Carlos Beltran: Key to St. Louis Cardinals’ 2012 Success

It seems everyone is talking about the hot start of Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers‘ offense, and rightfully so I might add because they are leading in almost every offensive category in the MLB. I just feel like you’ve got to start talking about the line up of the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals and what they’ve accomplished thus far.

The Cardinals’ offense has been on a tear since opening day. They’ve got the best run differential in baseball. Before getting swept at home against the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis was pretty much right behind Texas in every offensive category. Even with Lance Berkman in the lineup who only had 27 at-bats before the weekend series; the Cards had the most runs scored in the NL before Atlanta came to town.

The Key: The addition of Carlos Beltran of course. He leads the Red Birds in home runs, RBI, runs scored, and OPS. Actually, he leads the NL in homers and RBI since Matt Kemp has cooled off.

It’s not just Beltran who deserves the credit — St. Louis is 1st overall in on base percentage and credit that to guys like Jon Jay and Rafael Furcal who have consistently got on base and set the table for guys in the middle of the order like Holiday, Beltran, and Freese.

Yadier Molina, who’s coming off his best offensive season in the bigs, leads the team in doubles. I can’t think of any other catcher i would rather have on my team.

Now Allen Craig and Lance Berkman have returned back to lineup to add some punch and improve the depth.

The Cardinals early on have shown themselves to be the class of the NL thus far, especially with a rotation that’s second to only the Nationals in ERA. This is a team with depth in the line up and on the mound, and I think they’ll run away with the NL Central when it’s all said and done, and we’ve seen what the Cards are capeable of in October.