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Personally, I don’t place a whole lot of importance on a hitting coach at the Big League level, but with almost all Redbird hitters stuggling with the bats in the ’19, ’21 and ’22 post-seasons, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Jeff Albert was made the scapegoat. He’s been the Cardinal hitting coach since the end of the 2018 season which is precisely in line with the Cardinals taking an early exit from post-season play as a direct result of nonexistent hitting in post-season contests. Does anyone else think he may be feeling his job may be in jeopardy?
Hard to say. I think management is on board with his general approach, which is to pull the ball in the air.
Not an approach I learned, but that was old school. We were taught to usually try to hit the ball up the middle, with some leeway to yank a pitch if we were ahead in the count.
With two strikes, back in the day it was always preached to do your best to make contact. Don’t worry so much about trying to hit one out, but focus more on contact.
Today it is all or nothing regardless of count.
BikeMike…Well, like I mentioned, I don’t think a hitting coach has a lot of importance at the Big League level. As for the approach of attempting to pull and elevate the baseball, like yourself, I was always led to believe that allowing the baseball to enter as deep into strike zone as was possible prior to shifting any weight to my front foot was the best approach to seeing the ball and making solid contact. Some of the best rips seen from great hitters seem to launch the baseball from out of the catcher’s glove. At any rate, I notice a lot of harsh criticism of Jeff Albert from local Cardinal fans in the area and it can’t be denied that the struggles for the last three Redbird post-seasons center around a complete lack of any hitting. I’ve also noticed several extended scoring droughts in the regular season for two or three years, which puzzles me because this team has quite a few good hitters. Maybe it’s high time they changed their hitting philosophy.
Albert’s arrival corresponds with a 4 year playoff rum after a 3 year drought. Doubt he is going anywhere.
The Cards were 5th in park adjusted OPS this year, so I’d guess that Albert will be snug in his bed so long as that happens.
The Cards were 5th in park adjusted OPS this year,
We will have to see what it looks like next season when we don’t get to feast on Central Division losers so much.
We will have to see what it looks like next season when we don’t get to feast on Central Division losers so much.
The Cards had a .750 OPS against Central foes, compared to a .746 OPS overall. Given that the ballparks in the Central tend to shift toward hitters outside of St Louis and perhaps Pittsburgh, the ballpark adjustment wouldn’t be likely to take too much of a hit. Overall, the Central pitchers did a decent job against the Cards offense, but perhaps the change in schedule will have an impact.
I think those droughts we go through on offense partly comes from the all-or-nothing hitting approach. We have several guys who are not well suited to that style, in fact just about everyone is not suited other than Goldschmidt and maybe O’Neill.
When things are going well we pile up the runs, then go a week or so where we are not making contact and the offense looks bad. Unfortunately good pitching can exploit those bad stretches, which happens to us in post season.
You are correct Mike. The feast or famine approach leads to a lot of peaks and valleys and it sure has changed the game. It makes me wonder if guys like Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, or Rod Carew would even be everyday players in today’s game. They weren’t obsessed with launch angle.
I think Boggs understood launch angle (even if only intuitively). I saw where he once Said he could hit 30-40 HR a year if he wanted tô but his average would drop .50 points.
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