Miles from Contention

 

Only 4 teams have a worse record than the Cardinals right now. I don't know if the penance for Ryan Howard's achilles was having the Phillies come back and cause an even more painful quality drop, but if so I'm so happy about it. I was getting used to being alright with the Cardinals, but if this is the norm for them going forward, that's incredible. 

This team is never gonna be the absolute worst in the league because, at the end of the day, they're still gonna have people like Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt and Miles Mikolas playing for them. Goldy and Arenado have played for dire-looking teams in their prime, but have usually propelled them beyond true awfulness. That's really what those three have been doing so far. Goldy's still putting up prime numbers, he's still hitting .289 with 37 RBIs and 13 homers. Arenado is still pulling ASG votes, and leads the team in RBIs with 49. Mikolas, after a shaky start, is still giving a lot to this team, eating innings with an ERA around 4. 

What's alarming about this team is that nobody on it has an ERA lower than 3.50. The collective ERA is 4.48, 9th-highest in baseball. I did not expect the Dodgers' team ERA to be higher than theirs, even with the Cardinals this bad. Other teams are just getting the best of this team's pitching, especially their bullpen, and I did not expect this at all going into the season. Not that people like Giovanny Gallegos and Chris Stratton are bad, they're just not as ironclad as they were last year. And that's really how you'd describe a lot of this team, just not as strong as the 2022 squad, which is funny when you remember how they went out last year. 

You also just have players with great skillsets hampered by their own faults. So many players on this team, including Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson and Juan Yepez, are great hitters that are terrible defensively. Walker's hitting .302 but thanks to his defense he has a negative WAR. Even Brendan Donovan's having a disappointing defensive year. I know they're trying to build a youth movement but they need to be a bit more multi-dimensional than this.

Granted, their schedule is getting slightly easier now. They took 2 from the Mets, they took 2 from the Nats, and they play the Cubs next. But then they get to play the Astros, and while I'd prefer neither of them win those, it's more likely the Astros take those just on account of their talent. I don't see the Cardinals' luck changing anytime soon, because the wins are still small margins of victory.

I'm...a little sad about how far this Cardinals have fallen, but at the same time, I don't have to hear about them dominating another division, so I still win, I guess.

Coming Tonight: The Yankees gave him up for someone who hasn't pitched yet this year. So the A's have to be happy about that.