2014 St. Louis Cardinals Preview – Third Base

Note: this is an ongoing series previewing the Cardinals. You can find catchers here, first base here, and second base here.

Well, the hometown hero is gone.

After putting on a post-season performance that’ll be remembered in St. Louis likely for the rest of its existence, David Freese had a terrific 2012 season, posting a .839 OPS and earning his first All-Star spot. He struggled heavily in 2013, though, posting an OPS+ barely above the league average, and he was downright abysmal in the post-season, recording more strikeouts (16) than hits (10). As a result, Cardinal management decided to give him a change of scenery, packaging him and Fernando Salas and shipping them to Anaheim for Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk.

13 Matt Carpenter

2013 stats – .318/.392/.481, 11 HR, 78 RBI, 3 SB, 6.6 WAR, All-Star, Silver Slugger, 4th in MVP voting

Now that Freese is gone, the man expected to take the starting job spent the bulk of the 2013 season at second base. In his second full year with the Cardinals, Carpenter established himself as a legitimate lead-off hitter, posting a .392 on-base percentage. Making the transition from second to third won’t be nearly as difficult as the move to second was, as Matt played his college career at third as well as the bulk of his minor league career (he has also started 50 games in the majors there).

Assuming he stays healthy, Carpenter should get the bulk of the starts at third. While he does hit better against righties (.329/.410/.487), his slash against lefties is more than respectable (.294/.353/.467).

Need some proof as to what Carpenter can do against lefties? Just remember what he did against the best pitcher in baseball this past October: