RetroSimba

The process of acquiring players is imperfect and misjudgments always will occur, so the Cardinals routinely do critical self-analysis to learn how to adjust and adapt their approach, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said.

In December 2018, Mozeliak answered questions from Cardinals bloggers by e-mail. The opportunity to ask questions of Mozeliak came about through the efforts of Daniel Shoptaw, founder of United Cardinal Bloggers.

Mozeliak answered two of my questions and he did so thoughtfully. His answers provide good insights.

Q: How do you determine whether you’ve had a successful year with respect to player acquisitions?

Mozeliak: “Fair question. There are a lot of questions of, ‘How do you measure yourself?’ I think you have to have an honest assessment because not every decision we make works.

“When you look at the nature of player acquisitions, is it more of an aggregate question _ did we have a winning season or did we get to the postseason _ or is it more specific on individual decisions _ were they successful or were they smart?

“One thing I think we do fairly well in this organization is we’re willing to ask those questions, willing to understand the why and not afraid to change. There are a lot of things in this industry you might be a part of that you never actually do _ in other words, you may be in negotiations where you hope to get a player, but you don’t. You think about, ‘What was the strategy? How could we have done something different?’

“The same can be said for the misses and the hits. There is the 50,000-foot view you can look at and there is the much lower, in-the-weeds approach. All those are fair approaches and I think we try to do both.”

Q: What’s one aspect about the Cardinals baseball operations department you wish more people would understand or appreciate better?

Mozeliak: “I feel like, in this day and age, our fan base understands why and how we make decisions. When you ask about a specific department, I think most people know who Randy Flores is as our scouting director, most people know who Gary LaRocque is as our farm director.

“Most people are aware of Luis Morales as our international director, but he might have less recognition just because he works out of Jupiter _ and not out of St. Louis.

“That’s a department, if you look back just five or six years, between Luis and Moises Rodriguez, they’ve advanced that department light years. As a matter of fact, we have our first graduating class from high school in the Dominican Republic, I believe, on Jan. 27.

“When you think back 10 to 15 years ago, we weren’t even providing education, now we have young men graduating from high school. That’s just a great compliment to what those guys have done and also shows that we truly are invested in the Dominican, not just as a place to mine talent, but as a place to try to improve young men’s lives.”

Editor’s note: According to the Cardinals’ media guide, the Cardinals have personnel in five countries outside of the United States and operate a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic as well as two rookie-level summer teams. The Cardinals’ international personnel scout for baseball talent in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, the Dutch Antilles, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela. Also, the Cardinals have increased their involvement in Asia and Cuba.