How do the St. Louis Cardinals hitters compare?

The St. Louis Cardinals have an impressive lineup. It is deep. It features pop. And perhaps most importantly of all, it has patience in spades.

The Cardinals bats had a robust April. But its production has fallen off with the calendar turning to May. The lineup has not bailed out bad Cardinals pitching nearly as often in the season’s second month.

Yesterday, we took a look at how the Cardinals’ starters compared to National League starters as a whole in order to give us perspective. Mostly that exercise showed just how bad the St. Louis rotation has pitched in 2019.

Today, we’re going to do a similar exercise for the batters. Instead of comparing the Cardinals hitters just to the National League, we are going to compare them to all MLB non-pitchers. The following chart compares the individual Cardinals regulars (which includes four outfielders), the St. Louis non-pitcher hitting combined, and the stats for MLB non-pitchers.

Batting Stats Through May 20, 2019

K%	BB%	BABIP	BA	OBP	SLG	ISO	wOBA
7.7 Molina	15.6 Fowler	.385 Martinez	.320 DeJong	.408 DeJong	.562 DeJong	.279 Ozuna	.409 DeJong
12.4 Wong	13.9 Carpenter	.358 DeJong	.319 Martinez	.401 Fowler	.512 Ozuna	.242 DeJong	.359 Fowler
16.5 DeJong	12.9 Goldschmidt	.353 Fowler	.273 Fowler	.382 Bader	.447 Bader	.188 Bader	.353 Bader
19.5 Martinez	12.6 Bader	.346 Bader	.267 Molina	.370 Martinez	.442 Goldschmidt	.188 Goldschmidt	.350 Martinez
20.4 STL NP	12.4 Wong	.316 Goldschmidt	.264 STL NP	.354 Goldschmidt	.440 Martinez	.178 MLB NP	.345 Ozuna
21.8 Ozuna	12.1 DeJong	.307 STL NP	.259 Bader	.354 Wong	.435 STL NP	.171 STL NP	.344 Goldschmidt
22.4 Fowler	10.5 STL NP	.292 MLB NP	.254 Goldschmidt	.348 STL NP	.426 MLB NP	.154 Wong	.337 STL NP
22.4 Carpenter	10.4 Ozuna	.269 Molina	.249 MLB NP	.323 MLB NP	.413 Molina	.146 Carpenter	.323 Wong
22.5 MLB NP	9.1 MLB NP	.250 Wong	.242 Wong	.318 Carpenter	.405 Fowler	.145 Molina	.321 MLB NP
27.3 Goldschmidt	7.1 Martinez	.246 Carpenter	.233 Ozuna	.316 Ozuna	.396 Wong	.132 Fowler	.300 Molina
28.2 Bader	3.3 Molina	.231 Ozuna	.205 Carpenter	.293 Molina	.351 Carpenter	.121 Martinez	Carpenter .291

A few observations:

1)  This lineup is really good. The Cardinals non-pitchers as a whole are better (often comfortably so) than MLB non-pitchers as a whole.

2)  The Cardinals are lacking in power. The only stat in which the Cards are worse than average is in the Isolated Power (ISO) column. ISO is Slugging Percentage (SLG) minus singles. It isolates extra-base hits, hence its name. While the Cards have significant pop in Ozuna and DeJong, Goldschmidt and Carpenter have not brought the thunder as one might fairly expect, so the club’s power numbers have sagged.

3)  The Cards’ plate approach is great.

The club is striking out at a below-average rate. In fact, every Cardinal but Goldschmidt and Bader have struck out less often than MLB non-pitchers as a whole. But Goldschmidt and Bader are two of four Cards providing above-average power, so it’s not that big of a deal.

The club is walking at a very healthy clip. Only two Cards are walking less often than MLB non-pitchers overall. Six Cardinals have a walk rate (BB%) over 12%, which is awesome. That’s why the club’s OBP is 25 points better than MLB non-pitchers. This selective is a good way to maximize the number of ducks the club has on the pond (even if the timely hits prove elusive, as they have in recent weeks).

4)  Paul DeJong is emerging as an MVP candidate. Combine his fielding with his elite hitting at shortstop and DeJong is putting together a season that is similar in its makeup to MV3-vintage Jim Edmonds with power, OBP, and great D at a prime defensive position up the middle.

5)  Matt Carpenter has been quite bad. About the only thing he is doing well right now is drawing walks. Getting Carpenter the most plate appearances of anyone on the team is looking more and more like a flawed approach by manager Mike Shildt, especially with all of the walk-drawing, high-OBP bats to choose from on the club.

6)  Harrison Bader is having a really good season. He has hit as well as Jose Martinez. I love watching a high-BA hitter as much as the next fan, but how much longer can Shildt stick with Martinez in the lineup over Bader when both are providing about the same value with the bat, but Bader is the best defender in the game?