Nothing earth-shattering here, but felt it worth passing along a couple of quotes from a chat that Chris Perez – of former “Closer of the Future” notoriety in St. Louis – participated in at Cleveland.com. [h/t to John Marecek on Twitter for the link]
The first reference to the Cardinals was pretty benign:
Ray: Prior to joining the Indians, which coaches and teammates were your biggest influences?
CP: For the Cardinals it was Ryan Franklin and Adam Wainwright. And overall my Dad was and is my biggest baseball influence.
Not terribly surprising that these guys would reach out to a young pitcher. Glad to see Franklin not turning his back on a guy that theoretically could’ve taken his job as closer away while he was with the Cardinals. Obviously the Cards didn’t think highly enough of Perez for that, but had he pitched better…
Later there was a more interesting question and answer:
Jeri: Do the Cardinals and the Indians have a different team culture?
CP: Yes, very much so. The Cardinals are a lot more intense and less forgiving. But the teams are made up totally differently.
Now, obviously there are going to be different atmospheres between St. Louis – a clubhouse expecting to perennially contend – and Cleveland – a younger team seemingly perennially rebuilding. But it seems to also be another point of reference for the talk we’ve heard all off-season about the clubhouse mentality and intensity that has been beaten to death on talk radio, on message boards, and here in our pages after the Brendan Ryan trade.
I’d write it off completely as the former, teams heading different directions, but for the comment about “less forgiving”. Best not to read too much into it, right?
What say you? More evidence of rookie/young player beat-downs, or just a flippant comment distinguishing between two teams in different levels of competition?
Leave your opinion below or find PH8 on Twitter @PitchersHit8th.
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I’ve come to think that these guys don’t put much thought into what they are saying…but I think it’s revealing and probably true. The culture starts with the manager and he is intense. I’d like to think this is a positive thing. I worry how this will continue to play out.
Bob, great point about not thinking much about what they’re saying. It likely just doesn’t register because they know the truth, exactly what’s going on, while their sometimes vague comments allow us fans to let our minds run rampant about “what does it mean?!”
I agree that I’m ok with the team, manager, and clubhouse being intense. It’s the “less forgiving” part that I worry lends a bit of credence to the stories about younger players having a tough go.
All conjecture of course, hopefully Puma can loosen things up a bit in there.
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