5 Cardinals Players With the Best Chances to Make the All-Star Game

Nolan Arenado, 3B

This is Nolan Arenado’s second season putting on the Cardinals uniform and I still can’t get enough of it. Never thinking the day would come, seeing it for 150-162 games a season is very, very, very exciting. What’s even more exciting is seeing him represent the Cardinals at the All-Star game and hopefully holding up the World Series trophy at the end of the year.

The Case For Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado seems to be improving which is a good sign. Since last season, in which he finished with a .255 BAA, 7.7 BB%, and a 14.7 K%, he has seemed to improve pretty much every statistical category except WAR which I’ll be too in a minute.

Last season, Arenado slashed .255/.312/.494 with 34 home runs, and 105 RBI in only 157 games. This season he is slashing .271/.342/.476 with 11 home runs, 41 RBI in only 61 games played.

He is improving in just about every statistic which probably represents his health. When players have down years, it generally is due to injury and trying to play through the pain. However, when it comes to a player like Arenado, it makes it difficult.

Last season he had a hard time driving the ball because of the fatigue in his shoulder. This season, we’ve still seen that he isn’t 100%, but he is doing a better job at getting the bat on the ball and finding away around that.

The Case Against Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado has had an up-and-down year this season. Which, it pains me to say, is very similar to last season which I considered a slight dissapointment. That may just be me, but I feel as though he was not the player I thought we were getting last year. This year, he is closer but not quite the player he was in Colorado.