Can The Cards Become The 1st Team To Have 8 Players Hit 20 Home Runs?

Mostly meaningless baseball records are fun.

You may or may not know it, but no team in the history of Major League Baseball has ever had 8 players on the same team in the same season hit 20 home runs.

But the Cardinals have a shot to achieve this in 2016. Here are the current totals:

• Matt Holliday (18)
• Brandon Moss (18)
• Stephen Piscotty (15)
• Jedd Gyorko (15)
• Aledmys Diaz (14)
• Matt Carpenter (14)
• Randal Grichuk (12)
• Matt Adams (12)

Now this isn’t likely (at all) for a number of reasons including, but not limited to: injury, playing time constraints, trades, demotions, rain-outs and great fielding.

But…

It’s not impossible either.

So let’s assign a complete guess to the chances of them getting to 20 home runs:

Matt Holliday – The most likely candidate since Coach Mike will not bench Holliday for any reason. They’ll be a time when Holliday isn’t a Cardinal and Coach Mike will still pencil in Holliday’s name on the scorecard real light. He thinks no one can see it… but we see it. 95%

Brandon Moss – The Big Moss Man has found his HR stroke again in 2016 after being the king of the warning track in 2015. 90%

Stephen Piscotty – Piscotty is tied for the team lead in doubles with 25. If he keeps up that pace with his current HR pace, he should clear 20 by mid-September 80%

Jedd Gyorko – Jedd is a straight caveman hitter. He has 55 hits on the season and 20 of them are for extra bases. If he gets the ABs, he’ll get 5 more home runs. 75%

Matt Carpenter – Seems to be good health-wise, right? 65%

Randal Grichuk – He has the most raw power on this list. And if he gets another shot in STL this year with some significant playing time? 30%

Randal Grichuk hit his 6th HR for Memphis

— John Nagel (@CardinalsFarm) August 4, 2016

Matt Adams – Now we’re really stretching it. If most MLB players go into valleys during the season, Adams bores a trench that cuts close to the center of the earth. Unless he gets hot quick, his playing time could get trimmed too far down for 8 more. 20%

Aledmys Diaz – 5%

So now that we’ve run the numbers…

The chances of the Cardinals being the first team to have 8 players hit 20 home runs in the same season is… not good.

Photo: CBS Local