PWReese wrote: I don't think this is a "PR" signing at all. Frankly, it is bad PR. It was bad PR for the Cardinals when they hired the guy a couple of years ago. This stigma of heavy steriod use thoughout his career is hard to overcome. That said, he has demonstrated a strong desire and ability to help young hitters succeed. Of course the Dodgers don't really have many hitters in their lineup who aren't already pretty much set in their ways. McGwire is a career .262 hitter. Massive power, tons of walks and tons of strike outs. From what I have seen from the St. Louis hitters (a strong pitchers park in St. Louis) is strong ability to go the other way. They have been among the team leaders in OBP which means he teaches patience.
It's not bad PR when you've got a guy with as big a name now associated with the organization. Everybody's got steroids attached to their team, but few people have a huge name like McGwire listed as a bench coach. It's a perfect way to excite the fanbase.
The Dodgers don't have a bunch of young hitters who are coming up, which is what the Cardinals had. They have seasoned veterans who know how to hit the ball and how to adjust. Every individual knows what their strengths and weaknesses are, and they frankly know how to hit the baseball.
Where McGwire can really help is, like you said, is by changing the philosophy of the lineup. At least from my experience following LA for the past decade, LA's been their best when they do the smallball tendencies well (hit-and-run, 1st-to-3rd, sac flies, simple execution, etc... similar to how the Giants won the WS this year). In April and May, the Dodgers were doing the small things very well before regression caught up with them. I hope McGwire preaches patience, because that is always a good thing. I hope LA's offense plays like the Giants did this postseason, except with way, way more power. With how our pitching has performed, 5 runs will pretty much win 90% of our contests. With the lineup we have, 5 runs shouldn't be that hard to achieve.
