St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay has been a pleasant surprise covering in right field for the injured Ryan Ludwick. Jay comes into the break with an NL-best 11-game hitting streak (17-for-37, .459) and has hit safely in every game he’s started this year (19-for-46, .413). He does not yet qualify for the NL rookie leader board, but among those with at least 40 at-bats, Jay is on top with a .377 average.
The excitement is so high, a respected poster on The Cardinal Nation message board asked if Jay might be considered a legitimate contender for the National League Rookie of the Year. That is most likely out of the question, but there can be no argument that Jay has suitably impressed in his first season as a major leaguer.
In the minors, the former second-round pick from the University of Miami was touted as having the ability to become a future MLB batting champion. To date, Jay has been very good – a career .300 hitter in the minor leagues with a solid .800 OPS.
Jon Jay, career stats
| Jay | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Minors | 1767 | 0.301 | 0.367 | 0.432 | 0.799 |
| Majors | 73 | 0.377 | 0.394 | 0.594 | 0.989 |
Not even watering down his minor league numbers by applying major league equivalencies, one has to expect that Jay will cool off substantially as a major leaguer, however. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a productive player, of course.
“If he keeps that up, he’s going to earn a lot of playing time,” manager Tony La Russa said after Jay doubled twice on Thursday.
Just to continue the legend of Jay one step further before moving on, Tom Orf offered a list of the top 30 Cardinals in team history in terms of slugging over their first 30 games. Well, truth be known, he gave me a list of over 300 names, but “30 in 30” has a nice ring. I wonder if that is registered.
Anyway, Jay is currently sixth all time in that narrow slice. There are some very familiar names and others who quickly slipped into obscurity listed below. Where will Jay fall?
Cardinals history, first 30 games, ranked by SLG
| Player | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | SH | SF | IBB | HBP | GDP |
| Albert Pujols | 131 | 115 | 42 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 34 | 11 | 18 | .365 | .427 | .713 | 1.141 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| J.D. Drew | 103 | 90 | 27 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 20 | 11 | 25 | .300 | .373 | .656 | 1.028 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Johnny Mize | 114 | 105 | 35 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 25 | 7 | 10 | .333 | .375 | .648 | 1.023 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Grant Dunlap | 17 | 17 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .353 | .353 | .647 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Fred Whitfield | 69 | 66 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 19 | 3 | 7 | .333 | .362 | .621 | .984 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Jon Jay | 61 | 57 | 21 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 10 | .368 | .377 | .614 | .991 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Eddie Dyer | 38 | 36 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | .333 | .368 | .611 | .980 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Ripper Collins | 84 | 78 | 29 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 7 | .372 | .417 | .603 | 1.019 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Wally Moon | 138 | 114 | 41 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 22 | 10 | .360 | .464 | .579 | 1.043 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Don Gutteridge | 116 | 111 | 37 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 21 | 4 | 16 | .333 | .357 | .568 | .924 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| George Puccinelli | 87 | 82 | 27 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 5 | 9 | .329 | .368 | .561 | .929 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| George Watkins | 87 | 75 | 24 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 21 | 8 | 18 | .320 | .393 | .560 | .953 | 3 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Jim Bottomley | 130 | 120 | 42 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 26 | 6 | 11 | .350 | .391 | .558 | .949 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
| Hal Smith | 98 | 88 | 32 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 10 | 8 | .364 | .429 | .557 | .985 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Stu Martin | 105 | 92 | 34 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 7 | .370 | .437 | .554 | .991 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Johnny Schulte | 78 | 56 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 20 | 7 | .268 | .461 | .554 | 1.014 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Wally Roettger | 102 | 93 | 35 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 5 | 9 | .376 | .408 | .548 | .957 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Ernie Orsatti | 117 | 104 | 35 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 11 | 15 | .337 | .400 | .538 | .938 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Curt Ford | 78 | 67 | 23 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 9 | .343 | .429 | .537 | .966 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris Duncan | 66 | 62 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 22 | .258 | .288 | .532 | .820 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Bill DeLancey | 78 | 72 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | .278 | .333 | .528 | .861 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Bill Virdon | 132 | 118 | 40 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 14 | .339 | .405 | .525 | .930 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Joe Cunningham | 132 | 117 | 34 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 21 | 14 | 13 | .291 | .371 | .521 | .893 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Bill Lewis | 38 | 35 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 3 | .400 | .432 | .514 | .947 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Joe Mather | 85 | 78 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 7 | 17 | .269 | .329 | .513 | .842 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Al Grabowski | 45 | 43 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 7 | .372 | .386 | .512 | .898 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Joe Medwick | 124 | 120 | 39 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 12 | .325 | .341 | .508 | .850 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Tom Alston | 129 | 113 | 33 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 27 | 14 | 13 | .292 | .372 | .504 | .877 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Micah Franklin | 37 | 34 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | .324 | .378 | .500 | .878 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brian Jordan | 117 | 112 | 28 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 5 | 25 | .250 | .282 | .491 | .773 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
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