ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis Cardinals are under .500 with a record of 31-33. But believe it or not, the Cardinals are actually still in the mix for the playoffs despite being seven games back in the NL Central to the Milwaukee Brewers.
While the race for the NL Central is probably going to see the Brewers win their third division title in the last four years, the division is still competitive, with only half a game separating second place Chicago Cubs and last place Pittsburgh Pirates in the division standings.
Looking at the NL Wild Card standings, it is really competitive, with only four games separating the New York Mets, who have the third-worst record in the National League, and the second wild card spot, currently held by the San Diego Padres.
The Cardinals are only a game back of the Padres for the second wild-card spot and only half a game back of the third wild-card spot, which is held by the San Francisco Giants.
"It's really a whole crazy National League," said Will Leitch, longtime baseball writer and founder of Deadspin on The Chris and Amy Show Tuesday. "I think you look at (Tuesday's game between Cardinals and Pirates) as a good example. The Cardinals are half a game out the wild card. That's great and if they win (Tuesday) they are in a wild card spot. If they lose, they are in last place (of the NL Central). That's kind the way it's going in the National League right now."
While the Cardinals aren't a perfect team and certainly have some issues like inconsistent hitting, depth issues at some positions, and some issues defensively, the teams they are competing with in the Nationals League also have significant flaws too.
"For all the problems the Cardinals have, and I think we can agree they do have some problems, all the teams they are competing with also have problems," said Leitch. "I think that kind of an advantage (the Cardinals) have here is that they have some time to figure themselves out. Every team is one hot streak away from getting some distance in the wild-card race."
While the Cardinals are in the race for the playoffs, Leitch does feel the club have been comfortable with only getting 84-88 wins instead of shooting for the stars like the Atlanta Braves and others top clubs in the sport have done. Leitch doesn't think that is a good long-term strategy especially when the Cardinals' division rivals all have really good young talent on them.
"The Cardinals, I think there's a sense that by shooting to be slightly above the middle, that can work for a while," said Leitch. "But I think eventually if you are not careful, you can be left behind a little and I think that's a concern here. The Cardinals have some young talent in the system, but it really doesn't compare with others in the NL Central and you look at the team, you have some flaws, with their two stars Goldschmidt and Arenado that are not playing the way they have had historically. I think it leads to general issues for the team. It lowers the floor for a team and it can make the margin of error a lot thinner to get that 84-85 wins."
