PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Before heading home for the offseason, Daniel Ponce de Leon took a detour to Seattle, found a cheap hotel, rented a car, strapped on some cutting edge sensors, and charted a new direction for his career.
The Cardinals’ righthander had spent two seasons migrating from Class AAA Memphis to the majors and back again almost every other month, and he ended last season with the sensation his delivery had started to mirror those transactions — up and down and unpredictable, never steady. The Cardinals’ loss in the National League Championship Series was less than 10 days old when he visited the pitching gurus at Driveline Baseball’s training facility for an intensive, five-day, tech-driven evaluation — and upgrade.