The St. Louis Cardinals are the model baseball franchise. Great fans who form a rabid base of supporters in town and across the country, to the tune of 3.5 million tickets sold every year.
Great Stadium. Great atmosphere. Great tradition.
Unbelievable history with an unbelievable flair for celebrating and promoting that history. Nobody does it better than the Cardinals; it's always first-class.
That's off the field, however.
On the field, the problems that plague the team a quarter of the way through the 2018 season are the same problems that have plagued the team for several years.
Poor, inconsistent defense.
Poor, inconsistent base-running.
Poor bullpen management.
It's a surefire recipe for losing winnable games.
On defense, you could argue the Cardinals don't have a real first baseman or a real third baseman.
Collectively, the team still hasn't shown an ability on defense to execute a rundown effectively. A prime example took place Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium in the top of the 10th inning. The Royals didn't score on the play but they ended up better on the bases going from first and third to second and third.
It's a simple, fundamental, defensive flaw that has been the norm for three seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals. And it doesn't seem to matter or show any sign of changing.
Cardinals fans — fans who appreciate and love good, quality baseball — just have to deal with it, apparently. Not even Jose Oquendo himself can change it.
It's a lackadaisical approach lacking in any sense of urgency, concern or accountability. Shoot, they'll fix it.
That phrase sounds familiar. Hint: see Fisher, Jeff.
WHAT ABOUT THE CARDINALS 26-21 RECORD?
After losing two out of three to the quickly-fallen-from-grace Kansas City Royals, the Cardinals record against Kansas City, the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds is a combined 10-2.
Those three teams have a combined record of 47-96. In other words, all three teams have a win percentage of .347 or lower (as of this typing).
The Cardinals don't make the schedule and good teams beat up on the bad ones, sure, but the Cardinals are 16-19 against every team who isn't completely terrible.
You wouldn't think a good team would lose the series to the Royals, especially after winning the first game. You also wouldn't think a good team would split a four-game series in San Diego, especially after taking the first two games.
Unfortunately, unless the Cardinals have a really big lead, I just assume most late, close games will go the way of the opposition. It saves a lot of frustration. Call it cynical if you want, I call it practical and real.
The Cardinals organization seems to be completely OK with winning 84-to-86 games every year, seems to be OK with losing winnable games and seems to be OK with inconsistent, poor defense and baserunning.
Until the fans stop showing up – no, until the fans stop buying tickets, I should say – I don't see the inconsistent brand of baseball ending.
It's the same old new-song and dance for the Redbirds, it's just that this year, the only scapegoat before the skipper is the hitting coach. There are no more third-base and first-base coaches the organization can fire nor are there other bench coaches or pitching coaches. Been there, done that.
There are only two left.
This article isn't a call for the Cardinals to fire John Mabry or Mike Matheny. It is a call, however, to change the brand of baseball to high-quality.
Admittedly, I haven't sat through a lot of games this year. My attention span and frustration level for bad baseball has been worn down by the same on-field product, on repeat.
Even if the Cardinals win their 85 or 87 games and earn a wild-card berth, recent history gives us no reason to believe the team can win close games against teams that execute better and are seemingly better-managed.
That's why a 26-21 record isn't a silver lining or a band-aid following a series loss to the Royals.
I am an optimistic person, so here's a real silver lining at this point in the season: history says Marcell Ozuna and Matt Carpenter will likely produce a lot more than they have (Carpenter just had his first big-burst of the season) (and let's hope Ozuna can wake up on time).
In addition, Yadier Molina will return at some point, which will improve everything except base-running and hustling out of the box.
Another silver lining is a big one (and a credit to scouting): the crop of young arms in the starting rotation. Alex Reyes will return to the starting rotation soon - barring catastrophe - and Carlos Martinez and his 1.62 ERA likely return soon.
Those two, along with Mikolas, Weaver, Wacha and Jack Flaherty could form a six-man rotation to keep Reyes and the other young arms from flat-lining (dead-arm, as it is known).
There are many possibilities, let's just hope the Cardinals don't send down a young arm to make room for Adam Wainwright. If that sounds harsh, I'm not sorry. I'm just being real.
A return to good health should be a great elixir for the Cardinals starting rotation but what happens in the late innings when relievers are summoned and decisions need to be made?
It'll be a queasy roller coaster for sure. Six Flags has nothing on the Cardinals this summer.
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