Here is a blurb form the Dispatch today. I think Bernie nails it down in these paragraphs.
I'm jumping way ahead here. We should wait to analyze the final results later. Yes, I get it. But I can't help but think of the reaction and potential fallout of another also-ran season in St. Louis.
It won't be pretty. And it shouldn't be.
This is the fifth season on the books since the 2006 Cardinals won the World Series.
The Cardinals have qualified for the postseason only once in the previous four seasons. They haven't won a postseason game since the final out of that '06 World Series. And a failure to return to the playoffs in 2011 would make it just one postseason trip in five years.
That would be difficult to rationalize considering the higher standards established when owner Bill DeWitt Jr. and manager Tony La Russa took over in 1996.
A team anchored by Albert Pujols should finish first in this division more than once over a five-year period. This isn't the AL East. Or even the NL East.
And while the Cardinals don't spend at the level of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox, the STL payroll has ranked among the top 13 annually over the past five seasons. This year, DeWitt jacked the payroll to $109 million, which ranks 10th in MLB. If anything, DeWitt isn't getting value for his payroll dollars.