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Cardinals news and notes: Holliday and the D-Backs

The Cardinals did not win all of their games this weekend, but they also did not lose all of their games this weekend. Read ahead for further Cardinals-related intrigue.

By John J. Fleming
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Starting tonight, the St. Louis Cardinals will play the Chicago Cubs in a three-game baseball series. The Cubs, the best team in baseball by record, run differential, and general acclimation, took two of three games at Busch Stadium in April. Only time will tell how the next tilt goes, but because reminiscing about previous domination of the Cubs is fun and good, here is a list of the Cardinals players who produced the most Runs Created in a season against the Chicago Cubs.

  1. Red Schoendienst, 1953: 37.2
  2. Rogers Hornsby, 1925: 34.3
  3. Rogers Hornsby, 1921: 29.8
  4. Stan Musial, 1949: 29.8
  5. Rogers Hornsby, 1920: 29.2

These players have a distinct advantage over modern Cardinals in that each of these seasons occurred when there was a balanced schedule among the eight National League teams. The Cardinals and the Cubs squared off 22 times per season, far more than today, and in four of these seasons, the player played in all 22 games.

Here are the top five Cardinals seasons against Cubs by Runs Created since 1994, when the NL Central came into existence.

  1. Albert Pujols, 2011: 22.9
  2. Albert Pujols, 2001: 22.3
  3. Jim Edmonds, 2001: 20.9
  4. Yadier Molina, 2013: 20.0
  5. Mark McGwire, 1998: 18.5
This list should not exactly shock people. Perhaps that these are the two Albert Pujols seasons, and perhaps that a catcher is on the list (granted, it's Yadier Molina), but that's about it. Here are the current team leaders through three entire games against the Cubs in 2016.
  1. Yadier Molina: 4.8
  2. Matt Adams: 1.7
  3. Kolten Wong: 1.7
  4. Matt Adams: 1.5
  5. Aledmys Diaz: 1.2

Yadier Molina, by far the most productive hitter against the Cubs this season, is on pace to crack the modern leaderboard, though this would mean to expect a truly Herculean effort throughout the season. Is it possible? Certainly. Is it likely? Statistically, it's not the most likely outcome, no. Should the Cardinals count on it? No. Everybody should just hit a bunch of home runs, whether they are Yadier Molina or not. This would be greatly beneficial in the team's quest to win. John 4 Manager.

Here's what happened at VEB over the weekend.

Matt Holliday

Ben Markham wrote about Matt Holliday so far in 2016. Although I was disappointed by the lack of Holliday-to-first related hot takes, it is an interesting read about Holliday's plate approach this season.

The Diamondbacks series

Craig assured us on Friday that the Cardinals should destroy the Diamondbacks. To some degree he was correct on Saturday, as the Cardinals defeated Arizona 6-2, which IHeartBoog recapped. Unfortunately, Sunday's rubber game brought a 7-2 defeat, as recalled by WyoCardsFan.

Lackey vs. Wainwright tonight. Another round of booing Jason Heyward thinkpieces and possibly some more completely made up stories to come!

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