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

The Cardinals' bullpen is taxed and unable to carry them

I sang the praises of the Cardinals' bullpen most of the season, and for good reason. The trio of Ryan Helsley, JoJo Romero, and Andrew Kittredge kept the Cardinals in games time and time again for the first third or so of the season.

Names like Ryan Fernandez, John King, and Matthew Liberatore rose to the occasion as the year went on and carved out significant roles as well. Even guys like Chris Roycroft and Kyle Leahy came up big when they were needed.

Even so, there were fair critiques from Cardinals fans all over social media that their bullpen could not handle that kind of workload. Early in the season, those concerns were overblown, because as long as the Cardinals lineup turned things around eventually, their bullpen would get more of a break.

Well, um, that turnaround never really happened, and as Marmol was forced to call upon the bullpen time and time again to keep them in games, the cracks began to show more and more.

During the first half of the season, the Cardinals' bullpen ranked seventh in all of baseball in ERA (3.50) while posting the ninth-best FIP (3.77). But as the second half has gone on, the bullpen has taken a significant step back, ranking 15th in ERA (4.08) and no longer giving fans the confidence that they can shut down any inning they are called upon in.

It is frustrating, but I don't blame the Cardinals bullpen for where they are at right now. Sure, they needed to execute, no doubt about it, but the strain that was put on them was far too great for far too long, and eventually, they were bound to break without help from other areas of the club.

The rotation was fine, but it did not consistently go deep enough into games with the kind of run prevention necessary with the lack of run production they were getting (more on that later). Inherently, bullpens are only a weapon when your team hands them a lead, and frankly, this offense has not done enough to leverage this bullpen this season.

Instead, they were tasked with keeping the team from sinking, and well, they could only be expected to do that for so long.