St. Louis Blues Have Passed The Cardinals, If Only Briefly

The St. Louis Blues have perennially been the little brother of the St. Louis Cardinals over time. Even if only for a short time, that has changed just a bit.

The St. Louis Blues have outshined their neighbors up the street in the St. Louis Cardinals in recent memory. That might not sit well with many St. Louis fans, but the points are there for examination.

Now, before we even begin, I want all the keyboard warrior Cardinals fans to take a breath and calm down. I’m not saying the Blues are a better franchise because that is not true. Winning zero titles compared to 11 makes that an impossible point to try and make.

The argument is that the Blues have passed up the Cardinals in actually trying to win right now, while still keeping a focus on the future. The Cardinals have basically become everything we have accused the Blues of in the past.

The Cardinals are currently hoarding all their pitching prospects while their offense has more starts and stops than a teenager trying to learn a stick shift car. The team has constantly been in need of bullpen help and always put band-aids on wounds.

It is not as though the Blues have a long history of fixing their problems. In fact, they have often had the same problems. The past couple offseasons have changed the Blues significantly though.

The Blues desperately needed help at center. In two offseasons, the Blues have added three centers that would get at least grades of B, if not A’s.

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The last two times the Blues have missed the playoffs, they made serious changes. They were not always the high-end free agents the fans wanted, but they filled the roles they needed to and the team was rewarded.

No, the Blues have still not won that elusive championship but they have done a better job at trying the past few years than the Cardinals have.

The Cardinals have relied on the fact their fanbase is so loyal the past few seasons and are testing those waters too much. They have not significantly addressed their offense. They have misfired on many of the prospects they thought would be key pieces like Stephen Piscotty and Randal Grichuk.

Their starting pitching is fine, but they have not upgraded the bullpen and are constantly needing guys to step into an ace role before they are truly ready. They’ve held onto old aces too long, forcing that necessity far too often.

Additionally, they have not even made the postseason in three seasons (assuming they miss in 2018). They haven’t truly been contenders in at least four seasons.

Meanwhile, the Blues have made their pushes. They got to the Western Conference Finals in 2016-16 and had two divisional titles in recent times as well. Additionally, the times they finished second in the division, it was usually to a team that was one of the best in the entire NHL.

None of this is meant to pump up the Blues too much. Until they win that Stanley Cup, all the changes are just nice window dressing.

However, Tom Stillman and his ownership have put their entire resources into building a winning club. Fans can argue about the specific moves that Doug Armstrong has made, but you cannot argue they have spent the money available to them. 2017-18 was the first time in quite some time the Blues had not spent up to the cap and that was only after making a trade at the deadline.

Can you really say the same of the Cardinals ownership? It is not as though they spend nothing, but even Cardinals’ fans have accused the team of being cheap in recent years.

They have continually made just enough moves in their offseason to pull the wool over eyes and convince fans things will be different. Then, the seasons starts and the Cardinals have the same old problems again.

At least with the Blues, they seem to come up with new problems. Normally they were a good defensive team with good special teams. That was a problem in 2017-18, but the Blues did their best to address it.

Brayden Schenn was brought in to help the power play and while he was not individually successful, he could not fix an entire unit anyway. The Blues continued to address it this offseason by bringing in more guys that can help on special teams.

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St. Louis will always be a baseball town. There is too much history and winning pedigree for that to ever change.

However, even if for a brief moment, the Blues are actually the team to model after. The Blues are actually the team with the better shot at winning. That can change back the other way at the drop of a hat, but it is the way it is for now.

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