You haven’t been paying attention to spring training. Not even a little.
You’re a good baseball fan, though. Good for 10 games in person and another 100 or so on TV. You have your favorites from years past and have a pretty good idea what the teams going to look like for the Cardinals in 2011… but with all this basketball on, you really haven’t had time to catch up with what the hell is going on down in Jupiter. Hell, you haven’t even thought about Jupiter since Wainwright went down, have you?
The Cards cut 10 men yesterday to pull the roster closer to the 25 they will break camp with to come to STL for the 03/31 home opener.
Included in this latest chopping block were Matt Carpenter, budding 3B (340 this spring with a .421 on-base percentage and a .520 slugging percentage) who made a run at David Freese, but ultimately wasn’t given a true chance to compete. Lance Lynn is the other name you need to keep an eye on. Beat out for the 5th starter role, the 6’5″ 250 pound pitcher was optioned to Memphis. He’ll probably be the first call-up when a starter needs a day off or injury occurs.
What races are left?
Daniel Descalso and Tyler Greene are set as the two backup infielders, but that becomes more of an extended spring until Nick Punto can come back from a hernia.
Kyle McClellan has locked in the 5th starter role, leaving the rotation also cemented and lacking drama these last 9 days.
There are four relievers remaining for two spots in the bullpen: Bryan Augenstein, Miguel Batista, Eduardo Sanchez and Fernando Salas. Batista is a probable, since he can be extended for long relief and an emergency start… but the other spot is wide open. Salas did have a cup of coffee last season with the Cards, but Augenstein and Sanchez are coming on as of late.
Theriot and Shumaker up the middle with Pujols and Freese on the corners. Holliday, Rasums and Berkman from left to right across your radio dial. Yadier Molina and his new neck ink behind the dish.
Carpenter, Westbrook, Garcia, Loshe, McClellan in that order with the pill.
Friends, you’re up to speed now. No gimmicks, cheap shots or underhanded blogging today. Just straight baseball for the under prepared fan.
Oh,
And some guy in Tampa Bay shot a worker with a BB gun after finding out that they raised the Crunch Wrap Burrito from .99 to 1.49. LINK HERE
Damn. We lied.
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