St. Louis Cardinals: USA Today likes the Cards in the NL Central

As preseason predictions come out, USA Today seems to view the St. Louis Cardinals as the favorite in the National League Central.

Every year it is fun to look around at everyone’s best guess at how the St. Louis Cardinals and the rest of the league will do in the coming season. At the end of the day, nobody really knows how things are going to shake out, but if you’ve ever made your own projections, weaving your own storylines to create the blanket of the upcoming season really is fun.

This offseason, the landscape of the National League and more specifically the NL Central has changed more than most expected it would.

We all know what the Cardinals have done, but the Milwaukee Brewers blew up their lineup and have been gluing their broken glass back together all offseason. The Cubs, despite being bloated and lethargic and “desperate” to make moves, have pretty much stayed the same as 2019. The Pirates have already been handed 100 losses, and the Reds have been terrifyingly aggressive.

The power struggle in the division is shifting and the Cardinals are coming out of the gates with a target on their back with a ton of question marks around the diamond.

Ask a Cards fan on Twitter or Facebook where they think the team will finish and most will shout, “4th place!” But guess what, Cubs fans have been saying the same things; as have Brewers fans.

It may seem like the top three finishers in the division from last season are competing for fourth place, but someone has to step up and take the lead.

According to USA Today, that will be the Cardinals once again.

As you can see above, the voters at USA Today weren’t particularly impressed with any of the NL Central teams, not that we can blame them. Leading the way with 88 wins, the Cardinals would face the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs.

From there, the reigning World Series champions would host the winner of what looks like a four-way tie for the second Wild Card between the Reds, Diamondbacks, Mets, and Phillies. This jump for the Reds would be great after the stellar offseason they had, but the more surprising thing is how low they have the Brewers and Cubs.

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It’s not surprising to me that the Brewers sit at just 84 wins, but the Cubs are surprising at 83 wins. On the Cubs, USA Today writer Gabe Lacques writes, “A moribund off-season after three years of gradual decay won’t win many caucuses.” Ouch.

Unsurprisingly in last place, the Pirates will be in competition for the first overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft.

Again, this is just one publication’s guess at how the year will go, but it is a very reputable one.

You may be asking what the point is of looking at any of these projections because they are just that, projections, but the point is that as Cardinals fans we need to realize that despite what dooming thoughts we may have about our hometown team, things are not nearly as bad as they may seem.

Every other team in the NL Central (except for maybe the Reds) has fans that are going into the season without confidence in their team. We are not alone, everyone is pessimistic. That is why I keep saying that we all just need to see where things shake out. Just be patient, we won’t have to wait much longer.

This is just one projection of many out there, and most say about the same thing. Regardless of our own insecurities about this team, the general consensus is that they are going to be right there at the top of the standings when the season ends.