Twelve Days of Christmas 2008: Day 9
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Nine rightfielders starting,+
Eight-place batting pitchers*,
Seven spots a-playing&,
Six hits a-spraying ^,
A five-rule draftee%;
Four exceeding arms$,
Three million fans#,
Two Dewan gloves,
and another Pujols MVP.
+The Cardinals started nine different players in rightfield last season, the most since 1997, mainly Ryan Ludwick, who led all major-league rightfielders with a 54.7 VORP:
| Player | Innings | GS | G |
| Ludwick | 962 | 105 | 124 |
| Schumaker | 249 | 30 | 33 |
| Mather | 64 | 6 | 15 |
| Kennedy | 55 | 6 | 9 |
| Barton | 48 | 6 | 10 |
| Stavinoha | 20 | 2 | 5 |
| Ryan | 19 | 3 | 3 |
| Duncan | 15 | 2 | 2 |
| Phelps | 10 | 2 | 2 |
*The Cardinals in 2008 broke their own record for most games in which the starting pitcher batted eighth. The top five since at least 1956:
| Year | Team | Games |
| 2008 | STL | 153 |
| 1998 | STL | 77 |
| 2007 | STL | 56 |
| 1957 | KCA | 56 |
| 2008 | MIL | 42 |
&Aaron Miles played seven different positions in 2008, the most (tied with Rex Hudler, David Howard and Joe McEwing) since Joe Oquendo played all nine in 1998. Recent super-utility-men and the positions they played (capital X indicates game started):
| Player | Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Oquendo | 1988 | x | x | X | X | X | X | x | x | x |
| Hudler | 1990 | x | X | x | x | X | x | X | ||
| Howard | 1999 | x | x | x | X | x | x | x | ||
| McEwing | 1999 | x | X | x | x | X | X | X | ||
| Miles | 2008 | x | X | X | X | x | x | x |
^Skip Schumaker collected six hits on July 26 — all singles — the first six-hit game by a Cardinal in 73 years.
%Brian Barton contributed 1.6 Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP3), the most for a Cardinal Rule-V draft pick since Alberto Castillo’s 2.9 in 1998.
$The Cardinals’ top four starting pitchers all exceeded their pre-season projected VORP, more than doubling their collective expected total:
| Player | Projected | Actual | Difference |
| Wainwright | 23.4 | 32.4 | +9.0 |
| Lohse | 15.0 | 38.4 | +23.4 |
| Wellemeyer | 12.4 | 36.3 | +23.9 |
| Looper | 6.3 | 24.6 | +18.3 |
| Total | 57.1 | 131.7 | +74.6 |
#The Cardinals had their third-highest attendance in franchise history with 3,432,917 fans, marking the 11th time in team history that they surpassed three million. The Cardinals sold out 40 of their 81 home dates in 2008.