February 03, 2008
Team Offense, St. Louis Cardinals
We continue to look at team offenses for 2008 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Albert Pujols
Photo: Icon SMI
In 2007, the Cardinals scored 4.48 runs per game.
I plugged in a likely lineup to the Lineup Analysis Tool, using the Marcel the Monkey predictions from Tom Tango. For pitchers, I used the team pitcher averages from 2007. Tango did not project Brian Barton, so I used the newly released PECOTA averages. The lineups rate as follows:
- Best: 4.95 runs per game
- Given: 4.76 runs per game
- Worst: 4.37 runs per game
The middle of the order, slots two through five look very good. A squad can generate surprisingly good offense by bunching four strong hitters together. The team, however, is very weak up the middle offensively. I'm somewhat surprised PECOTA rated Barton so low, since he's posted stellar OBAs throughout his minor league career. The Cardinals may get a boost from him living up to his minor league numbers.
Previous teams covered in the series:
