2011 St. Louis Cardinals

Here we have the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals. They made the playoffs as the wild card team winning in the World Series over the Texas Rangers 4-3. It was a very impressive run for the Cardinals beginning their 4 year run of at worst making it to the National League Divisional Series. Coming in at 4170 points this team can add some more firepower but also missing the bench members that would drive up the point total.

Offense : Whenever I think of the St. Louis Cardinals I cannot help but think of one of my favorite players of all time, Albert Pujols. 2011 was his last season with the Cardinals, and his worst season statistically with them. His worst on-base percentage season with .30 percentage points. Luckily for him he had Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and Yadie Molina to help carry him through the World Series. Overall, I was surprised at how mediocre the batting order is. Any Phillies, Rangers, or Brewers fans who are looking at this team can only hang their heads in disappointment that they let their best ever chance at a World Series slide to this bunch of dudes.

Starters : As seen by most of the World Series teams this Cardinals starting staff is solid all the way around. Comparative to the other staffs I would say it is somewhere in the middle of the pack. However, they've got three Tier 3 starters, providing solid depth. Westbrook is a weak link but can be supported by the bullpen and has a good range of K/PU to stop advancing and GB for double plays. Carpenter is the "Jeff D'Amico" of the rotation and can be an untouchable ace when he's on... just like the amazing 2011 Phillies found out in Game 5 of the NLDS!

Bullpen: A solid bullpen at the top could help alleviate any of the short comings of the starters, but once you get to Arthur Rhodes you begin to risk a big inning.

Overall: The 2011 Cardinals are a great illustration of how a team get hot (aka lucky rolling) in real-life or Showdown. They knocked off three teams that were, at least in Showdown terms, stronger teams (they only had 88 wins in Pythagorean W-L!) ... which makes sense considering all the calculations are based on regular season performance. Seriously, they had the fewest wins of any team entering the postseason... but they "rolled" very well when they had to, especially Pujols against the Brewers and David Freese in the World Series. This is probably the weakest team we've present so far, but just like the magic of "11 in 11" (which some site contributors had to watch in Missouri while their beloved Brewers lost to St. Louis.... again), this team could surprise anybody with the right managerial magic!