6 encouraging statistics from the Cardinals so far this year

Stat #1 - 114 wRC+

Even with the rocky start to the season, the Cardinals offense has posted a 114 wRC+ on the season, good for third best in all of baseball behind the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers.

wRC+ (weight runs created plus) measures the stat runs created and adjusts for the ballparks that teams are playing in. The league average is wRC+ is 100, so 114 wRC+ means that as a team, the Cardinals are 14% above the league average offensively. The offensive depth that the Cardinals have gives them an edge in almost every matchup that they go into.

If you look at the Cardinals' offense since they began their winning baseball on May 7th, they lead the league with a 129 wRC+. For context, players like Max Muncy, Adolis Garcia, Anthony Santander, Brandon Nimmo, and Adley Rutschman all have between a 130 and 128 wRC+ on the season. The Cardinals' offense is playing like a borderline All-Star level hitter as an entire lineup since May 7th.

Having three All-Star pedigree bats like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Willson Contreras helps lead the way for a club to have a lineup like this, but you need a depth of options to truly be this dangerous of a lineup. On any given night, the likes of Paul DeJong, Lars Nootbaar, Alec Burleson, Tommy Edman, Brendan Donovan, Oscar Mercado, and Juan Yepez can all have a major impact on the game. But there is another name that has really risen to the top this year that has truly taken this lineup to the next level (see the next slide).