We’re about 35 games into the Major League Baseball season and where I live the majority of the talk is how disappointing the Chicago White Sox have been. The White Sox are off to a 11-23 start this season and find themselves already eight games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central. You can definitely say they’ve been disappointing, but they’re not the only team that was expected to be better than they are right now.
In all honesty the most disappointing team in baseball right now might be the St, Louis Cardinals. After yesterday’s 6-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers the Cardinals find themselves in last place in the National League Central with a record of 10-24. The Cardinals are 10 games behind the 1st place Pittsburgh Pirates and are currently on the longest losing streak in Major League Baseball at eight games.
It appears as though the first thing that the Cardinals are going to try to get themselves back on track is make a change at the catching position.
Yesterday the Cardinals called up catcher Tres Barrera from Triple-A. It’s being reported that Andrew Kizner will be the Cardinals #1 catcher and their big off season free agent signing Willson Contreras will be used in the corner outfield position and at designated hitter.
St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol told reporters he was not blaming Contreras for the Cardinals’ struggles and noted that the decision was made following a meeting with president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, pitching coach Dusty Blake and Contreras.
While Marmol mentioned that Contreras isn’t to blame for the Cardinals slow start this move makes it look as though they are, but Contreras is off to a solid start this season. In 32 games Contreras is hitting .277 with 9 doubles, 2 home runs and 14 RBI’s.
Overall, it doesn’t appear as though the Cardinals offense is the issue for these early season struggles. It looks as though the pitching has been letting the team down. St. Louis did get Adam Wainwright back from the IL yesterday and that should help the starting rotation. Without Wainwright Jordan Montgomery was the Cardinals only starting pitcher with an ERA under 5.40. In the bullpen with the exception of Jordan Hicks the relievers have good numbers. They’re just giving up runs at the wrong times and it’s costing the team games.
The NL Central is the weakest division in the National League and I don’t think that anyone is expecting the Pirates to stay in 1st place throughout the season, so it won’t be a surprise if the Cardinals find their way back into the division race.
The Cardinals haven’t had a losing record in a season since 2007. Is it possible that this is the year that the Cardinals find themselves under .500 and out of the playoffs?
Another team that you could say is struggling even though they have a winning record is the New York Yankees. The Yankees are actually two games over .500 at 18-16, but in the American League East a record like that puts them in last place. In any other division the Yankees would be no worse than 3rd place, but in their division they’re in last place.
The Yankees haven’t won more than two games in a row this season while their longest losing streak is four games. The Yankees have had seven two game winning streak this season and they have a chance to get their eighth two game winning streak today if they can beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the second time in a row this afternoon.
The Yankees are another one of those teams that seem to be injury prone. They signed Carlos Rodon to a 6-year $162 million dollar deal this past off season and Rodon has yet to pitch this season due to injury. At this point in his career, I don’t think that anyone is surprise when Giancarlo Stanton ends up on the IL and sure enough, he’s out. Stanton hasn’t played since April 15th, and I haven’t seen a timetable for his return yet. Even a bigger blow for the Yankees is the fact that Aaron Judge got injured and ended up on the IL. Judge has been out since April 27th, but it’s being reported that he’ll be returning to the Yankees lineup this Tuesday.
Even though he doesn’t appear to be the same player that won the American League Most Valuable Player award in 2015 Josh Donaldson is still a solid player and the fact that he’s only played in 5 games for the Yankees this season due to injury also is oart of the reason for New York being where they are in the standings.
Do you think that once the Yankees get healthy or maybe just healthier if they’ll be able to get themselves back into the rcae in the AL East? The Yankees are currently 9 games behind 1st place Tampa Bay.
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The AL east is the most competitive division in baseball. But I think the Yankees will, if injury free, find themselves back in at least the wild card playoff slot for sure.
A lot has been mentioned about the Pirates being the big surprise in baseball this season. But what about the Orioles? They’re in 2nd place right behind the Rays and are quite a surprise also.
Contreras has always had his detractors about pitch framing, etc. With Molina retiring and Contreas taking over the catcher’s position, maybe those naysayers were right about this all along.
Now he is off to a solid start hitting, but moving him to DH or the outfield??
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