St. Louis Cardinals Summer Check Up


St. Louis Cardinals

37-32 (3rd in NL Central)



Eye Popping Number
105

On May 21st, Odubel Herrera didn’t know that he was stepping into a furnace. Jordan Hicks threw the four hardest pitches in baseball this season, including two 105 mile per hour sinkers. They weren’t even normal four seam fastballs, they were sinkers! When Statcast first started to record the fastest pitches thrown in 2015, Aroldis Chapman has dominated the leaderboard, but this season, the 21 year old flamethrower has started to take the torch (pun intended). Weirdly, with a pitch as dominant as Hicks’ sinker, he only had 12 strikeouts over his first 25.2 innings pitched, a drastically low strikeout rate. He has since turned it on over the last three weeks with 17 strikeouts over his last 11 innings, a much more reasonable rate for a pitcher of Hicks’ caliber.

Biggest Surprise

The Cardinals came into the season with one ace, a former playoff hero, a rookie, a youngster that hasn’t found his potential, and a pitcher who spent the last 4 years in Japan to make up their starting rotation. Nothing to sneeze at, but they didn’t have the highest expectations for the season. They have since put up the 4th best starting rotation ERA in baseball. A big reason for that is by far the lowest home run rate in baseball, and the second highest ground ball rate. Keeping the ball in the yard is huge now a days with home runs as rampant as they are.

Player to Watch

When Albert Pujols left the Cardinals to join the Los Angeles Angels after the 2011 season, the Cardinals wondered when they could find another franchise first baseman. It looks like they found one in José Martínez. The 29 year old slugger came onto the scene last year with a .309/.379/.518 slash line in a part time role, and this year he’s topping those numbers at .321/.389/.517. He’s already almost matched or surpassed all of his stats from last year in almost as many at bats, except for strikeouts, which he’s cut down his strikeout rate.

What to Watch for at the Deadline

Expect the Cardinals to be buyers at the trade deadline as they go for a wild card spot or even the NL Central crown. Their biggest holes are at second base and in the bullpen. The bullpen should get a boost soon as Greg Holland, Luke Gregerson and Alex Reyes will come back from injury. They could still get another arm in Mychal Givens (Baltimore) or Joakim Soria (Chicago White Sox). Asdrubel Cabrera (New York Mets) and Yangervis Solarte (Toronto) would be great options to play at second base, but can also slide around the infield and play multiple innings if injuries were to arise.


*All stats as of 6/17 via fangraphs.com and baseball-reference.com

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