Sure, it’s easy to be a nay-sayer when looking at the standings this morning. It’s only May 9, so whatever the standings reflect mean absolutely nothing in the overall picture of the 2017 baseball season. The Cardinals are only three games over .500. The NL Central is not very good.
But there’s enough negativity in the world right now …
So enjoy the fact the Cardinals are in first place on May 9.
Last year, they were never in first place at all, and were nine games back at this point of the season. The Cards have won four in a row and, as it says above, seven of their last 10. They’ve scored 30 runs in the four games of this road trip so far, and Carlos Martinez drove in four runs last night. Tommy Pham is back and, not surprisingly, he’s hitting.
Appreciate the good fortune and enjoy it while it lasts — maybe it will continue. It’s baseball, and anything is possible.
Aaron Miles' Fastball 
That is a very pretty picture of the NL Central standings.
Also, it proves to Cubs fans what Catfish Hunter once said: “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass all the time.” Last year your dog got all the sun, maybe next week your dog will get the sun again, but right now, this morning, it’s our dog’s butt that’s getting warmed.
It still amazes me that the Cards are so easily dismissed by the majority. This was a 100-win team in 2015 that suffered through horrendous injury and other bad luck last year. I’m not saying that they will run away with the division or anything like that, but when reasonably healthy, this team much more closely resembles the 2015 team than the 2016. I don’t think it’s at all unrealistic to expect this team to stay in contention all year.
I’m also not sure that I agree that the NL Central is terrible this year. I actually got the feeling last year that Cincinnati and Milwaukee were rapidly improving and weren’t going to be the pushovers that they have been the last several years. I don’t think there are any pushovers in this division anymore.
Joe,
If by “the majority” you mean the sports media, they’re always about the new and shiny object that they can gush over — which obviously last season and going into this season was the Cubs. Excuse me, THE CUBS!!!!!!!!
As for the Central being not very good, all I meant was the current records. I will admit to being surprised about the success so far of the Reds and the Brewers — as I think most have been. Should make for a interesting and competitive division race for sure.