MOZELIAK SEZ…..
I attended the Cardinals/Reds game today as the management invited the Bloggers to attend. This is the 8th year we have been privileged enough to get the invite.
President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak started it off with a welcome and said they really enjoy seeing what the pulse of the bloggers are in relationship to the baseball club. He opened it up to questions.
I started it off with a question concerning the fact that Adam Wainwright went on the DL and what could he tell us about it. Paraphrasing he said it was inflammation in the right elbow and felt it was something they should watch and would put him on the 10-day DL. Also, he felt there was talent in Memphis to help out anytime this kind of thing happened. He said he didn’t feel Waino was losing any pitching skills but was probably at the point in life he would have injury regression (To me that says he is a veteran and getting old in baseball years).
Some other random things he told us is he isn’t surprised by the outcome from Jordan Hicks. He has a good pitch to induce groundballs. Mozeliak also told us the story about how he and Matheny, along with Yadi were talking about Hicks before he was selected to be on the opening day roster and Yadi told him, “let me drive”. I can get with him and work with him and we can make him something special. So the keys were given to Molina when it came to Jordan Hicks.
On the topic of Alex Reyes, he stated that he would be preparing to be a starter when he returns and not a reliever. They will continue to look at the Memphis roster and make a judgment on if this stays as a feasible idea.
Would he ever consider the schedule to be reduced to 154 games as stated by Cubs infielder Rizzo? Yes, he said the season is long and is even longer if you are one of the last two teams out and that is always a goal. He addressed the fact that the season started two weeks earlier and with all the weather issues, those off-days that were on the original schedule have, for the most part, been filled by the postponements.
He likes the coaching staff as it is and made a point to mention that he feels Mike Matheny gets a bad rap more times than he should. Then he made an analogy for that and stated most people don’t know the whole story when a decision is made by the manager.
Owner Bill DeWitt Jr gave us a bit of the business side of Busch Stadium. He likes the few changes (cost $10M) they made over the winter. Then he said that Phase 2 will have the offices ready for use in the Spring of 2019 and the hotel is on the mark for Summer 2019. The other section is 297 apartments/condos that can be rented/bought and they are two years away. He stated there is a sample of one of them at the current ballpark village.
One more thing he told us is it is under consideration to bring back the powder blue uniforms. He doesn’t want to infringe on the 1980’s but he likes the uniform and may consider it for special occasions next year. Also, he doesn’t like all the special uniforms that MLB makes them wear such as camo, military, Jackie Robinson, and other things but it is mandatory. He doesn’t mind the reason behind them just not the uniforms.
The chef was next and he explained all the new food and some of the older “classic” foods they have on the menu. The food was GOOD.
MINOR LEAGUES RESULTS
Memphis added runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th to win 8-6
Springfield lost 9-2
Palm Beach was upended 10-5
Peoria won 6-3
SORRY for the shortness of this report but it is late after driving 2.5 hours to St. Louis and back.
Thanks to the Cardinals and the invite from Marybeth Johnson.
HOPE you enjoyed the blog today.
