The Cardinals are 6 games into the spring and are infuriating fans with this awful stat

Yesterday, the St. Louis Cardinals completed their sixth game of the spring. They fell 3-0 in Port Saint Lucie against the Mets. They've now scored just seven runs across their last four games! It also marked their sixth game without a home run!

That's right, the Cardinals haven't hit a home run yet this spring. They're actually the only team to do so. Let me reiterate: the St. Louis Cardinals are the only team without a home run yet in 2024. That's not exactly encouraging. It's less encouraging when one compares with other clubs. Only the Astros have hit less than two home runs. Meanwhile, the Phillies have smacked 10 (in 25 fewer at-bats!).

Other prolific offenses, such as those of the Yankees, the Rays, and the Orioles also reside near the top. This power outage can also be seen when looking at the OPS leaderboard. The Cardinals currently rank 26th in baseball. If you think they'll make up for their slugging deficit on the basepaths, you're sorely mistaken. Their two stolen bases outpace just the Tigers, the Giants, and the Twins.

That's kind of crazy. After the season the Cardinals just had, it's justifiable to be annoyed, and perhaps even worried. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. The Cardinals caught a grand total of zero breaks. So, of course, they'd be the last homerless team. It just makes sense, right?

Let's remember though, that all of what you just read is quite meaningless. It's still February. We're talking about the smallest of small sample sizes: a mere six games. Should we really be concerned? Are the Cardinals showing real signs of offensive failure? No, of course not! (By the way, they're actually getting on base at a solid clip of .349) What's more, their best players haven't been in the lineup. Only Jared Young, Alfonso Rivas, and Luken Baker have accrued more than ten at-bats. That trio, plus the likes of Jose Fermín, Arquimedes Gamboa, Pedro Pages, Cesar Prieto, Jeremy Rivas, Michael Siani, Buddy Kennedy, Matt Koperniak, Mike Antico, and Moises Gomez account for well over half of their plate appearances.

We've hardly seen Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, and Jordan Walker. But, that's the real problem, and it's why this statistic annoys me so much. I'm baseball-starved. I just survived an extended off-season that lasted nearly five months! I'm ready to watch some baseball. (For the record, Victor Scott has been a ton of fun to watch).

Unfortunately, getting shut out by the Mets isn't wetting my whistle. I just want to watch somebody in a Cardinal uniform drive a baseball 350-plus feet over the fence. That's the real problem! Regardless, today the Cardinals will face the Washington Nationals. With Patrick Corbin on the mound, now is as good a time as any to end this frustrating (though entirely meaningless) drought!