Cardinals should believe in Jordan Walker's breakout for 15.7-degree reasons

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The St. Louis Cardinals are a rebuilding team, as Chaim Bloom tore apart a lot of the roster in trades with Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Brendan Donovan.

More moves could be on the horizon as well. But things might already look a bit different thanks to the sudden breakout of Jordan Walker. He's finally reaching his potential. But, is it for real?

MLB.com's Bill Ladson shared his take on Walker's breakout, pointing to one key statistic in launch-angle as a reason Cardinals fans and the franchise itself should believe that this breakout is indeed for real.

Cardinals have a launch-angle reason to believe in Jordan Walker

"Jordan Walker is reaching his potential," Ladson writes. "... The Cardinals often complained about Walker hitting too many group balls over the years. Entering Sunday's action, Walker's launch angle is at 15.7 degrees, up from the 10.3-degree mark he recorded last year."

Walker is making contact more often this season, but the important thing is that his contact isn't being hit into the ground as much. He's getting air underneath the ball.

A change from 10.3 degrees in launch angle to 15.7 degrees is massive. That's been a huge reason for his incredibly hot start to the season. As Ladson noted, "A more upright stance has helped improve that number."

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So far, that change in stance and subsequent raised launch angle has been a massive positive for the Cardinals' slugging outfielder.

This season, he is hitting .304 with eight homers and 16 RBIs to go with an impressive 1.014 OPS through 79 at-bats and 21 games this season.

Walker's breakout is for real, as the changed stance and launch-angle update have been exactly what Walker has needed. Those are changes for the long haul, so he should be more than capable of keeping this production up all year.

If the 23-year-old could actually be breaking out as a superstar that his potential indicates he could be, then the Cardinals' rebuild might be over quicker than Bloom or anyone expected.

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