QUESTION: It’s been a rollercoaster ride with the Cardinals this season. For example, the team staggers into the All-Star break, comes out on a seven-game tear, only to be shutout in consecutive games in Chicago. One day they look like the class of the National League, the next leaves you wondering if they’ll hold onto the NL Central. What do you make of this team and its inconsistencies this season?

JOE STRAUSS

They’re inconsistent. We’ve been writing it for four months. It’s a team that plays with varying degrees of focus and commitment to fundamentals. There is enough anecdotal evidence to question the level of hustle, as uncool as that term may now be in professional sport. It’s telling when the GM is willing to publicly state his concerns about the clubhouse mix. There are also a number of players (Schu, Molina, Greene) playing hurt. That affects things too. Unfortunately, Round Two will likely ask this same question again in September.

RICK HUMMEL

One of the somewhat hidden elements in the Cardinals’ inconsistency has been their often subpar defense in the infield. Too many times, for instance, the Cardinals get only one out on a ground ball that could have been a double play with crisper fielding. Their pitching is good but can’t always get four outs in an inning. Perhaps David Freese will return before the year is over and offer more consistent, although not spectacular play, at third base, and Felipe Lopez can be used at either short or second, where he is better defensively than he is at third. Skip Schumaker has been surprisingly shaky at second although Brendan Ryan seems to have found himself at  short.

JEFF GORDON

The large sample suggests the Cards are a pretty good team capable of being great. Some of the recent inconsistency was exacerbated by the simultaneous loss of Brad Penny, Kyle Lohse, David Freese and Ryan Ludwick. That is two-fifths of the rotation and two of the top six hitters. Ludwick is back and the Cards are hoping Freese and Lohse return soon. The fourth, Penny, must be replaced with somebody comparable or the Cards just won’t be as good as they expected to be this season. And, of course, the players who have remained mostly healthy have to play better and smarter than they have through large stretches of the season.

LARRY BOROWSKY (Founder of Viva El Birdos and editor of “Maple Street Press Cardinals Annual”)

Whatever it is, it seems to have carried over from last season. The 2009 Cards had a torrid April, were hot-and-cold through the All-Star break, caught fire for 6 weeks to put the NL Central away, and then went numb in late September and the playoffs. On paper they looked like serious pennant contenders, and for short bursts of time they played like it. But they had too many lapses. I don’t have any explanations, but inconsistency is starting to look like a (forgive me) consistent characteristic of this club.