The St. Louis Cardinals have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the past month. Their league-leading defense has fueled their success of late. In part, the team is set up to benefit from stellar defense. The pitching staff is designed to get outs in the field rather than through strikeouts. Individual standouts in the field have aided the team’s metrics overall.
League-Leading Defense as a Team
The Cardinals have a firm lead in outs above average as a team, according to Baseball Savant. The team has 25 outs above average, six higher than the second-place team in the category, the Houston Astros. The MLB medium mark for the metric is one.
Baseball Savant said the Cardinals have prevented 20 runs with their defense. Five more than the second-place Astros. The team is making outs at a three percent higher clip than the expected rate based on batted balls. The Cardinals also lead the league in that.
From a more traditional statistical standpoint, the Cardinals have committed the fewest errors in the League. The team has committed just 17 errors so far this season. That is eight fewer than the MLB medium number of 25 on a team and 28 lower than the league-leading Colorado Rockies.
Set Up to Benefit from Defense
The Cardinals are trying to get outs in the field as a pitching staff. The team is second in the league for ground ball outs at 480. Correspondingly, the team is second to last in the league with strikeouts. The team’s pitching staff is trying to get the ball on the ground and to the stellar defensive infielders behind them.
The Cardinals benefit from 10-time Gold Glove winner Nolan Arenado at third base. They benefit from shortstop Masyn Winn’s arm, which is second only to Elly De La Cruz in average throw speed so far this year. They also get dazzling plays at second base from Brendan Donovan, who already has a utility Gold Glove award under his belt in his short career.
Those throws are heading to Willson Contreras at first base. The longtime catcher is in his first season at first base. He has squashed any speculation that he may not be up for the new position. He is tied for second in the league for outs above average at first base. The sure-handed and wide-ranging infield has backed up the pitchers well.
Individual Standouts
The Cardinals have several players in the top five of their respective positions for fielding run value. Contreras at first and Arenado at third are tied for second in fielding run value at their positions. Winn at shortstop is third in the metric across the League. Youngster Victor Scott II is tied for fifth in the League at fielding run value from center field. Lars Nootbaar is tied for fourth in left field.
Five of the Cardinals nine defensive players are routinely fielding at a top five level in their games. The excellence has helped drive the team to success.
Scott II’s speed and leather have been a huge bonus for the Cardinals this year. He covers the fourth most ground of all outfielders in the League on his bursts at 37.2. He’s tied for second for all MLB outfielders with outs above average at seven.
Scott also has above-average arm strength as he is in the top 25th percentile in the League for that metric. He is second on the team for arm strength behind Jordan Walker, who is in the top three percentile of the League for average outfield throw speed.
Cardinals Hot Streak
The Cardinals are 17-9 in the last 30 days. On April 23, the Cardinals were five games below .500 and near the bottom of the standings. Since then, the Cardinals have gone 7-1 in series, dropping their first one in nearly a month to the Detroit Tigers this week. They are not one game out of a Wild Card spot and three games behind the Chicago Cubs for the N.L. Central lead.
A season labeled as one to develop young talent is now filled with competitive intrigue. However, Cardinal’s manager Oliver Marmol still sees the development aspect as front of mind.
“I really like where our guys are in this development process, and how they are approaching their days, their overall mindsets and the intentionality to their work,” Marmol told reporters, according to MLB.com’s John Denton. “That’s been the key to all of this. That’s why I believe this is sustainable, because of how they’re going about it. They’re going to continue to grow and continue to execute at a higher level. So, we’re in a really good spot.”
Main Photo Credits: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
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