“We were able to come up with a plan we’re going to use coming into spring training,” the second baseman said, sharing some insight to his Albert tutelage. “He simplifies things so much more. One thing he was telling me was “we understand that these guys at this level, they’re super good. You can’t try to hit every single pitch.” He was like, “Look at your heat charts, where do you hit the best?” For me, that was like middle, middle-away. He was like: ‘That’s where you need to look until you get two strikes, then you can battle. Until then, just focus on that. Take the inside pitches take the pitches away. Just focus on your hot zone and don’t miss.’ I was like, ‘Makes sense.’”

Albert has been a big proponent of using technology to enhance swings. In 2016, the Astros signed a deal with Blast Motion, a weightless sensor, to make its technology the “official swing analyzer” of the organization.

“It’s a device you put on the handle of your bat and enable it to track like your bat speed and your angles and stuff like that,” Cards infield prospect Tommy Edman said, “to optimize your showing efficiency.”