Hello everybody. Lboros is out of town for the week soaking up some sun with the family, and he's got a crack team watching the place till he gets back. I'm Valatan--you've likely seen me lurking around in the comments section here a bit. I also run The Voyage of Captain Obvious, which has been lower in Cardinals content recently than it was in the past, but I'll be writing on them off and on.
Now, after getting swept by the Pirates, it might be time to take stock of the season, and the agony in the recent comments is quite visible. I say that it's time to stop worrying--the 2006 Cardinals are going to be a wild ride from here on out. They'll go on these obnoxious cold spells, and they'll go on absurd hot streaks. There's going to be no rhyme or reason to any of it--the team just has too many role players that are expected to be solid regulars.
But here's the thing, I see this as less of a problem than other people do. Is anyone honestly telling me that the 1997 Marlins were the best team in baseball? The 2003 Angels? This team isn't really built to be a championship team, but it doesn't need to be, either. So long as they keep chugging along and make the playoffs, we instantly have the fifth starter of horrors removed from the rotation, and if we get even luckier, perhaps the team will go on a last minute hot streak, which is what the eventual champion will do anyway--potentially Carp/Reyes/Mulder/Suppan is a great postseson rotation if Suppan's resurgence is for real, DuncRussa keeps on trusting Reyes' stuff, and Mulder comes back from his injury.
That's what we're left with with the 2006 Cardinals--a bunch of ifs. But at least there are about 10 NL teams that would be killing ot have our ifs.
[Editor's note]: Of course, the 2003 Angels didn't win the WS, it was the 2002 Angels. Error left uncorrected as an ode to my carelessness. But noone thought the '02 Angels were the best team in baseball, so my point stands