Few developments have been more surprising over the past month or so than the sudden movement of the Cardinals to put away the NL Central. Not that the division is done for, but some serious countermoves will be required to get the rest of the division back in the game.
With the exception of the Astros, however, the Cards’ division rivals haven’t played that badly; instead, the Cardinals have just outdone themselves, running their record to 54-33, a .621 clip and a 101-win pace.
Let’s look back at my Established Win Shares estimates, compared to the 2004 Win Shares pace for each Cards player (I’ll just double them for simplicity):
Adjusted EWSL: 257.0 (86 wins)
Unadjusted EWSL: 251.0 (84 wins)
Weighted Age: 30.409
| Pos | Player | EWSL | 2004 WS Pace | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | MMatheny | 11 | 8 | 33 |
| 1B | APujols | 36 | 34 | 24 |
| 2B | TWomack | 8 | 20 | 34 |
| SS | ERenteria | 23 | 18 | 28 |
| 3B | SRolen | 27 | 48 | 29 |
| RF | RSanders | 16 | 16 | 36 |
| CF | JEdmonds | 26 | 26 | 34 |
| LF | RLankford | 4 | 8 | 37 |
| UT | MAnderson | 12 | 6 | 30 |
| C2 | CMcKay+ | 0 | 2 | 30 |
| INF | JMabry | 4 | 6 | 33 |
| OF | RCedeno | 10 | 2 | 29 |
| 13 | STaguchi* | 2 | 4 | 34 |
| SP1 | MMorris | 12 | 10 | 29 |
| SP2 | WWilliams | 12 | 8 | 37 |
| SP3 | JSuppan | 12 | 12 | 29 |
| SP4 | CCarpenter | 3 | 16 | 29 |
| SP5 | JMarquis | 3 | 12 | 25 |
| CL | JIsringhausen | 10 | 12 | 31 |
| R2 | SKline | 7 | 8 | 31 |
| R3 | RKing | 5 | 8 | 30 |
| R4 | CEldred | 3 | 0 | 36 |
| R5 | JTavarez | 7 | 4 | 31 |
Top Win Shares paces for players I didn’t list before the season: Kiko Calero (4), Yadier Molina (4), Hector Luna (4), and Mike Lincoln (2). In other words, the Cards are dancing with them that brung ’em.
What jumps out at you, of course, is Rolen, although frankly I’m quite not sure why his numbers (.339/.599/.415) add up to such a staggering total of 20.1 batting Win Shares. When you look up and down the list, most of the rest of the team is pretty much on target, with bench players down from their projections due to reduced playing time and Tony Womack enjoying an unexpected (and unlikely to continue) resurgence at .319/.427/.364. You will also note something I noticed in my earlier EWSL analysis of the NL Central: the Cards’ infield is presently right around on pace for the all-time record for Win Shares by one starting infield, which is 119.
The bullpen has also been hot (Ray King has a 1.41 ERA and has been touched for just 22 hits, none of them homers, in 32 innings in 45 appearances, and Steve Kline has a similar line – 42 games, 32 IP, 25 Hits, 1 HR, 1.97 ERA), and the team’s biggest preseason question mark (the back end of the rotation, with Chris Carpenter and Jason Marquis a combined 18-8 with ERAs of 3.87 and 3.88 and a combined K/BB ratio of 167/59.
Can they keep it up? That will be the big question for the second half (I remain skeptical of Carpenter, who’s had great hot streaks before but shows no sign of being capable of throwing 200+ innings without some serious wear and tear).
UPDATE: I forgot to include the link to Brian Gunn at Redbird Nation, who ran a similar analysis with PECOTA projections.
You can find the answer to Rolen’s batting Win Shares on our site, where we list each player’s Runs Created total. Batting Win Shares are simply runs created over a certain minimum.
Bonds: 96 RC 26 BatWS
Rolen: 80 RC 20 BatWS
Pujols: 72 RC 16 BatWS
Rolen’s RC are also driven by the fact that he’s second in the league in batters with RISP. He’s batting .402 with RISP, vs. Pujols batting .316 with RISP. (all stats from hardballtimes.com)
Thanks, studes; my feeling was just that his offensive numbers didn’t quite look that stratospheric. The RISP is one missing element; another, I guess, is the fact of just one CS and 6 GIDP.