I’m not going to discuss his PED suspension and how it possibly affected his performance in 2013 because I have not seen any evidence showing PEDs improve a player’s performance. The biggest stat that stood out was his career highs in batting average (.303) and BABIP (.374). A lot of the BABIP came from his performance against left handed pitching. From 2008-2012 he had a slash line of .235/.318/.412 against lefties, but last year it was .352/.404/.560. Therefore, I expect the reverse platoon split to regress, which should give him a batting average in the .250-.260 range.
Prior to 2013, his suspension year, he has averaged 150 games played the past five seasons and appears to be safe to do so again. Since it’s very likely he’ll play 150-plus games he should be able to hit 11-15 home runs with room for more. He’s will most likely bat in the bottom third of the Cardinals lineup when everyone is healthy so his run and RBI totals will be suppressed. However, he is still going to play in one of the best offenses so I expect the RBI totals in the low 70s and run totals the mid-50s.
I’m not going to discuss his PED suspension and how it possibly affected his performance in 2013 because I have not seen any evidence showing PEDs improve a player’s performance. The biggest stat that stood out was his career highs in batting average (.303) and BABIP (.374). A lot of the BABIP came from his performance against left handed pitching. From 2008-2012 he had a slash line of .235/.318/.412 against lefties, but last year it was .352/.404/.560. Therefore, I expect the reverse platoon split to regress, which should give him a batting average in the .250-.260 range.
Prior to 2013, his suspension year, he has averaged 150 games played the past five seasons and appears to be safe to do so again. Since it’s very likely he’ll play 150-plus games he should be able to hit 11-15 home runs with room for more. He’s will most likely bat in the bottom third of the Cardinals lineup when everyone is healthy so his run and RBI totals will be suppressed. However, he is still going to play in one of the best offenses so I expect the RBI totals in the low 70s and run totals the mid-50s.
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