St. Louis Cardinals: Elimination comes down to the division

After being eliminated from post-season contention, the St. Louis Cardinals now need to look in the mirror, and figure out how to make it back in 2018.

Since the St. Louis Cardinals‘ loss on Friday, I have purposely refrained from writing a reaction piece to the elimination of our playoff hopes. However, now I have taken a couple of days or two, filled with FIFA 18 and the new SNES Classic, I’ve come to a conclusion about this team.

I’ll start with the Chicago Cubs winning the NL Central division at Busch Stadium. Firstly, congratulations to the Cubs. They were the best team in the Central, but no one is really surprised. If anything, most baseball experts would probably be even more surprised the St. Louis Cardinals finished so much lower than the Cubs.

But I guess that isn’t even too surprising, considering one of the projections had the Cardinals only winning eighty-four games.

Should you be angry at the Cubs for celebrating on the mound in St. Louis? No doubt, but I want you to remember one thing from this season. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs played nineteen games this year. The Cardinals only won FIVE of the nineteen games.

If I am the Cubs, and I put a hurting like THAT on my biggest rival, hell yeah I am going to celebrate wherever I want. They deserve it, and it’s as simple as that.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am angry, but not because the Cubs won. I am angry because this St. Louis Cardinals team wasted opportunity after opportunity. The Cardinals don’t have anyone to blame, but themselves. Look, I don’t think they are happy with the Cubs celebrating on the mound either. I’m sure the players in the locker room could even hear them celebrate while they are dressing to go home.

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But now that I have been able to absorb what has taken place over the last couple of days, the St. Louis Cardinals should have one goal heading into 2018.

Should the Cardinals win today, they will finish the season with a division record of 35-41, or 34-42 should they lose.

Either way, the team will finish well below the .500 mark of division play. They haven’t done that since the 2008 season with a 36-41 division record, but also coming close in 2010 with a 39-39 division record.

Need further convincing? If you take out the division records of the top three teams in the NL Central this season, the standings would look like this:

1. St. Louis Cardinals 49-37
2. Chicago Cubs 46-40
3. Milwaukee Brewers 46-40

I don’t know about you, but this speaks volumes to me. It just proves how much better the Cardinals were outside of the Central division, but even more importantly shows me how much worse they were in the division, especially to the Cubs as I noted earlier.

The simple fact is divisional play accounts for almost half of the regular season schedule, 46.3%. Most of the time, a losing record in divisional play isn’t good enough to get you in the post-season. Mainly because you definitely didn’t win your division, but probably didn’t even sniff a Wild Card spot, especially now that there are two.

If you do have a losing record against your division, then you better be a hell of team against every one else. Sadly, the Cardinals accomplished that part this year, but what does it even matter if you can’t beat the teams in your own division?

Related Story: It all comes down to the division

This is precisely where the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization should be putting the blame on their failures to make the post-season for the second time in a row. For someone like me, who had hope coming into the final twenty-two games of the regular season, the disappointment hurts, but the opportunities squandered by this team just don’t make me feel that bad about it.

If the Cardinals want to get back to the post-season, they have some major tinkering to the lineup they need to do. Pitchers need to come back healthy, and the bullpen needs to be retooled quickly with proven arms. The coaches also need to get better as well, including Mike Matheny and John Mabry.

I know this will sound crazy, but I am still hopeful for this team coming into next season. i think we often forget we have a lot of young guys on the team who never have played a 162-game schedule or been in a playoff race. Think of the valuable, while still harsh, experience of seeing the Cubs celebrate on the mound at Busch.

I’m just saying, if you think the Cardinals aren’t worth your time because you have had enough losing, bye. This team has won time and time again. They will learn from mistakes and get better next year. It starts immediately though on April 2nd, 2018 against the Milwaukee Brewers for their first divisional game.

Next: Cards win, play spoilers

You can be upset with the St. Louis Cardinals and the organization. They will need to look in the mirror for a long time this off-season if they want to get back to the playoffs in 2018. If that means giving up talent to receive talent, then so be it. The risk sometimes is worth the reward.