ST. LOUIS -- When a national publication assembled a panel of experts last winter to determine the 50 best players in the major leagues, Matt Carpenter didn’t make the cut. Nor did he make it as one of the next five best players not to make the Sporting News' list.

With the National League All-Star voting coming down to a close two-man race between Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant at third base, Carpenter –- who remains on the ballot at third base despite a recent shift across the diamond -- is in third place, by a lot. He has received less than one-third the votes of the leading vote-getter, Arenado.

And yet there is one place Carpenter’s name can’t be missed. He leads the National League with a 1.003 OPS. He’s the only player above the elite 1.000 level in the most widely understood and followed measure of a hitter’s overall contributions to an offense.

It would appear there's a discrepancy in perception between the quality of player Carpenter is and the quality of player the baseball-viewing public thinks he is. That lack of attention must grate on him at times, right?

"I like being overlooked," Carpenter said. "I think you’d rather be underrated than overrated. I’d much rather fall into that category. I’m not by any means saying that those guys are overrated. I think they’re amazing players. I’m saying for me, in general, I’d rather be underrated than overrated. I’d rather be a guy people forget about, then, at the end of the day, are like, 'Wow, he’s actually a pretty good player.'"

Of Carpenter’s many skills -- including unusual defensive versatility, smart baserunning and burgeoning power -- the one that stands out probably generates the least attention, which is, perversely, part of the problem. He might have the best batting eye in the National League. His selectivity has allowed him to have a .500 on-base percentage this month, the highest June OBP by a Cardinal since Stan Musial had a .508 OBP in 1948.

Carpenter’s skill set might not generate the attention of Bryant’s prodigious power or Arenado’s brilliant defense, but it gets the attention of pitchers and opposing managers. Reigning Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta has been friends with Carpenter since their college days at TCU. He traces much of Carpenter’s drive and discipline to a college arm injury that forced him to double down on his focus and attention to detail.

"He definitely is underrated, but I don’t think he cares about that and I don’t think his team is worried about it either," Arrieta said. "You can plug him in the lineup every day and you know what you’re going to get. He puts together one of the best at-bats in baseball."

Carpenter’s keen eye also has left him more susceptible to the whims of human error, the Cardinals believe. His short swing allows him to let the ball travel farther, trusting his hand-eye coordination will allow him to react quickly. As a result, he has longer than most hitters to determine if a pitch is a ball or a strike. According to Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, Carpenter often has a more advanced view of borderline pitches than umpires do. He’s willing to take pitches fractions of an inch off the strike zone, ones that other hitters might swing at, to protect against a strikeout.

According to research by ESPN Stats & Information, over the past three seasons 12.6 percent of the pitches Carpenter has taken that have been out of the strike zone have been called strikes. Only nine hitters in MLB have gotten more bad calls.

"We’ve got all the stats to prove he sometimes gets hosed by umpires maybe more than anybody else, because he can see when the ball’s right on the plate," Matheny said. "[Barry] Bonds was like that. He could tell when the ball was just off. I’d catch a ball and get a strike against him back in the day and he’d be like, 'No, you missed that one. The ball was just barely off,' and he was right. I wouldn’t tell the umpire, but he was right."

Carpenter often will get into a dispute with an umpire, then retreat to the clubhouse to review video of the pitch. If he was right, he will remind the umpire from the bench. If he is wrong, he will also point out his mistake and offer a mea culpa.

"I hope they take a good hard look when he complains," Matheny said.

Carpenter is very much a new-age leadoff hitter. After 77 Cardinals games, he has yet to steal his first base, but he's third in the NL in slugging percentage (.585) and leads in doubles (24) and he already is just one shy of 50 RBIs. The Cardinals have resisted moving Carpenter down in the lineup because they have no comparable leadoff threat while having several hitters with comparable power.

Carpenter said he would be "completely overjoyed" to make it to San Diego with the NL All-Stars, in any capacity, and if he’s not on the roster as a reserve, it would be a shocking oversight. What would make his third All-Star selection more rewarding is that through April he was batting just .230 with three home runs.

"Yeah, I’m very prideful of that because it’s hard to do when you get off to a slow start," Carpenter said. "But part of the reason I feel like it was able to happen is that during that slow start, not at one point did I feel like I was not in a good spot. It was surprising to me that the numbers weren’t showing up because I was having a lot of good at-bats."

Carpenter has been particularly effective since June 7, the day he switched from third to second base to accommodate Jhonny Peralta’s return from the disabled list and rookie Aledmys Diaz’s hot bat. Entering Wednesday, Carpenter had a 1.267 OPS since making the position switch, and he has appeared more confident on defense. It has made what could have been an awkward transition -– decorated veterans moving to accommodate a rookie -- appear smart and seamless.

"I mean, this is a guy who is a superstar and has great numbers and you ask him to move to second base and he didn’t hesitate," Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena said. "He didn’t make any problems or anything and he’s gone out there and played at such a high level and continued to produce. As a teammate you really appreciate it and hopefully the people that know that game will take that under consideration and know this guy is a superstar."