The Cardinals are about to embark on the second half of the 2010 campaign in eighth place relative to all of the other NL teams. Seven other teams have a higher win percentage than the Cards (.534) and another (San Francisco) is tied with them.
Forget about going into the playoffs as a wild card team if the Reds win the Central division. Six other teams would have a higher win percentage and would supplant the Cardinals as a playoff contender if the season were to end right now.
And the Reds are about to get better – a lot better. They have pitchers Edinson Volquez (21 – 8 with a 3.44 ERA the past two years) and Homer Bailey coming back from the DL. This means that they don’t have to make a trade to get better.
The Cardinals continue to struggle with a pop-gun middle infield which is beginning to unravel defensively as well. Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker have already committed six more errors combined (23) than they made all of last year. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves just added Alex Gonzalez (20 HRs/50 RBIs) from Toronto at the SS position.
The Reds are the only Central division team with a non-losing road record at the break. To give you an idea of how weak the Cardinals have been away from Busch, the team has a worse road record (20-26) than the Milwaukee Brewers (20-23), and only a slightly better road record than the imploded Cubs (19-27). This doesn’t bode well for a solid second half.
The Cardinals need an impact bat in the middle infield and a solid starting pitcher. It’s not realistic to expect them to acquire both. Let’s hope that they get at least one.
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