Our All-Time Top 50 St. Louis Cardinals Have Been Revised to Reflect the 2023 Season
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out, and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post-2023 revision of our top 50 St. Louis Cardinals.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball, we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in Major League Baseball.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, St. Louis had a very disappointing season, and were nowhere close to the playoffs. Regardless, there was one new entrant and one change.
As always, we present our top five, which saw no changes:
1. Stan Musial
4. Bob Gibson
5. Ozzie Smith
You can find the entire list here.
Adam Wainwright reached 200 Wins last year, but bluntly, he was not very good. He had an ERA near 8 and a bWAR of -2.0. As such, he dropped a spot, going from #10 to #11.
The only new entrant was Paul Goldschmidt. The 2022 National League MVP debuts at #46.
We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.
41. Paul Goldschmidt
Paul Goldschmidt was a six-time All-Star, won four Silver Sluggers, and three Gold Gloves while playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was also a two-time runner-up for the National League MVP award. However, when his contract was up, Arizona's management knew he was unlikely to re-sign with the team. Therefore, after the 2018 season, they traded Goldschmidt to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he signed a long-term contract.
In his first season with the Cardinals, Goldschmidt hit 34 home runs with an OPS of .821. Despite the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he managed to maintain a high level of performance with an OPS of .833. Goldschmidt continued his impressive run in 2021, finishing sixth in the MVP voting with 31 home runs, 99 RBI, and an OPS of .879. However, the Cardinals were hoping for an even better performance from him.
In 2022, Goldschmidt finally won the MVP award he had been chasing for so long. He hit 35 home runs, with 115 RBIs, and boasted a Slash Line of .317/.404/.578. Goldschmidt led the league in Slugging, OPS (.981), and OPS+ (177). He also won the Silver Slugger and added another All-Star selection to his first All-MLB 1 Selection.
However, in 2023, Goldschmidt had a pedestrian season with 25 HR and an .810 OPS. For the first time since 2014, he did not receive an MVP vote, and he declined further in 2024, with only 22 Home Runs and a sub-2 bWAR. Goldschmidt left afterward for the New York Yankees as a Free Agent, but his time in St. Louis was fruitful with that MVP, 153 Home Runs and 874 Hits.
Our All-Time Top 50 Arizona Diamondbacks have been revised to reflect the 2023 Season.
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022/23 revision of our top 50 Arizona Diamondbacks.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in Major League Baseball.
3. Playoff accomplishments.
4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.
Last year, Arizona shocked the world by not only making the playoffs, but competing in the World Series, though they fell to the Texas Rangers in five Games. The 2023 Season, gave us one new entrant and several elevations.
As always, we present our top five, which saw no changes:
3. Brandon Webb
You can find the entire list here.
Infielder, Ketel Marte, continued his rise, inching up one spot #6.
Starting Pitcher, Zac Gallen, climbed to #12 from #21.
Of note, Infielder, Nick Ahmed, who was released in August, actually fell a spot to #19.
First Baseman, Christian Walker, rose from #31 to #22.
Another Starting Pitcher, Merrill Kelly, jumped from #36 to #23.
The lone new entrant is the 2023 National League Rookie of the Year, Corbin Carroll, who debuts at #38.
Relief Pitcher, Andrew Chafin, who returned as a Free Agent, only to be traded late in the season to Milwaukee, did enough to move up two spots to #42.
We thank you for your continued support for our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.
Notinhalloffame names Vladimir Guerrero Jr. the 2021 First Baseman of the Year
The process continues.
We here are Notinhalloffame.com have plans to create our own set of post-season awards, which we will look back and retroactively present from 1901 on. That will take a while, but it has never stopped us before!
Our awards are not be league specific.
Now it is time for our 2021 positional awards.
We will be awarding a positional player of the year, but not only that, offer up the runner-up and second runner-up, meaning that we will have First, Second and Third All-MLB players.
Let’s work our way around the diamond and award the best of the best in Baseball!
*Please note that to qualify, a player must appear in that position at least 50% of the time.
First Team All-MLB: First Baseman of the Year: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays. 6.8 bWAR, 6.7 fWAR, 188 H, 48 HR, 123 R, 111 RBI, 4 SB, .311/.401/.601/1.002.
Guerrero lost weight entering the 2021 season, and the dedication to fitness yielded the best year of his young career. Sharing the Home Run Title with Salvador Perez, Guerrero also led the AL in OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+ (169) and Total Bases (363), and was the most explosive offensive player in 2021. Had it not been for Shohei Ohtani, he would have won our MVP.
Second Team All-MLB First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals. 6.2 bWAR, 4.9 fWAR, 177 H, 31 HR, 102 R, 99 RBI, 12 SB, .294/.365/.514/.879.
This is Goldschmidt’s third year in St. Louis, and eleven over all. Goldschmidt accrued his sixth 30-plus HR year and sixth .500 Slugging season.
Third Team All-MLB First Base: Matt Olson, Oakland Athletics. 5.8 bWAR, 5.0 fWAR, 153 H, 39 HR, 101 R, 111 RBI, 4 SB, .294/.365/.514/.879.
Olson was an All-Star for the first time this year, and he posted career-bests in Runs, Home Runs, RBIs, Batting Average and On Base Percentage.
Look for more awards soon!
Our All-Time Top 50 Arizona Diamondbacks have been revised
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present the first revision of our top 50 Arizona Diamondbacks of all-time.
As for all of our top 50 players in baseball we look at the following:
1. Advanced Statistics.
2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National League.
This is the first revision since we put up this list after the 2018 Season.
The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article. They are:
3. Brandon Webb
We slightly altered one of our algorithms and that has led to some slight changes to past Diamondbacks. This altered the top five slightly, as Curt Schilling and Luis Gonzalez traded their fourth and fifth rank.
There were a few significant jumps. Zack Grienke, who was traded during the 2019 Season to Houston, rose from #10 to #6. Ketel Marte went from #44 to #13. This shocked us too, but again, we are reminded that a top five MVP season in a team as young as the Diamondbacks can do that. Starting Pitcher, Robbie Ray, moved from #20 to #16. Third Baseman, Jake Lamb, climbed from #30 to #26. Relief Pitcher, Archie Bradley went from #48 to #40.
We have several new entries. Nick Ahmed debuts at #20. While this seems like a seismic debut for the Shortstop, we erroneously left him off of our first list, of which he would have been on. Venezuelan Infielder, Eduardo Escobar makes his first appearance at #43. He joined the Diamondbacks during the 2018 season on a trade from Minnesota. Lefthanded Relief Pitcher, Andrew Chafin comes in at #44.
We welcome your input and commentsand as always, we thank you for your support.
2. Paul Goldschmidt
For nearly a decade, "Goldy" served as the quiet, relentless heartbeat of the Diamondbacks, transforming from an unheralded 8th-round draft pick into the greatest position player in franchise history.
Bursting onto the scene in late 2011, he famously announced his arrival with a massive postseason grand slam that ignited the desert. By 2013, he had evolved into a full-blown supernova. That season remains a masterclass in offensive and defensive dominance: That season, he won the Hank Aaron Award, along with his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger, while leading the NL in Home Runs (36), RBIs (125), and Slugging (.551), and was second in MVP voting. Goldy had arrived, and he was ready to dominate the rest of the decade.
Over eight seasons in Arizona, he became a fixture at the All-Star game and a perennial MVP candidate, finishing in the top three of voting three different times. In 2016, he led the NL in walks (110) while remarkably stealing 32 bases—an unheard-of feat for a powerhouse first baseman. As the D-Back’s fortunes fell, Goldschmidt left Arizona with 209 home runs, over 1,100 hits, and a staggering career slash line of .297/.398/.532.
He later won the 2022 NL MVP as a St. Louis Cardinal, and Paul Goldschmidt remains the benchmark by which all future Diamondback position players are measured.