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St. Louis Cardinals
Overall: 12
Title track: 3
Ownership: 11
Coaching: 29
Players: 12
Fan relations: 9
Affordability: 28
Stadium experience: 7
Bang for the buck: 55
Change from last year: +7
Albert Pujols exits. Adam Wainwright's Achilles pops. Matt Holliday's quad tears. And what happens? The Cardinals keep winning. What else? They keep scoring so well in our standings (and winning so many NL West titles) that, well, it's kind of boring. So no, these Cardinals might not win the World Series. Or they might. But either way, they lead the league in culture and resiliency, year in, year out.
What's good
No surprise here: The Cardinals are third overall -- and tops in MLB -- in title track. That's what happens when you make the playoffs nine out of the past 12 seasons and advance to the World Series in four. They never seem to run out of young players (Randal Grichuk, Kolten Wong, Stephen Piscotty) who are ready to replace the guys who get hurt, get old or move on (12th in the players category this year). They make one shrewd decision after another. And it all turns into the same love-fest at Busch Stadium (fans' seventh-best stadium experience), every day, every week, every summer, every season.
What's bad
Fan relations remains one of the Cardinals' best categories at ninth this year, but fan opinion surely took a turn after a certain scandal. After all, it's one thing to read "Cardinals" and "RBI" in the same sentence. It's another to see the team paired with "FBI." But that's where this proud franchise finds itself these days, awaiting the results of an FBI investigation into accusations that Cardinals employees hacked into an internal database of the Houston Astros. The hacking scandal has already cost former scouting director Chris Correa his job. And while few other details have emerged, people in St. Louis are bracing for more changes, more embarrassment and possibly even federal indictments.
What's new
The Cardinals' rankings in our Ultimate Standings barely change from year to year. That's no different this year, except for one big jump: in coaching. This is Mike Matheny's fourth season managing since he succeeded the legendary Tony La Russa. Apparently, Matheny has the hang of this gig, since he's up to 29th overall (a jump of 15 places from last year) and making his fourth consecutive trip to the postseason. And in case you're wondering how many men in MLB history have led their teams to the postseason in each of their first four years managing, that would be none. Until now.
Next: Kansas City Royals | Full rankings