Goldy Locks

 Tomorrow is the St. Louis Cardinals' final designated off day of the regular season.

Whether or not there are any rainouts coming over the next 2 weeks is up to the heavens, but regardless...tomorrow marks the last reprise before an absolute ball-buster of a road to the playoffs for the Cards. From the 10th to the 27th, they have five doubleheaders, and 25 games in total to play. These games are against teams such as the Tigers, Brewers, Pirates, Reds and Royals...so it's safe to say that they're making the playoffs.

Like, that schedule is alarmingly simple. Perhaps Milwaukee or Detroit has a few tricks left, but...all of these teams seam beatable. Tonight's Twins match is the last one against a truly competitive team until, I imagine, the playoffs.

The Cardinals have not really felt like pretenders at all this season, unlike some of their earlier efforts to burst into the playoffs late. This is a pretty strong team with some definite standouts, a comprehensive pitching staff, and a lot of elements that give them a leg up on a great deal of the competition. Paul Goldschmidt is having some routinely great numbers, including a .324 average, a team leading 34 hits, and a team leading 1.4 WAR. Brad Miller is this team's secret weapon off the bench, with a team-leading 20 RBIs. The usual core of Wong, DeJong, Bader, Molina and Edman is doing really well. 

And while Kwang-Hyun Kim's recent DL stint has wounded the rotation a bit, Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright and Dakota Hudson have sub-4 ERAs and are in great shape right now. They've added Johan Oviedo to the rotation, and while he hasn't gotten a win yet he's done alright. Carlos Martinez and Daniel Poncedeleon have also been re-added to the equation, and while Poncedeleon certainly had a better day than Martinez, it's still a good enough back half that, admittedly, might not be a factor in the playoffs.

This is a strong Cardinals team, and they've definitely got good postseason chances. I'm still...not a HUGE fan of theirs, but...this year my hatred has sort of shifted back to Toronto for other reasons.

Coming Tomorrow- Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer are future Hall of Famers. This guy has as good of a case as either of them.