National Post (National Edition)
Clapp likes development of youthful Jays
Canadian coach on playoff stage with Cardinals
He is a St. Louis Cardinal through and through now, a significant reason the National League Central champs are here to face the Braves in the post season.
But Stubby Clapp is still rooted in his Canadian pedigree, a fact made clear in a pre-game chat at a steamy SunTrust Park prior to Friday’s Game 2 of the NLDS.
As the team’s first base coach — his first year doing so at the big-league level — the energetic Clapp has helped the Cards evolve into one of the more savvy defensive teams in baseball.
On that level, it’s been a big year in the career of the native of Windsor, Ont., but not one that has been too busy to follow along with the developments in Toronto with the Blue Jays.
Clapp still has an attachment to the organization after serving as the hitting coach in Class-A Dunedin (2013-14) and Double-A New Hampshire (2015-16), a tie that got even deeper last fall.
“I do get lost in my world over here, but I’ve got enough Toronto feed on my Twitter that I get what they do,” the 45-year-old Clapp said with a chuckle.
Specifically, Clapp is keen on following the progress of a trio of young Jays star prospects he coached in the Arizona Fall League last November. And because of what he saw in third baseman Vlad Guerrero Jr., second baseman Cavan Biggio and starting pitcher Nate Pearson, count Clapp among the baseball people bullish on Toronto’s future.
“They’ve got a lot of upside over there,” said Clapp, who received the Jays’ 2014 Bobby Mattick Award for excellence in player development. “All those guys who came over from Toronto in the Arizona Fall League — Vlad, Biggio and Nate Pearson — we just had a lot of fun. It was a great group of guys who are humble and worked hard.
“You wouldn’ t know Vladdy’s this big star except for what everyone says about him. He’s a great guy, a great teammate and he’s humble and a lot of fun to work with.”
Clapp is certainly heard the hype surrounding Guerrero — it’s impossible to be in baseball and be immune to it. But he also believes it’s all there for the 20-year-old’s taking.
“The potential’s there,” Clapp said. “The sky’s the limit with him. It’s just a matter of how he develops.”
As a dedicated Baseball Canada man, Clapp made sure he gave Guerrero a primer in his home and native land — given the fact that the 20-year-old’s birth certificate does say Montreal.
“It was fun to remind him that he was born in Canada and that he needs to play for us in the WBC,” Clapp said. “And then trying to teach him the Canadian national anthem and make sure he knew the words. That was the most fun part.”
A hard-working player and coach himself, it sounds like Clapp was particularly smitten with Biggio — both with what he saw in the AFL with the Surprise Sauaros and his view from afar of Biggio’s stellar rookie season with the Jays.
“Love him,” Clapp said. “He’s solid between the ears and shows what he can do and what he can’t do. He knows what he has to work on and he does it.
“What he has done (with the Jays), it hasn’t surprised me one bit. I loved watching him play last year.”
Not as much as Clapp has loved his first full season up with the Cardinals, however, a team that drafted him in 1996 and an organization he played for until 2002.
A two-time Canadian Olympian, Clapp had various coaching stints around baseball including his time with the Jays where he worked with current roster players such as Rowdy Tellez and Reese McGuire. But he returned to the Cardinals organization in 2017 as manager of the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, who he guided to back-to-back Pacific Coast League titles.
That work and success earned him a promotion to the big club under first-year manager Mike Shildt, where Stubb has thrived on being part of a progressive coaching staff.
“Obviously, I worked hard to get here, but in this game it doesn’t mean you are going to get rewarded for it,” Clapp said. “You always work hard to do the right thing and I’ve tried to do it that way throughout my career. I was rewarded for this job and I’m thankful for it.”
Throughout his coaching career, Clapp has always tried to keep an open-mind approach and feels he’s better for it.
“To steal a line from a good friend of mine, it’s not old school, it’s not new school, we’re always in school,” Clapp said. “I’ve always believed that throughout my coaching career from Day 1. There’s always something to learn.”
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