Depending on the hitter or the manager and how well the lineup is steamrolling along at the time, the description of a hitting coach’s job can be anything from mechanic to scout, technician to psychiatrist, or, as former Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire would say, even cheerleader.
To that list Kansas City first baseman Eric Hosmer added one more.
His hitting coach, Dale Sveum, had to be “a realist.”
“From day one he recognized the type of hitters that we are,” Hosmer said this past weekend. “We’re not going to have guys with high walks. We’re probably not going to have many guys with 25 to 30 home runs just because of the park and the division we play in.