: purely opinionated motivational coach-speak :
The Cardinals need to start compartmentalizing things a bit – focus on winning portions of the game, get a bit more basic.
Before the Cardinals start focusing on winning a series, they need to focus on winning the one game in front of them.
Hell, before that – focus on winning as many innings as you can. Even if it’s 1-0, score more runs than the opponent in innings. Simple, right?
Take more pitches. Not you, Jon Jay.
As an extension of the above, take walks.
Pitchers: stop trying to be so cute. I’m looking at you Jaime Garcia. The umpire having a tight strike zone isn’t an excuse for grooving one. Neither is an error.
Reduce the amount of time spent on batting practice. Increase fielding practice. Put Skip Schumaker and Felipe Lopez into porta-potties and hit grounders at them while someone else opens the door.
Stop running through stop signs, Albert Pujols.
Day games to end a series count. Act like it. Play hard, coach harder.
Just because you’re the pre-season favorite to win the division doesn’t mean bad teams will roll over for you. The Reds beat the Cubs and Brewers – that’s why you’re in second place right now.
SLOW DOWN. You don’t have to hurry to get the ball out of your glove with Prince Fielder running to first base on a ground ball, Felipe Lopez.
Be confident. In fact, be arrogant.
If you score in the first inning, play like it is the only run you’ll get all day.
This team needs a hero. Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright will only take you so far. Who wants to finally say “enough is enough”?
And finally – hesitatingly – the Reds sweep was great – but not every team has a Brandon Phillips. If you can’t get up for games without that kind of motivation, maybe he was right?
: / ridiculously rambling purely opinionated motivational coach-speak :
PostScript – I’m not entirely sure I believe all of these, but something has to give, right?
Comments on this entry are closed.