The St. Louis Cardinals all-time best starting lineup based on WAR

Putting together an all-time starting lineup with a franchise as rich in history as the St. Louis Cardinals isn't always easy. Though it can be fun. The banter of back and forths about which one of the steller third-baseman you want to start over the other, Ken Boyer or Scott Rolen. There's the debate of Ted Simmons vs Yadi. How do you narrow down a gluttonous outfield to three?
Obviously, you can debate and argue about who you would want to start in an all-time lineup based on peak seasons, and fan favorites, but what if we used WAR?

Ask Edwin Starr in 1969 what WAR is good for and he might will tell you "absolutely nothing". Fast forward to 2010 and Sean Smith had come up with a formula to calculate how many wins above a replacement level player one player had over the other, WAR. It is now commonly used today in sports to quantify how valuable a player is. Using Baseball-references WAR formula, and candidly statistical information on players as well, we here at RedbirdRants came up with the all-time starting lineup for the Birds on the Bats.

A few quick disclaimers though before we dive in. I will only be talking about games the players listed played in their career in a Cardinals uniform. Some may have gone off to play for other teams but those stats have been omitted or separated off. This lineup will include a DH (designated hitter) since the NL (National League) now has the DH implemented. That will be based on who has the highest WAR overall among the players not listed in the starting lineup. Also, I will be positioning players defensively based on where they spent most of their games played, or what makes the most sense with the players in the starting lineup. There may be a few surprises or omissions, but that's the fun part.

Here is the Cardinals all-time best starting lineup based on WAR

So without further ado, we start behind the plate where a lion leads the pack.