Cardinals: Jeff Albert proven right by Carpenter, Goldschmidt

While Jeff Albert has been the subject of criticism, his value is being proven by the success of former and current Cardinals.

If you follow the St. Louis Cardinals and know anything about their fanbase, there is one name that is consistently thrown under the bus when the team struggles.

Yes. Even more so than the Dewitt’s and John Mozeliak.

His name is Jeff Albert. And it is time for fans to acknowledge how valuable he has been for the Cardinals.

Our own Andrew Heckroth broke down some of the numbers on Albert’s impact on the Cardinals offense this season. Both veterans and youngster’s are finding success under Albert’s tutelage, and it is helping the Cardinals to have one of the better offenses in all of baseball.  The numbers do show that this offense is producing.

But what the numbers do not necessarily show is that hitters like Matt Carpenter, Paul Goldschmidt, and Juan Yepez are crediting the Cardinals hitting coach for their resurgences in 2022. As fans mourn the fact that Carpenter is mashing for the Yankees, the former Cardinals himself regrets not listening to Jeff Albert.

In an interview with Ken Rosenthal, Carpenter had the following to say about Jeff Albert:

"At Marucci, Carpenter sought an objective analysis of what he was doing wrong. Jeff Albert, the Cardinals’ hitting coach since 2019, might have been capable of providing such answers, given his deep knowledge of analytics. Carpenter, however, admits, “I just never bought into (analytics) like I should have.” Albert, like all club officials during the owners’ lockout, is prohibited by Major League Baseball from commenting publicly on players."

Carpenter has gone on to find major success this season, which I will break down later.

In another story with Ken Rosenthal, Paul Goldschmidt found himself struggling as well, and went to seek help from Jeff Albert.

"Goldschmidt told Cardinals hitting coach Jeff Albert he was struggling to get his body into the right hitting position, even in the batting cage. Specifically, he was experiencing difficulty loading his lower half. Albert, who has a Master’s degree in exercise science from Louisiana Tech, helped enlighten Goldschmidt about biomechanics and the importance of body movement."

Neither guy, especially Carpenter, needed to go out of their way to credit Jeff Albert, but they did. And these are two of the hottest hitters in 2022. Let’s look at why Albert has been so impactful with major league hitters.