Trade Deadline is Best Thing to Happen to St. Louis Cardinals

Their new additions are playing at a high level

The Cardinals, no matter what other players and positions they pursued at the trade deadline, desperately needed to acquire starting pitching help if the club was going to make a run during the second half. When the club acquired Montgomery and Quintana, the moves seemed solid at the time, but have proven to be excellent additions so far.

Montgomery, acquired in the Bader deal with New York, is 3-0 with a 0.54 ERA in 16.2 innings of work for St. Louis since joining the club. The left hander has proven his has the ability to pitch in tough games, excelling in the brutal AL East and shutting down his former club in his first start for the Cardinals. Montgomery already looks like the kind of guy St. Louis would love to send to the mound to start games in playoff series.

Quintana, who came over in a deal with the Pirates, has been great in his first three starts with the club as well, going 1-0 with a 2.65 ERA om 17 innings of work for the Redbirds. He has providing quality innings each outing that allow the Cardinals to rest their bullpen and give the offense a chance to increase leads, rather than get back into ballgames.

Stratton and Allen were mainly brought in as depth pieces, and anything St. Louis can get out of either of them would be icing on the cake for the deadline. The story here is with the two left handed starters, and if they both can continue to find success down the stretch, they may be two of the biggest reasons St. Louis makes a deep playoff run.