Tanking at its finest: Brewers, Cardinals feast on NL Central critters, battle for title
The anti-tanking provisions set forth in Major League Baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement are so effective that a late June series between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals seems almost certain to play a large role in determining the winner of the National League Central, because three teams in that division are simply not trying to win.
It’s the fault of neither the Brewers nor the Cardinals that they’re obligated to play the schedule put in front of them. That Bobs Castellini and Nutting in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are baseball misers is something that’s hardly news; that Chicago’s Ricketts family is somehow even more craven than that is indeed a defining characteristic of what led them to purchase the Cubs in the first place.
Somehow, though, it’s still hard to fully comprehend. Milwaukee and St. Louis entered this week’s four-game set each having won four games apiece against the other thus far this season. Seven matchups remain after this week — three in St. Louis in August, and two in each city in September.
The Cardinals are 15-6 thus far in their matchups against the Cubs, Reds, and Pirates. That they entered play on Monday with the same 38-30 record as the Brewers means that they’d played to a .714 winning percentage against the dregs of the division and a .489 mark against everyone else.
Cleaning up against the doormats
Milwaukee, though, is scarcely any different. The Brew Crew is 18-7 against the same three teams, including a perfect 6-0 against Pittsburgh. As of Monday, that was good for a 20-23 mark against the rest of the league — a winning percentage of .435.
The only shocking thing about these developments is they’re not shocking at all. Coming out of the lockout, the Reds sold off players with a ferocity unmatched throughout the game, and followed that display with the 52-year-old son of the owner spiking the football and taunting loyal fans with his own disloyalty.
Phil Castellini has apologized for those comments as recently as the end of May; it seems that the storm didn’t quiet as quickly as the team hoped and fans did indeed find somewhere else to go.
Pittsburgh remains Pittsburgh, brazenly pushing prospects down into the minors long after their ready dates, hoping to squeeze one more year of pre-arbitration play from Oneil Cruz before he’s eventually spun off to a team that tries in exchange for a grab bag of talent so far away from the Majors that you’d be hard pressed to know what sort of prospect they even might become.
Cruz was called up Monday, less than a week after Diego Castillo committed three throwing errors from shortstop against the Cardinals in one game, two on back-to-back pitches. In his first game, he recorded the second-hardest throw by an infielder that’s ever been tracked by MLB’s computerized data system.
Cubs scuffling
The first World Series banner in 108 years had scarcely been raised over Wrigleyville before you could feel the Rickettses squeezing every nickel in their grasp until it screamed. It was scarcely more than a year ago Javy Báez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo all contributed to a romp of a sweep of the Cardinals to celebrate the full reopening of Wrigley Field; all three were traded within six weeks.
Willson Contreras is certain to follow them out the door before this year’s trade deadline, with Kyle Hendricks perhaps behind him if a contender believes they can help him find the strike zone again. Patrick Wisdom was once a strong Cardinals prospect who arguably didn’t receive a fair shake in St. Louis, but he’s now the centerpiece of the Chicago lineup, which is quite an overcorrection.
But, hey, the real estate is valuable, the Hotel Zachary goes for $400 per night even in the offseason, and construction on the sportsbook is already underway.
MLB’s new playoff format invites six teams per league to the end-of-season dance, creating an even softer cushion for those at the top. The Cardinals and Brewers can afford to eat the weak and beat up on each other, knowing that what would otherwise be dramatic, late-season baseball between the two is now likely to be relegated to merely a discussion about seeding, and which sort of flag each team will add to their respective collections.
More on easy schedule
St. Louis wraps up its schedule with six straight against the Pirates, thanks to lockout-induced rescheduling. They also have three games with the Cubs and four with the Reds in September, to say nothing of a home series against the somehow-even-worse Washington Nationals, only three years removed from a championship.
Milwaukee ends on a nine-game homestand, the last seven of which are against Arizona and Miami, both of whom are already more than 10 games back in their respective divisional races. They get seven with the Reds in that last month, as well as a total of seven against the Diamondbacks and three against the Rockies – another last place team.
That’s why the games in June matter so much — the games in September seem destined not to matter at all. That’s not a necessary function of MLB schedule making, but it’s certainly a frequently-occurring one, and it surely doesn’t act in the best interest of the game.