Dave Duncan is looking to change the direction of the Cardinals pitching staff. Is it just a problem of not listening?
As far as adjusting the rotation, Duncan said, “I don’t know if it’s that. What you do with each guy is try to identify things that are particular to them that they need to do in order to succeed and (identify) the things they have a tendency to do that hurt them. You try to eliminate the things that hurt them.
“Each guy knows what those things are, but when you see those things reoccur and that makes it more difficult for them to win, somewhere along the line you’ve got to take a stronger stance.”
Translation: We’re coaching just fine, but the players aren’t listening to us. Well, if they’re not listening, you’re not coaching just fine. There’s no hint as to what will be done to get their attention.
The trouble is, they like to turn pitchers into clones of each other, rather that have each pitcher pitch to their strengths.
They’ve forced Anthony Reyes to start throwing a pitch he doesn’t really throw (the 2 seamer), and pretty much the more he does, the worse he pitches. Even though when he was first called up from the minors and didn’t throw it, he did well enough.