St. Louis Cardinals Trade Deadline Preview

The Cardinals are an uncharacteristic 3-7 in one run games so far this season.  Proficiency in this area is a hallmark of playoff teams and that magic just has not been there so far this season. With an improved offense, perhaps this trend might be reversed, though they are already second in the majors in runs scored.

Baseball-Reference.com has a metric called Pythagorean win-loss to show how much luck has played a part in how the team fares.  Considering the Cardinals have a +51 in run differential, they should have a record of 33-23 rather than 29-27, which is significant with only a third of the season gone.  Sometimes this can happen if a team has a lot of blowouts which is the case with the Cardinals. 22 of their games have been decided by at least five runs

Going into Sunday’s games, the team was just 14-16 at home this season which must be improved to better their overall record. The Cubs have beaten the Cards four out of six times this season, so this is an area that has to get better as well. One would have to think the Cubs are not going to win 110 plus games and will be more vulnerable as the season goes on.

With a team that has so few obvious holes, there are just a few tweaks to suggest that might make a slight difference before the trade deadline.  Injuries usually pop-up but that is difficult to predict.  Once past solid performers start doing the job up to that standard, things will get better.

What could they do to give some help to one of their cornerstones?

Next: Back-Up Catcher