A conversation with the Cardinals’ brass

By Jeff Vernetti

All photos courtesy UPI

This will be an important year for the St. Louis Cardinals on many fronts. On the field, the club is trying to get back to the play-offs for the first time since their 2006 World Championship. Off the field, the club is trying to overcome a tough economy, lagging sponsorship dollars and preparing for the 2009 All-Star Game.

During spring training, I had a chance to sit down with Cardinals’ Owner and Chairman Bill DeWitt and General Manager John Mozeliak to discuss the 2009 season.

Vernetti: One thing that has been dear to both of your hearts has been player development. It appears now that you have a camp that really reflects that. Are you happy with the direction of the club?

DeWitt: It is fun to watch. An example of that is John Jay, a player who has not gotten a lot of notoriety of late because he has had injuries the last couple of years. But he is a pure hitter who we thought very highly of the year he was drafted and the year he came out. Now that he is healthy you can see what a player like that does. It is fun to see the young kids come up, and we do have a lot of talent.

Mozeliak: It is really about not making a monumental movement where all the focus goes on the draft. We are also focusing on the international market and the free-agent market. If you put all your eggs in one basket I think you will regret it. What we are trying to do is make sure we are diverse, getting players from a lot of different areas.

Vernetti: Fans always want you to go out and sign the big free agent, but that is not the direction the Cardinals are taking.

DeWitt: We are starting to see the pay-off of player development. We have more teams than we have ever had and we beefed up our presence in the Dominican Republic where we spent more than $4 million. That won’t show up today but will in the future with good young kids.

Mozeliak: The free-agent market was so slow to develop this season. Players were remaining out there, and it allowed us the time to evaluate what we had. If this was a normal year, where you would see players sign right away, we may have had to react sooner.

Vernetti: The economy is hitting businesses everywhere. How is it affecting your business?

DeWitt: This is obviously a tough economic time for our country and for the world; really, there is no one that is immune from it at the moment. Everyone is feeling it, baseball is feeling it. We expect our revenues to be down this year despite the fact that we expect really great attendance from the wonderful fans of St. Louis because there is more that goes into revenue, such as ad sales and so on. It is just the sign of the times and you have to work within that, but we feel we will be in good shape.

Vernetti: How has the economy affected the free-agent market?

DeWitt: I think that November and December were real tough months economically and that has been affected in the player market because clubs realize their revenue is not what it was in the past. It is just not the same market because clubs can’t afford it.

Mozeliak: The pie is shrinking. It is not just something we feel in St. Louis, it is something we are feeling globally. Is it going to transcend into professional sports? I think the answer is yes. Smart teams will be the ones that deal with that and know how to adapt to the new climate.

Vernetti: The outfield is the strength of this team, even so that you are moving your lead-off hitting outfielder (Skip Schumaker) to second base. When did that idea come about?

Mozeliak: (Cardinals Manager) Tony (La Russa) addressed it with me right after the first of the year. We were looking at how to best put this team together. It was a viable option and one that has a lot of traction at this point. If we could put (Schumaker) in as our starting second baseman, it really does change the outlook of our lineup.
 
Vernetti: What was the game plan of the St. Louis Cardinals going into this season and going forward?

DeWitt: We’ve tried to be consistent in terms of winning and building. Since 2005 we saw that with the new labor agreement that there is a lot of revenue sharing which enables teams to retain a number of their players. We’ve done a great job being opportunistic grabbing some players in free agency, such as Jim Edmonds, but we have had to do much more through player development.

Mozeliak: On the field, I think the lineup as a whole is a run-producing lineup. I do not see an out in the lineup except for when the pitcher is hitting. I think that is exciting for us because one of the things we tried to accomplish this off-season was trying to eliminate some of those holes we had in the lineup last year, and I think we have done that.

Vernetti: The All-Star Game is coming to St. Louis this season. What has that process been like for the organization?

DeWitt: It is a big job, and we have a group dedicated to working on the event. It has changed so much over the last 20 to 30 years. It is a week of celebration, from the FanFest to the Home Run hitting contest. It is an extravaganza that will highlight the great players in baseball to the St. Louis fans. For the players who come to St. Louis, particularly for the players who have not been here in a while, they are going to see what this city is all about.