We are all aware he has had controversy with manager Tony La Russa since arriving in St. Louis, but that all now looks to be clearing up, in the public eye at least. Reports claim he ignored Tony La Russa in the past under the discretion of his father, saying he didn’t have to listen to what he was being told. Like a little league situation gone awry, Tony has had a habit of sitting his star fielder in the past and at times has only brought him in as a pinch hitter when he is clearly incredibly talented and deserving of the everyday role.

His father is apparently still at it. All of the constant scrutiny that befalls the situation from the behavior of his father towards the organization even led Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch to comment on whether or not Colby should be traded. Obviously there is no love lost with the situation, but the fact remains Colby can still be a dominant force within the organization and quickly has become a fan favorite.
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Some players decide to reach elsewhere because they are not getting the money via the MLB that they are looking for right away. I can imagine the sentiment, you sign with a baseball franchise only to reach the heights of Double A ball and spend your days hoping for a shot at the show. Personally I am not incredibly athletic anymore but I would of course be very happy with the opportunity, but when young and in peak physical condition you get that take on the world mentality. Many athletes want the spotlight, they LOVE to take risks and through other sports they tend to take those chances, much to my dismay, MLB seems to be a fall back sport for some of the potential talent.

Back to the topic at hand….
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Last week the Cardinals scored a historic amount of runs.  I’m sure you’ve heard all about how they usually don’t score 8.7 runs a game in a week – ever.  But I don’t think people understand just how rolling our offense was.

To put it simply, nearly every player on our offense was performing above their expected performance in that week.  GO ahead.  Try and think of a player who was cold.  Off the top of my head, Berkman, Theriot, Rasmus, and Molina were all blazing hot in that week.  Schumaker, Freese, and Pujols were not quite as ridiculous as them but they were still above it.

Well, this is all just from memory so I’m going to put my theory to the test.  First I will list the player’s week, then their career numbers, and lastly, their expected seasonal performance using Bill James and Zips projections.*

*So let’s say Player A has a projected batting average of .305 on ZiPS and .288 on Bill James.  I average that to .2965.  In the last week, let’s say they got 20 at-bats.  Well that would be they would have 6 hits out of 20 for their expected performance in that week.

Well I guess this helps prove the theory somewhat that if your leadoff batter is rolling, then your team is sure to follow.  Theriot played considerably better than his career numbers and absolutely destroyed his expected numbers.  Moving to our franchise centerfielder.

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