The ROO

The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in a precarious spot for the first time in many years. It has been over half a decade where you would consider the Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak anything other than a “buyer” at the MLB trade deadline. But the 2016 season has presented some unique circumstances and despite struggles at home,  an onslaught of injuries and inconsistencies, the club sits just 6.5 games out of first place in the NL Central and in one of the two Wild Card spots. In most towns, given the circumstances, this would be considered a job well done by Mozeliak, manager  Mike Matheny  and the Cardinals. But when it comes to baseball, St. Louis fans do not view themselves as “most towns.” More is expected of this organization despite an unprecedented run of success, including 12 of 16 playoff appearances and four World Series appearances, including two titles. Cardinals fans are expecting Mozeliak to make a move, and the popular notion would be to upgr

It was another miserable weekend for the St. Louis Cardinals, who dropped 2 of 3 games from the Miami Marlins in the club’s first series after the All-star game. The weekend saw many of the same issues that have plagued the Cardinals all season, which caused the unfavorable, yet all too familiar result. An ineffective Trevor Rosenthal, too many strikeouts, bad defense, below average starting pitching and yes, some questionable decisions from manager Mike Matheny were the culprits once again. As I watched, bewildered by what I saw once more, I decided to venture over to baseball-reference.com just to thumb over some stats and see if there were any other issues besides Michael Wacha’s inability to go deep in to games consistently and Aledmys Diaz’s below-average defense at the shortstop position. And boy did I find something interesting. I realize many of you stat geeks rely on Fangraphs for your WAR figures, but I was on baseball-reference, so we will use their numbers. Come to f

Before you dig into this minor miracle that is the second piece of content published by our mostly irrelevant site this week, I want to proclaim a warning. If you are one of those St. Louis Cardinals fans that blame every failed pinch-hitting appearance or every inherited runner to score on manager  Mike Matheny  or general manager John Mozeliak, then should just stop reading now. This is a land of reality. A land where emotion is balanced out with common sense. A space where we try to prove that your initial reaction, at no fault of your own, is basically wrong. Now that we have that cleared up, I believe that Cardinals fans should tip their cap to Mozeliak for his bold risk in signing and sticking by  Aledmys Diaz . Yes, I am giving the general manager credit where credit is due. Diaz was basically an unknown when the Cardinals signed him to a four-year, $8 million deal and at the start of his career. He looked rusty, out-of-shape, and injury prone. He struggled mightily def