A Look At the Future For the Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals have had their ups and downs this season. They are coming off of three straight wins as the all-star break just ended, and they have been playing some of their best baseball all year. They own a record of 47-47 and are third in the NL Central. The Cards will have some decision-making to do as the trade deadline approaches. Let’s take a look at the future for the Cardinals!

So far, the offense has been sub-par throughout the year, but the bigger problem has been the starting and bullpen pitching. Although the Cards haven’t had Milos Mikolas or Jack Flaherty for most of the year, they still have let too many games slip because of poor starting pitching and failure to throw strikes.

Offensively, the Cardinals are starting to pick it up after the all-star break as Paul Goldschmidt has been on a tear with 13 straight games getting on base and Tyler O’neil’s 6-game hit streak. We will see if the rest of the lineup can get going in these next few weeks. The Cardinals will have some vital series in the next few days as they play the Cubs and Reds.

Analyzing the Cardinals First Half of the Season

The Cardinals are an average team 94 games through the year. A terrible month of June really tore the Cardinal’s morale, so the all-star break was much needed. The bullpen pitching has struggled all year with the inconsistent strike-throwing. The offense has just been average, and they must pick it up if the Cardinals want to compete.

The Cardinals are 24th in hits and average for the year and a measly 26th in runs. The offense hasn’t been able to string together any games so far and is in need of a big second half offensively. The pitching is 11th in batting average against and 15th in ERA. The Cardinals have been below average in stats, but that could change in the next half of the year.

Key players of the Cardinals consist of Nolan Arenado, Yadier Molina, Paul Goldschmidt, Jack Flaherty, Alex Reyes, and a few others. But I would say these three guys have had fulfilling seasons so far. Three of the five players were all-stars, but Jack Flaherty was injured, and Goldy is just now starting to pick it up. Tyler O’Neil could have also been an all-star this year.

Will the Cardinals Buy or Sell at the Trade Deadline?

I believe that if the Cardinals continue to win at the level, they have been, they will search for another bat to make a run at the wild card. Winners in 6 of their last 9 games, the Cardinals have the momentum to ride into the postseason. St. Louis is 6 games back of the wild card spot, with the Phillies, Reds, Dodgers, and Padres in front.

The Cardinals will be getting their star pitchers Flaherty and Mikolas back in the next few weeks. If they are back to pitching well and productive, the Cardinals could go on to win against the Indians, Twins, and Royals in the upcoming series versus the AL Central teams. If the offense continues to smash the ball, then the Cards can potentially win each of these series.

I think that if the Cards win 5 of their next 8 games before the trade deadline, they will look for a bat or a starting pitcher to help out the rotation. Potentially we could see a Nolan Gorman call-up if the Cards have gotten closer to the Brewers for first place. After all, there are still 12 games to be played between Milwaukee and St. Louis. It should be a great rest of the season.