St. Louis Cardinals pitchers sharpening up for shortened MLB season due to pandemic
Daniel Ponce de Leon spent most of the break between Spring Training and Summer Camp working out with a group of professional players in Florida, allowing him to keep his edge sharp and get immediate feedback on the work he was doing.
Dakota Hudson, in the Kansas City area, threw balls into a net and played long toss with his brother-in-law, a redshirt senior pitcher at the University of Kansas.
Not all shutdowns were created the same.
Hudson and Ponce de Leon each climbed the mound at Busch Stadium on the Fourth of July, throwing live batting practice to their teammates in preparation for the rapidly approaching start of the truncated regular season. Despite the differences in their downtime, each met or exceeded his manager’s expectations.
“We’ve been really pleased,” said Cardinals manager Mike Shildt. “The hitters have given us good feedback. The catchers have given us good feedback in catching bullpens and lives.”
Roles on the pitching staff took on an added layer of uncertainty on Saturday, as the club announced that lefties Génesis Cabrera and Ricardo Sánchez had each tested positive for COVID-19 during their respective intake screenings. Shildt confirmed that each player is, at present, asymptomatic. The team is now aware of at least three positive tests for the coronavirus.
“People come from different places and a lot of players I would imagine, much like myself, not tested prior to being here, clearly with the asymptomatic crowd,” Shildt said. “Disappointed for them but not overly surprised. There was an expectation that there was a pretty good chance that we in the industry would have a positive test.”
Shildt said that the club was still evaluating whether to add a pitcher to its group at Busch Stadium in order to address the absences of the two lefthanders. Because neither is showing symptoms, they’ll be able to rejoin the club after recording two negative tests.
During a strong spring, Ponce de Leon looked poised to take on an important role this season after spending most of the last two seasons shuttling between St. Louis and Triple-A Memphis.
“I feel good right now, ready to go,” Ponce de Leon said. “Nothing’s changed. I actually feel more confident now. That little time off allowed me to kind of tweak with things.”
He said that he spent his time away from the field pitching in on housework, as he plans to remain away from his pregnant wife and their two children during this most unusual baseball season. He worked out at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, with Toronto Blue Jays pitcher AJ Cole and hitters Austin Hays of the Baltimore Orioles and Patrick Mazeika of the New York Mets.
Having a group of pitchers and hitters allowed Ponce de Leon to maintain his workload and stamina, and he said he feels as though he could immediately throw three to four innings in a big league game.
“We’re all working together,” Ponce de Leon said of he and his fellow Cardinals pitchers. “I stayed up with Dak (Hudson) in the offseason to make sure he’s doing alright. Me and (Ryan) Helsley were texting each other grips on changeups and all this spin stuff.”
“Helsley’s gonna be ready to go. So is Dak, if you saw him today.”
Hudson’s prep work
Hudson, Saturday’s first live thrower, took a substantially different path to his preparation. Without access to a group of players or a top level facility, he got to work in his garage and with his family.
“I had a net, a throwing pad and my brother-in-law for most of my long toss,” Hudson said. “And then when it came down to the last two weeks, it was me throwing into a net mostly and then showing up twice a week for bullpens and trying to stay on that five day rotation of keeping my arm in shape.”
Hudson focused in spring training on trying to smooth out his delivery and more consistently go through his process of delivering the ball to the plate. He said that the time away allowed him to grow more comfortable with that smoothness, but that it was hard to replicate the experience of facing batters in a live session.
“It’s more of what you’re applying to where you showed your work that you did, but you’re also able to get back in competing with some quality hitters,” Hudson explained.
‘We feel really good’
“Throwing to a pad is a lot different than throwing to Yadier Molina. It’s a lot more fun, too. So just having that competition out there and throwing to some of your own teammates. It’s a lot of fun and had kind of a college vibe out there with the competition in house.”
The Cardinals have spoken frequently about this summer camp as an exercise in bringing a group of players together with each on an individual program. The difference in layoff work between Hudson and Ponce de Leon highlights the inherent challenge in that, but also reveals the outlines of a plan which the club feels will allow it to take advantage of its now-tested pitching depth.
“We feel really good,” Shildt said. “A lot of credit goes to all of our players that were really dedicated to their craft to come in and be ready to go. We’ll continue to take inventory, see how guys recover. It’s still a process, but for the most part we’ve got a pretty good starting benchmark for where guys are, and most of where everybody is is in a positive place.”
