5 Reasons the Cards Are Contenders

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As of September 5th, 2022, I think it is safe to say that the St. Louis Cardinals are World Series contenders, and here are 5 reasons why. 

1. Getting hot at the right time

While the Cardinals were not one of the better teams in baseball to start the season, they are now. In every professional sport, timing is everything. When teams get hot down the stretch, they are more likely to succeed than if they were to get a good jump from the start. Since the All-Star break, which is the midseason mark for Major League Baseball, the Cardinals are 29-11. This is no easy feat and has made it to where the Cardinals are one of the best teams in baseball. 

2. Being able to beat the good teams 

To go along with the Cardinals getting hot, they are doing so while also beating good teams. Although their easy schedule has made it to where they have not had to face too many tough opponents since the halfway mark, they have beaten the few that they have had to. Since the All-Star break, the Cardinals have faced 4 teams that are most likely going to be playing baseball come mid-October. These teams being the Blue Jays, Yankees, Brewers, and Braves, and they have not lost a single series. They split a two-game series with the Blue Jays, won all three against the Yankees, took 2 out of 3 against the Brewers, and beat the defending World Champions, the Braves, in 2 out of 3. So, while the last 40 games haven't been too hard, when the going got tough, the Cardinals got tougher. 

3. Impressive Pitching

One of the main reasons that the Cardinals have been playing such good baseball is thanks to their pitching. The Cardinals made some necessary trades to get Jose Quintana, and Jordan Montgomery, who have both helped their rotation in big ways. To go along with this, they have Adam Wainwright, who at the age of 40, just recently turned 41, is playing some great baseball. With an ERA of 3.21 in 168 innings pitched, and 132 strikeouts, the Cardinals ace looks to be 30. The man pitching behind Waino, Miles Mikolas, is also having an impressive year. In 176.1 innings pitched, Mikolas has an ERA of 3.32, with 127 strikeouts, which makes him a valuable asset to their team. This good rotation is also backed by a bullpen that is filled with potential, which you can find more information on in my previous posting here. With all these assets when it comes to pitching, the Cardinals look to be one of the teams to beat. 

4. The storybook ending

Baseball fans, who are not even Cardinals fans, may seem to be pulling for the Cardinals during the next couple of months. That is because of Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols, two future hall of famers who will be calling it quits after this season ends. Molina who has been with the Cardinals since 2004, and Pujols who was there from 2001-2011, and is now back for his last year in 2022, will look to do what they did twice before for the Cardinals; Win a World Series. These two veterans have been lighting a fire under an already hungry team and fanbase and hope to duplicate their months of October from 2006 and 2011. 

5. Two MVPs 

St. Louis is home to the two men who will be battling it out for the National League MVP Award, Nolan Arenado, and Paul Goldschmidt. Arenado currently has a batting average of .303, an on-base percentage of .366, 28 home runs, and an OPS of .927. These numbers are all way above average and go to show how good the Cardinal's third baseman has been in 2022. However, he is not as good as Paul Goldschmidt, who currently has a batting average of .331, which is first in all of baseball, an on-base percentage of .417, which is also first in all of baseball, 34 home runs, which is the second-best total in the National League, and an OPS of 1.034, which is second in all of baseball. These numbers are very impressive and make it to where Goldy is a clear favorite for the NL MVP Award. Having two guys playing like this is far from a bad thing and makes it to where the St. Louis Cardinals should not be slept on when it comes to the World Series conversation. 

Information/statistics retrieved from https://www.mlb.com/cardinals and https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/2022.shtml

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