Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Brian Walton
Joe Rigoli is undoubtedly the least well-known St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer representing an equally-anonymous profession - scouting.
Despite being universally accepted as an absolutely essential component of every major league organization, scouts have consistently lacked external recognition. One minor league group set out to change that, and in the process, Rigoli, a St. Louis Cardinals scouting legend, officially joined the best in his field.
The Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame inducted Rigoli into their ranks in June. The ceremony, which also recognized Joe McIlvaine, the former general manager of the San Diego Padres and New York Mets, was held at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
The Scouts Hall of Fame was conceived three years ago by The Goldklang Group, operators of four minor league franchises. The Group addressed an unmet need, as The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. recognizes players, coaches, executives, umpires, writers and broadcasters, but not scouts.
Cardinals Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Jeff Luhnow is a firm believer of the benefits of scouting to his employer and to the game as a whole.
“Scouting is truly the lifeblood of any organization,” Luhnow explained. “It is both an art and a science and it takes years of experience and dedication for someone to become a great scout. We ask our scouts to use their best judgment to not only analyze and interpret what they see in a player, but to predict the future. This is not easy, but if done correctly can be very valuable to any baseball club.”
Joe McIlvaine, Ty Tumminia of The Goldklang Group and Joe Rigoli from left to right.
Rigoli, a Cardinals professional scout based out of New Jersey, fits that description to a “T”. Like many others, Rigoli did not set out to become a scout, but unlike most, he began at a very early age.
The now-53-year-old, then a catcher, signed his first professional contract with the Oakland A’s in 1978. Three years later, still just 24 years of age, Rigoli joined the Cardinals organization as a skipper at the Class A level. He managed in the system from 1981 through 1984 and again in 1986-87. Rigoli also coached at Louisville under Jim Fregosi in 1985.
With the exception of two seasons as the bullpen coach of the Philadelphia Phillies under Fregosi and Terry Francona in 1996 and 1997 and his 1998 return to the Cardinals as the pitching coach for the New Jersey Cardinals of the New York-Penn League, Rigoli has served the Cardinals in various amateur and professional scouting capacities since 1988. Among his many discoveries was two-time Major League All-Star pitcher Matt Morris.
Rigoli is a past winner of one of the most important but least promoted awards in the Cardinals organization, the Fred McAlister Award for Excellence and Achievement in Scouting. The Cardinals plan to revitalize the McAlister Award, given to the top scout in the organization, by selecting new winners via peer recognition. They have not issued the award for the last few years.
Luhnow also recognizes Rigoli’s many contributions to the organization.
“Joe Rigoli is a true scout - he lives and breathes baseball and has been playing, teaching and evaluating talent for decades,” Luhnow said. “He works as hard as anybody in the industry and loves the thrill of the chase... finding amateurs that can be good professionals and evaluating players on other teams that might help us in St Louis someday.”
One area in which Rigoli especially stands out is in his evaluation of the young men he is scouting beyond their skills as ballplayers.
“Joe also understands that scouting is much more than evaluation of tools,” Luhnow said. “He is adept at finding out information about players that paint the entire picture - what he's like in the clubhouse, what he does off the field, and how much desire he has. These elements can be the separators, and Joe knows it.”
International academies open for business
Last week, I reviewed 21 new signings by the Cardinals, assigned to the organization’s academies in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. With only 35-man rosters in each country with which to work, I asked Cardinals Director of International Operations Moises Rodriguez how they can accommodate all the new recruits.
The answer revolves around pushing the baby birds out of the nest. A number of the current players have completed three years of development in the academies and must now prove their mettle in the US or be prepared to go home.
“We’re counting on a lot of the guys who are traveling to extended spring training to either stay (in the US) or be released and not return to the academies,” Rodriguez predicted. “With that in mind, you go start filling roster spots you know you are going to have.”
The Cardinals are doing everything they can to give these players an edge in preparation.
“The academy in the Dominican is open,” Rodriguez explained. “We’ve had a mini-camp going on for the guys traveling in early March – the US (minor league) spring training arrivals. We’ve also mixed in some of the recently-signed guys. And then, we will shut it down around the start of extended spring training (early April) for about two weeks and we will open it up again until the end of August when the Dominican Summer League ends.
“In Venezuela, we are doing something similar. We had a mini-camp for the guys traveling (to the US). We close there for about two weeks in early March and we will run from mid-March to end of August,” Rodriguez said.
Change in Appalachian League playoffs may benefit Cardinals
A change was enacted in the post-season structure of the short-season Appalachian League for 2010, consisting of an expansion of playoff teams from two to four. The Cardinals’ league affiliate is located in Johnson City, Tenn.
While this seems a relatively minor move on the surface, it is an important one for teams like the Cardinals, who through Luhnow, pushed hard for the change.
The parent organizations of perennial division winners and league champions Elizabethton (Minnesota Twins) and Danville (Atlanta Braves) have only one short-season Class A team in the US. That gives them the advantage of placing older, more experienced players in the Appalachian League and assembling a stronger roster overall each summer. Other organizations like the Cardinals initially assign most of their college draftees to their higher-level short-season club. In the Cardinals case, it is the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League.
An example of the significance for Johnson City is that under the new format, the Cardinals would have made the playoffs in 2009. First-year manager Mike Shildt’s club posted a 37-30 record, good for second place in the West Division. For a team that last won the League championship in 1976, simply getting to the dance would be big news indeed.
Minors musings
In other scouting news, long-time Cardinals professional scout Marty Keough was among a group of six scouting pioneers who received the "Legends of Scouting Award." The 76-year-old was recognized at the recent Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation Awards Dinner, called “In the Spirit of the Game.” 1,500 people were in attendance in the event, held in Los Angeles. … Minor league spring training camp is officially open as 81 pitchers and catchers reported by Monday’s deadline with 66 position players due to arrive in Jupiter, Fla. on Wednesday. They join the ten players cut from major league camp on Sunday. Morning workouts are open to the public with the first official games on the 18th. … When the Cardinals first announced their minor league coaching assignments for the 2010 season back in November, one of the many changes was a job swap between 2009 Memphis pitching coach Blaise Ilsley and Jupiter complex pitching rehabilitation coordinator Derek Lilliquist. Cancel that plan. Both men will remain in their previous assignments for the upcoming season. …
Brian Walton has written about Cardinals minor leaguers since 2003, currently for Scout.com in association with FOXSports.com. He is publisher and editor of TheCardinalNation.com and TheCardinalNationBlog.com, where his work is featured daily.
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