The Baseball Season Is One Quarter Finished

The Cardinals started the season well, but that may be due to playing nothing but NL Central teams for the month of April. The NL Central stinks. On the occasions the Cards have played teams that are actually good, they've done terribly. Atlanta swept them, and so did the Dodgers. So 0-6 against not crap teams.

Of course, injuries play a role. McClellan just went on the DL, for all that matters. Wainwright's still pitching poorly, Carpenter still hasn't pitched at all. Berkman went on the Dl early in the year, came back, then went on the DL again. Allen Craig came back from his knee surgery, hit 5 HRs and 5 doubles in less than 60 plate appearances, then injured his hamstring. Carlos Beltran's having knee problems. Jon Jay separated his shoulder, came back, then went on the DL again. Oh, and they released J.C. Romero for being terrible.

It's too bad, because most of those injured guys were playing really well, or at least hitting really well. It does highlight the risk the Cards took. For all that they have add some good players through their farm system, they were still counting on a lot of production from Carp, Berk, Beltran, and Furcal. All those guys are at least 34, and all of them have considerable injury history. The team had to know what they were potentially setting themselves up for. The lineup clearly isn't as strong, but it's the pitching more than anything that's been letting them down lately. Starters getting hammered as Lynn, Lohse, and Westbrook regress to the mean, while Wagonmaker scuffles. Then the bullpen screws the pooch on the rare occasions (like last night) that the team actually manages a lead.

On a positive note, Freese is still hitting well (though still not drawing any walks), Molina's picked up where he left off offensively last year, and Tyler Greene is getting regular playing time at second base. It helps that Jay and Beltran's injuries have forced Schumaker into more outfield duty, which is not really  a fair trade, but at least it's keeping Skip away from second base. And the Cards are still on pace for an 86 to 88 win season, which might get them in the playoffs, depending on whether the Reds are still heating up, or if they're essentially no better than St. Louis.