ST. LOUIS — It is a speech, Jim Schlossnagle guessed, that he has given a thousand times to hundreds of college baseball players. Distilled, the coach’s message is simple: Give yourself a chance to succeed. Or, in blunt terms: Stop wasting your talent.
It resonated with Matt Carpenter in 2007, in his junior year at Texas Christian University. Carpenter had a tattered elbow, a bulging waistline and a fading chance of ever being drafted. His future life as the offensive engine of the St. Louis Cardinals — the best team in the majors so far this season — was implausible.