Phillies' weakness? Cardinals contenders? Mariners blockbuster trade? 5 burning MLB questions

The Cardinals have been the hottest team in baseball the past two-plus weeks. The Phillies might be MLB's most complete squad. The Mariners have as much pitching as anyone — and one of the worst offenses. Cody Bellinger looks like an All-Star again for the Cubs.

All four developments will be on display this weekend on FOX Saturday Baseball, which features three regional matchups at 7:15 p.m. ET: St. Louis at Philadelphia; Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs; Los Angeles Angels at Seattle.

Accordingly, FOX Sports MLB experts Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner tackle these topics and more in this week's roundtable.

1. What do you make of the Cardinals winning five consecutive series, including sweeps of the Orioles and Cubs? Are you buying them as wild-card contenders?

Kavner: I had basically written them off, but I'm beginning to second guess that. The pitching moves the Cardinals made in the offseason have all worked out. Sonny Gray was brilliant in April and is back on track after a couple rough outings. Even more noteworthy, 36-year-old Kyle Gibson (3.60 ERA) and 37-year-old Lance Lynn (3.45) have been terrific. The question, surprisingly, has centered on an offense that couldn't get anything going to start the year. Once the bats got hot, so did the team. Since May 12, when the Cardinals began a stretch of winning 12 of 15 games, they have the highest OPS in the National League. 

Paul Goldschmidt's turnaround after a dreadful start to the year is part of it, but it hasn't just been one guy. Nolan Gorman is on fire, Masyn Winn is demonstrating that his bat is big-league ready — by Baseball-Reference WAR, he has been the most valuable rookie position player in the league this year — and Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan and Alec