ST. LOUIS — It usually doesn't take much to convince me to watch a ballgame.
No matter the teams, no matter the time I'm probably game. Heck, I stayed up many a late night watching KBO action from South Korea last summer while MLB was still on a hiatus during the pandemic.
But along with what I can assume is a large portion of St. Louis right now, I'm faced with a depressing predicament. Unless Adam Wainwright is on the mound, I can't find a compelling reason to have any hope when I turn on a Cardinals game.
Yes, it is still June, but even the most positive of Cardinals fans can't deny how atrocious June has been. Almost every game this month feels like a joyless slog to a predetermined ending.
You're guaranteed about three things when you flip on a Cardinals game right now:
- They're going to walk a ton of batters (They currently lead the league with 337 walks issued in 78 games. That's 23 more than the next-closest team.)
- They're going to score three runs or fewer (The Cardinals have scored the fifth-fewest runs in baseball and have scored fewer than three runs in 17 of their 24 June games.)
- And postgame Mike Shildt is going to say the team "battled their tails off", or something in that spirit.
And I'm sure they are battling their tails off. This has got to be agony for them, too.
This was a team full of excitement at the beginning of the season. Nolan Arenado was here, things were getting back to normal and the NL Central was winnable. Now, just a few months later it's hard to remember what that excitement felt like.
The recent downturn is especially depressing because when you look at who the losses have come against, it paints a bleak picture on where the Cardinals stand in the pecking order of baseball in 2021.
So far in June the Cardinals are 5-16 against teams that would not be in the playoffs if the season ended on Sunday. That's a massive shock to the system. And if they're not careful, it's one they won't be able to recover from. They're already eight games out of first place in the NL Central.
Yes, the pitching is banged up, that's undoubtedly playing a role. But that's why there should have been measures in place to prepare for that eventuality, right? In the past decade plus the Cardinals have been one of the best teams in baseball at developing young pitching that pays off at the big league level. But right now, other than a couple of arms that are still not ready for prime time, the cupboard looks pretty bare. I mean, the Cardinals are about to give a start to veteran lefty Wade LeBlanc, so that about sums it up.
On the offensive side, you can't make the injury excuse. Aside from Harrison Bader's absence, this is the exact lineup the Cardinals envisioned trotting out there going into the season. And it's an offense with the third-worst OPS in all of baseball. This was always a team that looked like it needed another bat in the offseason. The bench is thinner than I can ever remember, and there aren't a whole lot of other options for Mike Shildt to try without the 40-man roster getting all sorts of mixed up. Which, honestly, may be worth it at this point.
The baseball season is a marathon. But these games count the same as the ones in September. Now, any kind of streak of strong play by this team will feel more like digging out of a hole instead of establishing themselves as one of the teams to beat.
One trade or one call up won't fix this team. Would it hurt to shake things up? No, of course not. But to salvage the season from being a lost cause, the team that was assembled for 2021 needs to play better. And right now there's not much of a reason to suspect that's going to happen any time soon.
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