MLB insider's hilariously bad take on Cardinals' Lars Nootbaar discounts hot start

Lars Nootbaar's presence at the top of the lineup for the St. Louis Cardinals this year has been a steadying force for an otherwise turbulent team. Where the club's leadoff hitter goes, so goes the rest of the team.

Nootbaar has reached base in 24 of the club's 28 games, and his 1.0 fWAR total makes him the 24th-best player according to that metric prior to games on Monday. The Cardinals' left fielder currently has career highs in batting average, on-base percentage, OPS, and OPS+. He has been one of the club's best players throughout the year, and he is cementing himself as a player to watch across the league.

However, not all people believe in Lars Nootbaar.

Jim Bowden of The Athletic believes that Nootbaar's hot start to the year has actually been "dismal".

Jim Bowden is a former general manager, and he's been a Senior Writer for The Athletic for several years now. One of Bowden's latest pieces was centered around reasons to be optimistic and reasons to be pessimistic for each team in Major League Baseball. Bowden's analysis of the Cardinals, particularly Lars Nootbaar, is lacking depth and accuracy.

"The members of the Cardinals’ young future core are off to slow starts," writes Bowden. "That doesn't bode well for their long-term future," he continues.

Bowden hones in on outfielder/designated hitter Alec Burleson and his lack of power, Masyn Winn and Jordan Walker's below-average batting averages, and Lars Nootbaar's apparently "dismal" batting average of .239 — the article was initially published on Friday, April 25th, and updated on Sunday, April 27th.

At the time of writing, Lars Nootbaar was indeed batting .239 (Wednesday, April 23rd). League average for this figure is .240, though, so Nootbaar was a league average hitter according to one single statistic. However, his on-base percentage of .381 was still tied for 28th best in the league with Bobby Witt Jr. and Alex Bregman. Would Bowden consider their starts to the season "dismal" as well?

Nootbaar's 124 wRC+ on April 23rd was tied for 62nd in the league among qualified hitters. Even upon writing, Lars Nootbaar was a top player in baseball. The fact that Bowden lumped him in with other struggling hitters like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker is journalistic malpractice.

Using only one statistic to evaluate a player's season at any point is unfair to that player. While Nootbaar's batting average wasn't as strong as one may have wanted at the time, his underlying metrics and other stats were among the best in the league.

Since April 23rd, Nootbaar has gone 7-15 with three walks and two doubles. He's raised his batting average from .239 to .271 and his on-base percentage from .381 to .405. A four-game "hot" streak has made him an even better hitter than he already was.

The Cardinals' primary left fielder has also been solid defensively. He ranks in the 77th percentile in Outs Above Average, the 66th percentile in arm value, and the 87th percentile in arm strength according to Baseball Savant. Nootbaar has been an all-around excellent player just 20% of the way through the year.

Jim Bowden missed the mark on his analysis of Lars Nootbaar. Noot has been one of the Cardinals' best and most consistent players this year offensively.