1 week down. 3 to go.
With roughly 25% of spring training over with, it’s time we take our first peek into who’s hot and who has some work left to do to either make the roster or get into regular season form.
Remember – LOTS of time left before the games count, this is just a check in. Still…
WHO’S UP? –
1) Marco Gonzales
Dude is making a mark early. 2-0 w/ 6 IP and only giving up 2 hits. His 0.00 ERA is also fairly impressive. He got some unexpected MLB playing time in 2014 and looks like he spent the off season doing 2 things – reading any article that left him out of the starting rotation and eating those articles to fuel his fire.
2) Tommy Pham
The outfielder has already racked up a 4 hit game and has collected a team high 4 RBIs in the pre-season. He’s battling Randal Grichuk for that 5th OF spot and making a strong case to stay on the 25 man roster.
3) Jason Heyward
Only 9 ABs, but has 4 hits and 2 RBIs. Every hit Heyward collects in 2015 pretty much equals BANK for the pending free agent. Everyone expects a monster season from the former Brave and he looks like he’s ready to live up to the hype.
WHO’S DOWN –
1) Carlos Villanueva
The veteran reliever must still think he’s a Cub after getting tagged for 5 ER and 8 hits over 3.2 IP. His 12+ ERA and 2.45 WHIP are also very, very unfortunate.
2) Peter Bourjos
Oh, Peter. After multiple articles where his 2014 struggles were shrugged off with a ‘meh, he was hurt‘, he’s gone out and thrown up an 0 for 12 start to spring training. Grichuck is 3 for 9, BTW. I know, I know, there’s like a 5% chance the Cards go with Pham and Grichuk instead of Bourjos. Probably less.
Still.
Hungry for at-bats, Bourjos is hitting vs Wainwright in live BP. Also volunteered to play in B-game Friday vs Marlins. #stlcards #cardinAls
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) March 12, 2015
3) Kolten Wong
1 for 12, so not all that much better than Peter has posted. Wong admitted that he can lose confidence in himself at times.
“I’m going to come in confident in myself and not worry about the what-ifs anymore,” he said. “I know I can play at this level. It’s time for me to fully buy into that I’m a big-league player.”
So not the start to spring that any fan wanted to see. Wong is going to need to be productive for the Cards in ’15.
Photo: Lebanon Democrat
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