Here’s My Number (47), So Promote Me, Mabry
Johnny come lately, the new kid in town; everybody loves you, so don’t let them down ~ The Eagles – New Kid in Town
Let me start by saying I have always loved John Mabry. He was one of my favorite players during his time in St. Louis. I also am not the biggest Mark McGwire fan. I think he was the poster boy for the steroid era and was one dimensional as a hitter (a .263 career average, 34th all-time in strikeouts) So, with McGwire leaving for Los Angeles to take over as hitting coach and Mabry going from Assistant Hitting Coach to top dog, I feel…uncertain.
Its hard to argue with the production of the Cardinals offense the last two years; especially last year after losing Albert Pujols‘ bat. A lot of the credit for that goes to Big Mac. But we’ll see how good a hitting coach he is when he joins Pujols in the city of Angels. The Dodgers were underwhelming at the plate, despite having a bloated payroll and the defending MVP runner-up Matt Kemp. I expect the line-up to get better with Kemp, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez becoming more cohesive and aggressive under McGwire’s tutelage.
As for the Birds, with a core of Yadi Molina, Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday, David Freese and Allen Craig, any new hitting coach can be pretty hands-off. I honestly don’t know much about Mabry’s coaching style, but I do know he was a good, clutch hitter himself with occasional power (although in looking up the stats, he was also a lifetime .263 hitter) and hopefully he picked up a few things from his predecessor.
Courtesy of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Click the picture for a link to the story
SongBirds on the Bat 