Hitters At The Halfway Point

OK, I didn't manage to post it the following day. Life intrudes.

Yadier Molina - He's on pace for the best offensive season of his career, barely ahead of 2009 in OPS, though well ahead in OPS+. It's more slugging percentage heavy than is normal. His isolated power is .133, where his previous high was .106 in 2005. Seems strange in such an offense poor year, but it isn't as though the Cards can't use the offense. Most of his value seems to be offense, though catcher defense is always tricky. His throwing out an unusually low 29% of would-be basestealers. Not sure what the issue is there, except perhaps his pitchers are poor at holding runners on (Jaime Garcia's been stolen on 9 out of 10 tries).

Albert Pujols - Slow start, was turning it around, wrist collides with baserunner, supposed to be out until August, possibly coming back tonight. The impressive thing is, as poorly as he's hit by his standards, Albert's OPS+ is still 140, and he's generated 2 WAR with his bat (plus another 0.4 with the glove). He's also been successful on all 5 of his stolen base attempts, a total that ties him for 2nd with Rasmus and Jon Jay. I'm tired of the Cardinals never stealing bases.

Skip Schumaker - Skip spent some time on the DL. Hasn't really helped him. He's not hitting any better than he did last year, in fact, he's even worse. His batting average isn't quite as empty as an Aaron Miles special, but it's getting there. And his defense isn't noticeably better, either. Glad they held onto him and his -0.3 WAR.

Daniel Descalso - Thrust into the starting role thanks to Freese and Punto's injuries. Descalso's OPS has resolutely stuck in the .660s for awhile now, which actually qualifies as value this year somehow. His defense hasn't been as good as you'd hope for from someone moving from second base, but maybe it won't be an issue now that the other two are back.

Ryan Theriot - There is a level of production the Cardinals could receive from their shortstop that would get me to accept trading Brendan Ryan. Theriot's not capable of producing it, but it exists. However, I'd like to point out that at the 81-game mark, Theriot's WAR was -0.2, and Brendan Ryan's was 1.5. Ryan's is now 1.7, and Tally Ho's is still -0.2. Whatever value he generates with his bat is wiped out by his awful fielding. Not that Brendan is tearing the cover off the ball, but he's hitting as well as Skip and fielding a damn sight better than Schumaker or Theriot. Great upgrade there, LaRussa and Mozeliak!

Matt Holliday - Holliday's been on the DL twice, but at least he's come off hitting well both times. I still expect the Cardinals will end up regretting Matt's contract the way the Cubs do Alfonso Soriano's, but so far, it's worked out pretty well.

Colby Rasmus - Rasmus started hot, then went into a prolonged slump he's only recently shown signs of emerging from. He's not helping anything by playing an apparently poor centerfield (-1.0 WAR defensively, which subtracts from the 1.9 offensive WAR). There's talk of trading him, talk that he doesn't play hard enough, that he can't cut it here. I think trading him would be a mistake, but then I don't think Jon Jay is a long-term answer at centerfield. Or at least not one superior to Colby.

Lance Berkman - I have no idea how Berkman's doing this. He's stayed mostly healthy, which is no minor feat on this team this year, and he's been crushing the ball. His defense, well, did I mention he's been crushing the ball? Look, even with a dWAR of -0.8, he's still been worth almost 3 wins already, which, if you can hit that well, I will overlook the defensive shortcomings. It isn't as though they're a surprise anyway.

Jon Jay - Jay is pretty much the only bench player who has been a) healthy, and b) productive. Everyone else fails one of the two criteria. dWAR doesn't care for his defense (though they like it more than Colby's), though some numbers like him in center, but not the corners. Which seems backwards, but he's played a lot more innings in the corners, so that may be more indicative of his real ability. For a bench player he's doing alright. It's funny that people want Jay in CF instead of Colby and complain about Colby's Ks, because Jay's striking out quite a bit (about 1 in 6 PAs) for a guy with a .300 average. Though it's possible the people who complain about Rasmus' strikeouts aren't the ones clamoring for Jay. or not for that reason anyway.

Allen Craig - With Holliday being on and off the DL, plus LaRussa's perhaps not so surprising decision to play Craig at 2nd in Skip's absence, Craig was actually getting quite a bit of playing time. Now he's been hurt for around a month, which is tough, since he was the consistent power bat off the bench. The only position players with a higher WAR than Craig are Albert, Holliday, and Berkman, and strangely enough, the defensive stats generally like Craig. He has a 0.3 dWAR overall, which is great compared to a lot of his teammates. He has positive or neutral rtot at 1st, 2nd, LF, and RF. It's worth noting LF is the only position he's played more than 100 innings at, though. But hey, he's fulfilling the Scott Speizio "I play all corner positions and second because Tony figures anyone can play there" roster role.

David Freese - Missed time with an injury. What a surprise. Next you'll tell me Kerry Wood spent time on the DL. Freese, when he plays, has done what he did last year when he played. Hit for a high average, a little power, and hasn't walked much while striking out about once a game. I wonder if he'd develop more patience if he could stay in the lineup?

Tyler Greene - Greene's the first bench player to succeed at staying healthy, but fail to produce. He did run the bases well (8-for-8 on SBs), but that's about all he did well. Honestly, if he could make contact a little more often, he'd be OK. He's drawing walks, hit for a little (stress: little) power, though his defense has been poor at second, and about average at SS.

Nick Punto - Too bad Punto can't stay healthy. He's actually hitting this year, an event that only occurs every 4 years or so. If nothing else, his presence might spare us from some Schumaker at 2nd, which would be fine with me. At least Punto can play the position competently.

Gerald Laird - It was nice to see LaRussa actually use his backup catcher this year. He'd started 10 games in less than 2 months, where LaRue started 15 in over 4 last year. Then Laird got hurt. Too bad, his average was awful, but like Greene, he was drawing walks, and (unlike Greene) hitting for good power (isolated slugging of .167).

Mark Hamilton - He's been up-and-down with the injuries to various power hitters like Holliday, Craig, and Albert. Unfortunately, he hasn't hit and they aren't using him for his defense. Maybe more playing time would help, but he can really only play first, and Tony would rather use Berkman there and play Holliday, Rasmus, and Jay in the outfield. As well he should.

Tony Cruz - Cruz was called up to replace Laird, which is probably the death knell for Bryan Anderson, since he was sitting there in AAA, with major league experience already. LaRussa hasn't used Cruz much, and he's played him 20 innings combined at first and third, versus just 58 at catcher, which doesn't make sense, but it hasn't been a disaster so far. And Cruz has even hit some.

Andrew Brown - Brown was called up briefly for some reason and promptly looked over-matched. He's back in the minors now.

Pete Kozma - Kozma hasn't really shown anything in the minors to suggest he was ready for this, but Tony wanted/needed another middle infielder, so there he was. He didn't do terribly well, but honestly, in the absence of Punto, I'd rather see Kozma at 2nd than Schumaker (and Greene at SS over Theriot). I don't think either is cut out for starting in the majors, but I know that already about Skip and Tally Ho. Might as well find out about the younger guys one way or the other.

Matt Carpenter - I was actually excited about Carpenter's call-up. The solid contact, good on-base percentage, limited power description appealed to me. Results were less than optimal. He did draw some walks, but 1 hit in 19 plate appearances isn't going to cut it. I don't know whether he wasn't aggressive enough, or just not ready for the majors, or if it was bad luck in a small sample. His babip was .091, which suggests horrendous luck, but that doesn't tell whether he was hitting weak grounders, or hard line drives that found gloves. Baseball-Reference says he had 5 ground balls and 5 fly balls, all of which turned into outs, but his 1 line drive was a hit. So perhaps not bad luck.