A Mid-Summer Look At The St. Louis Cardinals Offense

The St. Louis Cardinals entered play on Sunday with one of the top offenses in the National League. The club ranked first in the NL in runs scored, first in hits, third in homers, first in batting average (BA), first in on-base percentage (OBP), second in slugging percentage (SLG), and second in on-base plus slugging (OPS). The Cardinals have a well-rounded attack with All-Star caliber production from multiple regulars (even if some of them have been disabled by injury for a fair chunk of the season).

After the jump, we'll have a look at the stats for the Cardinals position players entering play on Sunday.

OPS+ is a stat the adjusts OPS by stadium and compares it to the league average. An OPS+ of 100 is exactly league-average. The further below 100 a player's OPS+ is, the worse it is. The more above 100 a player's OPS+, the better it is. As you can see, the Cardinals are getting a lot of above-average offensive production.

During the offseason, we looked at the Cardinals well-rounded offense through sOPS+, a fun stat on Baseball Reference that shows an OPS split relative to the league's OPS. For this exercise, we're comparing Cardinals catchers to the league average for catchers, Cardinals first baseman against the league average for first baseman, etc. As with OPS+, 100 is average for that position; higher than 100 is better than average and lower is below average.

Whether you call it balance or depth, the Cardinals have it. For the second consecutive season, general manager John Mozeliak has put together a lineup that is formidable from top to bottom. Most impressively, the Cardinals have played almost all of 2012 without the top two first basemen on their 2011 depth chart. Albert Pujols left for Anaheim and Lance Berkman has taken only 49 plate appearances due to injury.

Another difference between 2011 and 2012 is that David Freese has been healthy and excellent at third base. Freese totaled 363 PAs last season and has 318 so far this year. He is also hitting for more power. Despite his average being three points lower, his SLG is 40 points higher.

Most interesting to me is the St. Louis sOPS+ for second base and shortstop. In relationship to their peers at the keystone, the Redbirds' second base hydra has been about as good as Rafael Furcal relative to his peers at shortstop. An upgrade at second base now seems more luxurious given the questions about the rotation moving forward.

In the offseason, we asked if a Pujols-less Cardinals offense could be as good. By and large, it has been. As was the case in 2011, the strength of the lineup is its depth.