After a playoff-bound season, the Cardinals are bringing back their entire coaching staff for 2021, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Assistant Willie McGee, who opted out of the 2020 campaign in the middle of August, plans to return.
Led by manager Mike Shildt, who just completed his second full season on the job, the Cardinals overcame COVID-19 issues to finish 30-28 and land in the wild-card round. However, the club bowed out then, 2-1, against the Padres.
Along with Shildt, hitting coach Jeff Albert and pitching coach Mike Maddux are among those who will be back. The Cardinals didn’t perform especially well on the offensive side, as they ranked 19th in wRC+. Meanwhile, their pitchers rated ninth in ERA and 19th in FIP.
I’m not surprised. The Cards need a new hitting coach.
They arent gonna replace the guy after 1 1/3 seasons. Its counter productive.
They need new hitters. The trend started before Jeff Albert.
It started when George Kissel passed away, then Magic Mo came along they can’t judge talent very well. They try to make the same player. It is crazy how many young guys have left St Louis and thrived and they were stuck behind guys who can’t hit their weight in the bigs.
Right, I can think of handfuls of players they traded who have outperformed by a wide margin Matt Carpenter, Dexter Folwer, Harison Bader, Tyler Oneil, and Land Thomas combined… They honestly look like fools right now. I been saying since they traded Jose for Matthew, man I hope were not saying I wonder what kind of outfield the Cardinals would have had if they kept Mercado, Arozarena, with Carlson playing center.
mercado wasn’t lost by choice
Yes the poor hitting trend did start well before Albert. And with Albert—- The Cardinals hitting has gotten even worse.
I’d love to see Edmonds working with hitters this year, the small amount of time he’s spent with a few of them really seemed to help
If Jeff Albert could just figure out what made him so successful in Houston and carry it over to his new club. Oh wait never mind probably better off having him experiment with a playoff caliber club.
And a team that made the playoffs the last two years is a playoff caliber club. They can and will continue to pitch, so experiment away with the offense.
Yeah, whatever he figured out there, he musta wrote it on a piece of paper the crumbled it up and threw it in a trashcan once for…. Nevermind. Didn’t the Cardinals have one of the worst offenses in all of MLB? And they are ok with that? I agree with the comment below yours, lets give Lance Berkman a go
The cardinals already have a better hitting coach on staff it’s Willie McGee
What is McGee’s role with the team now? The article doesn’t specify. He’d probably be a fantastic hitting coach.
I would like to see Lance Berkman hired as the hitting coach.
The Cardinals are good at maintaining continuity. The players know what to expect each year.
So they not only traded the outfield prospect they should have kept but they are retaining the hitting coach. I’m not sure but didn’t the Cardinals have the worst offense?
No, just a mediocre one. Even among the playoff teams, the Reds’ and Brewers’ offenses weren’t any better. They actually got on base fairly often but couldn’t provide much power (aside from Tyler O’Neill, who does have major issues getting on base).
How can the Birds continue with this offense,Clearly great hitters and good performance point to coaching.Our hitting coach never played!!!! He is a metrics guy who’s fallen through the cracks upward. Probably OK for front office job.But can you imagine this goof telling goldy to raise his right elbow?!? Images of George costanza!Move him up and bring in jim edmonds!
don’t think you can fall through cracks upward, more like he rose through the cracks to a position of prominence
matt carpenter and molina are still team cancers. wainwright’s cancer is in remission
Unfortunately, ability to evaluate and assess quality coaching attributes has become lost art. If you have a twitter feed, mention “kinetic chain”, and use xwOBA in a post, it’s like a dog whistle for teams that think better code wins championships.
Mike Maddox needs to drill down on immediacy. It’s not Ok to walk guys with 2outs. And, stay healthy OMG! What a bunch of sissies! Get tough stay tough and cardinal up! Pitcher!
Btw WaIno and yadi either need to man up as birds or or go away as sissies I suspect.
Conditioning: Enough! Too many hurt guys. These Mllion buck players. Get them in shape. Our numbers(metrics nerds) afe are out of control!!!
BYW: Our hitting coach has never played!!! Get rid of him. Jim Edmonds.