St. Louis Cardinals: Looking back at our 2021 bold predictions

Four Cardinals will hit 30 home runs

This was a very bold prediction, as the last trio of teammates on the Cardinals to hit 30 home runs was Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, and Albert Pujols back in 2004. With this in mind, read what we wrote back in March:

"We all know Goldy and Arenado have 30 homer potential, as they’ve both hit the mark multiple times in their careers. Shortstop Paul DeJong hit 30 in 2019, and Tyler O’Neill has that power potential as well. If both players can stay healthy and consistently stay in the lineup on a day to day basis, they could easily hit the 30 homer mark."

Three out of four is pretty phenomenal. In large part, this came true because the O’Neill breakout is real. He looks comfortable batting third, and when you can stack three 30 home run guys back-to-back-to-back, it makes for a very deep lineup.

DeJong didn’t get there, but I’ll call this a success anyway. In fact, he is comfortably in fourth on the Cardinals with 19 home runs. And in other home run news, Arenado needs two more to tie Matt Carpenter’s 2018 campaign for the most on the Cardinals in one season (34) since Albert hit 37 in 2011.

The Cardinals have hit 192 home runs this season, which is the exact league average. The finished with 210 and were well below league average in 2019.

In case you were wondering, eight Cardinals hit 10 or more home runs this year. Sixteen Cardinals hit at least one. Do you know who they are? We’ll give you the answer to this trivia question at the end. But in the meantime, well done on the prediction Taylor!

Prediction Score: 14 out of 17 wins in a row