One potential story line that is exciting some St. Louis Cardinals fans is the reminder of soon-to-be free agent Matt Holliday having relocated to Southern California last off-season specifically to work on his hitting with secluded former hero Mark McGwire.
The hope of some is that McGwire being hired as the Cardinals 2010 hitting coach might provide encouragement to Holliday to take a hometown discount to return to St. Louis next season and beyond.
Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan credits Big Mac as having been a factor in Holliday’s rise as a slugger in his days with the Colorado Rockies.
“McGwire originally suggested Holliday employ the leg kick that turned him from a gap hitter into a powerful slugger,” Passan recalls.
In fact, there were reports that in the Clint Hurdle days, the Rockies offered their major league hitting coach job to McGwire, who declined.
Yet would Holliday be as excited to have McGwire as his coach today as he was one year ago?
After their intensive winter workouts, Holliday joined the Oakland A’s, who acquired one year of his services in an off-season trade with the Rockies.
In his first spring training with the A’s, Holliday turned into a singles hitter, having just two doubles and no home runs in his 62 March at-bats.
Once the regular season opened, the problems continued. As April came to a close, Holliday was batting under .240 and had yet to go deep in the Oakland uniform. Counting spring training, the drought was 136 at-bats and 40 games before Holliday finally homered in his final April plate appearance.
By June 5, Holliday had shown slight improvement, having reached a modest total of eight home runs and a .286 batting average on the season. From that point on, he went right back into the tank. Over the next five weeks, until July 16, Holliday endured a 33-game, 121 at-bat homerless streak, the second-longest regular-season period of futility in his career.
Some were labeling Holliday a Coors Field phenom. Others said he could not handle American League pitching, which if true would surely decrease his value as a free agent, since a number of his potential targets could be deep-pocketed AL East Coast clubs.
Clearly, by the time Holliday was dealt to the Cardinals, many A’s fans were glad to see him go. Between spring and the regular season, Holliday had 11 home runs and 61 RBI in 408 Oakland at-bats and a subpar slugging mark of .436, well over 100 points under his career average.
In mid-July, something changed – an adjustment that carried Holliday through his final week with the A’s and into his initial red-hot period as a Cardinal.
Passan reminds us of media reports that it was getting away from McGwire’s winter hitting tips that enabled Holliday to rediscover his mojo and resurrect his sinking free-agent value.
“He (McGwire) also prodded Holliday this offseason to lessen the kick into a stride, which threw off Holliday’s swing for the season’s first three months.”
Taking that at face value, whatever McGwire gave, he later took away. All told, it has to make one wonder how effective Mac’s instruction really has been for Holliday.
His other reported students include the Duncan brothers, Chris and Shelley, a pair of all-or-nothing hitters trying to get back to the majors, Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby, who lost his job because of a lack of hitting and can’t get either one back and scrappy Skip Schumaker, who hardly fits the McGwire profile. As Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch notes, the .263 career-hitting Mac “had just three sacrifices in his career and none in his last 10 seasons”.
I am not suggesting that Mark McGwire cannot become a good major league hitting coach. I am only noting he is unproven and his limited past track record may not be as stellar as some think.
Thanks for bringing that up Brian. Clearly there is some wiggle room in the interpretation of “correct” against ” productive” . It might not mean that Matt thinks Mark is wrong. It may be that he couldn’t make the adjustment in season, or it messed with his “natural instinct” swing triggers.
Your right that it probably isn’t an enhancement for Holiday. Question that is looming; is this just Tony trying to get Mark back into baseball so that he might eventually be considered for the Hall of Fame. Is this social work. The first pressure article in the paper was by Gordon, the team lackey. I’m watching with interest.
Tony is convinced at least. Will we see Brendan in the on-deck circle swinging three bats, gazing longingly at the yellow sign high up in left field? Surely Mac will demonstrate by taking a few hacks in the cage now and then. I’m oiling up my glove already.
I like the idea that McGwire at least has private teaching experience. I’m not sure gives him good experience dealing with pitcher/hitter match ups or the psyche of players on a day to day season long basis which is so important to hitting – but at least he has personal experience in that area. Just because a guy is good at something doesn’t make him a good teacher – he may be or he may not be.
I think Westie’s angle on Tony and the PR/HOF thing is worth considering. (I give Westie a hard time but he does have some points that are valid and well thought out as well.)
The PR angle was probed deeply in the press conference and the HOF came up tangentially. There will be an opportunity for Mac to take press questions over the phone “sooner rather than later”, Mo said at least four times this morning. He and TLR both said they are leaving it up to McGwire as to what he will say or not say. Should be most interesting.
At a minimum, it offers Mac a vehicle to clear the air in a more business-as-usual manner instead of via the creation of a specific event which would be viewed as only a McGwire explanation/apology.
I at least give the Cardinals credit for ensuring an environment will be created so the questions are answered this winter. That way, spring can be focused on getting the 2010 team ready.
For those unable to have caught the press conference live, my article summarizing it is now posted on the front page at Scout.com (free article):
“La Russa’s StL Return with New Coach McGwire”
“DeWitt noted that McGwire “knows at some point he is going to have to face up to it.” The team chairman also said that he had discussed the situation with MLB commissioner Bud Selig and received support, including the timing of the announcement during the post-season.”
There is more here than might be guessed at. So, I won’t right now. I will say this to Mark Maguire. Get on it big guy………… you will never see a more opportune time than tomorrow. ESPN is choking on a scandal…………Fox News has the series with the Yankee’s in the spotlight. Fox along with NY media and sports writers aren’t going to be swinging very hard at you while they are trying to reinvent A-Rod. Charles Manson could get a parole in this environment. If you value timing, get with it.
As an added point, Hal MaCrae is a fine fellow. He had a serious communication problem. Just holding his 6feet 5inches 250lbs with an attitude at full attention, Mark is probably going to straiten out a few problems on this team. It has to be better………….it also give us another 1 and a half extra men in a bench clearing social event to compensate for Brenden and his mustache.
Back off on Brendan Westy, the ‘stache and the stirrups go hand and hand. You know nothing about accesorizing.
Good point about the east coasters having to tread lightly lest A-Rod topple off his pedestal. During the WS would be the time.
Guys, the Cardinals do not control MLB. Partially because the news leaked out anyway, the team received the go-ahead for today’s announcement. There is no way MLB would approve the scheduling of Mac’s coming out party in the midst of the World Series. No way. Everyone will have to wait a couple of weeks. Gives more time for rehearsals, anyway.
I’m not getting your message Brian…………. Are you suggesting that Mark was advised to miss todays press conference? ………………………… I was under the impression that, probably because it would be awkward, he would be doing phone interviews. Whats the difference if he just does local media. A-Rod might like the distraction. I thought this was all about “frank openness.”
Oh, I get it , your suggesting that all the trouble that MLB through to leak names and pressure the Union by exposing players, that now its in their financial interest to Gloss over anything that might distract from getting the Yankee’s (Americas team) back on top? Speak up Mark, its the right time.
Brian – “…an environment ….so the questions are answered….” – are you sure? Maybe an environment where they can be asked but don’t count your answers before you get them. We might just end up with more questions!
WC, sorry if I was unclear. Mac was not invited today. But when he does speak, it will have enough national interest that you can bet the alphabet media will want to be involved. Selig would not want that negative vibe taking attention away from his fall-heading-into-winter classic, so I expect the Cardinals will schedule it after the World Series is over.
CC, you are right. Mac’s explanation could prove to be no clearer than before. Perhaps I am guilty of being hopeful that the story this time might be more palatable than it was in 2007. Anything short of hara-kiri will not be totally satisfying to everyone, though.
I’m pleased to see McGwire join the coaching staff primarily because he was a much more patient hitter than McRae in his day. For a team that finished 12th of 16 NL teams in walks last season, I’d say that a little less free swinging would be a plus.
To go one step further, without Pujols’ world-leading 44 intentional walks, the Cards would have been 14th of 16… They were also third in strikeouts.
Despite having every reason to swing for the fences at Coors Field, the Rockies led the NL in free passes taken. Their 660 total was almost 50 more than the next closest team. StL had 528, of which (at least) 73 were intentional.
On the positive side, the Cards pitchers led the NL in fewest walks issued, so at least the Cardinals games should have run shorter…
I wonder why Mo said McGwire would do a press conference “by phone”? Does this mean McGwire would be out of sight? Or would the press conference be televised, with reporters able to phone in questions to supplement ones asked in the room?
I have heard of press conferences. And TV interviews. I am less familiar with new conferences by phone.
A phone conference would simply mean the participants are in different locations. It has been done before and should be manageable. Didn’t strike me as odd given the situation.
My guess is Schmelig ordered Mac not to leave his house until the series is over. Maybe the phone conference will happen soon, before some local sports radio hosts keel over and die of righteous indignation.
I read one report that said phone……..one said teleconference.
I am wondeing what Mac’s off season activities will consist of this winter. Will he do is hitting clinic thing? Will he have some more official duties working with only Card org players? I would not be surprised to see Chris Duncan show back up, unless he is truly debilitated.
bb, just read a Goold article that touches on Mac’s off-season plans with a couple of players. Of course, Mark hasn’t yet spoken himself but as I understand it, starting 11/1, he is under contract with StL.
WC,
As opposed to by phone, what do you think a teleconference is?
The term can sometimes encompass video.
Nobody seems to mention it much in this McGwire talk but probably the most importnt is its impact on Colby’s development. Colby’s development or lack their of will probably be as important to the Cards success over the next few years as whether or not we sign Holliday.
The other thing I worry about with McGwire is that he will overcompensate to not be seen as teaching people to be sluggers. That could be good if it works but it may also take some players out of their natural games.
Good point about McGwire’s impact on Rasmus. I’m somewhat puzzled by his hiring but am interested in seeing if he can help improve the team’s offense.
Derrick Goold posted a similar article on Sunday but the angle was as a rebuttal to Scott Boras’ comments essentially blaming McGwire for Holliday’s problems in Oakland without giving Mac credit for suggesting Holliday’s leg kick in the first place. As Goold noted, it is too bad Mark can’t speak for himself.