It's curious that among all the knocks on the Cardinals starting rotation that I read before the season started, I never saw anyone address this elementary question: what was the Cardinals' record in games that these guys started last year? Going into Friday night's game with the Cubs the 2008 Cardinals had a .620 winning percentage. In the 84 games that Looper, Wainwright, Pineiro, and Wellemeyer started for the Cardinals in 2007, the Cardinals were 52-32, a .619 winning percentage. What a shocking development--these guys are doing exactly what they did last year!

If their current rotation stays healthy there is no reason to believe the Cardinals can't contend. After all, they have won well over 60% of the games with these guys starting in a sample of over a hundred games. The biggest danger at this point is someone getting hurt or, even worse, Mark Mulder getting "healthy."