Okay, so the Cardinals went 3-5 in their 8 games against the Rockies and Brewers. We saw a lot of things we didn’t expect to see from them. Isringhausen was terrible, Lohse struggled again and the Cards can’t manage to produce runs for more than one inning per game. Is the situation worth panicking over?

    I don’t think so.  Given their recent struggles, they have fallen behind the Cubs by only one game in the NL Central. The starting pitching continues to be decent, some offense is being generated and the Cardinals are playing inspired defense. Let us not forget that just about every team in this division is having problems, whether it be consistency, hitting or even what seems to be the theme in the Central: bullpen struggles (or more specifically closer troubles).  Also, let us not forget that the Cubs were picked by most experts and magazines to run away with this division.  Also, most experts picked the Cardinals to flat out suck, and lose about 100 games this year. The Cardinals are performing much better than anyone could have anticipated, so there is absolutely no reason for Cardinals fans to panic as they are proving a lot of people wrong.

    Look on the bright side: Chris Carpenter will eventually be back (whether he is Cy Young caliber again is yet to be seen), Jason Isringhausen will figure his flaws out (if not the Cardinals will find someone who can shut the door in a hurry), the young guys can hit, and they are playing solid team defense. Ryan Ludwick and Skip Schumaker continue their success in their first full year. Rick Ankiel continues to be a true feel-good story (even though the HGH rumors continue to come up from time to time) and Adam Wainwright for the most part looks like a guy with ace potential.

     This division is wide open and is anyone’s for the taking! It’s still early but the following can be said: The Astros need pitching help eventually if they hope to stay in contention (Brandon Backe in the 2 slot doesn’t say much for their rotation), the Cubs are overrated (let’s face it, even if they win the division they’ll still find a way to lose early in the playoffs) and the Reds, Brewers and Pirates are already looking forward to dealing away their big contracts. The Cardinals in my opinion are over-achieving and are bound to come down to some degree at some point, but they won’t lose 100 games.

I think the Cardinals need to get more power from Troy Glaus, eventually trade a potential everyday outfielder (Schumaker, Duncan, Ludwick) for either a power bat or another starting pitcher (especially if Mulder is still behind schedule) and find a solution to the bullpen problem.

Cardinals open up a home stand against the lowly Pirates on Tuesday.

Also, for those of you who haven’t seen it, Yadier Molina had the best ejection of the year today. After being thrown out, he left his catcher’s equipment in a pile at the umpire’s feet. Hilarious.

Thanks for reading!

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