(Photo by Joe Puetz/Getty Images)
Three months into the 2023 season, the St. Louis Cardinals remain one of the most disappointing teams in all of baseball.
Though they no longer have the worst record in the National League, they still sit at the bottom of the NL Central, eight games back of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the top spot.
They lost another tough game on Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds.
The season has been full of disappointments for the Cardinals.
On Twitter, Cardinals analyst Brandon Kiley made a note of a distressing fact, that the team ranks among the worst in baseball history in terms of converting balls in play to outs according to Baseball Reference’s defensive efficiency statistic.
The worst teams since 2000 at converting balls in play into outs (per @baseball_ref‘s defensive efficiency):
2007 Rays (.652)
2012 Rockies (.657)
2021 Red Sox & 2007 Marlins (.659)
2016 Twins (.662)
2021 Red Sox (.659)
*** 2023 #STLCards *** (.664)
Some (bad) historical company
— Brandon Kiley (@BKSportsTalk) June 12, 2023
St. Louis currently ranks among some bad teams in this category.
Other teams on the list include the 2007 Tampa Bay Rays, the 2007 Florida Marlins, the 2012 Colorado Rockies, and the 2016 Minnesota Twins.
However, there is one outlier on the list.
That outlier is the 2021 Boston Red Sox, who had the same defensive efficiency mark as the 2007 Marlins.
It’s worth noting that the Red Sox reached the postseason in 2021 as the top Wild Card team in the American League.
They defeated the New York Yankees in the first round before upsetting the Rays in the ALDS.
The Sox also came to within two wins of reaching the World Series, falling short in the ALCS against the Houston Astros.
If anything, there could be some hope for St. Louis to pull themselves out of this mess.
But it hasn’t been pretty for the Cards, who are at risk of seeing their 15-year streak of winning seasons come to an end.
The post The Cardinals Have Joined Some Bad Company appeared first on The Cold Wire.