Re: LaRussa Back - McGwire May Be Hitting Coach

[sweetpeteman]

If I was a Cards fan I would be more worried about them hiring a guy who hasn't been a hitting coach at a professional level before. Its one thing to work with a few players in the off-season, but to actually be the hitting coach could be completely different for McGwire.

[shnsajax]

If I was a Cards fan I would be more worried about them hiring a guy who hasn't been a hitting coach at a professional level before. Its one thing to work with a few players in the off-season, but to actually be the hitting coach could be completely different for McGwire.

 

Maybe Pujlos doesn't know how to inject himself?

[illiniguy]

I don't even really care, many have pointed out how he hasn't ever coached before. My only issue was with LaRussa saying he was a product of hard work and diet. That's absurd. Plus this is the same Tony that accuses everyone and their sister of cheating whenever they are beating his team. I am sure there will be some interesting interviews.

[Keener98]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/278918-mcgwire-stresses-steroids-to-cardinals-hitters-satire

[Derwood]

If I was a Cards fan I would be more worried about them hiring a guy who hasn't been a hitting coach at a professional level before. Its one thing to work with a few players in the off-season, but to actually be the hitting coach could be completely different for McGwire.

 

Maybe Pujlos doesn't know how to inject himself?

 

he knows.....

[The Voice of Reason]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

[iirishluck]

Cardinals OBP were not very good.

 

Skip         .364  Fairly good
Ryan        .340           Not good enough to truly protect Albert
Albert       .443           One bright spot
Matt        .394            again good, but Matt's replacement might be Derosa
Ludwick    .329            can we say all or nothing?
Derosa      .319            give the ex-cub a flyer on being hurt usually he is closer to .360
Rasmus     .307        he stands to benefit most from Mark. 
Molina       .366            damn if only he could run faster than my grandma

 

PROS

I think Mark's philosophy of plate discipline will fit nicely compared to McRae's philospphy of hit the first thing you see.

 

Also everyone on the lineup except Ludwick and Holliday use the same basic weight transfer approach.

 

Mark studied the game like his mentor TLR and DD do. Bring the same scouting report research to the hitting aspect of the game will most certainly do well for this team.

 

CONS

Media Circus

 

 

I'd mention the inexperience and unknown factors as cons as well, but anything has to be better than McRae.

Wait...McGwire teaches a linear weight transfer? I'd think he'd be a huge rotational guy.

 

And Pujols does not share a weight transfer approach with the stance he uses, that's for certain.

 

Actually Pujol's and McGuires swings are fairly similiar. Very quiet front feet. Weight on back foot, coild waist with front foot. Transfer weight to front and allow rotation.

 

Call it whatever you want to call it, but it models (Along with Edmonds) It all begins with quiet mechanics to keep the head still and allow the bat the most time in contact zone.

[NonProfitCow]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

huh?

[The Voice of Reason]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

huh?

 

It would take the pressure off Big (Phony) Mac to have other juicers around.

[DuCross Brothers]

I saw this...I thought about when the Mets brought in Ricky Henderson to be the 3rd base coach as well as a hitting coach at one time. We all know where there ended up. So if Ricky didn't make it I will give McGwire at least a season if that.

 

What?

His wording makes sense if he actually meant at most a season.

 

I'm just guessing here, but I don't think SSR's question of "what" is directed towards his grammar. I think its more directed at his whole point in that post because I know I have no idea what the point was supposed to be.

 

Yeah, I didn't even notice the poor wording.

 

 

Despite my poor "grammar" or "poor wording". The point of the post is that Ricky Henderson was a good baseball player just like McGwire was a good baseball player. However he was signed as a 3rd Base Coach by the Met's as well as he served time at one point in the season as a Hitting coach. So, if Ricky Henderson wasn't successful at either one of those spots then I don't see McGwire lasting a full season as the Cardinals hitting coach.

 

So, the "what" post I thought was more towards the fact that maybe you didn't know that Ricky Henderson was a coach for the Met's at one point? :scratch:

[NonProfitCow]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

huh?

 

It would take the pressure off Big (Phony) Mac to have other juicers around.

I don't follow.

[NonProfitCow]

Despite my poor "grammar" or "poor wording". The point of the post is that Ricky Henderson was a good baseball player just like McGwire was a good baseball player. However he was signed as a 3rd Base Coach by the Met's as well as he served time at one point in the season as a Hitting coach. So, if Ricky Henderson wasn't successful at either one of those spots then I don't see McGwire lasting a full season as the Cardinals hitting coach.

 

So, the "what" post I thought was more towards the fact that maybe you didn't know that Ricky Henderson was a coach for the Met's at one point? :scratch:

You're comparing McGwire to Henderson? Really?

[XZero771679666304]

Despite my poor "grammar" or "poor wording". The point of the post is that Ricky Henderson was a good baseball player just like McGwire was a good baseball player. However he was signed as a 3rd Base Coach by the Met's as well as he served time at one point in the season as a Hitting coach. So, if Ricky Henderson wasn't successful at either one of those spots then I don't see McGwire lasting a full season as the Cardinals hitting coach.

 

So, the "what" post I thought was more towards the fact that maybe you didn't know that Ricky Henderson was a coach for the Met's at one point? :scratch:

You're comparing McGwire to Henderson? Really?

 

Yeah, there is one key difference (besides the fact that Henderson was a much better ballplayer) - Rickey is insane.

[Keener98]

So because 1 former player didn't succeed as a coach/hitting coach, then that means McGwire won't either? That makes no sense

[Transmogrified Tiger]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

huh?

 

It would take the pressure off Big (Phony) Mac to have other juicers around.

I don't follow.

 

I don't know how he could be more clear. If you're going to bring someone with hitting talents like McGwire's to be your hitting coach, it makes sense to bring someone with speaking talents like Sosa's to be your motivational speaker.

[mjohnson71]

There won't be a media circus. Maybe when the hiring is formally announced and the first week of spring, but people just don't care about steroids anymore.

 

Then maybe LaRussa should hire Canesco, Bonds and Palmeiro as his base and bench coaches with Roger Clemens as his pitching coach and bring in Sammy as a motivational speaker.

 

If so, don't let Sammy give lessons on how to cork a bat.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/278918-mcgwire-stresses-steroids-to-cardinals-hitters-satire

 

 

McGwire proceeded to pull a Mike Singletary during his meeting and pull down his pants revealing his testicles had disappeared.

 

"Would you rather have big balls or hit the balls big?" McGwire asked.

 

 

=D>

[Sammy Sofa]

That's terrible.

[artvandalay]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

[illiniguy]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

[Lucky13]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

 

Do you believe he was on roids when he hit 49 in 1987?

 

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc33/WaxHeaven/2-101.jpg

[illiniguy]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

 

Do you believe he was on roids when he hit 49 in 1987?

 

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc33/WaxHeaven/2-101.jpg

Not sure, it is possible. Canseco says he was using in the minors. Don't really care much anyways. I think a pretty huge chucnk of players were.

[artvandalay]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

 

What a ridiculous argument about the walks. He was such a dangerous hitter that pitchers felt they had to pitch around him (which is a point that I contest anyway- it is NOT always a decision by the pitcher that leads to a walk, there is such a skill as plate discipline and working a count), but that means that he isn't necessarily all that good because the only reason he got on all those times was because he was pitched around. backwards logic anyone? by that reasoning someone could hit a homerun literally every time they came to the plate, causing pitchers to eventually walk him literally every time he came to the plate. that person, by your reasoning, wouldn't be a great hitter at all because the only reason he was getting on all those times was because pitchers were afraid to pitch to him.

[illiniguy]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

 

What a ridiculous argument about the walks. He was such a dangerous hitter that pitchers felt they had to pitch around him (which is a point that I contest anyway- it is NOT always a decision by the pitcher that leads to a walk, there is such a skill as plate discipline and working a count), but that means that he isn't necessarily all that good because the only reason he got on all those times was because he was pitched around. backwards logic anyone? by that reasoning someone could hit a homerun literally every time they came to the plate, causing pitchers to eventually walk him literally every time he came to the plate. that person, by your reasoning, wouldn't be a great hitter at all because the only reason he was getting on all those times was because pitchers were afraid to pitch to him.

So you don't think that there was a correlation between his power and the amount of times that he walked?

[artvandalay]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people honestly subscribe to the "he wasn't a good hitter because he had a low career batting average" theory or some such [expletive] about "pure hitters". Seriously, what is a hitter's goal at the plate? To help his team score runs, correct? By pretty much all accounts McGwire was one of the best of his time, if not ever, at helping his team score runs when he was at the plate. He got on base and hit the ball for extra bases (the two most important things that a batter can do) more frequently than just about anyone else in the game. That's the issue, plain and simply, and there really isn't any other way to look at it.

But, both of those things could be directly impacted by performance enhancing drugs. I.E. he hit for power because of the steroids, thus he was pitched around a lot. It might not be the case, but you should be able to see why people would think that.

 

What a ridiculous argument about the walks. He was such a dangerous hitter that pitchers felt they had to pitch around him (which is a point that I contest anyway- it is NOT always a decision by the pitcher that leads to a walk, there is such a skill as plate discipline and working a count), but that means that he isn't necessarily all that good because the only reason he got on all those times was because he was pitched around. backwards logic anyone? by that reasoning someone could hit a homerun literally every time they came to the plate, causing pitchers to eventually walk him literally every time he came to the plate. that person, by your reasoning, wouldn't be a great hitter at all because the only reason he was getting on all those times was because pitchers were afraid to pitch to him.

So you don't think that there was a correlation between his power and the amount of times that he walked?

 

There's no doubt that there was SOME correlation, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't a good hitter because of it, and while I'm sure you would say that his power was the main reason he walked a lot I would strongly disagree. There are plenty of hitters that hit lots of home runs but don't walk nearly as much as McGwire did.