Kolten Wong recently threw some shade at his old coaching staff in St. Louis.
The two-time Gold Glove award winner, now with the Brewers, sounded off on how his approach has been different in Milwaukee than it was with the Cardinals, and how it’s led to him having the best season of his career thus far.
In an interview with The Athletic, Wong stated that he wasn’t comfortable with the hitting approach the Cardinals were having him take, and that this wasn’t the player he wanted to be.
“It was almost like, OK, I tried to do everything that the Cardinals told me to do, how they wanted me to play this game, and still, it wasn’t good enough,” Wong said. “So heading into free agency, and signing with a new team, I was like, ‘I’m gonna do what I want to do, play the game how I want to play, and how I know that I can be successful if everything goes right.”
And everything has gone right for Wong. He’s hitting .280 with 11 homers and 40 RBI’s. His OPS sits at .799.
Added Wong, “What I was doing was putting myself in a situation to not have success.
Wong said the Cardinals were trying to have him work counts and take the first pitch, which he said resulted in him missing out on some good pitches to hit.
“As a leadoff guy, starting the game off, I always kind of took the first pitch” said Wong. “It would be a fastball, right down the middle. And 90 percent of the time, next one was a great-me-over curveball.”
Wong was never consistent during his time in St. Louis, and the Cardinals offense has struggled to produce runs for years now. It’s only gotten worse under current hitting coach Jeff Albert.
You can’t blame Wong for saying this. It’s not much of a surprise that he struggled with St. Louis, especially with their entire offense essentially going through the same funk.
This isn’t the first time this season that the Cards’ coaching staff has taken some heat. Fans may remember that back in June, Tommy Edman criticized the team’s lack of preparation for opposing pitchers.
“I don’t think we’ve necessarily done the greatest job of kind of making a gameplan for how guys are gonna throw us day by day and working on things pregame that are specifically tailored to prepare ourselves for that,” Edman said at the time.
The Cardinals have also had a recent track record of watching players leave and go on to have success with other teams. Some of the most recent examples include Adonis Garcia and Randy Arozarena.
If Edman’s comments didn’t get the organization’s attention, Wong’s should. The Cardinals offense is very feast or famine, and has been that way for far too long. It’s time for the front office to take a closer look at the hitting coach situation.
There are simply too many stars in the Cards’ lineup for it to be coincidence. If the Cardinals want to remain competitive, changes may need to happen.
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