When manager Tony La Russa fired batting coach Hal McRae following the 2009 season, many St. Louis fans were pleased by the move.
Cardinals fans were even more pleased when La Russa hired Mark McGwire to replace McRae, believing that Big Mac could help improve an offense that scored only 730 runs last season.
Thirty-two games into the 2010 season, St. Louis has scored fewer runs than they did through the same number of games in 2009.
Last season, the Cardinals were 20-12 and had scored 172 runs. This season, St. Louis has a 20-12 record and has scored 141 runs.
This past week St. Louis was shut out twice, once by Philadelphia and again against Pittsburgh.
The Cardinals managed only six hits against Phillies’ starter Kyle Kendrick, who entered the game with a 7.61 ERA and had been winless in his previous five starts.
St. Louis could only muster three hits against the Pirates Jeff Karstens, who, like Kendrick, won his first game of the season.
Karstens entered the game with a 6.17 ERA after allowing six runs and 11 hits in five innings of work against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his previous start.
During Saturday night’s telecast, Fox Midwest analyst and former Cardinal Al Hrabosky attempted to explain why several players were struggling at the plate, focusing on shortstop Brendan Ryan.
Ryan has had a terrible start to the 2010 season, hitting only .183 while striking out 22 times in 93 plate appearances.
Hrabosky said Ryan, along with other young players in the Cardinals lineup like David Freese and Colby Rasmus, “were still trying to figure things out.”
But Hrabosky, who got himself in La Russa’s dog house after making comments about a lack of hustle from catcher Yadier Molina last season, sounded like someone making excuses for Ryan – or protecting McGwire.
Fact of the matter is, Ryan had a solid year at the plate last season, hitting .292 with 19 doubles, three home runs and 37 RBIs.
It would seem that he had things under control last year, but now Hrabosky wants us to believe that with an additional year of experience, Ryan is suddenly trying to figure things out.
That explanation isn’t going to answer what might be ailing the Cardinals hitters.
Watching the Cardinals at the plate this season has been painful at times. Balls right down the middle of the plate are being taken for strikes while pitches outside the zone are being swung at.
Even Albert Pujols has been reaching for pitches this season, something he’s seldom done throughout his career.
He’s been striking out more this season and has appeared overanxious at times, swinging at the first pitch in several of his at-bats.
In the Cardinals 2-1 loss to Philadelphia on May 4, Pujols came to the plate in the fifth inning with two outs and the game tied at zero. Phillies starter Cole Hamels had just issued a walk to Ryan Ludwick to load the bases.
Instead of taking a pitch – or several pitches – Pujols swung at the first pitch from Hamels, a high fastball that he popped up, ending the scoring threat.
The overanxious and off-balance swings have become far too frequent throughout the Cardinals lineup this season.
The Cardinals hitting approach appears to be the exact opposite of last season’s team, who worked the count and forced more pitches from the opposing starters.
St. Louis has been shutout three times and scored two or fewer runs in six other games. The Cards’ team batting average entering Sunday’s game against the Pirates was .259, good for 21st best in MLB.
That’s nearly a third of the games St. Louis has played this season where the team has scored two runs or less, and with a lineup that has Pujols and Matt Holiday in it, that’s simply not an acceptable amount of production.
In the Cardinals seven-game road trip that ended on Sunday, Pujols went 6 for 24 with two doubles and only one RBI.
Holliday’s numbers were a little better, going 9 for 23 with three doubles and one RBI. For the season, Holliday has a respectable .304 average but has only four home runs and 11 RBIs.
Prior to Saturday’s game, Hrabosky interviewed McGwire and asked him what his thoughts were on St. Louis’ troubles at the plate.
According to McGwire’s hitting philosophy, he’s telling the players to think about driving the ball back up the middle.
But in the same breath he said that if a pitch were on the inside part of the plate, don’t try to hit the ball up the middle, but get your hands through the zone and drive the ball to left.
That sounds like a logical approach to have, but while he’s trying to be helpful, McGwire might be confusing the players.
McGwire said that many of today’s players are depending too much on video and advanced scouting reports instead of trusting their eyes.
That may very well be a valid argument, but McGwire – nor anyone else on the Cardinals coaching staff – can explain why St. Louis was a better hitting team at this point last season with Hal McRae as the batting coach.
In defense of McGwire, he’s learning a new job and perhaps hasn’t found the best way to convey his thoughts.
Until he gets acclimated to his role as the Cardinals batting coach, maybe Big Mac should tell his players to work the count and don’t get themselves out.
For now, that’s a philosophy the St. Louis Cardinals apparently haven’t grasped.
