Cardinals Sign new hitting coach.... A guy we all know...

[BU_EMT128]

Its Mark McGwire.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4596303

[Murph]

Disgraced former Major League Baseball home-run king Mark McGwire was hired by the St. Louis Cardinals as an assistant coach on Monday.The hiring reunites McGwire with Cardinals manager Tony La Russa who decided to replace Hal McRae with the new hitting coach.
The Cardinals held a news conference on Monday but the 46-year-old McGwire was not in attendance. The Cardinals denied they were trying to avoid having McGwire answer questions about steroids.
"By no means is he trying to hide, and by no means are we trying to hide him," general manager John Mozeliak said.
La Russa was at the news conference at Busch Stadium where the team announced he had signed a one-year contract extension to return for his 15th season.
McGwire dropped out of baseball and has kept a low profile since 2001 when he retired amid a swirl of steroid controversy.
Saying he didn't want to talk about the past, McGwire refused to answer questions from a 2005 congressional committee who were probing steroids in baseball.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jJggwlWSbgEiu8eFm3tq4snFDKmg

[CubbieBear]

Interesting choice...does this REALLY make any baseball sense I saw the press conference w/ Larussa last night. Dan Patrick and his producers were kind of laughing about it yesterday too. You never know I guess, but he seems like a guy who hit with pure strength (steroid strength) and not much ability to be able to provide much help to guys like Schumacher and Ryan and Molina when they're going through little slumps. How does a career .263 hitter help a contact hitter break out of a slump? Tell him to start taking steroids? I have read that LaRussa & McGuire are close...so I wonder if this isn't more about LaRussa trying to get McGuire more HOF votes by putting him back in the public eye since he vanashied and shrunk after he refused to testify at the congressional hearings

[BU_EMT128]

Interesting choice...does this REALLY make any baseball sense?


I have read that LaRussa & McGuire are close...so I wonder if this isn't more about LaRussa trying to get McGuire more HOF votes by putting him back in the public eye since he vanashied and shrunk after he refused to testify at the congressional hearings

Well, it may make more baseball sense than alot of people realize, as many hitters... Skip, Ryan, Holiday, all work out with McGwire in California over the summer. So it would lead me to assume, that even if the guy was juicing, he knows how to hit a ball; and that is something steroids cannot help you do.

To address your second point... That HOF idea sounds like you may be onto something as McGwire is getting less than 25% of the votes... Well less than the 75% required. Either way, it really looks like this may be LaRussa's last year, and I am not overly upset by that.

[Chico]

Sure enjoyed watching Manny play in the NL playoffs and will enjoy watching ARod play in the World Series.

[real fan]

LaRussa just trying to help out one of his old buddies because there is no way he is a qualified hitting coach.

[Fyrebyrd]

As a Cardinals fan, it is my qualified opinion that this was very much a power play to keep Holliday.

[SFP]

As a Cardinals fan, it is my qualified opinion that this was very much a power play to keep Holliday.

Do you guys really believe that the Cards would pick up McGuire just to keep one player satisfied? Come on, this is one of the first class organizations in baseball. They do not need to be playing games to attract great players. You do not mess with your team's hitting coach situation for HF qualification or to appease one player. I bet he's very good at what they are bringing him in to do!

BTW..I'm not a McGuire or Cards fan. I could care less where they finish the season.

[Fyrebyrd]

I'm not saying thats the only reason. However, I can't see much more of a reason to bring back a disgraced mediocre-at-best hitter (Yes, I realize he had 550+ HR's, but would you hire Adam Dunn to be a hitting coach?). Also, I think it was another move to keep La Russa on board. I'm willing to bet Big Mac does not see more than 5 years in this position.

Not to mention, I hate to think that the guy who "broke" Holliday's form was McGwire. McGwire was the one who tried to teach him to go without his high step in his swing, and Holliday's first half was abysmal. Once Holliday went back to his old style, with the high leg kick, he was back to normal.

So far I'm very skeptical, but I have already been proven wrong once this year. See: Josh McDaniels

[CubbieBear]

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/mark_mcgwire_to_teach