10 reasons why it is time to give up on the Cardinals' playoff chances this season

Past Cardinals teams that went on crazy runs had incredible individual performances

I tend to be one of the most optimistic observers of the Cardinals, and even I can see how wild it is to believe this club has a special run in them.

The 2021 Cardinals pulled off a 17-game winning streak to fight their way into the playoffs. That's tied for the 15th-longest winning streak in baseball history. Paul Goldschmidt, Harrison Bader, and Tyler O'Neill all played at MVP-levels during that stretch while Nolan Arenado and Lars Nootbaar looked like All-Stars. Genesis Cabrera, Kodi Whitley, and Giovanny Gallegos combined to give up just one earned run in 27.1 innings pitched out of the bullpen. J.A. Happ, Jon Lester, Jake Woodford, Miles Mikolas, and Adam Wainright all had ERAs south of 4.00 while starting games for them.

The 2011 Cardinals were ten and a half games back of the Atlanta Braves for the National League Wild Card on August 24th of that season, with their playoff odds standing at just 1.3% at that time. Well, that club did have Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Lance Berkman post a 150 wRC+ or better in the second half of the season and received excellent starting pitching from Chris Carpenter and company. Oh, and the Braves experienced a historic collapse that only saw them lose possession of the Wild Card on the final day of the season.

Frankly, the Cardinals have now entered the "It will take an actual miracle" territory for them to make the playoffs, and I just don't see those kinds of individual performances coming from this team.

Sure, no one would have expected the 2011 or 2021 Cardinals to do what they did, but those teams did have future Hall of Famers in their prime (Pujols and Molina, Goldschmidt and Arenado) as well as huge performances from their surrounding core.

Mathematically, the Cardinals are still in the playoff chase, but deep down, we all know the odds are so incredibly low.