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Friday, August 05, 2005 |
The Joy Of A Good System
Bill Valentine, the general manager of the Arkansas Travelers, is a happy man. Why? FutureAngels shares with us an Arkansas Gazette-Democrat story (registration required, BugMeNot won't work) about the quality of the kids coming through Arkansas, keeping the talent pipeline filled. The Travs are in first place, and Dallas McPherson, Ervin Santana, and Casey Kotchman are playing with the big club. It's a big difference from when it was the Cards' team; they had a lousy farm system, with few prospects going through:
"There was nobody in Little Rock going to St. Louis and hadn’t in several years," Valentine said, recalling his response to die-hard Cardinals fans who complained they would no longer get to see future Cardinals patrolling Ray Winder Field. "We were playing with a bunch of pickups and never-will-bes."Desperate for pitching, the Cards made panic promotions:...
Valentine recalled spending most of 2000 watching Cardinals prospects like Pujols skip over Little Rock and go from Class A directly to Class AAA Memphis, where the Cards’ Pacific Coast League affiliate had opened its first-class new ballpark.
"They were looking for pitching, No. 1," Valentine said. "They tried everybody on the staff. Hey, you win four in a row, you’ve got a shot at the Cardinals."...
Valentine said he knows which method of building a team he prefers. "Everybody the Angels send up, look at them, they’ve been productive players," Valentine said. "They go to the Angels, the play for the Angels, they start for the Angels and the produce for the Angels."
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