St. Louis Cardinals: Stop Fretting Over the Offense

The St. Louis Cardinals are less than a week away from their first game of the Regular Season, and many fans are still worried about the offense. However, there is cause for optimism.

Call me an optimist, call me an apologist, call me whatever you want, but the St. Louis Cardinals’ offense will be just fine this season. Most of you are spending your days throwing things at the television or radio because of the fact that the Cardinals are losing all of these games in Spring Training and that the offense has been largely unimpressive so far.

While they would be correct in asserting that the offense has not looked good, as they have just a .265/.331/.389 slash line, with just 68 extra base-hits (51 doubles, 15 homers, and two triples). They have scored a total of 91 runs in their 24 games so far, which puts them at next to last in the league.

While these numbers aren’t good, there’s reason to understand that these numbers aren’t anything to worry about, and I will tell you why.

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In the last four years, the St. Louis Cardinals have not had a good Spring Training offensively. Last season, the offense broke camp with a slash of .252/.320/.359, with 59 extra base-hits (40 doubles, 16 homers, three triples), and scoring 102 runs (dead last) in a total of 27 games.

In 2014, the club broke camp with a slash of .260/.320/.381, slugging just a total of 74 extra base-hits (54 doubles, 14 homers, and six triples), and scoring 126 runs in 26 games (24th in the league).

In 2013, the Cardinals finished Spring Training slashing .280/.349/.423, with a total of 99 extra base-hits (69 doubles, 26 homers, and four triples), and scoring 164 runs over 32 games (23rd in the league).

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In 2012, the team finished their first Spring Training under Mike Matheny with a slash of .276/.345/.415, with 83 extra base-hits (58 doubles, 19 homers, and six triples), and scoring 127 runs in 27 games (24th in the league). The team won the division in three out of the four seasons, making the playoffs in each season.

Once Spring Training breaks, the team will be starting the season with the deepest team they’ve had in years. Yes, the loss of Jhonny Peralta is a concern, but it won’t be a season-long concern. He will be back by June and shouldn’t have the drop in production he experienced in the second half of last season.

What it boils down to is that this team just needs to win games, and if the rotation is as good as I believe it will be — the team won’t need to score more than 3-4 runs per game to win. This team may win more 1-3 run games than we as fans would like, but this bullpen will not give up many late leads. The team will also lean on it’s above average bench in these close games.

Next: Why the Cardinals' Rotation Won't Regress

Throwing stats out the window, we know this team can win games. The team will return the majority of the team that won 100 games, and should see a continued dominating record inside their own division. Winning around 15-20 games a month sets this team up to finish right around where they finished last season, and I believe this team can do that.