(Photo by www.rotocurve.com)
Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong is known for being his harshest critic, as well as his strong work ethic. Throughout Spring Training, much discussion has taken place over whether Wong should be the leadoff hitter in the lineup, or third baseman Matt Carpenter. And while all signs point to Carpenter at the moment, Wong is bound and determined to be in that spot.
However, some people took his attitude towards it the wrong way.
“When I kind of went out there saying that I would love to be the leadoff hitter, I think everyone kind of took it the wrong way,” Wong said. “It made me seem like I was trying to tell (manager Mike Matheny) how to do his job. I didn’t ever want it to come off that way. It was just me being confident in myself knowing that I’ve made the right strides to become the player that I want to be and I think me being leadoff hitter would be awesome for me and my confidence.”
Last year, Carpenter, the current leadoff hitter, scored 84 RBI’s and hit 28 home runs. Both statistics led the Cardinals. Wong, meanwhile, increased his OBP from .292 in 2014 to .321 in 2015. At the plate, he also hit 11 home runs and 61 RBI’s, typically hitting in the bottom half of the lineup.
In his career, the left-handed hitting Wong has never extensively hit in the leadoff role.
“I know he’s got a desire to leadoff,” Matheny said. “Most of that is his desire to help the team. We’ll take a look at it, but we’re not necessarily saying we’re going to give him this many games there, we’re going to have to move Carp there; we’re going to have to just flop guys around until it really becomes obvious – hopefully it becomes obvious – or not. We’ll just keep going at it different until it looks right.”
The first Spring Training game is quickly approaching for the St. Louis Cardinals, and while Wong has essentially made a goal of being leadoff hitter, he also has been working with his second baseman corps, notably 25-year old Greg Garcia.
“After what I went through last year, I finally realized that every time I go through a tough time I always take it too hard and I extend slumps that shouldn’t be extended if I had just relaxed, don’t worry about it and have fun,” Wong said. “This year I’m just going to try to have fun the whole time and see what happens.”
