This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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The Cards are a simple story, a middling team that has had the horseshoe in close games for seven weeks. They’re 10-3 in one-run games and 11-3 in 1/x games, which is how a team that’s outscored its opponents by three runs climbs to 26-18. They’re just 22-22 by third-order record and Pythag record. They don’t have Cardinal Devil Magic or clutchitude or special one-run game skill; this is just something that happens over a few months of ball.
The better question is, “How are the Cardinals a .500 team by those other measures?” This was supposed to be a rebuilding year in St. Louis, the team’s first in decades, with Chaim Bloom fully in charge and most of the good players from 2025 shipped off around the league. Instead, they’re hanging in so far, top ten in runs scored, 12th in wOBA, 17th in ERA, seventh in Outs Above Average. They’re not a .600 team, but they are a .500 one.
The better question is, “How are the Cardinals a .500 team by those other measures?” This was supposed to be a rebuilding year in St. Louis, the team’s first in decades, with Chaim Bloom fully in charge and most of the good players from 2025 shipped off around the league. Instead, they’re hanging in so far, top ten in runs scored, 12th in wOBA, 17th in ERA, seventh in Outs Above Average. They’re not a .600 team, but they are a .500 one.
