St. Louis Cardinals Hitters: 2015 Team Preview

Oct 16, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday (7) singles against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning in game five of the 2014 NLCS playoff at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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The defending NL Central champions have one of the stronger fantasy baseball lineups.  Kolten Wong has 20-20 potential, and he will be a top 100 draft pick this year.  Wong is only 24, and I believe he will be top 10 at the position this season.  In fact, I think he will score far more than 68 runs this year if he hits from the second spot all year for the Cardinals.

Matt Holliday has been Mr. Consistent for the past decade, but he is definitely creeping towards his decline.  Holliday will still be a four-category contributor and another season of 80 runs and RBI’s and 20 homers still seems achievable.  I am starting to tread lightly with Holliday because the leftfielder of the Cardinals is now 35.  Nevertheless, he is still a top 75 fantasy option in 2015.

After the tragic loss of Oscar Taveras in the off-season, the Cardinals went out and traded for Jason Heyward to be their new rightfielder.  Heyward is the best defensive outfielder in the game, but he has been a bit of a fantasy disappointment in the past few seasons.  I think the change of scenery may be good for Jason Heyward, and he will have his best offensive output since 2010.

Fantasy baseball is not built to capture the actual value of a baseball player.  For positional players, we just look at a snapshot of a few elements of their offensive output.  In fact, defense is irrelevant.  I understand how important Yadier Molina is to the St. Louis Cardinals, but he should probably not be on your fantasy team because someone will overrate him for his real life value.  Here is why Yadier Molina is my most overrated catcher in 2015.

Tanner Bell of Smart Fantasy Baseball has created all of the projections seen in this post.  You can read about how he develops his projections here.  His projections are invaluable to this site.  You can also visit his site at www.smartfantasybaseball.com.