The last two weeks I have been writing in the hopes that the Cardinals make me look bad and go on a red hot streak, suddenly putting themselves in the middle of the wild card chase… but they keep sort of treading water, magnetically attracted to .500 baseball. They cannot sink, but they can only float around the surface. It is perhaps the ceiling of this team, or close to it. Save us, lifeboat! I’m sure things could have gone a little better, but events ended up more promising than expected.
What happened to the Cardinals hot start? I think it relates a lot to the outfield.
Going into May, the Cardinals were 18-13! Jordan Walker was at 148 wRC+. It was a crazy time to be alive. Crazy good! Walker’s May ended up maintaining his line at 150 wRC+. He was carrying the offense to some extent. When you have a hitter like that, it can be more difficult to lose. Eventually, the first major injury of the season happened. But it was not to Jordan Walker.
May 22nd, 2026
Nathan Church left the team injured with a left shoulder strain that tore down our two center fielder run prevent outfield that would mostly make up for Walker’s defense in right field. Nathan Church would not return until June 9th! In my opinion, this was the best outfield setup we could muster this year, because if you hit it to the center or left side of the outfield, you probably ended up in someone’s glove instead of on base. (Of course, Baez and Church should be better, but I don’t know that it is just yet). So, I see this as a major turning point of the season.
We would eventually lose a lot more run prevention in center field, though…
June 8th, 2026
Victor Scott II was demoted due to the return of Lars Nootbaar on June 5th, and because Nathan Church was activated from the Injured List the next day. That’s too many outfielders with your bench full of utility players.
Victor Scott’s demotion was far from surprising, because he was batting at .534 OPS. That’s really, really bad. However, I do believe that our pitching staff from top to bottom, relied on Victor Scott II’s defense. Perhaps especially the bullpen. I know his defensive metrics weren’t quite as flashy this year, but he still mattered a lot as far as run suppression, numbers be damned.
Lars Nootbaar ended up playing 48 games for the Cardinals in 2026, batting at a .687 OPS clip. Nootbaar isn’t as bad in the outfield this year, but his defense is still lackluster. His defense, combined with Church’s less valuable than Scott’s center field defense, wasn’t the answer, because neither were hitting that well. I can see where you might disagree with this narrative, but hear me out…
The Cardinals were 28-21 when Nathan Church went down injured, leaving Victor Scott II with left fielders like Torres, Fermin, Saggese. Not as bad of fielders as Nootbaar, potentially, but not the best options. When Nootbaar was promoted and Scott sent down to AAA, the Cardinals were 35-28. It felt like the team could build upon some success at this point, with the familiar Nootbaar’s return, but the Cardinals have floundered ever since. The production out of center and left field has been a sticking point for the team this season.
And the outfield in general has been centered around Jordan Walker’s hitting, in effect. His defense has been passable, but still a liability despite the amazing throwing arm. The Cardinals would go 9-10 for the rest of June, with Scott’s exit and Nootbaar’s return.
July of 2026, a Helluva (not good) Month
During the month of July, the Cardinals went 10-18 and played 28 games within a possible 27 days, since only 27 days of July were available for regular season baseball. The mighty All-Star Break forced a 4 game detour for the team, while the schedule expected of them a game every damn day, plus one double header. With the summer ramping up, the Cardinals played a ton of baseball, got a long break, then played a ton more baseball. The JJ Wetherholt extension and multiple Cardinal All Star appearances, coupled with Jordan Walker’s Home Run Derby championship, all proved to be distractions rather than the big-time happy moments that they were. Or, the team simply ran out of gas despite the exhibition break. It was not a good month for the win-loss columns.
You might think Jordan Walker’s offense fell off that horrible month, but his floor was in June where he was just a league average hitter. Walker’s July wasn’t scorching hot, but it was well above average. During August, Jordan went on a tear again, this time more of a pure hitter than a power hitter: 136 wRC+. Unfortunately in September, he seems to be hitting the ball more into the ground again and chasing after breaking pitches outside the zone. He’s back to league average so far in September. He will need to turn that around to not leave us remembering a slumping Walker as a recency bias. I think he might put something together down the stretch.
Whatever ruined the hot start for the Cardinals, it was probably bound to happen. No team ever has a perfect, storybook season. Many good teams battle injuries, and who knows what else behind the scenes. Unpredictability reigns supreme. But at least the Cardinals outdid the worst expectations.
What do you think, did losing the double center fielder tandem in LF/CF Church and Scott, create a ripple that could not be righted? Does our pitching staff need rather staunch defense in left and center, with Walker in right and with our particular blend of pitchers? I think it really does. But I’ll never know. I think it needs Winn and Wetherholt in the middle infield even more, but when you add another two elite defenders in the outfield, that really helps. Of course, avoiding injuries always helps too, but it wasn’t until more recently that a wave of injuries happened. It’s just funny that one injury to a young player appeared to create a ripple effect down the timeline of the season. Or are we just following Jordan Walker’s lead on offense?
More On 1996 Music
I’m not a moron! I’m just providing you more on a year of music that I wrote about already last week. All the time I could muster was towards my absolute favorite A+ albums of 1996, including albums by bands The Swirlies, Meat Beat Manifesto, Ministry, Squarepusher, Unwound, and Dr Octagon. All total classics to me.
This week I am going more into my research into 1996, showcasing some albums that I wasn’t expecting to put on the list, plus some classics from my 90s collection that have been with me a while (but were not in my top 6). And of course, my Heavy Metal list for 1996 will have to be postponed! Running out of fumes at the finish line again.
- Polvo – ‘Exploded Drawing’ absolutely epic sounding double album, and one of my favorite album covers. Polvo continue their crusade of melding alternative tunings with math rock and indie on the weird side of things. The magic within the two guitarists creates this weird, mystical sound that is again, not easy to describe… might I recommend the songs “Bridesmaid Blues”, “Snowstorm In Iowa”, and “The Purple Bear”? Can I get a “Taste of Your Mind” hear?
- Bowery Electric – ‘Beat’ if you lived through the 90s, checking out new music all the time, you know the terms shoegaze and triphop. They were two of the primary new genres of the 90s. There were other new genres too, because the 1990s were about innovations if nothing else… but Bowery Electric walked the line between those two super hip music genres. This may be their most minimalist album, but don’t let that turn you off, it’s really quite good ear candy.
- Failure – ‘Fantastic Planet’ Failure’s magnum opus according to the critics, this is where the band starts to command their own production and become next level on that front. I consider the album prior to be just as good, but Fantastic Planet was the album that really put Failure on the map. And they continue to release music today. Great freakin’ alt rock band, not easy to describe their sound as it straddles several genres.
- Rage Against The Machine – ‘Evil Empire’ this album was out for my community college years and it was a good party soundtrack for the times. My friends and I used to call it Rage’s “black sabbath” album. It really rocks, and stands out just as much as their debut. They would never quite match the ferocity of their first two again, but what a high it was. I don’t really agree with much of the internet thinking of them as a bit of a joke, they really meant what they were writing about in the 90’s. And it freakin rocked!
- Stereolab – ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ this was the album that made me a fan of the ‘Lab. I don’t know if anyone calls them that, but I do it affectionately. I love this band! French and fantasticly fun. Some were calling them electronic music around this time, because it was getting popular, but they’re so much more.
- DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo – ‘Ki Oku’ triphop DJ beats mixed with trumpeter extraordinaire Toshinori Kondo = a winning combination and an all-time downtempo classic listening experience. Sit down, chill the eff out, and hit play for a while.
- Drunken Fish Records Space Rock Comp – ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ stumbled upon this and I love it! The first 3 bands on it, Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack, and Jessamine, are all top notch. Psychedelic rock in the 90s got to be pretty underground outside of the big names, so it’s nice to hear some of this movement.
- TOOL – ‘Aenima’ there was a time where I would have said this was my favorite album of 1996! I still love it as Tool’s best album. And I think the best songs on it are the sleeper cuts like H. and Jimmy. Perhaps even better than the music: the liner notes introduced me to Bill Hicks, Timothy Leary, and Aleister Crowley. And they did always have cool stop motion videos as a big part of the appeal.
- Ween – ‘12 Golden Country Greats’ I bet you thought I wouldn’t put any country music on the list! Here Ween take a sidestep and make a really well-done classic country album with a humorous bent. You’ll either love it or hate it! I find it entertaining and another dimension to a many-headed band.
- Orbital – ‘Insides’ this is one of those electronic music albums that was actually well ahead of its time, but is finally starting to sound a bit dated. Still, it’s worth a listen as a peak into what was very high tech at the time and full of innovative, fun sounds. I must admit I do not listen to Orbital much anymore, but they were a huge influence on me musically, at the time.
- Lycia – ‘Cold’ a goth album for the winter, gotta have that. And it’s a new find! exciting. If you like your music dark, forboding, but eerily beautiful and full of chorused out guitars, this is for you.
- Juggaknots – ‘Clear Blue Skies’ outside of Dr Octagon and DJ Krush, this is my favorite hiphop album of 1996, and a really good find! I know what I like…
- De La Soul – ‘Stakes Is High’ and my other favorite hiphop album of 1996 goes to De La Soul. Somehow I had never heard of this album before, but it’s really good!
- Fiona Apple – ‘Tidal’ is it possible an entire streaming service is named after this album? I kid! But I like Fiona Apple too much to leave Tidal off the list. You probably know this alternative rock classic with nods towards triphop, singer songwriter, pop, jazz and other genres. That voice!
Oh look! I actually had time to put all this into a playlist *including last week’s top 6! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZiGGAEhEUeQ&si=XuBBdaZtTq-GXltW
I have to punt 1996 heavy metal to next week since I value sleep even more than ever. The Cardinals play at 2:45 PM CST in San Francisco today. You can watch on Cardinals.TV. Thursday is an off day, and then the Cardinals throw some Cardinals related festivities this weekend while hosting the first place White Sox (who are 6 games over .500). According to Fangraphs, our fate is all but sealed. There is only a .2% chance of a wild card at this point.