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Around SBN: 2011 In Extreme Home Runs

Hitting Coaches McRae & Diedre

Thanks for the link from veb to Cardboard Gods, Josh's piece referring to Hal McRae was hilarious.  It also sent me through numerous web sites I hadn't been to before, and finally back to the question of hitting coaches and Diedre Pujols.

On the Friday the 13th I posted the following:

Anyone remember when
Albert credited his wife for noticing a change in his stance?  I thought it was concluding a mini-draught before the all-star break in 2005.
It looks to me he is now lower than Bagwell, and trying to leap out of his shoes.  The Toe-Heel movement doesn't look the same.
Last year at spring training I was concerned that he was skying the ball, and the line drives disappeared.  But with the ball going over the wall so often early last year, who gets concerned by that?  Still his ratio of doubles to hr's continues to drop year on year.
This spring the doubles were back, but the long ball absent.  Now neither.  Will somebody please get his wife to compare the videos?

To which Arachnerd replied, somebody should produce a split-screen analysis of this theory, so we can see it for ourselves.

So this morning I find myself enjoying a scroll down GasHouse Graphs (I've usually just been at Fangraphs), when I spot this entry from Erik's line on Game 11 of April 15th:

Pujols may not be out of the woods yet, but it certainly was a step in the right direction. Apparently his wife is owed some credit, who's sending Albert text messages regarding areas on which he can fix his swing. Behind every great man there's a great woman. Soon he'll be lashing liners around the park off of good pitches as well as pounding mistakes a long way.

The link goes to Strauss' P-D story of April 16th:

En route to Busch Stadium, Pujols received a text message from his wife, Deidre. The reminder said his hands had fallen too low and his crouch at the plate too pronounced.  Once Pujols reached the park, hitting coach Hal McRae pulled him into the video room to offer proof that he had become "jumpy" at the plate.

Both of Pujols' advisers were proved right.

"He showed me, and I saw the difference," Pujols said. "I know I've had trouble being that consistent this season, but I think it's just a matter of time. Hal showed me. I know. It's going to come."

Pujols erased a 2-0 deficit with a three-run blast off

Brewers starter Ben Sheets in the first inning, then followed with a solo blast off reliever Elmer Dessens in the eighth. A bases-loaded grounder accounted for his fifth RBI, giving him three more Sunday than he had managed in 48 previous plate appearances.

So a few question arise:  Does Deidre read veb?  If McRae and Albert are constantly studying video, why did it take a message from Deidre to look at the salient features?  Can I take any credit for prompting Deidre to tell them what to look for to get Albert's swing back?

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