The St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to be a big producer of trade rumors going into the July 31 MLB trade deadline, this time last month, but then a very pleasant thing happened: They started winning with the personnel already on the field. As a result, the Cardinals' biggest move to date has been signing Brian Fuentes as a free agent. The rumors are far from licked yet—most recently we heard all about Shelby Miller and James Shields of the Tampa Bay Rays—but it's far from certain that the Cardinals even need to upgrade, at this point.

Which will be little consolation to someone who, small sample sizes be damned, just can't believe this bullpen will ever function without infuriating everyone around it once a week. That's just the peril of watching a team that's underachieving—at some point, they'll probably start achieving, and you'll be forced to watch in a happy dismay as a thousand early-season narratives are smashed by the unseeing hammer of run differential.

(Which is not to say I'm not interested in a deal for James Shields.)