St. Louis Cardinals offense begins to show signs of life

The St. Louis Cardinals offense has become a bit of a laughing stock this year. It seemed for quite a while that the team was simply incapable of a blowout victory. In the games where the Cards managed to be the winning team, it seemed like it was always by just a run. Since arriving in American League parks, things have changed. Please note that I said “changed”, not “turned the corner”. There is obviously a big difference.

Here’s how the batters stack up for 2014 as of Wednesday:

Rk Pos PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BA ▾ OBP SLG OPS
1 1B Matt Adams* 202 194 16 63 16 2 3 17 5 40 .325 .337 .474 .811
2 3B Matt Carpenter* 300 258 42 76 16 1 2 23 36 50 .295 .385 .388 .772
3 CF Jon Jay* 155 140 15 41 7 1 1 18 10 27 .293 .346 .379 .725
4 C Yadier Molina 243 221 22 64 12 0 5 23 16 29 .290 .339 .412 .751
5 LF Matt Holliday 279 234 32 62 15 0 4 30 37 41 .265 .380 .380 .760
6 2B Kolten Wong* 149 136 13 34 5 1 1 15 10 16 .250 .311 .324 .634
7 RF Allen Craig 271 249 28 62 11 1 6 33 18 48 .249 .306 .373 .680
8 SS Jhonny Peralta 254 228 26 53 16 0 10 26 23 48 .232 .307 .434 .741
9 CF Peter Bourjos 147 132 15 29 5 3 2 10 11 44 .220 .288 .348 .636
Team Totals 2497 2228 244 558 120 10 36 230 202 474 .250 .319 .362 .681
Rank in 15 NL teams 3 10 6 5 12 15 4 2 8 5 13 10
Non-Pitcher Totals 2359 2109 234 541 114 10 36 223 196 418 .257 .325 .371 .697
Pitcher Totals 138 119 10 17 6 0 0 7 6 56 .143 .197 .193 .390
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
If you really study that, it doesn’t seem like this should be a team struggling this badly. The problem, of course, is stringing those hits together. Alternatively, the team could hit home runs, but that option appears to be off the table. Jhonny Peralta has to be the most frustrating and unexpected part of this roster. .232 is is only marginally better than last time I wrote about him.
Outside of Jhonny, and his streaky success, there are signs of life. Not including Matt Adams (on the DL at the time of writing), the team’s best hitter on the season is Matt Carpenter. Certainly, Matt is having good success this year. A lot of it has come recently:
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 5 20 2 3 0 0 1 3 0 0 3 3 .150 .261 .300 .561
Last 14 days 12 45 6 17 4 0 1 6 1 0 7 5 .378 .462 .533 .995
Last 28 days 25 102 15 36 10 1 1 9 1 0 11 14 .353 .426 .500 .926
Last 365days 161 639 117 195 52 7 8 77 4 2 79 115 .305 .383 .446 .829
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
This week hasn’t been quite as kind, but to say 2014 is a continuation of 2013 isn’t that far off the mark.
Jon Jay is also having a great season with his .293 average despite half the AB of a full time player due to a time sharing arrangement with Peter Bourjos.
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 4 15 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .333 .333 .333 .667
Last 14 days 10 29 6 10 1 0 0 4 0 0 2 4 .345 .387 .379 .766
Last 28 days 21 56 7 18 3 0 0 8 1 0 3 13 .321 .350 .375 .725
Last 365days 150 465 53 136 26 2 4 55 10 5 39 88 .292 .359 .383 .742
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
To say Jay’s bat is beginning to show signs of life isn’t really fair. It’s been there for a while.
One disappointment in the second month of the season was the bat of Yadier Molina. His bat may be starting to return, as well.
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 4 14 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 .143 .250 .143 .393
Last 14 days 10 35 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 .114 .205 .114 .319
Last 28 days 22 78 7 20 4 0 1 4 0 0 10 9 .256 .341 .346 .687
Last 365days 133 498 62 144 36 0 13 71 1 0 31 61 .289 .333 .440 .773
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
Matt Holliday has had some flashes of brilliance  in an otherwise down year. While he is doing nothing that approaches his average of the past couple years, he is at least back above the Mendoza line:
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 4 12 1 3 2 0 1 1 1 0 4 1 .250 .471 .667 1.137
Last 14 days 11 34 3 6 2 0 1 2 1 0 10 6 .176 .391 .324 .715
Last 28 days 24 84 14 22 6 0 2 7 1 0 15 13 .262 .410 .405 .814
Last 365days 145 529 87 157 35 0 16 86 7 2 77 89 .297 .397 .454 .851
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
That’s progress, right? OK, I won’t be too upset if you don’t get excited.
I’d like to say Kolten Wong is getting in on the action. I’d be lying. He’s struggled massively in the past couple weeks, but you can give his brief shoulder problem the blame, if you must.
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 2 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000 .000
Last 14 days 8 23 2 2 0 0 1 4 1 0 2 3 .087 .192 .217 .410
Last 28 days 18 65 8 18 4 0 1 10 5 1 5 7 .277 .347 .385 .732
Last 365days 70 195 19 43 6 1 1 15 11 1 13 28 .221 .276 .277 .553
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
At least we can take heart that he had hit .277 over his past 28 days. He’s likely do it again, but now isn’t that time.
Hey hey! Look who may actually be starting to figure out where his bat is located in the clubhouse. If you guessed Allen Craig – ding ding, you win!
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 5 21 1 6 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 .286 .286 .333 .619
Last 14 days 12 48 5 12 3 0 1 6 1 0 2 7 .250 .294 .375 .669
Last 28 days 25 100 13 29 4 0 2 17 1 1 7 16 .290 .349 .390 .739
Last 365days 136 514 66 146 24 1 14 83 2 1 45 107 .284 .350 .416 .766
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
Pretty impressive. Granted, he has a lot of ground to make up to get back where he should be after an abysmal start, but this is real progress.
The aforementioned Jhonny Peralta has had a pretty rough season. In the spirit of small sample size theater, he’s having a decent week:
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 5 18 2 5 2 0 1 1 0 0 2 5 .278 .350 .556 .906
Last 14 days 12 44 2 9 5 0 1 3 0 0 2 11 .205 .239 .386 .625
Last 28 days 25 88 7 18 8 0 2 9 1 0 6 21 .205 .253 .364 .616
Last 365days 112 412 45 102 30 0 15 55 2 2 39 93 .248 .316 .430 .746
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
Let’s just hope next time I write about Peralta, his average is up more the .030.
The last bat worth mentioning is Peter Bourjos. What can I say? Peter was hired for his defense, and it really shows in his batting.  But even Peter has shown some minimal life signs the last week. He still needs to be on life support, though.
Split G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Last 7 days 4 12 0 4 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 5 .333 .357 .500 .857
Last 14 days 9 27 2 7 0 1 1 3 1 1 2 10 .259 .300 .444 .744
Last 28 days 18 56 4 12 1 1 1 4 1 1 5 18 .214 .274 .321 .596
Last 365days 79 217 29 49 6 4 3 14 9 1 17 67 .226 .293 .332 .625
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/11/2014.
You’ve got to like that trend. Let’s hope he can keep it up. Frankly, once the team returns to National League parks, it’s going to take a very convincing sermon to get Jay out of the lineup – especially against a right-handed pitcher.
So there we have it. There are some encouraging developments in Cardinals Nation. If these trends continue, the Cards may approach the power observers thought this team may have in 2014.

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