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Sooner made some good points. Sometimes players just are too stick in their ways to make a serious and concerted effort to change. Especially if their opinion of themselves is a bit too rosy.
Bader is highly confident. But at WWU, he was open about being inconsistent with sliders low and away. FWIW, of all the Cardinals there, I was most impressed by Bader’s off-season training commitment. We shall see if it translates to the games.
Sure hope Bader solves the plate discipline problem. It would be great for the Cardinals. But sometimes it’s easier said than done. It’s like changing a golf swing. You can get worse before you get better and some don’t have the patience to come out on the other side. They revert to old, familiar habits. Feeling it’s what got them there and led to at least some success.
Jeff Albert needs to earn his keep this year. The spotlight is going to be on him for more than one reason. Not only does he need to help fix the floundering offense I am not convinced he is completely clear of Astrogate.
Some say that hitting coaches don’t really have a big impact on the game. If that is true then why do teams employ them?
Albert has his work cut out for him. He somehow has to revive Carp’s career and has to try to cut down the K rate for Bader, O’Neill, and DeJong. Good luck Jeff.
Bader is one who has preferred his own approach over Albert’s teachings. Bader took on a new hitting coach this winter and spent the winter in the Miami area working five days a week. He also said he traveled up to Jupiter (where Albert lives) to keep him informed.
Many players use their own coaches in the off-season and likely speak to them during the season, as well. Pitching and hitting. Not specific to the Cardinals.
One short story. Colby Rasmus may have crossed the line for the last time when his Dad arrived to work with Colby – in the underground cages at Busch Stadium. Not surprisingly, TLR apparently took exception.
RCWarrior always fancied himself as the smartest man in the room. I’ve always wondered if two of his sons would have made the majors without him, but I also wonder if they would have lasted longer without him. We will never know…
As I recall, Colby’s dad publicaly ripped the way the Cardinals were handling his son. When Colby was traded to Toronto, Tony Rasmus said “it saved by son’s career.”
At WWU, Bader seemed overly confident that he’s the starting center fielder in 2010. Does he really understand how bad .205/.314/.367/.680 is?
Is he confident and sure of himself which is a good thing, or overly confident and a little too much into himself which is not a good thing?
Why would an opposing pitcher ever throw him a fastball? I would throw him 100% sliders.
Same with O’Neill and DeJong also. They need to prove they can hit that pitch.
Steve Beiser, U. of Missouri baseball coach, has a good technique.
He shows a video of a pitcher head on and just as the pitcher releases the ball, he pauses the video and has a game with his position players to guess what the pitch is –
based upon arm angle, position of pitcher’s foot on the rubber, grip if they can detect it, etc.
He puts pitch recognition at the top of the priority list.He puts pitch recognition at the top of the priority list.
You’d think it would have to be. I’d also think that excellent vision is pretty much necessary to be a great ballplayer. That’s what makes Tommy Pham’s success so amazing to me.
The thread title suggests Bader comparisons, for me, so here’s one I’ve been entertaining.
.236 / .317 / .409 / .727 / 92 ops+ is Jackie Bradley Jr’s career slash line.
.236 / .320 / .393 / .713 / 90 ops+ is Harrison Bader’s career line.Position appropriate, this is as close as I’ve found among active CF’rs.
JBJ has accumulated 3064 PA’s during his age 23 through 29 seasons, with 2020 being his walk year. HB has 925 PA’s ages 23 through 25, with 2 yrs, 30 days service time.
Both JBJ and HB debuted during their age 23 seasons. JBJ, through his age 25 season, posted a slash line of .213 / .290 / .349 / .638 / 75 ops+. Boston didn’t blink and gave JBJ another 636 PA’s in his age 26 season. Bos was rewarded with a All-Star season of .267 / .349 / .486 / .835, bringing his career ops+ up from 75 ops+ to 94.
Harrison is currently a 90 ops+, and entering his age 26 season. Imo, Harrison is already a more valuable player than JBJ was at the same point in his career, and Harrison’s D is better, clearly better, by the eyeball test and any D metric publicly available. This comparison did remind me to consider the point of Harrison career he’s at, and the age related seasons he’s entering.
well we had a lot of those type averages in the starting lineup last year. I guess we shouldn’t have fielded a team.
Let’s take a look at the 2019 batting averages –
Edman – .304
Wong – .285
Molina – .270
Martinez – .269
Goldschmidt – .260
Ozuna – .241
Fowler – .238
DeJong – .233
Carpenter – .226
Bader – .205There went many guys who hit near that Mendoza .205.
well if we are considering 241, 238, 233 226, great averages, then I think bader will be just fine this year. also to point out, of those players with those averages, only dejong played elite defense, fowler was ok, the other two were not very good at all. Bader was also guilty of a lot of bad luck far as balls he put in play according to some of these fancy stats people quote on here though they usually only pounce on the ones that prove their points. Bader will have to do better this year or hes gone. Hes probably under the most pressure of anyone on this team. He isn’t getting paid big bucks unlike some who are and will still play even if they don’t produce.
well im basing fowlers defense off of others we have. he certainly was better than ozuna and Martinez. and I would say he was equal to oneil since I consider him just ok. He also made some great catches though he isn’t the type of player that’s going to dive or take base hits away. He could at least make the routine play so OK.
Many fans who had seen Fowler go after a ball in the gap or the corner in a nonchalant manner are frustrated with his OF play.
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