It’s as if a Hollywood script writer got the idea to pitch a story about a paid-peanuts, hard-working minor leaguer.
How else to explain this summer: He won the Home Run Derby of the Texas League All-Star Game and, of course, drew the loudest cheers. Weeks before, the pats on the back came from all over after he sacrificed his body, tumbling head-first into the dugout no less, on a spectacular diving catch.
And now look. The kid who grew up in the shadows of the Gateway Arch and idolized the St. Louis Cardinals – and who now wears the birds on the bat across his own jersey – could soon become the batting champion of this Double-A circuit.
Seems like a great fictional story, huh? Well, it’s actually all true because that’s the story of Luke Voit, the former Missouri State Bear who has starred for the playoff-bound Springfield Cardinals this summer.
Dude should buy lottery tickets while he’s at it.
“When a lot of guys start struggling, they lose (sight) of why they are playing the game. You’ve got to remember like when you were 10 years old playing the game. If you’re not having fun, there is no point in playing,” Voit said. “You can kind of see it in some guys, too. If they don’t enjoy it, they lose their confidence. They end up struggling or getting released."
“That’s what you’ve got to think about sometimes when you’re in the dugout and 0-for-2 with two strikeouts: ‘Hey, screw it. Turn it around. You’re playing baseball. You’re so close to playing in the big leagues.’”
The truth is, the big leagues don’t appear to be a longshot anymore for Voit, once a pudgy college catcher whose transformation into a prospect first baseman – he’s gotta land in Baseball America’s Top 30 St. Louis Cardinals prospects next year, right? – has been one of the most remarkable stories in the Cardinals farm system.
Put it this way, of the 35 Texas League batting champions between 1980 and 2014, some 30 have gone on to play in the big leagues.
And here is Voit, batting a league-best .297 through Wednesday – a nine-point advantage over Frisco (Rangers) prospect Ronald Guzman.
He also is bidding to become the seventh Cardinals farm hand to earn Texas League MVP honors, the others being Jim Beauchamp (1963), Hector Cruz (1973), Ray Lankford (1989), Tyrone Horne (1998), Matt Adams (2011) and Oscar Taveras (2012).
“This kid is putting together a year that — there are some other big names in the league and have gone on — his name should be in consideration for Player of the Year,” Springfield manager Dann Bilardello said. “He’s had that good of a year.”
Destination: Big-leagues?
Whether Voit’s good year translates into big-league time down the road remains to be seen. But consider the names of former Texas League batting champions who went on to the big leagues: Steve Sax, Randy Ready, Eric Karros, Keith Ginter, Lyle Overbay and Billy Butler. Many others had three to four years in the majors.
It’s all about talent, timing and more, if you ask scouts.
“It didn’t matter what round you drafted a kid, to me,” said Jim Crawford, one of the game’s most respected pro scouts (they cover the minor leagues) for 27 years for the Chicago Cubs and who is now retired. “If he has work ethic and mental make-up, you’ve got a chance to play in the big leagues.”
“It’s a marvel to see some of these guys who have come up. Look at (David) Eckstein,” Crawford said, referring to the former Cardinals shortstop and 2006 World Series MVP. “If you graded him out, he was in the 40s (on the 20-80 scouting scale). But his intelligence made him a 60 player.”
To Crawford, scouts look at first-half stats because the league’s better pitchers generally don’t advance until the all-star break. Voit’s numbers are slightly up from the first half but he’s been mostly steady.
“You know they are going to hit a failure wall,” Crawford said. “The guys who succeed don’t try to go around it. They back up and try to go through it.”
Thus is the case with Voit.
Hard work pays off
So what’s behind the stats such as the league-leading 131 hits, or that he is third in slugging in the league (.485) and second in on-base percentage (.376)? That and the fact he has cracked 19 home runs, socked 18 doubles and collected 68 RBI?
Call it a player dedicated to an organization that he has long admired, and who overhauled his batting stance while, ultimately, coming to terms with the fact that, if he was ever to knock on the big-league door, he best show better maturity.
Now, for fringe fans, perhaps it would have been easy to assume Voit wouldn’t have churned his way into prospect status. After all, he played all four years at Missouri State (he went undrafted as a junior) and was a 22nd-round draft pick in 2013.
But, given the rich tradition of Bears baseball and the great past decade of the Cardinals scouting department that finds hidden gems, Voit is another farmhand blowing up stereotypes.
For one, he gained momentum and confidence on that 2012 Bears team that reached the program’s first NCAA Tournament (they beat the Miami Hurricanes) since the 2003 College World Series team. And then he got healthy (remember, he had shoulder surgery in college) and moved out of catching once out of college.
“They’ve helped me with the mental side of it,” Voit said of the Bears coaching staff led by veteran coach Keith Guttin, a 2015 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee. “I was one of those hot-headed guys, and they always wanted me to take the positives. I didn’t really learn until my senior year because I was so stubborn.
“So I didn’t let my emotions control my next at-bats. After that 0-for-4, I’d try to get a couple of hits.”
It was a slight adjustment but an important one, setting up Voit for future success once he reached the Cardinals farm.
Another motivator came in his first spring training in 2014, when Voit experienced the tradition of Cardinals baseball as former greats – Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Jim Edmonds to name a few – parachuted into the Jupiter, Fla., campus and offered advice.
“It is cool. They come down to spring training and I’m like, ‘I know everything about you,’” Voit said with a smile. “They do everything to make you better.”
That said, Voit realized soon there was more work to do. In fact, former Cardinal Ryan Ludwick dropped a line that has stuck to this day.
Said Voit, quoting Ludwick, “A hit a day keeps the release papers away.”
Indeed so, and Voit certainly has been hitting.
Voit’s bat
A year ago, in the pitcher-friendly, Class A Florida State League – the clubs play in the big-league spring training ballparks – Voit hit .273 with 18 home runs, 11 doubles and 77 RBI.
This year, in a far more challenging Double-A league, Voit is also third in runs scored (65) and has played a league-most 122 games, out of 127 Springfield games.
The one constant has been his batting stance. No longer is Voit in the wide, Jeff Bagwell-like approach with the big leg kick as was his standard in college.
Instead, Voit’s turned to a somewhat open stance. It’s not quite like that of Darren Daulton, for those who remember the left-handed batter and former Philadelphia Phillies All-Star catcher whose body was open to the pitcher.
But Voit, who bats right, stands in the back of the box and positions his left foot toward third base, with his from left shoulder somewhat closed and hands near his right chest. The leg kick isn’t as pronounced.
The change came in the fall of 2013 months after he was drafted, and he has fine-tuned it ever since.
“It’s allowed me to recognize a lot of off-speed,” Voit said. “It’s helped me out tremendously with my power and timing, which is most important.”
Bilardello isn’t about to change it.
“You can stand on your head. If the bat gets to the area on time, I don’t care what he does,” Bilardello said. “I think most people would agree with that. You would think his timing would be off some, because (pitchers) slide-step. But he’s done it all year and has made adjustments.”
Bilardello went on.
“He’s done a lot of things right and is the only guy at this point in time hitting .300 in this league.”
Not that Voit was an instant hit here in Double-A. He hit only .239 in April and didn’t crack his first home run until his 10th game of the season.
Yet, like many Double-A players, Voit was learning about the league and how pitchers won’t throw fastballs in fastball counts.
Ultimately, it forced an adjustment.
But by mid-May, he began to find his stride. And you could see the confidence building.
On a Sunday afternoon game that month, Voit ranged over in front of the home dugout for a foul ball and caught it as he tumbled head first.
It was a sign that he would be fearless the rest of the summer.
“I’ve always had that play-my-butt-off kind of (mindset),” Voit said. “And it’s cool seeing those plays over and over again on the jumbotron, and I feel it helps the pitchers to know they can trust you behind them.”
A few weeks later, he was the star of the Texas League All-Star Game Home Run Derby.
In a few days, he could add to his year with the playoff-bound Cardinals. Should Voit finish with an average of .310 or lower, it would be the lowest mark for a Texas League batting champion in its history.
But he has hit .316 in the season’s second half and could be Springfield’s second batting champ in history, the other being Oscar Taveras in 2012.
“The goal is to make the big leagues. I work hard and want to do everything possible to achieve my dream,” Voit said. “All I want is the opportunity. … And it’d be quite an honor (to win MVP). But as long as I help my team win, that’s all I care about. It’d be great to get a championship like the 2012 team did.”
