“I put myself in a bad position last year many times, just putting myself down in the count (and) wanting to do too much,” O’Neill said. “I know what to expect (now) at the big-league level. Pitchers just don’t throw pitches over the plate. They’re just going to get you out and they have in-depth scouting reports to do that. Jeff and I have had multiple conversations on how to get to different pitches.

“I really enjoy and have started to incorporate what he’s talking about. And I’m going to roll with it.”

O’Neill actually did make some progress last season. His total of 125 strikeouts at Memphis and St. Louis was his lowest of his career when he played a full season. “(Strikeouts) are going to happen. I just had a very high rate last year,” said the righthanded-hitting slugger. “If you want to talk about hit and miss, I don’t plan to do it again.

“It just comes with swinging at pitches in the zone. I really just had a couple of bad games and a couple of bad stretches last year where I chased everything. It was a really concentrated number.”

From May 19-21, O’Neill banged home runs in three successive games for the Cardinals and was six for 11. But from May 22-30, he was two for 19 with 13 strikeouts and found himself back at Memphis,