Reasons the St Louis Cardinals will stand tall

It seems as though this St Louis Cardinals team can’t catch a break. To recap, they have lost ace Adam Wainwright to a fluke, torn Achilles, set-up man Jordan Walden who was apart of the trade that sent Shelby Miller to the Atlanta Braves for Jason Heyward and now starting first baseman Matt Adams is potentially out for the remainder of the season with a right quad tear.

Not all news is negative for the St. Louis Cardinals though as they still somehow have the best record in the majors at 31-16 despite all of their losses. Because of those results, there is strong optimism in the air and plenty of reasons the St Louis Cardinals will stand tall.

Manager Mike Matheny comes from the Tony La Russa school of managing, where he implements a next man up philosophy to his team, because as well all know, injuries can and will happen at any given time, so you have to be prepared.

For that reason, I think the team and Matheny are well-equipped and experienced enough to handle such adversity, after all they have been here before.

This season alone they have had injuries to the likes of outfield Jon Jay, pitchers Jaime Garcia who recently returned, and Marco Gonzales, as well as Randall Grichuk who has been on an absolute tear since returning to the ball-club last weekend.

Yet the ballclub in St. Louis, continues to display the business as usual mentality and thus far it has worked to their advantage because they are a team that makes no excuses.

However, that does not mean guys don’t need to continue to step up in the absence of Matt Adams despite his struggles at the plate (.243 BA, 4 HR, 20 RBI) to start the season.

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The signing of Mark Reynolds will really come in to play now with his everyday status and he has undoubtably got off to one of his better starts to the season as a member of the St Louis Cardinals in limited game action.

Reynolds despite his tendency to strike out a lot, has 7 straight seasons of at least 20 home-runs which could be extended this season, and that track record and production will be sorely needed now that Adams is out.

Outside of Reynolds, Michael Wacha who is the NL’s only pitcher with 7 wins, Lance Lynn, the returning Garcia, and others will need to be contributors even more now, as well as Jason Heyward who has struggled mightily at times on offense but in the outfield has been spectacular.

Said the St Louis Cardinals skipper after Wednesday come from behind 4-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks of someone stepping up,

“We needed someone to step up,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “We talk about different characters trying to figure out how to get it done. We were about out of opportunities, and [Heyward] changed the complexity of that game.”

As for those others the St Louis Cardinals will lean on to provide leadership and clutch play, look no further than early MVP candidates Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday as well as Gold Glove catcher Yadi Molina and shortstop Jhonny Peralta.

The Cards are in good shape and barring any more substantial injuries during the year, this club as is will continue to be one of baseball’s best, if kept intact with all the trade rumors circulating.

Thanks for reading!