to strike out the world. The irony will be that his genius will get Tony Larussa in the Hall of Fame and not himself. TLR is nothing without DD.
ReplyDeleteAs for Dave Stewart, think steroids!
Even if it hurts, even if it makes your bile boil, you've gotta throw Penny in your Cy Young pot. And yes, every flat fastball he throws which gets pounded into red earth pains me as well...
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