Lance Berkman is now hitting .293/.356/.634, and the impressive thing about that is that he doesn't even appear to know that home runs can be hit—pulled, if you will—to right field. Being a switch-hitter as well as a paragon of opposite-fieldness, he is uniquely equipped to play out a baseball version of the scene in The Princess Bride where Inigo Montoya and Westley reveal that they are not left-handed. Giddy ESPN projections: 54 home runs, 149 RBI.
Albert Pujols is no longer having the worst start of his career so clearly. This morning he's hitting .229/.296/.313; through 12 games in 2007 he was hitting .170/.264/.404. If you're inclined to look sideways at the 25 defensive runs he's credited with by TZ that year, 2007 was clearly his worst season; he contributed 5.8 wins on offense.
Colby Rasmus is hitting .375/.464/.583.
The Cardinals also have Matt Holliday.
This team is flawed, and we saw those flaws on display almost constantly through the first week and a half of the baseball season. But this team is also talented, and while we're right not to trust 15 run outbursts as useful samples of a team's actual talents we'd be foolish to give shutouts and near-shutouts considerably more weight.