Last October, in a controversial move, the St. Louis Cardinals hired former home run hero-turned shamed recluse-soon to turn repentant ex-steroids user Mark McGwire as their hitting coach. In the process, his predecessor, Hal McRae, was shown the door after five years.

Among manager Tony La Russa’s many comments at the time:

“The pros overwhelmed the cons… I think I was trusted by our ownership to make the right judgment,” La Russa said, “and I would have been very disappointed if I wasn’t.”

With the 2010 regular season in the books forever, let’s see if the only quantitative measure of McGwire’s results – the numbers posted by his hitters – are pro-Big Mac or con.

During a disappointing season in which the defending National League Central Division champion Cardinals missed the playoffs, the club’s inconsistent hitters were considered by many to have been a key factor in the team’s unexpected shortfall.

Of course, there are a number of variables in any year-to-year comparison, yet the core of the Cardinals offense remained the same from 2009 to 2010. One positive in 2010 was a full-season of $120 million-man Matt Holliday, partially offset by only a half-year of former All-Star Ryan Ludwick.

When all was said and done, across the entire 162-game season, the Cardinals scored six more runs under McGwire in 2010 than they did under McRae in 2009. That works out to a statistically-insignificant rate of 4.54 runs per game compared to 4.51.

Let’s take a look at a number of other stats from the Cardinals offense as well as their rankings within the 16-team National League.

First, we see the team batting average and on-base percentage remained remarkably stable from year to year. The respective stats’ rankings improved in comparison to the rest of the league in a year when pitching was up and hitting was down across the game.

Surprisingly, the slugging percentage of the former slugger McGwire’s Cardinals was down from the year prior, despite an early-season home run burst. The next table breaks down the difference.

As indicated above, McRae’s 2009 charges had hit nine more doubles, ten more home runs and collected 41 more total bases than did the 2010 Cards hitters, with better NL ranks accordingly. Another way to look at it is that the team’s 2010 home run count was down over six percent compared to the previous year.

Just because McGwire’s hitters didn’t bring more pop doesn’t mean they didn’t show at least some improvement in other areas. As mentioned above, they plated six more runs. The batters also demonstrated a bit more patience, drawing eight more non-intentional walks, fanning 14 fewer times and grounding into three fewer double plays than the year before.  In each case, the Cardinals improved their relative standing against the NL.

Remember that the magnitude of all these differences must be considered over a full 162-game schedule, making most of these year-to-year changes relatively minor.

Considering everything, decide for yourself if all the Cardinals McGwire-related activity was worth the benefit received.

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That in itself is hardly news, as the former Royals and Devil Rays manager has been on the hot seat as the team’s offense sputtered down the stretch and in the post-season despite the addition of three new, high-profile players.

What is news however, is that ESPN is labeling secluded slugger Mark McGwire as the leading replacement.

On one hand, that is not new either, as La Russa has stated on several occasions that he has tried to get his former first baseman into coaching. Yet becoming the full-time hitting coach would be light-years ahead of what appeared to be the previous target – just getting Big Mac to show up at spring training camp as a special instructor.

In fact, McGwire actually agreed to assist La Russa in spring training 2008, but had to back out at the last minute, reportedly over a family matter.

There are a number of reasons the 46-year-old McGwire would be a good and inspired choice to replace McRae.

1. Freshness in the coaching ranks. The continuity that La Russa has fostered in his staff is admirable and a contributor to the team’s success. Yet, no turnover could lead to some stagnation. McGwire, while a long-time La Russa favorite, would clearly change that.
2. Coaching familiarity. Though he has no formal professional coaching credentials, McGwire has worked with current Cardinals Matt Holliday and Skip Schumaker and former Redbird Chris Duncan in California in recent off-seasons. All have been very positive about the instruction given.
3. The Holliday factor. In his evaluation of where to sign a new contract, impending free agent Holliday might give a slight increase in consideration to the Cardinals with McGwire in the dugout. I don’t want to oversell this however, as I sincerely doubt agent Scott Boras cares one way or another enough to increase the value of any “hometown discount” for Holliday’s continued services.
4. The Pujols factor. Albert Pujols came up from the minors in spring training, 2001 and learned the ropes of being a major leaguer at the knee of McGwire, who was then starting what would be his final season. In fact, I have often wondered if Pujols hadn’t learned how to deal with the media from Big Mac, too. Then there is that not-so-little issue of Albert’s contract extension. Having McGwire around again every day surely couldn’t hurt Pujols’ feelings about the Cardinals’ commitment to win.

So, what is not to like?

It’s that 800-pound gorilla in the room – McGwire’s unwillingness to discuss the past. Those darned media types won’t let him alone. And that is the problem, a huge one.

Unless Mac deals head on with the questions that have smudged his reputation since his appearance in front of a congressional committee in March, 2005, his mere presence as a coach could turn the 2010 Cardinals into either a circus, a high-security prison camp or both.

There are two ways this could go. In their zeal to get McGwire out of hiding, the Cardinals may have decided to take the careful path – not addressing the off-field issues directly. Instead, they could decide to build an even stronger protective cocoon around McGwire than they did when he was an active player.

I think most of us can imagine what a distraction that could become and ultimately, how unsuccessful it would be.

The other way to move ahead is for McGwire to do precisely what even La Russa himself suggested this past spring – for Big Mac to provide some closure to the open questions about his past.

“I think if he came to spring training and was seen, so the writers and the fans could say, ‘There’s Mark,’ and answer whatever they want, I think that would go a long way, in my opinion,” La Russa told the New York Times in January.

It is an interesting theory that the prolonged delay on the part of La Russa to announce his return as manager for 2010 is not totally due to his own indecision, but instead to buy time to come up with a workable plan to get McGwire onto his coaching staff.

Here is hoping it is successful, but only if McGwire steps up and allows us all to move ahead.

Update: The Cardinals will be holding an 11 a.m. press conference on Monday. Subject not disclosed.

Tony La Russa on what he told Greene: “It’s what I tell all the young players when they come up here. Just trust your ability and not try to do too much. Nothing too complicated.”

TLR on why he started Greene on his first day: “You usually bring up a guy when you need him. If he’s a spare part, then I don’t find a way to start him, but I have two shortstops hurt. I think it’s good to get him out there.” No, I didn’t ask him what that says or doesn’t say about how he feels about Brian Barden at short.

We may see Blaine Boyer pitch Thursday evening, as he is one of the “hot” relievers. TLR: “The best laboratory is actual games.”

TLR on Chris Carpenter “feeling better” and his work in the training room: “I’m encouraged…. But no predictions when he can play.” As I was coming off the field before the game, Carp was standing on the stairway watching the pitchers take batting practice in the cage under the stands. I asked the obvious – “Wish you were out there?” The answer was equally predictable.

I am posting up for Scout.com subscribers a discussion I had today with Brendan Ryan about his hamstring injury. He thought he had clearance from the trainer to take batting practice today, but as I was talking with bench coach Joe Pettini, he told Ryan “no”. Khalil Greene concurred with the decision. A former MLB middle infielder himself, Pettini has a lot of experience with this kind of injury. On a side note, Ryan’s brother Paul had to scrap his planned trip to DC for the weekend with “The Boog” placed on the DL.

I asked Colby Rasmus about the outfield turf in Atlanta. Not making an excuse in any manner, he answered the question by holding his hands about a foot apart saying that the ball actually “snakes” to the left and right as it passes through the grass. Rasmus acknowledged that it is not easy to spot on television. He had an estimated 150 friends and family from Russell County, Alabama in Atlanta. Colby exclaimed that fortunately he didn’t have to buy all of the tickets! P.J. Walters also mentioned that he had a contingent up from Pensacola, Florida.

Hitting coach Hal McRae was giving some tips to Joe Thurston before the game. I asked the coach how his recovery from the flu is going and if it is spreading through the team. On the latter question, he said, “Thankfully, not yet.” He just took his fifth daily dose of antibiotics but is expecting a total of seven to ten days with it “no matter what”. Ryan Ludwick’s minor ailment is apparently unconnected.

Did you notice that Yadier Molina is wearing a different style batting helmet than the rest of his teammates? I did, so I asked about it. It is one of the modern-looking Rawlings Cool Vent models with indentations and slots on the sides. Turns out Yadi tried it out during the World Baseball Classic and decided to keep it. Says it keeps his head cooler. Whether real or imagined, it doesn’t matter. The rest of the club opted to stay with the traditional models when asked several years ago when they first came out.

I passed Nats television play-by-play man Bob Carpenter in the tunnel and we exchanged greetings. The former Cardinals broadcaster looks great. His sister Judy Carpenter-Barada is a long-time key member of the Cardinals front office with the official title of Director of Major League Administration.

Cards-focused scribes on this assignment include Joe Strauss from the P-D and locally-based Lisa Winston of USA Today Baseball Weekly and MiLB.com fame covering for Matthew Leach with MLB.com. Look for their articles during this series. The FOX Sports Midwest crew includes producer Tom Mee and his fine crew in the truck as always, along with Dan, Al and Pat Parris. Rick Horton is also with the club along with John Rooney on the airwaves.

Minors matters: I updated the Roster Matrix with the latest moves, including the activation of outfielder Paul Cruz with Quad Cities. Unfortunately catcher Blake Murphy’s elbow is causing him problems again, so he returned to the DL.

Donovan Solano was promoted from Springfield to Memphis to replace Greene. Pitcher Marco Gonzalez moved in the opposite direction. That keeps Springfield whole, but Memphis would seem to still be one player short. Here’s how that was apparently solved. Outfielder Shane Robinson is shown on the DL by MiLB.com while catcher Brandon Yarbrough and reliever Fernando Salas are now active.

Shortstop Pete Kozma is heading from Palm Beach up to Springfield on Friday, reports Ray Mileur at Scout.com. Kyle Mura is moved onto the Springfield DL with Trey Hearne taking his spot in the rotation. Springfield now has five players on the disabled list and one on the temporary inactive list. Palm Beach’s addition to replace Kozma is not yet known. (Edit: See update below.) I did notice that regular Domnit Bolivar (currently hitting .224) is out of the Quad Cities lineup on Thursday evening, but that could be coincidence (Edit: It wasn’t!).

On a personal and negative note, I am having monitor problems with my laptop and am hoping that far away from home, my machine will be kind to me this weekend. If I do disappear, do not assume foul play is involved!