Bad teams keeping the St. Louis Cardinals in contention

The St. Louis Cardinals are currently hovering around the .500 mark. Their success against some of the worst teams in baseball is a reason why.

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a tough position. They are facing some injuries, a struggling starting rotation, and an offense that is not putting up enough runs to win consistently. Yet, they are still very much in the division race despite being in fourth place. Why?

The answer is simple: the St. Louis Cardinals dominate the worst teams in the league.

The Cardinals are feasting against the likes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and Miami Marlins.

The Cardinals swept the Marlins twice, have yet to lose a game against division opponent Pirates so far this season, and brushed aside the Dbacks and Rockies as well.

That success against bad teams has allowed the Cardinals to turn the other cheek to the fact that they are not that good against everyone else. If it seems like the Cardinals beat bad teams and lose to good ones, you’d be right. It is almost predictable at this point.

The Cardinals are still in the race, and they can thank the teams previously mentioned for that. Anything other than complete annihilation against the bottom feeders and the Cardinals would be among them.

Actually, the Cardinals should consider themselves fortunate to be a .500 baseball team. The Cardinals Pythagorean record (essentially an estimate of what a team’s record should be based on run differential) has them at a record of 31-39.

Blaming injures is an easy thing to do, and I won’t. Most, if not all, teams will struggle with injuries during the course of a season. The St. Louis Cardinals simply do not have the depth they advertised. There were more moves to be made this past offseason and the front office decided to stay in hibernation with the exception of the blockbuster Nolan Arenado trade.

The division is still within reach. But right now the standing don’t lie. The St. Louis Cardinals are a fourth-place team. They can thank the bad teams for keeping them in contention. The Cardinals’ upcoming schedule sees them playing the Pirates, Dbacks, and Rockies. The Cardinals need to keep taking advantage of the bad teams and pad their win total against them. If they don’t, it’s only a matter of time until they get left in the dust.