It's a fresh season in St. Louis, and once again, Matt Carpenter is off to a slow start. All this does is cue the nonsense around Cardinal Nation that he has lost it, will never be good again, or simply isn't worthy of the leadoff spot. You know who you are.
It's a shame those people forget that Carpenter hasn't finished with an OPS below .800 in seven of the past eight seasons he's been a big league player. It's a critical miss that these skeptical fans forget Carpenter got off to a terrible start last year, and went on a terror that had him in the Most Valuable Player discussion into early September.
Just look at the past few seasons. Carpenter ends up hitting around .260, getting on base 38% of the time, and slugging the baseball over 50% of the time. He bashed 36 home runs last season, with the majority of those coming in between June and September. He ends up cracking 41 doubles, 157 hits, and scoring around 103 runs. Those are his 162 game averages pulled from Baseball Reference.
It'd be one thing if Carpenter was madly up and down in his career, splashing away at gutters and trying to toss Hail Mary bombs to salvage a season every other year. That is not the case. He is one of the most consistent players in the National League, and more often than not finishes with quality stats.
For the people who thought last season's turnaround was built on a one month fluke, let me encourage you towards the other direction with some OPS (combination of on-base percentage and slugging percentage) by month.
April: .579
May: .961
June: 1.040
July: 1.222
August: .984
September: .558
While Carpenter came crashing back to Earth in the final month, as did the rest of the team, he played at a high level for most of the season. It's a similar trend every year. He may have a couple rough months, but for the majority, he comes out swinging and producing.
For the record, April is Carpenter's worst month, OPS wise, for his career. Every other month, he has produced an OPS of .800 or better in his career, with the best months coming in June and July.
All this reminds me to stay calm when Carpenter is swinging the baseball bat like a pitching wedge at home plate in the early weeks of the season. When he's fooled by sliders constantly or watching strikes go by and looking at the umpires, just remember he's going to go off on pitchers eventually. There are numbers to back up these claims, even the ones that don't make your head hurt.
Today, Carpenter collected two hits and his first extra base hit in two weeks against the Chicago Cubs. He did get thrown out at home plate, but then again, no one's perfect, and you can't stop this guy from making a fool of himself on the base-paths at times. In the end, however, he is going to come around.
He's not the only Cardinal struggling. Paul Goldschmidt, the guy brought in to save the day, is 3-29 in his last seven games with a lot of strikeouts. There are more than a few Cardinals trying to stay above water. April and May is for ironing out the kinks that March couldn't handle, but with a seasoned professional like Carpenter, they are straightened out sooner than later.
Worry about other things, like Michael Wacha throwing the worst pitch since the 2014 playoffs to a backup catcher on Saturday to lose the game. Keep your eye on the extended rehab of Carlos Martinez, a guy who was once upon a time meant for the top of the rotation, but now finds himself in an undefined bullpen role. Worry about Dexter Fowler making little league mistakes in the outfield. Sit back and decide if Tyler O'Neill will finish the season as a Cardinal.
Don't worry about Matt Carpenter. If you start to, go to Baseball Reference, MLB.com, or Fangraphs to check on the statistics that should remind you that he will be fine. Every year, he has two months that are forgettable, two months that are favorable, and two months that scream for the history books. He's going to be alright.
Worrying about the St. Louis Blues' chances on Sunday and whether or not fruit belongs on a pizza deserve more attention than Matt Carpenter's struggles.
Thanks for reading and be safe out there tonight.
