Cardinals Now Top-Four in 2019 NL Pennant Odds as Goldschmidt Continues Hot Streak

• The St. Louis Cardinals have won 12 of their last 16 games
• Paul Goldschmidt recently hit a home run in six straight games
• The Cardinals are still without Marcell Ozuna and Matt Carpenter in the lineup

The St. Louis Cardinals have finally put together a good stretch of baseball and have shot up the standings. They enter the week tied for the lead in the National League Central and are now in the top four in terms of NL Pennant odds . Are they a good bet on the futures market or better to avoid?

2019 National League Pennant Odds

*Odds taken 7/29/19

Cardinals Are Red Hot Right Now

The Cardinals have mostly been hovering around the .500 mark this season, but they’ve flipped the switch since the All-Star break. The Cards are 12-4 in their last 16 games and have pulled into a tie with the Cubs for first place in the NL Central.

Much of the Cards’ success can be attributed to a red-hot offense, catalyzed by Paul Goldschmidt, who hit a home run in six straight games before Sunday’s loss to Houston. The Cards are fifth in home runs in the month of July and 10th in RBIs. That’s a sizable jump from June, when they were 26th in home runs and 29th in RBIs.

Will This Hot Spell Last?

That’s the question on everyone’s minds. The Cards kind of underachieved in the first half of the season, but are they overachieving now or is this the team we expected to see?

I was a believer in them early on, but I’m leaning more to the latter.

My concern is that this team still has a number of flaws. As good as their hitting has been in July, they’re still just 20th in on-base percentage this month. That’s lousy.

Also, their hot streak has mostly come against weak opponents: 11 of the Cards’ last 12 wins have come against teams who are .500 or worse.

The schedule is about to get much harder in the coming weeks as the Cards will play a three-game set with the Cubs, visit the Oakland A’s for a pair, and then face the Los Angeles Dodgers for three. That’s likely to take the wind out of their sails.

Cards Still Missing Key Players

It’s important to note that the Cards are playing with a short stack right now; Marcell Ozuna, Matt Carpenter and Jedd Gyorko are still out. Ozuna leads the team in batting average and RBIs. Carpenter has had a terrible year but he had a WAR of 4.9 last year, so we know what he’s capable of when healthy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR5FXGp9elk

What’s The Best Bet?

I would pass on the Cardinals in this spot. To me, this is nothing more than a mediocre team in the National League. They’ve taken advantage of a soft schedule and gotten hot, but that’s not going to last.

[T]his is nothing more than a mediocre team [that has] taken advantage of a soft schedule.

When you take a look at the numbers, they don’t bat for average, they have good-but-not-great pitching, and they’re not likely to make any moves at the trade deadline.

Could they win the NL Central, which is proving to be a weak division? Sure. Are they good enough to win the NL Pennant? Absolutely not.