At 42-30 the Cardinals are currently one of the best teams in baseball. Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan called them ‘the little team that could’ and I tend to second that sentiment. With a cut and paste lineup and patchwork rotation, the success of this year’s Cardinals team under Tony La Russa has been nothing short of extraordinary. The Cardinals aren’t the prettiest team, they aren’t the fastest, the strongest or the most talented, but what they do bring is hustle, and a lot of it. So far this season the Cards have done nothing but win despite countless injuries to key players (Carpenter, Pujols, Wainwright, and recently Wellemeyer and Molina).
I’ll be the first person to admit the Cardinals have been somewhat lucky. Don’t get me wrong Tony La Russa is good, but is he THAT good? To be honest, no one, not even I, could have predicted that Skip Schumaker, Ryan Ludwick, Brian Barton and Rick Ankiel would have a coming out party. Not to mention that Braden Looper and Todd Wellemeyer would be pitching as consistently and dominantly as they have been. The bullpen has been suspect at times, and had it not been for it, or more specifically Randy Flores, the Cardinals would be leading the NL Central and probably have the best record in baseball. Although La Russa can’t be faulted for that, Tyler Johnson would have been used in the situations Flores was being used in had he not been injured along with 8 other Cardinals pitchers. St. Louis is playing loose without any pressure on them as they were predicted to finish in the basement of their division.
Can the success continue? With Pujols out for a small, but important portion of time, some others have got to step up and step up big until he can return (that’s YOU Chris Duncan, you were given a second chance, make something of it!). If the Cardinals can continue this streak of effort, decent pitching and defense (and get a bit more help from the bullpen) they will most likely be the NL wildcard. Personally I think the Cards need to take a run at a serviceable bat in order to bring some power that’s been lacking, and another starter wouldn’t hurt either.
Good news! Chris Carpenter will begin rehab soon since he was given the green light earlier this week. This could mean we could see him in August and if the Cards are still in contention at that time, that would be just what the doctor ordered.
Thanks For Reading!
BT
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Last post (s) by Brad Thomas
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3 Responses to ““Good things come to those who wait, but only what is left by those who hustle.” - Abe Lincoln”
Posted: 06/18/08 at 5:20 pm
Cards have one of the best team in all of baseball its to bad there in the same division as the Cubs
Randy
Posted: 06/18/08 at 9:10 pm
They grab the wildcard spot for sure but agreed, very solid team!
Posted: 06/18/08 at 9:21 pm
I love the make-up of this team. Virtually no stars types outside of Pujols who is a great leader. They work hard, and most of them know they need to keep working to get their big payday or championship ring. They need a bat tough, I’d like to see them go out and get a producing middle infielder, but who know what’s going to be available come deadline time.