Dave Duncan Announces He's Leaving the Cardinals, Why St. Louis Fans Should Panic

First, Tony LaRussa announced he was leaving the Cardinals after winning the 2011 World Series in near impossible fashion. Today, pitching coach Dave Duncan said that he would be taking time off to deal with family matters. This is a HUGE deal for the Cardinals as seemingly every pitcher that Duncan has touched has turned to gold since joined St. Louis in 1996. Numerous pitchers that were roughed up in their previous spot, were able to become relevant again under Duncan's tutilage. These pitchers since 2002 include:

Edwin Jackson: Career ERA 4.46, St. Louis ERA 3.58
Ryan Franklin: Career ERA 4.14, St. Louis ERA 3.52 (and that's with his terrible 2011)
Kyle Lohse: Career ERA 4.64, St. Louis ERA 4.27
Jeff Suppan: Career ERA 4.69, St. Louis ERA 3.94
Joel Piñeiro: Career ERA 4.41, St. Louis ERA 4.14
Todd Wellemeyer: Career ERA 4.83, St. Louis ERA 4.31
Jason Isringhausen: Career ERA 3.62, St. Louis ERA 2.98
Matt Morris: Career ERA 3.98, St. Louis ERA 3.61 (with a 22-win season)
Woody Williams: Career ERA 4.19, St. Louis ERA 3.53
Darryl Kile: Career ERA 4.12, St. Louis ERA 3.54 (Kile came to STL after a 5.84 ERA in 2 seasons with the Rockies)

And of course the biggest one.
Chris Carpenter
6 seasons in Toronto
49-50, 4.83 ERA, 1.51 WHIP

8 seasons in St. Louis
95-42, 3.06 ERA, 1.13 WHIP

Even 39 year-old Chuck Finley had a better ERA than his career mark in his one season with Dave Duncan! Plus, he guided the careers from the start of great SP Adam Wainwright who will be back in 2012 after missing last season with Tommy John surgery and solid pitcher Jaime Garcia.

The only players who seemingly got worse under direction from Duncan was Mark Mulder, who was fantastic with Oakland when they had him, Hudson, and Zito, but was derailed in St. Louis by injuries. Also, Braden Looper and Brett Tomko were considerably worse, but that's probably because they were Braden Looper and Brett Tomko.

With the returning Wainwright, Carpenter, Lohse, Garcia, and the immortal Jake Westbrook (full disclosure, Westbrook's ERA is slightly worse with Duncan) in the rotation there actually seemed to stability in the Cardinals rotation for 2012. There are no more retreads like Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan to try and pull something out of nothing. Instead, the defending champs are now without the the staff's leader to show them how to get it done.

My wishes go out to Duncan's family that everything will be fine and he'll return to the dugout sooner rather than later, but I'm sure the other 15 teams in the National League hope he takes all the time he needs.