St. Louis Cardinals: Redbird Roundup Week 1

This is the first edition of the Redbird Roundup: a weekly notebook, check-in, and your one-stop shop for important transactions, movement in standings, player trends, and more.

Opening Week Game Results (2-1 in the week) (2-1 overall)

• Wednesday March 30th: Toronto Blue Jays 10 - St. Louis Cardinals 9
• Saturday April 1st: Toronto Blue Jays 1 - St. Louis Cardinals 4
• Sunday April 2nd: Toronto Blue Jays 4 - St. Louis Cardinals 9

Opening Week MVP: Nolan Gorman

The 22-year-old kicked off the 2023 season by doing some serious damage with the bat. Slotted as the DH in each of the first three games, Gorman slashed .444/.615/1.726 with 2 HRs, 6 RBIs, and 4 BBs. Obviously this small sample size must be taken with a grain of salt. But if Gorman can continue to hit for power while keeping his strikeout percentage at a reasonable clip it could take this already potent Cardinals offense to new levels.

NL Central Standings

T1. Reds (2-1)

T1. Brewers (2-1)

T1. Cardinals (2-1)

T3. Pirates (1-2)

T3. Brewers (1-2)

Injuries and Transactions

10-day / 15-day IL: RHP Adam Wainwright, INF Paul DeJong, RHP Wilking Rodriguez, C Tres Barrera, and INF Jose Fermin

Trades: LHP Anthony Misiewicz to the Arizona Diamondbacks for cash considerations

Division, Pennant, and World Series Odds (via FanDuel Sportsbook)

To win NL Central: -130 ($100 wager wins $76.92)

To win NL Pennant: +1000 ($100 wager wins $1,000)

To win World Series: +2000 ($100 wager wins $2,000)

Prospect Watch

Matthew Liberatore (AAA Memphis): The Cardinals 4th ranked prospect by MLB.com notched a win in his first outing for the 2023 season. Liberatore struck out 7 batters over 5 innings pitched allowing zero earned runs.

Luken Baker (AAA Memphis): The First Basemen is not included in the Cardinals' Top 30 Organizational Prospect list but started his 2023 campaign strong. Baker tallied 6 hits in 12 at-bats with 2 HRs and 6 RBIs.

Statistic Explanation: wRC+

You may notice myself and other contributors at Redbird Rants using sabermetrics in our articles. This section will attempt to translate complicated sabermetric acronyms into plain English.

First up is wRC+ (Weighted Runs Created Plus). This metric gives an easy to understand value for run creation with some important factors controlled for. A wRC+ of 75 is 25% below league average, a wRC+ of 100 is exactly league average, and a wRC+ of 125 is 25% above league average.

The formula for wRC+ is fairly complex: (((wRAA per PA + league runs per PA) + (league runs per PA - ballpark factor x league runs per PA) / league wRC per plate appearance, not including pitchers)) x 100.

As seen in the formula above, external factors such as "ballpark factor" and "league runs" are taken into account so that players can be compared more equitably. For example, two players with equivalent production (hits, home runs, etc...) will have different a wRC+ if one player's home stadium is a hitter-friendly park such as Great American Ballpark and the other is on the Cardinals playing in the more pitcher-friendly Busch Stadium.

To visualize wRC+ as an all-encompassing measure of player value, check out the MLB leaders from the 2022 season:

1. Aaron Judge (207 wRC+) - American League MVP

2. Yordan Alvarez (185 wRC+) - 3rd Place in American League MVP Voting

3. Paul Goldschmidt (177 wRC+) - National League MVP

4. Jose Altuve (164 wRC+) - 5th Place in American League MVP Voting

5. Freddie Freeman (157 wRC+) - 4th Place in National League MVP Voting

If you have ideas for items that you would like to be included in the weekly Redbird Roundup do not hesitate to reach out! Leave a comment or DM @HenryFitz16 on Twitter - any and all feedback is welcome.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.