The Cardinals are working with center fielder Nathan Church to get him to be more selective and draw more walks. They think he can be an exceptional contributor from the bottom of the lineup, if he can limit his swings on bad balls.
During a June 14 game against the Twins in Minnesota, excitable center fielder Nathan Church was facing Taj Bradley and after working the count to 2-2, he laid off two high pitches and drew his first big-league walk in nearly a month.
As he jogged down the first-base line Church looked toward the Cardinals dugout and playfully screamed, “I walked!”
With hitting coaches Brant Brown, Brandon Allen and Casey Chenoweth constantly harping on him about the need to be more selective in order to potentially get on base more, Church got some immediate feedback on the benefits of his walk.
With Bradley somewhat distracted by Church possibly stealing second base, he grooved a 95.7 mph fastball to Cardinals’ standout rookie JJ Wetherholt, who demolished it for a two-run, go-ahead homer.
That sequence was likely better for Church, 25, than any skull session with a hitting coach or a glare from manager Oliver Marmol, who despises seeing hitters chase bad balls to bail out pitchers. That goes double for a rookie like Church, whose job at the No. 9 hitter is to find any way possible to get on base and set the table for Wetherholt, Ivan Herrera, Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker.
“We’re seeing professional at bats and he’s starting to see more pitches,” Marmol said on Monday night after Church delivered two hits, a stolen base and an RBI in the Cardinals’ 3-2 defeat of the Diamondbacks at Busch Stadium. “We’re also starting to see more walks now, which is also something that his helpful. It’s something that he’s been focused on, and then he’s able to take some (stolen) bags because he’s got the speed to do it.”
The Cardinals felt so strongly about Church’s potential that they installed him as the every-day starter in center field when he came off the Injured List for a strained shoulder on June 9. He didn’t walk until his sixth game back – prompting his playful celebration in Minnesota – but he’s hit .361 and boosted his on-base percentage to .439 with five walks and 13 hits in 13 games.
Church, who hates talking about his own accomplishments, obviously had little to say about his recent upturn in production.
“I don’t know. I’m not really trying to think about that,” Church told Cardinals.TV on Monday night.
Cards need Church to feed to the top of the order
Even though the Cardinals are 42-34 and firmly in control of the National League’s top Wild Cards slot, they need all the production they can get as they wade deeper into arguably their toughest stretch of the season. With four against the D-backs and three against the Marlins, a daunting six-game trip at Atlanta and the Cubs and seven more at home against the Brewers and Braves, the Cardinals will play 21 straight games against teams at or above ,500 over the next three weeks.
Church opened the season as the starter in left field as Lars Nootbaar was working his way back from double-heel surgery and he drew attention with his glove as he robbed three homers.
At the plate, the Cardinals are happy with his .269 batting average, five homers, 20 RBI and five stolen bases in seven tries. But they think there is much more production in the tank if Church can cut down on a chase rate (44.4 percent) that ranks in MLB’s bottom two percentile. His impatience has led to a 21.3 percent strikeout rate compared to just a 5.6 walk rate. Turn those two numbers around and the club hopes to see a spike in Church’s on-base percentage that more close resembles what he has done in June (.439) as opposed to his season on-base percentage (.315).
“He’s going to continue to get better because the kid is hungry and he wants to be really good,” Marmol raved. “He’s a really good defender, too. The combination of all those things is something to get excited about.”
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