Coming into the season, I think the narrative for the 2015 Cardinals was fairly well known. Some variant of, "Well, we think the offense should be somewhat better than it was in 2014, given the improvements in right field and from some of the team's youngest players, but it's the pitching that is going to have to carry this team," seemed to be the overall consensus on what the Redbirds would be this year.
It makes sense, too, right? You look all the way back to that amazing bumper crop of prospects the Cards had a few years ago, when they possessed the number one farm system in all of baseball, and the vast majority of the talent that led to that ranking was on the pitching side.