The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s
By Bill Felber
The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s
T-9. 2015 St. Louis Cardinals, 10 points
Based purely on regular-season performance, the Cardinals should have won the 2015 World Series. With a major league-high 100 victories, they dominated baseball’s toughest division, the NL Central, which also produced both of the National League’s wild card teams.
St. Louis’ strength was its deep pitching staff, the majors’ best. With five double-figure winners in the rotation, the Cardinals rang up a team 134 OPS+, 13 points better than any other team.
If the Cardinals had a weakness, it was an at-best average offense led by Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday.
In the post-season, however, St. Louis ran afoul of the depth in its own division. After the third-place Chicago Cubs dispatched runner-up Pittsburgh in the wild card game, they spotted St. Louis a 4-0 Game 1 win and then swept the Cardinals three straight.
The vaunted pitching staff came up small in St. Louis and Chicago, allowing six, eight and six runs. In the fourth game, Anthony Rizzo’s sixth-inning home run off Kevin Siegrist broke a 4-4 tie, and Kyle Schwarber also homered off Siegrist to set the 6-4 final.
The Cardinals’ defeat opened the way for the NL East winning New York Mets to claim the National League pennant. In the World Series, Kansas City’s Royals polished off the Mets in five games.