2015 St. Louis Cardinals Season Review: Top Performers

Hello and welcome, to the next installment of the Season Review. Today, I want to cover the top performers for the Cardinals this season. I won’t delve into the rookies here as I have listed them in surprises already. However, I am going to take a look at guys who were good all season long for this team. If you have missed review of the surprises and disappointments, do yourself a favor and go check those out, this way you don’t think I missed a player.

This wasn’t a hard list to make. Because this was such a great season, there is likely going to be a snub or two not on this list and a player that could have counted as a surprise, but I will stick by my list regardless. With that said, let’s get into who qualified to make my list of top performers.

Oct 12, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals right fielder

(22) hits a two run home run during the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs in game three of the NLDS at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

1. Jason Heyward

You absolutely cannot talk about the success of this team without talking about this man. Heyward had a great year for the Cardinals and hopefully it is the first of many. I was optimistic at the start of the season on Heyward, I thought he could come in and fill the void in RF quite well, and was hopeful some of the power from previous years in Atlanta would return.

I was partially right, Heyward was old reliable in RF this season. Through 154 games and 547 at bats, Heyward had a slash of .293/.359/.439 with a wRC+ of 121 according to Fangraphs. Heyward didn’t show “great power”, as he had a combined 50 extra-base hits (37 doubles, 13 home runs, and four triples). Those are some pretty good numbers, despite the lack of homers. 

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Heyward struggled out of the gate, batting just .224 from April 5th to May 5th. Heyward seemed to be pressing a bit as he tried to impress his new team and get used to the new surroundings. However, from that point on Heyward was much better, hitting .307/.375/.459.

However, Heyward was good all around this season, not just at the plate. Heyward was without a doubt one of the best defensive outfielders this team has had in some time. Not only was he the best on the team in this regard, Heyward was the best RF in baseball and it wasn’t close. There are three statistics we are going to look at here that give us an idea of how good a fielder are.

These statistics are ARM (Outfield Arm runs above average), RngR (Range Runs above average), ErrR (Error Runs abover average). These three statistics all come via Fangraphs and combine into UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating). This season Heyward was tops among RF in RngR with a 14.8 (next closest was Kole Kalhoun at 7.8), he had the fourth best ARM rating at 4.3, and the third best ErrR at 1.1. These all combined to give Heyward the best UZR in the league in RF at 20.2.

Heyward was also, a top notch baserunner this season. Heyward was fifth in the league with 7.0 base running runs above average. This was evident by Heyward taking the extra base many times and stealing 23 bases in 26 attempts.

Taking all of this in and looking at Heyward’s 6.0 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) it was clear that Heyward was the team MVP this season, and that it would be huge if the team can resign him this offseason.

Next: Five takeaways following the Cardinals' early postseason exit

Sep 9, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher

(18) pitches against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

2. Carlos Martinez

Man, what a talent Martinez is. I was hopeful Martinez was going to get the chance out of spring training and when Jaime Garcia got injured I may have been a little bit excited. Carlos, was mired in and out of the bullpen for the past two seasons and had experienced some success in the bullpen role. However, I was confident that once he got his chance he would run with it, and boy was I right.

Martinez finished the season going 13-7 with a 3.01 ERA, 9.22 strikeouts per nine innings (team high), and 3.16 walks per nine innings. Martinez seemingly got better and better as the season went on, and despite the narrative that he was getting tired before the season ending shoulder injury, he had better peripheral stats in the second half of the season (lower walk rate, lower FIP, higher BABIP. etc.).

The injury to Carlos was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Caridnals’ postseason fortune, as pitching was ultimately what did them in against the Cubs. Hopefully, he heals up and comes back ready for another good season and avoids the injury bug. If that’s the case, this team won’t be going anywhere and should be poised for another NL Central title.

3. John Lackey

Lackey, could have made my list of surprises, had it not been for the rookie takeover this season. I wasn’t too sure what we were going to get out of Lackey this season. I kind of figured he’d be decent enough to keep the Cards in games and give them a chance every fifth day to win.

Lackey, had a career year in many facets of his game this season. Lackey posted a record of 13-10 (not accurate of his value of course), with a career low ERA of 2.77 and a really good walk rate of of 2.19 (third best of his career). The 13 year veteran proved he still has some left in the tank and will make John Mozeliak think very hard on whether or not he wants to attempt to bring the veteran starter back.

While Lackey had a great year and a great two years here, I really view this as a similar to the Carlos Beltran situation from a couple years ago. You make him a qualifying offer and if he accepts it, so be it, if not the Cardinals will get a draft pick out of it. My preference would be to accept the option of Jaime Garcia and let Lackey walk, giving room for one of the young studs to take a spot in the rotation if there is an injury.

Sep 22, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Kevin Siegrist (46) pitches to a Cincinnati Reds batter during the eighth inning at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals defeated the Reds 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

5. Kevin Siegrist 

Yes, we are ending on another pitcher. There just wasn’t many offensive performers who were not either surprises or had great seasons throughout the year.

At the beginning of the year, it was questionable as to how Siegrist was going to perform. Last season was a down year for him, largely due to injuries. The team trusted him enough out of spring training to let go of Sam Freeman, leaving him and Randy Choate the only left-handers out of the bullpen. Again, put your postseason blinders on for this. Siegrist had a very good regular season, with a 2.17 ERA, 10.88 strikeouts per nine innings, all while holding batters to a .193 average.

Oddly enough, Siegrist was much more effective against right-handed hitters than he was left-handed hitters, as left-handers were able to get a .259/.408/.405 line against him versus the .153/.236/.275 line that right-handed hitters had against him. This making the move from Matheny to have Siegrist pitch against Rizzo and Schwarber the other night quite confusing.

The biggest issue for Siegrist this season was the walks, he struggled throughout the year with them and it resulted in a 4.10 BB/9. Hitters did have a tad bit of misfortune against Siegrist, as evident in their .271 BABIP and Siegrist’s 3.28 SIERA and 3.98 expected FIP (Fangraphs). If Siegrist can continue to improve, the back end of the bullpen will continue to get better as guys come back from injury next season and the Cardinals’ get some help from their farm system.

That does it for today, these are your top five performers for the 2015 St. Louis Cardinals’ season. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing this. Once again, if you particularly liked this or think I left someone out. Don’t hesitate to comment and let me know.