The defending World Series champs opened the season with a one game series in Miami. They won that game 4-1. Since then, they have played all National League Central teams. That's right. Here's there schedule thus far, all series have been three games sets since the Marlins game.
4/6-4/8 @ Brewers (won 2)
4/9-4/11 @ Reds (won 2)
4/13-4/15 vs. Cubs (won 2)
4/17-4/19 vs. Reds (won 2)
4/20-4/22 vs. Pirates (won 2)
4/23-4/25 @ Cubs (won 1)
4/27-4/29 @ Brewers (won 2)
The Cardinals are the only team in the Central to have a winning record. Now obviously that has something to do with them beating everybody else, but it's not secret that the Central is a pretty weak division. The Reds are 7-3 in their last 10 and are playing better baseball, the Brewers have a solid team all the way around, but nobody in this division wows you and all the teams have their holes.
For right now, it would seem that the Cardinals are an easy pick to win the division and contend for a championship again, but I think we need to hold off on that until we see them play some better teams. This month the Cardinals have the Pirates, Astros, Diamondbacks, Braves, Cubs, Giants, Dodgers, Padres, and Phillies, so things are going get a little bit tougher. Hopefully they'll scuffle a bit and we can get back to thinking that the Pirates could win this division with 90 wins or so.
Sorry for using "Pirates" and "win the division" in the same sentence, but I gotta say it... it could happen.
