Luken Baker is hoping for another shot.

here we are at spring training it's a little different cuz you had big league experience last season you didn't have a ton of Big League at bats and it was kind of segmented which is I guess hard to hard to adjust to Big League pitching when you're not getting a steady diet so what do you take away from that uh how important a routine is you know being consistantly ready every single day you know it's if the better I can prepare myself every day whether I'm playing or not will keep me in a better space to you know I feel like as my time in St Louis went on I got into a better routine into a better you know head space and was able to go out and take better at bats and have better results because of it so you felt cuz you did get a bunch of them at the end of the season do you feel like that put you in a a better place in terms of making whatever adjustments you needed yeah consistent of bats always help you know you get get getting timing back seeing the pitches you want to hit and actually swinging at them but honestly most of it was just not trying to do too much you at the beginning I was I wasn't getting a whole lot of run and trying to do too much and it wasn't working out and figured you know what I I don't need to do any more than I'm really capable of and I feel like that helped more so than those you know the last week or so getting the at bats in a row so you're at AAA and you're posting monster numbers and Cardinal fans they see the videos 500 foot homers I was waiting for your first 500 foot Big League homework by the way um and then it's just not coming around quickly and you you know you're a smart guys if you understand sometimes it takes a little time but how do you deal with the mental side of that like you're used to crushing baseballs and right now you are not crushing baseballs well yeah that was a lot of what how I buried myself in the first place was I was doing all that you know I was having a a great year in Memphis and then I was coming up and trying to be trying to hit 500 foot homers when I hadn't tried to do that all year and you know that the first one I got in Philly really I didn't think there was a big old monkey on my back but there was a big old monkey on got that guy off and you know from that point on I feel like I was able to relax and and just play baseball so it but yeah it was it was tough at first trying to be something whenever I didn't need to how'd you cope with it CU baseball's I think different than maybe some other professions because let let's say you know you're called up and you take an 0 for four with 2ks or whatever and then you go back to the hotel room and you probably only thinking about the fact that you went 0 for three with a couple of strikeouts right I mean how do you how do you escape that how do you handle that I mean it it really helped my my wife was with me a lot last year the whole year last year and so you know being able to come back to someone you know to get my mind off of it and get me into the next day space you know she was big and mentally getting me through that part and then it ended up you know being one of the best things for me through that time so having the big league experience does this Camp feel a little different for you CU you kind of know the ropes a little bit yeah I mean I've I've been to camp you know the last few years but this one feels like you know it does feel different being you know they you have the roster guys on one side of the locker room it's the first time I've been on that side of the locker room it it feels I mean and different in that way but it's still you're going into baseball season you're trying to you know I'm trying to be in the best position I can possibly be and and have a good spring one of the things they said during the off season is that the younger guys needed more leadership bench guys and they bring in Matt Carpenter who's obviously a longtime veteran and I assume when they're talking about young guys they're talking about guys like you I don't know how much interaction so far at Camp you've had with Matt car but just your thoughts on having a veteran guy instead of just all the young guys together you know in The Dugout waiting for an opportunity to have a guy you can go to I mean fortunately so karp is a TCU guy so he lives down there in the in the Fort Worth area so I've you know got to spend some time with him in the off Seasons at the field in the cages and stuff like that so it's you know it's he's awesome I think he's what he knows and and the person he is it it makes everyone better he makes everyone better and and he's a real joy to be around so I'm I was pumped to see you know when when we signed him and just cuz he's an awesome dude what's it like when you're tearing it up at AAA with like really monster numbers High popping numbers and you're hitting 500 foot homers what's what's life like that waiting for that first call to get you know to go to the show what's it like though being able to establish yourself at that level at triaa I mean it was that was the best power year I've had in my entire life it was it was awesome just to you know just have a good year and honestly by the time I got caught up you you know what kind of situation you're in you know that they're the Cardinals have a whole lot of really good ball players and it's tough to you know just to get to St Louis and I just knew if if I kept playing good baseball and hitting the ball well that you know something was bound to happen so I didn't know when I didn't really expect it but it was uh that that first time it was a pretty awesome moment when you hit a five 100 foot Homer you said you're not overswinging that just happens it just jumps off your bat where you destroy a baseball fun fact is I've never hit a 500 foot Homer I've I've seen videos it looks like 500 feet to Me Maybe I'm imbalanced good camera work maybe I'm IM baling but no yeah it's some monster shot it's you know staying Within Myself it's it's part of what I feel like you know makes me a good hitter is how hard I'm able to hit the the baseball without having to gear up too much so I don't have to swing at bad pitches and you know whenever I gear up too much I start swinging at bad pitches and don't get a chance to hard you mentioned you're a Texas boy so tell me about your background and maybe some of the the Major Leaguers that you followed as a kid thinking I'd like to be like that guy uh I mean so I grew up in the Houston area so growing up watching the Killer Bees watching you know the Cardinals beat up on the Astros all those years you know watching live pretty great watching live when phol hit that Homer off Brad LED but no it's you know get to watch those guys like bigo and Bagwell and burkman and and then once I got into high school and Craig B was retired you know he was coaching a son's high school team and we played against him so you know playing against I I want to say it was Cav I don't remember which one it was but Craig bigo's on the other side I'm like well that's so those were the guys that you know I watched growing up play really good baseball and I thought it was pretty awesome and bark was a cardinal and they got him and he was still a monster when they oh he yeah he was awesome he's a guy that used the whole field had power when he needed it he was outstanding so how do you look at this opportunity this year now Cardinal's got some guys who can hit you know so let's face it it's a crowded Workforce at the big league level how do you look at the opportunity I just look at it the same way as I always have the same way I did last year it's I just need to control what I can control I need to you know have good at bets play good defense hit the ball hard and whatever happens however it shakes out is how it's going to shake out but as long as I stay Within Myself and and just play good baseball that's all I can control last thing Luc and Baker maybe hasn't technically hit a 500 foot home but you go to the winter warmup and everything like Cardinal fans know Luc and Baker like there's a folklore about Luc and Baker F the name sounds a little scary too Luc and Baker what's it like when you see Cardinal fans and even before you were a big leager they knew who you were what what does that feel like I mean so this year was the first year I got to do the Cardinal Caravan and and go to the the towns around the St Louis area I mean it was it was awesome the St Louis fans are they're very unique in how in tune they are and how excited they are and how much they know it's I mean it was a really cool experience just you get out and get to see all that stuff cuz in St Louis around Bush Stadium you know of course the people there are going to you know going to the games are going to know but the ones that are just huge Cardinal fans all around the surrounding areas I thought it was pretty awesome all right we're going to cut there and then I'm going to ask you first off did you ever have a nickname not you should I mean in in college U you know they started calling me bake show but I like that too well yeah pitching and hitting that's pretty cool that's a show you wait you pitched my freshman year yeah and you throw I'm going to say you throw 110 cuz I embellish everything close enough did you throw 100 miles an hour not 100 I was you know low to mid90s when I was having a good day 96 97 but you know the the older I got the more I learned that a lot of professional baseball players pitchers throw 93 Miles hour and over and over and so it was that was sort of the weighing factor in which route I was going to take you