At first glance, the St. Louis Cardinals’ hiring of Mark McGwire as hitting coach seems odd for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Big Mac had a career batting average of .263 over 17 seasons. By contrast, the man he replaces, Hal McRae, had a .290 batting average over 19 seasons.

But it might not be so odd. To McGwire’s credit, he hit 583 homers. So if nothing else, he’s qualified to teach home-run hitting. And his on-base percentage of .394 is 43 points higher than McRae’s.

Besides, some of the most notable hitting coaches weren’t great hitters themselves. Just two examples:

Charlie Lau, George Brett’s guru with the Kansas City Royals of the 1970s and 1980s (and, incidentally, McRae’s hitting coach, too), had a .255 career average over 11 major-league seasons.

Jim Lefebvre, who has been a hitting coach and has even authored five books about hitting, batted .251 over an eight-season career.

Maybe the Cardinals’ choice of McGwire as batting coach isn’t all that odd, after all.