Cardinals Disrespected by ESPN's First-Half Grades

The St. Louis Cardinals enjoyed the All-Star break that included a well-deserved tribute paid to Albert Pujols and four other players named to the National League roster. Now, all attention turns to the second half where St. Louis enters just 0.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL Central lead.

ESPN insider David Schoenfield recently handed out first half grades for all 30 franchises. Despite the Cardinals' successful first half, the team is seriously disrespected with their grade.

Cardinals First-Half Grade

Schoenfield lists St. Louis as a C+, ranking just 13th amongst MLB clubs. Meanwhile the Brewers received a full letter grade higher at B+.

Cardinals News

Look no further than the NL Central standings to understand just how disrespectful this grade truly is. St. Louis is just 0.5 games back in the division. Just one St. Louis win and one Milwaukee loss puts the Cardinals back on top, and that could happen as early as Friday.

Schoenfield explains that there's a "feeling [the Cardinals] should be better than this" and alludes to Paul Goldschmidt's MVP-level performance leading up the All-Star break.

There's no complaining about the offense considering St. Louis ranks sixth in baseball in runs scored, eighth in batting average and on-base percentage, and fifth in stolen bases. The pitching staff may not project quite as elite, but still ranks 10th in team ERA.

If anything, this grade simply proves that the Cardinals could be (and maybe should be) in a better spot in the standings. But, the division is right there for the taking and St. Louis has every opportunity to go on a deep postseason run down the stretch.

St. Louis enters the second half with +4000 odds to win the 2022 World Series on FanDuel Sportsbook.

Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.