Anderson catching the attention of Cardinals' coaches
Simi Valley High grad played in Futures Game
By Steve Ames Special to the Simi Valley Acorn

Bryan Anderson

As he looked toward the 2007 season, catcher Bryan Anderson of Simi Valley knew he'd be challenged, so he approached the year with a game plan.

Anderson had played for the St. Louis Cardinals in the low minor leagues the year before and had successfully made the jump to Double-A.

A batter who knows how to put the ball in play, Anderson is now in his third pro season of hitting at least .300 and is steady behind the plate handling pitchers. He is deliberate as he prepares for each game.

"I have a solid approach, a game plan before a game going into it," Anderson said of his atbats, as he prepared for a game at Hammons Field, where he's playing his home games this season as a member of the Springfield Cardinals in Missouri.

"I know if I stick to it, most likely I'm going to get some hits. It's times that you get out of your game plan that you go into slumps. I've just been trying to really focus at the plate and keep it going."

Anderson, who will be 21 in December, is 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds. He bats left-handed and throws right.

He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth round (140th overall) of the 2005 First-Year Player Draft.

After graduating from Simi Valley High that year, Anderson played 51 games for the Johnson City Cardinals in the rookie-ball Appalachian League, where he hit .331 with eight doubles, six homers and 36 RBI.

The following season, in the Low-A level Midwest League at Swing of the Quad Cities in Davenport, Iowa, he batted .302 with 29 doubles, three home runs and 51 RBI.

In 88 games through Aug. 15 for this season's Double-A Texas League Springfield Cardinals, he's posted a .312 average with 14 doubles, five homers and 46 RBI.

Anderson has gone to the major league Cardinals as a non-roster player for spring training the past two years.

This season he was chosen to play for the USA against the World Team in the ninth annual Futures Game played in July at San Francisco's AT&T Park, two days before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

"It was an honor to be there," he said. "It was a great opportunity to play against some great talent and play with some good guys. The whole experience was a blast for me, to play in San Francisco at the stadium."

Anderson also played in the Midwest League All-Star Game last season. He made the Texas League AllStar Game this season.

As he's moved up the Cardinals' system, one of the people who's assisted Anderson, he said, is Dann Bilardello, a minor league catching coordinator who played eight seasons in the major leagues from 1982-92.

"He helps me immensely," Anderson said of Bilardello.

Bilardello said Anderson has always been a good hitter. "From what I understand and from what I've seen, he's always done a good job," Bilardello said. "He went from Quad Cities, missed High-A and came here and has had some success hitting." Bilardello said Anderson is learning to become a team leader and handle a pitching staff.

"The one thing about Andy that I really like is that he's gotten more mature and has developed those intangibles that I saw in him from the very beginning," Bilardello said. "You need to have a definite heart about you as a catcher."

The biggest improvement Bilardello has seen the past two years, he said, is Anderson's leadership quality in addition to his receiving, throwing and hitting skills.

"He's well on his way," he said. "Look what's happened this year, a successful year so far, and he made the Futures Game. So it is a compliment to his work ethic, too."

Anderson said he also appreciates the help given to him by Cardinals minor league catching instructor Dave Ricketts, a major league catcher for six seasons from 1963-70, and present St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.

Anderson said of Molina, "He helps me a lot in spring training, teaching me a lot of little things. With this organization you are helping each other out. You're not trying to backstab anybody."

Also giving Anderson a word of praise is Dave Duncan, St. Louis' pitching coach who was a catcher during his major league playing days from 1964-76.

"Bryan Anderson is one of our top prospects," Duncan said prior to a game at Busch Stadium. "We think he's going to be a good major league player. It's just a matter of time.

"He definitely has all the qualities that you look for in a hitter. Catching takes a little time to put everything together, but he's got the tools to do that, too."

Anderson has found a baseball home in the Midwest, and his dad, Steve, mom, Cindy, and older sister Christina could not be happier. Still huge Cardinals fans, a lot of his family grew up in the Midwest.

"They really love it," Anderson said. "They came out once. We had a lot of family come down from St. Louis. I got to see everybody."

As the season ends following the Texas League playoffs for his Springfield team, Anderson does not anticipate that the Cardinals will send him to the fall-winter Instructional League.

"I did not go last year, so most likely I won't," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen during the offseason. I might go play winter ball or the Arizona Fall League or wherever they send me. It depends on how I feel at the end of the year."