With all of the news around the LA Dodgers past offseason,
little was talked about the hiring of Mark McGwire as their new hitting coach.
We all know about McGwire’s career with the
Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals and his 70 HRs in 1998, which is
second all time behind Barry Bonds for most HRs in a single season. McGwire
currently ranks 10th all time with 583 HRs but has been no stranger
to controversy as he was listed in former major league player Jose Canseco’s
book that McGwire knowingly used steroids. In January 2010, McGwire admitted
that he did use steroids during his career, most likely dashing his chances of
entering the hall of fame.
After
leaving the game for eight years, McGwire was hired as hitting coach of the St.
Louis Cardinals in October of 2009. McGwire’s coaching was a big part of the
Cardinals 2011 World Series Title as the Cardinals ranked 5th in the
league in batting average, slugging percentage, RBIs, and runs scored. In his three
years as hitting coach for the Cards, their offense thrived under McGwire’s
leadership as they led the National League in batting average and on-base
percentage and were second in runs scored. Former Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols
had his best season in his career in 2009 when he had 47 HRs and 135 RBIs and
McGwire’s coaching was a huge reason why. McGwire headed west this offseason as
he took the same job with the Dodgers. Could McGwire be the most important part
of the team this year?
The Dodgers
offense was not what they expected last year as they featured tons of explosive
players with CF Matt Kemp, RF Andre Either, SS Hanley Ramirez, and 1B Adrian
Gonzalez but were only together for half the year. The Dodgers were 25th
in runs per game last year and ranked below the league average in most of the
key batting categories. Head coach Don Mattingly felt that his team needed a
new hitting coach entering this season if they wanted to contend in the league.
I believe that McGwire’s addition to the team filled with explosive players
could put up offensive numbers that could lead the league.
The Dodgers
enter this season with the idea of “World Series or Bust” as many Dodger fans
are expecting the World Series Title to come back to LA for the first time
since 1988. Their lineup features tons of power with Kemp, Either, Gonzalez,
and Ramirez but also good contact hitters with 2B Mark Ellis, 3B Luis Cruz, and
SS Dee Gordon coming off of the bench. McGwire’s knowledge of the game and how
to be a power hitter will dramatically improve the Dodgers offense this season
and will give some players their career highs in numerous categories this year.
Although it
wasn’t as covered as much as the signing of SP Zack Greinke or how all of the
trades would fit with the team in their first full season together, McGwire’s
signing was the most important offseason move the Dodgers made.
With the
National League being so tough with the Nationals, Reds, Phillies, Giants, and
Cardinals among others, the Dodgers are going to have to score a ton of runs to
be able to compete with these teams.
With spring
training games starting this weekend, it will be interesting to see how McGwire
has done so far and if there are any differences already that we can credit him
with.
McGwire
will bring a much needed spark to a team with huge expectations.
image was used from insidesocal.com
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