Cardinals: Matt Carpenter helps further piece together Mike Shildt’s firing

Cardinals hitters recommitted to Albert’s philosophy

On Oct. 3, 11 days before Shildt’s dismissal, Katie Woo published a piece in the Athletic titled “Why the Cardinals recommitted to hitting coach Jeff Albert’s philosophy, and how it’s paying off.”

In the article, Woo outlines how the Cardinals went from one of the worst offenses in baseball in June to one of the most potent in September, culminating with the 17-game winning streak. She also points out how Jeff Albert’s philosophy focuses on exit velocity, hard hit percentage, expected slugging percentage and barrel percentage. in order to drive the ball hard to create extra base hits.

As 2021 progressed, the team started getting away from this philosophy, helping to lead to the June team hitting slump. Tommy Edman, in a postgame video conference stirred the post in which he stated the Cardinals “hadn’t necessarily done the greatest job in making a game plan for how guys are suppose to throw us day by day and working on things pregame that are specifically tailored to prepare ourselves for that.”

As Woo pointed out, Edman’s comment caused a stir and seemed to be a direct shot at Albert and his philosophy. But as Edman admitted later, it was actually a comment to point out how the Cardinal hitters had strayed away from what the team had been wanting them to implement. In other words, there was an internal belief that abandoning that approach had led to the offensive decline.

After a team meeting, the Cardinals recommitted to Albert’s approach, and slowly the results began to show for the better. Across the board, the key hitters in the Cardinals lineup began show improvement. Paul Goldschmidt, Tyler O’Neil, Nolan Arenado, Tommy Edman, Dylan Carlson, Harrison Bader, and even Edmundo Sosa showed marked improvement.

Quoting from Woo’s piece, “Since re-pledging their faith to Albert’s approach after their infamous June, Cardinal hitters have began to reap the rewards.” In her piece, Goldschmidt, O’Neill and Edman endorse or credit Albert’s approach for turning teams offense around.

From the organizational side, Woo quotes John Mozeliak as saying, “I do think (Albert’s) message is resonating with hitters. I think overall they are feeling more confident in the way the are going about the process, and that’s a good thing.”

What’s notable to me from Woo’s article, is there isn’t any quote from Mike Shildt. It also stands out to me that the players didn’t mention Shildt either. With team’s offensive turnaround, you would think a quote from Shildt, giving some credit to Albert, would’ve been forth coming.