The Cardinals are not a powerful team. This is not news to you.
As of Monday’s games:
- 41 team home runs (26th in MLB)
- .390 slugging (16th in MLB)
- 158 extra base hits (16th in MLB)
- 781 fly balls (21st in MLB)
It’s hard to bitch about anything when a team is 38-19 (on pace for 108 wins) and is leading their division by 6.5 games in the second week of June.
But if there’s anything to keep an eye on for the Cardinals, it’s how they produce some power. They’ll scrap out way more wins (Friday and Sunday’s games for example) by being opportunist rather than bringing Thor’s Hammer to the yard and smashing every pitch they see.
And that’s OK.
It’s working.
But there has to be a power bat somewhere out there that the Cardinals are sniffing around on. Has to be.
Until then, we’re just going to have to occupy ourselves with other trivial pursuits. Like wondering how many home runs that Yadier Molina will hit in 2015. Not a knock on the guy. He’s the best game caller in MLB and is a big reason for the pitching success of the Cardinals.
Wouldn’t rather have any other catcher in baseball.
But 35%+ of the games have been played and he’s yet to connect on a single round-tripper. Here’s some career perspective:
- 2011: 14 HRs
- 2012: 22 HRs
- 2013: 12 HRs
- 2014: 7 HRs
- Career Low (6 HRs): 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010
He’s had 205 plate appearances and 187 official ABs in 2015. Prior to the season, we were a bit worried that the new, trim Molina was going to struggle a bit with the power stroke. And while the RBIs (20) and XBH (9) are respectable – the fear of Molina going deep has vanished into the ether.
So I ask you…
How many home runs will Molina finish the 2015 regular season with?
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Photo: CBS Local
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