And the hits just keep on coming. For the Cardinals, I mean. In 2015. Every time they play.
I’m mostly kidding.
Today, in addition to adding Jason Heyward in a big-time deal, the St. Louis Cardinals revealed that they’ve added Bill Mueller to their coaching staff as an assistant hitting coach. I’d like to say I wish him well, but it’s kind of hard to do that now.
Mueller, you’ll recall, was the Cubs’ hitting coach until a few weeks ago, when he parted ways with the organization, in part because the Cubs wanted to reassign assistant hitting coach Mike Brumley. The Cubs replaced Mueller with John Mallee, who is, by all accounts, a very nice get.
As for Mueller, essentially, he left the Cubs’ hitting coach gig for the Cardinals’ assistant hitting coach gig.
That’s a different kind of punch in the gut.
Frankly, I also don’t love that Mueller now takes everything he learned about the Cubs’ approach in his year in Chicago straight to the Cardinals. Maybe there’s something there, maybe there isn’t. But I’d rather the Cardinals didn’t even get a sliver of inside knowledge and/or competitive advantage.