Walker working out at Driveline

[Bomber1]

Don't trade him. No reason to. Still has a ton of potential going into his age 24 season and his trade value is at an all-time low.

Totally agree! His value to keep is much more value than what the Cards would get in a return. With that said, I think 2026 is certainly a pivotal season for him with the STL Cardinals.

As others have said, stash him at AAA regardless of what he does in ST.
If he scalds the ball in the minors, call him up.

But you can’t just keep guys because their value is low.

That is what Mozeliak did ad nauseum, and they never got better.

[Lightning Rod]

Ever been to a batting cage and every ball comes in the same sport and same location? Pretty easy to hit it after a few pitches and you get your timing down. Baby steps I suppose.

[Alex Reyes Cy Young]

I know people want to roll your eyes when these pop up but this is very notable. People should not discount Driveline. The Dodgers and Red Sox both use them as their offseason training. The Dodgers especially use them almost exclusively for their teams offseason training. Ohtani, Betts and Muncy go every offseason.

https://x.com/DrivelineBB/status/197634 ... 97874?s=09

Thanks Billy that’s really cool.

[Bomber1]

This is excellent news and good to see him there so early in the offseason. There is no doubt that this is driven by Bloom and the new player development engine. It's been my understanding that Mozeliak didn't really compel any players to hit these labs in prior off-seasons and training was largely unstructured.

Walker was given a specific homework assignment and he's getting to work. Hope it works wonders!

Did Noot get a refund?

You have a weird obsession with Nootbaar. Do you blame Driveline for his injuries?

I honestly don't know what you're trying to impress upon people... you're banging on guys who are working to get better.

Average Exit Velocity:
2023 - 89.1 (44th percentile)
2024 - 91.8 (88th percentile)
2025 - 91.3 (79th percentile)

Hard Hit Percentage:
2023 - 37.8 (30th percentile)
2024 - 49.5 (91st percentile)
2025 - 50.0 (87th percentile)

Bat Speed:
2023 - 52nd percentile
2024 - N/A
2025 - 67nd percentile

You think you're making a point... and ripping a guy who has shown meaningful improvements in quality of contact. It's weird, and you should stop.

No reason to rip Walker yet, he should work to get better and apparently is doing so. Kudos to him.

But as far as Nootbaar goes, lol at every one of the stats above. I don’t care if his “hard hit%” is 90 %.

He sucks at important things such as hitting HR.
He sucks at driving guys in.
These things shouldn’t even be debatable anymore.
4 years as anointed starter, was finally healthy which all his supporters said was the only thing holding him back, and had his worst season yet.

Add in the fact that he’s a clueless baserunner, plus he’s starting to get paid.

I’m not sure if you were defending Nootbaar or just saying at least he’s trying as evidenced by going to Driveline.

Regardless, the Cardinals need to part ways with Nootbaar.

[Rojo Johnson]

just look what it did for Noot!

Noot shot his wad playing for Japan. It will never get any better than that for him. May as well trade him to the Sake Rice Rockets for 12 cases of soy sauce and be done with it. I sure hope we don’t have to look at him in a birds on the bat uni any more. I’m tired of the under achieving.

[Ozziesfan41]

This is excellent news and good to see him there so early in the offseason. There is no doubt that this is driven by Bloom and the new player development engine. It's been my understanding that Mozeliak didn't really compel any players to hit these labs in prior off-seasons and training was largely unstructured.

Walker was given a specific homework assignment and he's getting to work. Hope it works wonders!

Did Noot get a refund?

You have a weird obsession with Nootbaar. Do you blame Driveline for his injuries?

I honestly don't know what you're trying to impress upon people... you're banging on guys who are working to get better.

Average Exit Velocity:
2023 - 89.1 (44th percentile)
2024 - 91.8 (88th percentile)
2025 - 91.3 (79th percentile)

Hard Hit Percentage:
2023 - 37.8 (30th percentile)
2024 - 49.5 (91st percentile)
2025 - 50.0 (87th percentile)

Bat Speed:
2023 - 52nd percentile
2024 - N/A
2025 - 67nd percentile

You think you're making a point... and ripping a guy who has shown meaningful improvements in quality of contact. It's weird, and you should stop.

His OPS+ has dropped every year to where he's now at 95. Just like his WAR...down from 3.3 to a measly 1.3!

Meaningful improvements?

Nootbar worked with Driveline in 2020 during the covid lockdown. He doesn't make it to the majors leagues at all without the swing changes from Driveline. He went from a .712 OPS in 2019 to a .900 OPS in 2021.

I think driveline probably helps with hitting the ball harder but it doesn’t help take better at bats which is bad for noot and walker

[Goldfan]

This is excellent news and good to see him there so early in the offseason. There is no doubt that this is driven by Bloom and the new player development engine. It's been my understanding that Mozeliak didn't really compel any players to hit these labs in prior off-seasons and training was largely unstructured.

Walker was given a specific homework assignment and he's getting to work. Hope it works wonders!

Did Noot get a refund?

You have a weird obsession with Nootbaar. Do you blame Driveline for his injuries?

I honestly don't know what you're trying to impress upon people... you're banging on guys who are working to get better.

Average Exit Velocity:
2023 - 89.1 (44th percentile)
2024 - 91.8 (88th percentile)
2025 - 91.3 (79th percentile)

Hard Hit Percentage:
2023 - 37.8 (30th percentile)
2024 - 49.5 (91st percentile)
2025 - 50.0 (87th percentile)

Bat Speed:
2023 - 52nd percentile
2024 - N/A
2025 - 67nd percentile

You think you're making a point... and ripping a guy who has shown meaningful improvements in quality of contact. It's weird, and you should stop.

His OPS+ has dropped every year to where he's now at 95. Just like his WAR...down from 3.3 to a measly 1.3!

Meaningful improvements?

You can pretend that hitting the ball harder more frequently is bad if you want. People make choices to ignore facts every day.

His results haven’t been as hoped as he’s had to struggle through injuries. That doesn’t mean we should just ignore the clear improvements made immediately after a player goes to work to improve on those aspects of his game.

Shows harder hit outs. Yay

You know who else hits the ball hard, JW. How's that working out?

Ignore his failing WAR and OPS+. Make excuses that he's injured. Or is it, he's injury prone?

AOF must be a Driveline investor…..

Wasting time on players who have a limited ceiling because they lack certain key talent intangibles is stupid
Swinging harder and faster doesn’t fix making contact or staying healthy
And obviously by looking at this season stats I posted…….he’s the same guy as he always was…..theres no improvement….and he’s 28 now!!!

[Melville]

Good to see several people posting nearly word for word what I first analyzed 4 years ago and have repeated since.
I was right about Mootbaar from day one.
Take note of that.
Because I am right about Walker now.
STL should trade him this offseason - for a number of strategically important reasons.

[juan good eye]

Don't trade him. No reason to. Still has a ton of potential going into his age 24 season and his trade value is at an all-time low.

Totally agree! His value to keep is much more value than what the Cards would get in a return. With that said, I think 2026 is certainly a pivotal season for him with the STL Cardinals.

As others have said, stash him at AAA regardless of what he does in ST.
If he scalds the ball in the minors, call him up.

But you can’t just keep guys because their value is low.

That is what Mozeliak did ad nauseum, and they never got better.

Mo kept players until they had no trade value which is the current situation for Walker, Gorman and others.

Yes, put Walker in AAA no matter what happens between now and OD and make him earn a call up.

Trading him now would net nothing in return so might as well hope and pray (last ditch effort) unless Bloom finds a steal of a deal.

[Bomber1]

If MLB teams, some of the most wealthy entities in sport, can’t provide the teaching, tech, and mentoring of their million dollar investments inhouse.
Then all of the minor leagues should be outsourced to these specialized consultants. If Walker actually becomes a hitter after this outside help after wasting years of seasons and offseasons of NO improvement this invalidates the entire MLB development system

No it doesn’t. You still need to play the games.

As shown by Nootbaar who has failed.

Walker may or may not fail.

[dugoutrex]

Good to see several people posting nearly word for word what I first analyzed 4 years ago and have repeated since.
I was right about Mootbaar from day one.
Take note of that.
Because I am right about Walker now.
STL should trade him this offseason - for a number of strategically important reasons.

lol girl - now get back there and make my sandwich!

[redbirdfan51]

Maybe Noot and Gorman should also go to Driveline

[ramfandan]

Does Driveline help a player not to chase pitches out of the strikezone ? That is sure what Walker needs to solve big time.

Hitting a ball IN the strikezone with authority is one skill... laying off a pitch OUTSIDE the zone box is quite another skill. The least chase rate in baseball was Juan Soto. He has been excellent at not swinging at pitches that are NOT in the strikezone.

[bakker]

Good to see several people posting nearly word for word what I first analyzed 4 years ago and have repeated since.
I was right about Mootbaar from day one.
Take note of that.
Because I am right about Walker now.
STL should trade him this offseason - for a number of strategically important reasons.

lol girl - now get back there and make my sandwich!

And remember it's never about him.

[Voldemort]

In watching the video, it is apparent that the vertical stacking problem I have mentioned several times wrt Walker is being addressed. A few others and I have mentioned that, since Walker has been so vertically stacked, his head has to move while the pitch is in flight, and he tends to disconnect his hands from his shoulder too early, causing a lot of swing and miss, as well as being unable to hit the outside pitch. (Inability to get the bat on plane with the pitch.)

In looking at Walker's cage swings, notice his pelvic tilt transferring to lateral tilt. His inability to do this has been the root cause of his sucking at the plate.

[billybaseball]

In watching the video, it is apparent that the vertical stacking problem I have mentioned several times wrt Walker is being addressed. A few others and I have mentioned that, since Walker has been so vertically stacked, his head has to move while the pitch is in flight, and he tends to disconnect his hands from his shoulder too early, causing a lot of swing and miss, as well as being unable to hit the outside pitch. (Inability to get the bat on plane with the pitch.)

In looking at Walker's cage swings, notice his pelvic tilt transferring to lateral tilt. His inability to do this has been the root cause of his sucking at the plate.

Absolutely correct!! Not saying he should be Aaron Judge but Judge is the best in the league at this right now. It's shoulders and hips rotating together.