Cardinals Riding The Wave of Mediocrity

Here we are, nearly a week before the trade deadline and I think it’s more apparent than ever the Cardinals need to get something done.

I am not saying we go out and sign Heath Bell’s big deal, but can’t we get someone, ANYONE?!

The team goes on big losing streaks and mini win stints. We are currently at the .520 clip being nudged out by the Brewers and *gulp* the Pittsburgh Pirates. Luckily we kick off the series in Pittsburgh tomorrow and HOPEFULLY we can start to finally pick up the pace.

Tony La Russa apparently said the other day, “Performance dictates playing time.” Well that’s terrific, in theory.

Sure the Cardinals have possibly the best offensive numbers in baseball, but what about that pitching we consistently gripe about? We got rid of Batista and Franklin, where are the other pieces they know they need to pursue? The ERA has gone down, but there are still some MAJOR gaps that need to be addressed.

When the pitching performs well, we have a tendency to go cold offensively too. Why is it we cannot get this team to click on all levels? This is not a new thing either. We have had the club the last few seasons and still mediocre results. Everyone has hammered the front office since the departure of Jocketty, and maybe rightfully so. Sure they brought in Holliday and had some big moves along the way, but why are we still having the problems compiling W’s? Is it Duncan? Long heralded as the savior for problematic pitchers, that is looking more like our problem as of late. This season has been hard since the injury to Wainwright and he is handcuffed to Westbrook, which we are all realizing was a mistake. Tony has long been the scapegoat and apparently being a World Series winning manager as recently as five years ago is not even enough to save him from scrutiny.

After todays afternoon game we are 51-47. This team now is down to those four key injuries, but a long way from being the team they are capable of. One would love to think this is going to be the turning point where Tony begins to play the best players most often and wins come as a result, but you cannot ignore recent statistics when the Cardinals have made the playoffs just once since their World Series win and subsequently got swept in the first round by the Dodgers.

Even in the rather lowly NL Central where the best team tends to have the lowest regular season record of the NL playoff teams, the Cardinals are in and out of first place everyday and something needs to be done. We are far too talented at this point to even be worried about making a playoff push, but this is the reality, this is what we need to focus on going forward.