St. Louis Cardinals: Four unknown stats that lead directly to wins

NUMBER TWO: Rookie goes home

Here’s something that may surprise you: despite starting the season in the minors, Brendan Donovan is fifth on the team this year in games played (123). While we all know how versatile Donovan has become, he’s also been quite durable.

The stat I want to focus on, however, is not about how often Donovan takes the field. Rather, take a look at what happens when Donovan scores a run.

Brendan Donovan has scored in 49 games (of 123 games played). In those games, the St. Louis Cardinals are:

38-11 when Donovan scores

30-44 when Donovan plays and does not score

Twenty seven games over .500 as opposed to fourteen games under– that’s an incredible swing! Whether he leads off the Cardinal lineup or bats down in the order, as Donovan goes, so does the Cardinal offense.

Of course, the key to this stat is Donovan reaching base. Luckily he is quite good at that, posting an OBP of .394. This leads qualified rookies throughout baseball, and although he might fall short of qualifying for the official leaderboard by about forty plate appearances, Donovan’s OBP would rank fourth in the entire National League.

The numbers go even further– in games where Donovan has at least three plate appearances but fails to get on base, the Cardinals are 5-9. An astounding statistics, this means Donovan has reached base 90 of the 104 games where he has at least three plate appearances. Whether it’s a hit, walk, or hit by pitch, this guy just gets it done.

The second part of Donovan scoring, however, falls on his teammates. Eight players have driven home Brendan Donovan this year, with Paul Goldschmidt leading the way at 13 Donovans Batted In.

The impact of Brendan Donovan, an unheralded 7th round pick, is truly remarkable. Chances are high that Donovan will reach base this postseason– if he comes around to score, the odds of a Cardinal victory go way up.