St. Louis Cardinals: Early Spring Training and the Secret Weapon

The St. Louis Cardinals were devoid of their “Secret Weapon” during the 2016 season and certainly suffered because of it. Fear not, however, as he is still involved and showing up already here in 2017.

Yesterday, beat writer Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch, shared news that several of the St. Louis Cardinals players- in regular fashion- have reported early to Spring Training. In addition to this continuing tradition, these early players have had the privilege of working with Jose Oquendo— a very much missed presence on the squad last season.

Why should this matter? This matters incredibly because Oquendo’s absence has been blamed/attributed to a great deal of the downturn that was witnessed within the team in 2016. For more of our take on this, jump over here and get caught up.

So who is in camp early? According to Goold, Matt Carpenter and Aledmys Diaz and Kolten Wong have all appeared early and are working with Oquendo. In addition to these infielders, others like Eric Fryer and Carson Kelly are working already with pitchers like Adam Wainwright and Seung-hwan Oh (to name just a few).

This is really good news. Any chance that these players (and others not listed here) are able to get in early and get work in is better than them holding out for the official call date. This date, by the way, is just a mere four days away.

I must admit here that the absolute moment that I typed that line, I got excited butterflies in my stomach. Baseball, therefore, is truly just around the corner!

Back to Oquendo… I have been a huge fan of his for my whole life (it seems). I believe that his presence with Mike Matheny in those early seasons are what allowed Matheny to experience such success. I believe that Oquendo’s time with Tony La Russa helped him learn a great deal of what makes him the best today.

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Even more so, I believe that many of the infield blunders and base running idiocies that we witnessed from the 2016 St. Louis Cardinals are directly attributable to the absence of Oquendo. When the organization announced that he would no longer be in the coaching staff in St. Louis, my heart sank. I honestly, and truly felt that this announcement was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse for team Cardinals.

Oquendo’s absence, then, can also be attributed to the creation of the new coaching position in St. Louis– the Quality Control Coach. If there had ever been a better person to supplant Oquendo, it is 100 percent Mike Schildt. That said, nothing really replaces the “Secret Weapon.”

Noting that, then, it is incredibly valuable that these early players get all the work they can with Oquendo. This work involves base running drills, infield decision making, turning double-plays, etc. And these early-arriving infielders are receiving all this devoted time learning the weapons that Oquendo can provide.

If the pictures and video are to be believed (I believe them; also, they can be viewed at the Goold link above), then Oquendo seems to be recovering well from his 2016 surgeries that removed him from the team. Could this mean that we will see a return of Oquendo? While I wish this could be the case, I doubt that Jose will be quick to change his plans.

Next: Infield- Cards vs. Pirates

Plans aside, it is so good to see some baseball activities happening and even better to see these occurring with Jose Oquendo involved. I trust that these players will be made better from this time with him and that we St. Louis Cardinals fans will reap the benefits in the coming days and season.