Greetings. Each Tuesday on KMOX, FM 104.1, we have a one-hour conversation with Cardinals manager Oli Marmol as part of the “Gashouse Gang” show that airs from noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays. There’s also the Redbird Rush Hour, which KMOX does at 5 p.m. weekdays.
These shows do well in attracting live audiences to the radio, but if you can’t listen in real time you can access the programs on your time by following KMOX on “X” and YouTube.
Tuesday (today) Marmol was joined by Cardinals hitting coach Brant Brown, and a large part of the on-air discussion focused on struggling Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker.
Just to bring you up to date, Walker has 328 plate appearances through Monday’s loss to the A’s.
Among 245 MLB hitters that have a minimum 320 plate appearances this season, here’s where Walker ranks in various categories:
.220 batting average, No. 225
.267 on-base percentage, No. 238
.313 slugging percentage, No. 239
.587 OPS, No. 240
66 wRC+, 34% below league average offensively, No. 238
.092 Isolated Power, No. 231
31.7% strikeout rate, No. 240
WAR: minus 1.1, No. 244
In addition, Walker has five home runs in 304 at-bats, which computes to one homer every 60.8 at-bats. Walker averaged a homer every 26.25 at-bats as a rookie in 2023, and hit a long ball every 32.8 at-bats last season.
It’s easy to see – and conclude – that Walker is going the wrong way. He isn’t improving; he’s getting worse.
Walker has a Batting Run Value of minus 11 – which puts him in the bottom eight percent of MLB hitters. He’s also in the bottom two percent of hitters in whiff-swing rate (34.7%) and strikeout rate, and is in the bottom three percent in chasing pitches out of the strike zone (34.3%).
Walker has lapsed into really bad habits at the plate. And though he’s still just 23 years old, Walker is closing in on 1,000 big-league plate appearances. By now it’s reasonable to expect to see progress from him. Any progress will do.
I asked Coach Brown this question: What progress do you see, if any, and what's it going to take for Walker to be more consistent? His answer has been lightly edited for better clarity.
BRANT BROWN: “I mean, just on his daily structure level. At some point in time he's going to have to devote kind of a more focus on preparation. We've had long conversations with this. It’s not only looking at film on the starter, but also being able to come in and the first day of a series, like just take a look at all the bullpen guys, like all the information and videos available, just so we're not, you know, getting snuck up on when a (reliever) comes in.
“On the execution point, I think not only Walker, but as a team, we have a tendency … they start using the [expression), ‘I'm going to sell out to this pitch and sell out to that pitch.
And I called a timeout, I'm like, listen, can we just say like, we're going to be all over it or ambush or take a shot at? Because like when you guys say ‘sell out’ like you literally sell out, which means that they throw a rosin bag, you're looking for a heater and you're doing a swing and a pirouette coming out of the box.
“I think not only [Walker] but as a group, historically, as Cardinals hitters are struggling, they try to swing their way out, instead of hit their way out. And to identify the point like, ‘man, I'm seeing a golf ball. I'm just late on this. I'm early on that. Like, I'm just going to downshift. I'm going to stay in the fairway and get through the day.’
“You know, work the ball the other way. There's a big hole over there with the runner on first, take the hit and just kind of downshift. And it'd be amazing when guys think they downshift is what actually happens – it calms them down. They're not as aggressive. They're more relaxed. And then usually you get more out of that.
“And I think the one thing with [Walker) is we've kind of played a massive game of tennis going back and forth with what he feels like he needs to do versus what he really needs to do.
“And until, you know, we can get a full commitment out of him to just say, ‘all right, this is where I'm at. You know, if I'm looking at the numbers, like it's not the best.’
“But for me, there's a really easy way out. It's just he might have to be a little bit more uncomfortable to be able to achieve what we wanted to achieve.”
OK, here's my question for both of you: tell Cardinals fans why they should be confident that this guy [Walker) will put it together.
OLI MARMOL: “Because there's a combination of talent, but also I do feel, to what Brownie said earlier, there's going to be buy-in, and there's a level of aptitude there that will allow for it.
“He's young, and when you first get here, it's easy to have success. That's why I love when talking to Yadi [Molina] and Albert [Pujols) and these guys have been around for a while, man, like they'll tell you, getting to the big leagues isn't the hard part as staying at the big league level. Because once these [pitchers] start to figure you out, it's very difficult to continue to flip the script and prove that you can stay.
“So Walker did have a little bit of success when he first came up here, and once they know how to pitch you, they just double down on that until you prove that you can combat it, and he hasn't shown the ability to do that yet.
“So I feel like there's enough talent there where I'm nowhere close to giving up on Jordan Walker.
“There are adjustments to be made. There's a commitment to the pregame work that can get to a better level, and Brownie spoke to that earlier.
“But I'm nowhere close, and I'll let Brownie speak as well, to giving up on this, because he can improve his movement to the [pitch]. He can improve his preparation, and those two things can lead to success.”
“It’s hard to sit here and put a timeline on it. There has to be some really diligent work that needs to take place there, but I do feel like he has an opportunity to make these adjustments and be the type of player that we were hoping for when he first got up here.”
BRANT BROWN: “When Jordan Walker is ready to be good, I feel like it's going to be up to him. We all know the potential. I don't even think he knows the ceiling.
“We always talk about this as like, ‘okay, well, this is what they're doing to you, and this is what you want to do, but if you can't do what you want to do, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to counterattack?’
“So it's just a constant game. It's a big gambit of zigging and zagging, and I just think that he's still in [the] zig mode, and the zag mode is just a stone's throw away. It's there. We just have to try to keep working and have him commit to it.”
Bernie’s Reactions:
1. I respect Brown’s candor and honest insights into Walker’s problems. His transparency shows respect to Cardinals fans. The same goes for Marmol, who has been much more open and sharing in his answers. The straight talk leads to more trust and credibility.
2. That said, I was alarmed to learn of Brown and Marmol’s disappointment in Walker’s commitment to preparation. That does not reflect well on Jordan Walker. The coach and the manager are trying to help him – so why won’t Walker help himself?
3. And after experiencing so much failure, why isn’t Walker fully motivated to buy into Brown’s teachings? As a coach with the Dodgers, Brown helped turn Albert Pujols around in 2021 after the future Hall of Famer had a late-career fade offensively. Among other things, Brown advised Pujols to lose weight so he’d have improved flexibility and a quicker bat for turning on inside pitches to pull for extra base hits. Pujols was so grateful for Brown’s assistance that he (Albert) enthusiastically told the Cardinals to hire Brown.
4. So, let me see if I understand this correctly: Albert Pujols – perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter in MLB history – paid attention to Brant Brown and took his advice and thinks he’s a great batting coach – but Jordan Walker hasn’t bought in to Brown’s teachings? Walker isn’t as committed as he should be to preparation? Wow. Just wow. You gotta be kidding me.
5. It is a grand St. Louis baseball tradition for fans to blame hitting coaches and pitching coaches for the players’ failures … even though – as we see again in Walker’s case – his commitment to preparation isn’t where it should be. So I am sure the idiots among us will point the finger at Brown. Which, of course, is ludicrous. Brown’s ideas make perfect sense. And no one down there works harder to give the hitters what they need to have more success.
6. When I asked Brown why so many Cards hitters are vulnerable to pitches thrown at speeds of 95 mph or higher, he told us something interesting. One of the things he recommends to the hitters is going into the automatic batting cage where the hitter can adjust the speed. Brown believes it would help them to crank up the speed to challenge themselves and to be more prepared for these 98, 99 mph fastballs. But Brown indicated that at least some hitters like to have it easier in the batting cage. That makes them feel good about themselves while they’re smashing line drives in the cage – but then they can’t adjust to some dude coming to the mound to overpower them.
7. The Cardinals have some serious personnel issues. And there’s apparently more to it than that. I don’t know why guys who get limited results offensively have such inflated egos. Not all of them do, of course. Alec Burleson is the No. 1 example of a hitter who bought into Brown’s advice. And the left-swinging Burly is having a career-best season, is a lineup regular, and is even doing damage to left-handed pitchers.
BIRD BYTES
— Paging Pedro Pages: It probably tells us a lot about the state of the Cardinals offense when we look at the statistics since the All-Star break and see that catcher Pedro Pages is at the top … their best hitter. Since play resumed on July 18, Pages leads the Cardinals in wRC+, slugging percentage (.500) and OPS (.830) and is second in batting average (.284) and fourth in on-base percentage. Based on Pages’ wRC+, he’s 29 percent above league average offensively since the break and has cranked five homers and driven in 17 runs in only 88 at-bats.
— Michael McGreevy is McGravy: the Cardinal starters other than McGreevy have combined for a 6.45 ERA since June 30.
— Since June 30 the Cardinal offense has been held to three or fewer runs in 28 games and are 4-24 when it happens. Only one MLB team, Pittsburgh, has been held to three runs or less more often (30) than St. Louis over that time. But when the Redbirds score at least four runs in a game since June 30, their record is 17-9.
— Sonny’s Blues: I’m talking about the pitcher, and not the lead character of the classic James Baldwin novel. Among 67 MLB starting pitchers that have handled at least 40 innings since the All Star break, Gray ranks 64th on that list of 67 with his 6.44 ERA. And Gray is even worse, ranking 65th of 67, in his home-runs allowed rate of 2.32 per 9 innings.
Time for some context on another matter involving Gray …
— The Cardinals are 19-9 when Gray starts a game this season. True! But, to honor Lee Corso, let me say this: Not so fast, my friend. Gray ranks 10th among NL starting pitchers in run support while he’s in the game. And he is 6th among NL starters in runs scored by his team during the entire game.
— In the 19 games won by STL when Gray started, the Cardinals scored 117 total runs for an average of 6.15 per contest. In the nine games the Cardinals lost with Gray as their starter, he had an ERA of 7.99.
— In the 19 team victories with Gray as the starting pitcher, the Cardinals scored five or more runs in 14 of the 19 and banked six or more runs eight times. I could keep going; the Cardinals plated at least nine runs on four occasions. Sonny was supplied with generous run support.
— On the other hand, in the nine St. Louis losses in Sonny’s starts this season, the Cardinals did waste two of his quality starts and should have won the games – but the offense didn’t come through. OK, all pitchers go through that. But how about this? In the other seven team losses with Gray as the starter, he was burned for 38 earned runs in 34 and ⅓ innings for a 9.96 ERA.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him weekdays on the “Gashouse Gang” or “Redbird Rush Hour” on KMOX, and Bernie does a weekly “Seeing Red” podcast on the Cardinals with his longtime pal Will Leitch. Bernie joins Katie Woo on the “Cardinal Territory” video-podcast each week, and you can catch a weekly “reunion” segment here at STL Sports with Bernie’s appearance on the Randy Karraker Show every Friday morning at 10:30 am.