St. Louis Cardinals' top performers according to Baseball Savant

The baseball world has largely been divided in an analytical way. Some fans prefer more traditional statistics like earned run average, batting average, strikeouts, and home runs. Other fans enjoy analyzing expected statistics, pitch movements, and barrel percentages. Whatever your preference, baseball is able to cater to any fan.

Baseball Savant has a page that details the top performers for over 50 different statistical categories. Some of these categories are more traditional like average fastball velocity and average sprint speeds. Other more advanced categories include catcher pop time, swords by a pitcher, and something called "bolts", whatever that means.

I find it enjoyable to view this page at the end of the year to see which players were the best in very specific and broad metrics. This year, the St. Louis Cardinals have several players represented on these leaderboards.

Fielding - Arm Strength - Infield

Masyn Winn had the third-strongest arm with an average throwing speed of 92.7 MPH. Oneil Cruz finished first with an average throwing speed of 95.6 MPH.

Running - 90ft Splits

Victor Scott II had the third-fastest 90-foot split when running from home to first with an average pace of 3.74 second, just 0.02 seconds behind league leader Elly De La Cruz.

Pitching Launch Angle Sweet-Spot %

This statistic measures how often a pitcher's pitches are launched off the bat between 8 and 32 degrees. Andre Pallante had the 5th-best launch angle sweet spot amongst pitchers with a rate of 24.4%. This is a testament to his tendency to induce groundballs. Kirby Yates led the league with a rate of 16.5%.

Pitching - Pitch Tempo - Bases Empty

Steven Matz was the fifth-fastest pitcher in baseball when the bases were empty with a tempo of 12.2 seconds between pitches. Brent Suter was the quickest pitcher, as he threw a pitch every 11.1 seconds. This is a dramatic shift for Matz, who was once one of the slowest pitchers in baseball as recently as 2021.

Sinker Active Spin

Steven Matz's sinker was tied for first in the league in active spin among all pitchers. At 99.6%, Matz's sinker utilized almost all of its spin. The spin on his sinker caused it to move more significantly than other pitchers' sinkers.

Slider Active Spin

Lance Lynn had the fifth-best active spin rate on his slider at 63.2%. Ryan Thompson, meanwhile, had the best active spin rate of 74.6%. Lynn used the spin on his slider to increase its movement quite well.

Curveball Vertical Movement vs. Average

Matthew Liberatore's curveball moved 7.5 inches more than the average curveball in baseball vertically last year. He was only one inch behind Joey Cantillo's curve (8.4 inches). Libby reinvented himself this year as a reliever, and his curveball was imperative in his success.

Sweeper Vertical Movement vs Average

Sonny Gray has one of the best sweepers in baseball, and it's partially dependent on the pitch's vertical movement. His sweeper dropped 7.3 inches more than the average sweeper, good for second in baseball behind Max Fried's 8.8 inches of break.

Pitching - Swords

A "sword", according to Rob "Pitching Ninja" Friedman, is "when a pitcher fools a hitter so badly that he forces a non-competitive swing, one where a batter either regrets his choice or can’t stop himself from taking a hack that looks so ugly it ends up going viral on social media." Sonny Gray had the third-most swords in baseball this year with 35. Corbin Burnes led the league with 52 swords.