Can the Cardinals Make the Playoffs for the 5th Straight Year?

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St Louis Cardinals have made the playoffs four times in a row—can they extend this impressive run into a fifth year?

There have been some long periods in St Louis Cardinals’ history where they have contrived to miss the playoffs, season-after-season. Eighteen years stood between their World Series from 1946-1964 and the Seventies can be ignored completely—as can the late eighties and early nineties.

Right now, though, the Cardinals are on a run where you can pretty much stake your house on them making the postseason. Despite seemingly wholesale changes over the last few years, they are the first team to get to the NLCS four times consecutively since the Atlanta Braves who managed a run of five straight appearances from 1995.

Looking back to the turn of the century and the record looks even more impressive. St Louis have advanced nine times since 2000—managing to win the big one twice out of their four World Series appearances.

Therefore, if you want to see high-quality baseball, Busch Stadium is the place to be and there are available tickets here for St Louis Cardinals. Last year, Third Baseman Matt Carpenter spoke to the NY Daily News of the winning attitude that permeates every corner of the baseball stadium:

“We enjoy making the postseason, but it’s almost something that we expect. When we get here, we want to win every round, but we expect to go to the World Series. Anything less is a disappointment. That’s the culture that has been instilled here.”

Following last season’s 4-1 defeat to eventual World Series winners San Francisco Giants, the Cardinals were hit with the tragic news of the death of highly rated prospect Oscar Taveras in a drink-drive related accident.

During the off-season, the Cardinals were set to work with an experienced roster in which only two berths were reportedly up for grabs. Mike Matheny and John Mozeliak spoke in press conferences of a spring competition between a number of their hot prospects, one of which would have been Taveras, to see who could fill the remaining places.

Following the tragedy, however, a change in trading policy appeared to be actioned which saw Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden come in. Heyward has been described by some commentators as the best defensive right fielder in the game, and a clear upgrade for the team.

St Louis Cardinals are the most consistent Baseball team since 2000. This is a golden age—a dynasty, perhaps. New faces have refreshed an already winning-formula but there is still work to do in Spring Training to refine the roster further. Get that right before opening day, and there is every chance that there could be high fives all round.