At about 5p today, it’ll be over.
Spring Training will have ceased to exist for the 2015 calendar year. The Cardinals do have their annual game against the AAA team in Memphis on Friday night before heading to Chicago for the regular season opener on Sunday night.
Some notes to put a bow on the past month plus…
1) The Cards will finish with a winning record (not counting ties).
Does it matter?
As expected, some Grade A Baseball Nerds have tried to figure out exactly that. And currently the correlation coefficient of records in spring training versus regular season stands at .219. Read more here. (Since you’re not going to click that link, just know that – no – there isn’t much correlation between ST games and RS games, but there is a little.)
2) Carlos Martinez got handed the 5th starter’s job, then earned it.
Up until last weekend, Mike Matheny was trying to figure out how to break the news to Los that he was headed back to the pen. Jaime was going to be the 5th starter. An injury and an option (to Marco Gonzales) later… he’s finally getting his shot.
And then he promptly went out and dropped 6 scoreless innings during his last ST start.
Carlos hasn’t caught many breaks in terms of timing versus opportunity. But he has now. And looks to make the most of it.
3) Through 26 spring games, the Cardinals averaged 3.92 runs scored per game.
Their high for a single game was 8 (twice) and their low was 0 (once). In 2014, the Cardinals averaged 3.82 runs per game, so this was an uptick of 1/10th of a run per game.
Good enough?
Time well tell, but if you were really worried about one thing coming into the season, it would have been their power and the ability to pick up some wins when the other team scores 4+ runs (the Dodgers led MLB with 4.77 runs scored per game in ’14). So the 3.92 average seems to predicting about the same amount of offensive output in ’15 as ’14 when the Cardinals were ranked 23rd in MLB.
4) The Nationals/Astros stadium deal is progressing; Cardinals likely to stay in Jupiter.
Opened in 1998, this is the 17th spring training camp the Cardinals have held at the Roger Dean stadium/training facility.
In 2011 the Cardinals reached an agreement to stay at Roger Dean stadium through 2027 – with an out clause that if the Mets or Nationals moved from Florida’s east coast they could end their lease.
The Washington Post is reporting that the Nats and Astros are moving closer to a deal that will construct a new joint facility in West Palm Beach, roughly a 17 mile drive from Jupiter. Meaning the Cardinals will now have the Mets, Marlins, Astros and Nationals all relatively close to them for the foreseeable future.
Plan any future spring training trips accordingly.
Photo: Fansided
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