It makes most sense to start with Adam Wainwright when examining results thus far. I must admit, I was left scratching my head a little bit when Wainwright’s extension was announced… it seemed a year or two too long, and last year was good but not great. But all doubts have been silenced with his start to the 2013 season. It already looks like his teammates will be hard pressed to surpass his value.
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The two standouts that the St. Louis Cardinals have thus far this season are young players: Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams. Both lead the team in WAR and are effective hitters, if not amazing ones.
It is too early to say just how amazing, but look at this: Matt Adams leads the team with 3 home runs and is just destroying the ball. I could list his God-like power numbers or wRC+, but it’s pointless. The guy is just off to a great start. Matt Carpenter has seen a lot more playing time and we can derive more info from it: his updated ZiPS projection is 3 WAR and he leads the team in batting average. Him being able to hold his own at second base as well as play third base with some at times flashy defense make him a very excellent player. Is he the next Ben Zobrist? I certainly hope so!
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In Part 3, I did a top 35 players list, who I recommend checking out. Because if you’re like me, you have a fantasy baseball draft coming up very soon. Or if you just have an interest in projections or sabermetric stats and are a fan of the game who thinks that OPS is not the be all and end all stat (I surely hope you don’t think batting average is).
In Part 4, I’m here to talk about the players who are not in the top 35… possible sleepers like John Jaso who I mentioned last time, a guy who I had no idea posted a nearly .400 OBP last season. Continue reading
The big question around the Cardinals is who will play shortstop this season; overshadowed by this is the issue of the bench.
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Oh my, how time does fly. It is that time of year again! Pitchers and catchers have reported, and now teams have started playing spring training games. If one is particularly caught in the moment, one might be worried that the Cardinals are 0-2 so far in spring training play.
But since that’s only two games, and spring training results have little to no correlation to regular season results, I’m not too worried as a fan. Things to be worried about have been shown in early projections: a possibly scary combination of aging veterans and high-BABIP younger stars can make some within the baseball community shudder. But still, I’m not especially worried.
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Each year, the United Cardinal Bloggers vote for various awards associated with the Cardinals. Here is the ballot for the Cardinal Blogger Awards.
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With the St. Louis Cardinals stumbling down the stretch and the second wild card on the line, they have decided to leave top prospect Oscar Taveras off the major league roster. This comes when Carlos Beltran is looking like his Mets’ days and the club relying on players like Pete Kozma and Dan Descalso in regular roles.
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2011 Review:
2011 was a strange year for the Cardinals. They went from out of the playoffs in August to winning the wild card on the last day of the season. They capped that by winning the World Series.
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Each September, the members of the UCB reveal their Top 7 Cardinal Prospects. This is one of my favorite projects from the group, but I’ve really struggled with my list. After my top 2, most of the others could be flipped around; and that’s before mentioning that I left off some quality guys (mainly Lance Lynn, Adam Ottavino, and Bryan Anderson).
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