The Cardinals Are Gonna Be (.500 Miles)

(Music Pun Streak #13- I couldn't resist)

It's June. Now, typically, around June is when the St. Louis Cardinals make their way up the standings for an unfathomable amount of time despite the lack of talent. However...right now, the Cardinals are in third place, 5 games behind the Brewers, in the midst of a dull week. They're a few games over .500, and looking as okay as you can get. However, they might even subscribe to the Tampa Bay Rays sort of 'strange mediocrity'.

Case in point: their top starter hasn't pitched in the MLB since 2014, and not in a cool Lance Lynn way. Miles Mikolas started a handful of games for the 2014 Rangers, did a poor job, and wasn't re-signed, so he decided to spend a few years in Japan, pitching for the Yomiuri Giants. To say this Japanese excursion saved his career is an understatement, averaging a 2.30 ERA over 3 seasons, his best of which coming last year, with an impressive 14-8 record with 187 strikeouts.

So far in 2018, Mikolas has been channeling said 2017 year with St. Louis, with a current record of 8 and 2, with a 2.69 ERA, funnily enough his lowest since 2014, and 77 strikeouts. And in a year where Wainwright and Wacha are injured, and Carlos Martinez' walks are catching up to him, the Cardinals NEED a guy like Miles Mikolas to head up the rotation. He and rookie Jack Flaherty have been putting up the best numbers of the rotation, while Luke Weaver's beginning to catch up.

The sad part is the strength of arms like Mikolas and Flaherty can't really save the general ineptitude of the lineup. Guys like Kolten Wong and Dexter Fowler are batting below .200, and Paul DeJong's out for another 3 or 4 weeks. The guys who are leading the charge either strike out too much, like Matt Carpenter, or aren't in the lineup enough, like Harrison Bader and Jedd Gyorko. Thankfully there are people like Yadier Molina and Marcell Ozuna who are playing really well, but it's spread a bit too thin. There's too much that's simply 'alright', and all of that is dragging the team down to third.

The Cardinals might make an attempt to take advantage of the Cubs' recent losing skid, but I'm not sure how far they'll get, even with someone like Miles Mikolas.

Coming Tonight- Shortstop for a low-in-the-standings team that's surprisingly over .500