The lefthander threw strikes and knew his way around the Rockies’ clubhouse when Walt Jocketty, about a year removed from also being with Colorado, made one of his earliest acquisitions to refresh the Cardinals for their new owners.
At the end of the 1995 season, as he wooed future Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa to lead the Cardinals, Jocketty also brought a Boulder, Colorado, kid to St. Louis to join and help modernize the scouting department. From their time overlapping in Colorado, Jocketty knew the lefty for doing a bit of everything, from throwing batting practice to studying Don Zimmer’s stories to accumulating any experience he could in baseball operations.