FanPost

Matt Carpenter for MVP?

The St. Louis Cardinals are again tearing up MLB, which comes as no surprise to anyone. Going into the year, the prevalent thought was the two sure things in the National League were the Washington Nationals and the Cardinals.

With a month into the season, neither of the two teams have performed at their expectation level. The Nationals have woefully underperformed with a 13-15 record, fourth place in the NL East, while the Cardinals have wildly surpassed any expectations, 20-6 overall, 6.5 games ahead of the Cubs, yes the Cubs. The lead is the largest in any division, a half game more than the Astros have on the LA Angels in the AL West.

What is the biggest reason for the Cardinals’ starting surge? Well of course that is the pitching. The Cardinals 2.46 team ERA is a half run better than the next closest team, the Pittsburgh Pirates at 2.46.

However as Roger Clemens in can attest to during his time with the Houston Astros, having 13-8 record in 2005 despite having a league best 1.87 ERA (PED talk aside), a great pitching staff is only good if the team is at least giving adequate run support.

This year the run support for the Cardinals has come front the bat of Matt Carpenter who leads the team in average (.346) and slugging percentage (.644). His slugging percentage is good for fifth in the majors, ahead of sluggers such as Paul Goldschimidt, Nolen Arenado and Hanley Ramirez.

Carpenter has 14 doubles, most in the majors this year, and his 20 extra base hits in the team’s first 26 games have made him the first player in franchise history to do so. He has 20 RBI and scored 23 runs, second most in the league. Last weekend it was a non-extra base hit, a game winning sacrifice fly in the 11th inning to give St. Louis a 2-1 win and keep their current eight-game win streak alive.

He is unarguably the Cardinals’ most important player in terms of run production. One can then logically figure that the top run producer on the top team in baseball should surely be in the discussion for NL MVP.