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Moving forward Pitching duo will help fill some of the Cards' on-field voidPosted: Thursday June 27, 2002 6:18 PM
The Cardinals took the first steps toward recovery on Wednesday at Busch Stadium. First, during the afternoon, they memorialized Darryl Kile, who died in his sleep in his Chicago hotel room early Saturday morning. The service attracted 5,000 fans, former teammates and friends from around the major leagues. Later that night, St. Louis beat the Brewers, 5-2. "The team knows we need to get back and get focused, and tonight was a good start," said Woody Williams, who started and pitched 7 2/3 innings for the win. "I wanted to try and get some of the momentum on our side, and it worked." It will be some time before St. Louis players and fans are able to place the same importance on wins, losses and the pennant race that they did before last weekend. But the Cardinals also believe that a fitting tribute to Kile would be to soldier through the season and bring home a division title. Their chances of pulling that off lie with two other members of what was a depleted rotation even before the loss of Kile -- Williams and right-hander Jason Simontacchi. Williams, one of the most underrated starters in the National League, sparked the Cardinals' run to the playoffs last year. The Padres snuck the right-hander through waivers and dealt him to St. Louis a few days after the trading deadline and he turned out to be the steal of the summer. After going 8-8 for San Diego, Williams went 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 11 starts for the Cardinals down the stretch. He went on to pitch a gem in the Division Series, holding the Diamondbacks to one run in seven innings in St. Louis' Game 2 win. His effectiveness was a shock even to the Cardinals. "We knew he was a quality major league starter," says pitching coach Dave Duncan. "We were real curious as to why someone like him would be available." San Diego, of course, was looking to dump Williams' salary (he made $5.1 million last year and is earning $7.3 million this season). St. Louis is more than willing to spend that on one of the most competitive pitchers in the game. The veteran starter doesn't blow hitters away. He relies on the impeccable location of his 92 mph fastball, mixing in a curveball, a slider and a changeup to keep hitters honest. He also brings a bulldog mentality to the rotation -- during last year's postseason, Cards manager Tony LaRussa compared the boost Williams gives the team to the one the hyper-intense Will Clark brought to the 2000 squad. After his victory on Wednesday, Williams is 5-3 with a 2.65 ERA. He missed a month early this season with a strained abdominal muscle. Since he returned on May 15 from a strained abdominal muscle that sidelined him for a month, the Cardinals have boasted the league's second-best ERA (3.25). The other major contributor to that run of strong pitching is Simontacchi, who burst out of nowhere and kept St. Louis's season from completely disintegrating by the end of May. With their rotation decimated by injuries, the Cardinals summoned Simontacchi from Class AAA Memphis on May 3. He was a last resort: At 28, he had never pitched in the majors and had been released by the Royals, Pirates and Twins. Simontacchi's resume reads like a travel writer's expense report: He's pitched for minor league teams in four organizations; in the Frontier League; in a weekend league in Perth, Australia, where he spent his days installing sprinkler systems to make money; and for the Rimini club team in the Italian League, where he earned $1,200 per month, plus a car and an apartment overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Originally drafted by Kansas City in the 21st round in 1996, Simontacchi had always been able to throw strikes with his fastball and curve, but had nothing else in his arsenal. While pitching for Rimini in 2000, he developed his changeup, a low-grade pitch that he had been scared to throw in the U.S because hitters would mash it. He threw it often against weak Italian competition, however, and it became a weapon. He pitched for the Italy in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney -- having great-grandparents from Milan qualified him for the Italian national team -- and it was there that he caught the attention of Cardinals' scouts. The Twins signed the right-hander after the Olympics and sent him to Class AAA. When Minnesota released him after the 2001 season, St. Louis offered him a minor league deal. He was so far out the team's plans that Duncan saw him throw to just one hitter during spring training. Simontacchi expected to be around for only a start or two when he was called up. He beat the Braves in his first start and cemented a spot in the current rotation by winning five of his first six decisions. His only loss came against the Cubs last Sunday, when he took the mound in place of Kile. "[Simontacchi] has contributed when things were in a state of turmoil," Duncan says. "He gave us some solid starts, which we needed." By Thursday morning the Cardinals still hadn't replaced Kile on their roster. Though they'll never fill the void his death leaves on their team and in their clubhouse, Williams and Simontacchi can help pick up some of the slack on the mound. Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the baseball beat for the magazine. Touching Base appears every week on CNNSI.com |
