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Just take a look at that swing, just after contact. Fred McGriff instructional videos can't teach you to have better "back leg special" form than that. Note the back leg is taking all of the weight in the swing, the hips stay closed until after the bat clears the zone and are just now exploding out, his eyes are looking right out along the top of his bat, the energy has a distinctly upward trajectory (he's leaning waaaay back on follow-through - without a giant uppercut, he is still giving the ball lift). This is the model for how you produce pulled fly balls when you get your pitch and still hit for a high average.

This is Cecil Cooper.

 1982 ALCS Gm5: Cecil Cooper raps clutch two-out hit

Look at him leeeeeaning into the pitch. He was fooled a bit on speed, so his back leg swing isn't there - you can see why he was able to hit for a high average. When he is just trying to put a tough pitch in play, he just flattens the swing plane and slows himself down.

Fun to watch.

Before I go much further with Cooper, take a look at these hilarious hitter WAR totals and the pedigree of the names involved...

1. Robin Yount (10.5) - WOWZERS...his best season, combined offense and defense in 1982 (we'll call him Nomar Garciaparra plus glove)
2. Paul Molitor (6.2) - With 42 steals, his real WAR was probably a bit higher when accounting for bases gained on other batted balls (John Olerud with speed playing average 3B rather than GG 1B)
3. Cecil Cooper (5.6) - The metrics say he was a rather poor defensive first baseman, making his gold gloves seem dubious, and he carries a line not dissimilar to Boomstick
4. Gorman Thomas (4.9) - Cooper is pretty well known to people who were closely following baseball in the 1980s, so I almost shifted my focus to Thomas, hit like Jay Buhner
5. Ben Oglivie (3.4) - Mike Cameron level hitter but lacking the GG defense)
6. Ted Simmons (3.3) - at the tail end of his productive prime, hitting roughly like Matt Wieters before he got hurt and with + defense behind the plate
7. Jim Gantner (2.6) - high average slap hitter and well above average defensive second baseman, somewhat Luis Castillo-like
8. Don Money (2.1) - a good hitter at the tail end of his career, similar to Cooper, lost time due to injury and was replaced by Roy Howell, who was...not so good - not far from Lyle Overbay offensively

So...the only 'hole' in their line-up was right fielder Charlie Moore (1 WAR, mostly defense).

How the farbot did this team not win 120 games?  Ah...right...their pitching was HORRENDOUS outside of Caldwell/Vukovich/Fingers.

They were also pretty bad defensively other than Yount, Gantner, Simmons and Moore.

But still, I'm trying to picture this club as, essentially Fast Olerud/Luis Castillo/Nomar/Boomstick/Buhner/Wieters/Cameron/Overbay/glovey right fielder.

WOW

Team OPS+ 121...LOL Yep - that's better than the 1997 Mariners.

And the guy I'm profiling was that team's clean-up hitter. :)

He doesn't make the HOF because his prime didn't begin until he was 29/30 and only lasted five years (and because he was a marginal defensive first baseman), but during that five-year stretch, he made four all-star appearances and was top five in MVP voting (5th every time) three times.

So what was he like as a teammate? When you ask around, you get three adjectives, "quiet, steady, humble". Perhaps because he was one of thirteen (!) kids in his family (the youngest of that huge brood), or perhaps because his father was big on humility and service, Cooper evidently liked to hide in the background. The media didn't pay him the attention he probably deserved, since his prime years were surrounded by...well...look at that list up there! But he probably preferred it that way. The guy, it should also be noted, got "edgared"...he was held back in the minor leagues for a LONG time despite showing plenty of ability, mostly because his defensive reputation was poor.

Even so, for a few years there, he was a franchise player.