The Cardinals of the Vatican

Despite the pre-season prediction by the Pope that the Cardinals would be under .500, his Cardinals have risen above expectation as the season nears the 1/3 mark. Sitting at 28-21, 1 game out of 1st place in the NL Central behind the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals have overachieved in the eyes of many.

Heading into the season, the Cardinals gave the prognosticators very little reason for hope:

• Ace Chris Carpenter would be out until at least the All Star break.



• Former World Series MVP shortstop David Eckstein, as well as multi-year gold glove center fielder Jim Edmonds were not resigned.



• The starting outfield on paper consisted of Chris Duncan, a former pitcher (Ankiel), and two minor league players from 2007 (Schumaker and Ludwick).



• The starting middle infield was not set, with 3 guys who are 5 foot 9, 5 foot 8, and 6 foot 1, none of which ever doing much in the big leagues (Cesar Izturis, Aaron Miles, Adam Kennedy)



• The pitching staff was a completely scattered picture, top two projected pitchers being Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper, both unproven and in their 2nd years of being starting pitchers in the big leagues. The rest of the rotation was completely up in the air.

How could anyone predict that this team - combined with a resurgent Cubs, and a young but talented Brewers squad ready to break out - could challenge in the NL Central? Quite simply, no one could. Anything other than predicting 2008 to be a season of transition and rebuilding would have been ludicrous.

How have they done it? First the easy, objective stats (all as of May 22nd):

BATTING

• 1st in Batting Average in the NL with a .284 clip



• Two batters in top 6th in NL in batting average (Pujols 4th with .351 and Ludwick 6th with .336)



• 1st in NL in On Base Percentage with .371



• 3rd in the NL in OPS (on base plus slugging) with a .792; Cubs have .814, tops in league

Most all of the players are overachieving, and the smaller guys are getting on base. Former pitcher Rick Ankiel has had an uber-strong performance in his first full year batting (.289, 8, 29), as has Ryan Ludwick, all of the sudden the team's top power hitter (.336, 12, 35). Pujols has been doing his thing as well (.351, 11, 31). Hitting at those team clips will be difficult with so many young and inexperienced players. But hey, they've proved the Vatican wrong so far.

PITCHING

• 4th fewest Walks in the NL



• Only 14th out of 16 teams in NL in strikeouts (not good - but the 4th best fielding % in the NL has made up for this shortcoming)



• Given up the 5th fewest runs in the NL



• 3 Starting Pitchers in top 30 ERAs in NL (Wellemeyer, Wainwright, Looper)

All in all, the starting pitching has been solid, with no great performances, but more important minimal bad ones. Joel Pineiro has been the 5th starter this year, and his ERA has been 4.50, which is not awful considering he is the teams 5th pitcher. I dont have stats right in front of me, but the bullpen has done well, despite some missed saves from Jason Isringhausen. All in all, Dave Duncan has gotten all his starters to be competitive, and keep the game close.

(You can find all the ESPN.com team stats by clicking here. You can find all the player stats here. You can modify and sort easily by anything - very interesting for us stat nerds out there)

Looking through all the statistics, this team has succeeded largely due to two men: Head coach Tony Larussa and pitching coach Dave Duncan. Larussa has created a team chemistry that produces a very professional, hard working team that comes to play every day, every at bat. That sounds cliche doesn't it? Other sports don't have 162 games like baseball does. The clubhouse atmosphere and values of the coach are his single biggest contribution to the team, unlike football, where strategy might be as important. Kudos to Larussa.

Dave Duncan's has created a top third staff in the NL out of a group of inexperienced kids and journeymen. Just think how this team would be if Mulder was ever healthy, and when Carpenter comes back? I don't know this man does it, but Chris's dad simply produces a staff that keeps the team competitive in nearly every game. Being a former big league catcher must have something to do with it.

The Pope looks forward to a meaningful summer of baseball, filled with significant match-ups with Central leader and chief rival, the Chicago Cubs. The Pope doesn't predict after the season's one third point, but hopefully my initial prediction of .500 will be wrong.