St. Louis Cardinals: 2017 Season Review and Offseason Preview

Balance

Even though the Cardinals never found that additional bat to aid the steadiness of its lineup, they did have a great amount of balance within their home run hitting. Take a look at their lineup and production across the board among their main contributors:

• Paul DeJong: 25 HR
• Matt Carpenter: 23 HR
• Tommy Pham: 23 HR
• Randal Grichuk: 22 HR
• Jedd Gyorko: 20 HR
• Yadier Molina: 18 HR
• Dexter Fowler: 18 HR (Career-high)
• Jose Martinez: 14 HR

AAA Memphis

Speaking of balance, the St. Louis Cardinals farm system proved to be one of the best in baseball overall, and by far in AAA, with an outstanding season. Single-A Palm Beach won the league, while AA Springfield had one of their best overall regular seasons in its franchise history, barely missing the playoffs, while the AAA Memphis Redbirds had a historic year, winning the Pacific Coast League championship and finishing as national AAA runner-ups.

These players spent a good portion of time in both Memphis and St. Louis, with the former somehow still wining it all with their main studs taking that journey on I-44 north to St. Louis for the playoff run in Memphis:

• Paul DeJong
• Tommy Pham
• Jose Martinez 
• Luke Weaver: Found his way into the starting rotation permanently when Adam Wainwright went down with a back injury and was flat-out dominant. If it wasn’t for two fluke outings to close the season, the right-handed flamethrower would have had an ERA below 2.00, to go with a high count of strikeouts. Nevertheless,  Weaver finished with a remarkable 7-2 record, 3.88 ERA, 72 SO, and only 17 walks
• Luke Voit: The St. Louis native played in some meaningful games in the middle of the season, getting much respect from the local fans. His defense at first base is very good, with the power and bat speed to stay at the Major League level, if given the chance to play every day.
• Harrison Bader: They say speed kills and the shifty outfielder proved that while showing off his power as well. Given maybe one more season in Memphis, Bader could find his way into the everyday lineup in St. Louis.

Ratings and attendance 

The St. Louis Cardinals finished in the top 5 in Major League Baseball attendance, with their mothership station Fox Sports Midwest finishing in the top three among all MLB teams in local TV ratings. Known as the “best fans in baseball” the Arch City faithful came out in full force once again to support their beloved Cardinals.

Yadier Molina

YADI! YADI! YADI! Last and certainly not least is Yadier Molina. The (almost) certain Hall of Fame catcher had another consistent year, making the All-Star team for the 8th time. Once again, the Puerto Rican born player was the glue that held the team together. He was so dedicated to the team’s cause that he and manager Mike Matheny got into a heated argument during the dog days of summer about his playing time since the catcher refused to take many days off.  Once Molina went down with a concussion the final week of the season, that was the stake within the heart of the St. Louis Cardinals 2017 season. Speaking of which, what lead the Cardinals final collapse in the final few weeks of the season and inconsistent play? I’m glad that you asked!