St. Louis Cardinals 2018 Season Preview

Offseason Additions: Marcell Ozuna, Miles Mikolas, Luke Gregerson, Dominic Leone, Bud Norris, Connor Greene, Yairo Munoz, Max Schrock, J.B. Woodman, Steven Baron, Francisco Pena, Ramon Urias, Wilson Soriano, Jason Motte, Preston Guilmet, Edward Mujica, Nester Molina, Granden Goetzman, Victor Roache
Offseason Subtractions: Lance Lynn, Seung-Hwan Oh, Trevor Rosenthal, Aledmys Diaz, Randal Grichuk, Stephen Piscotty, Juan Nicasio, Miguel Socolovich, Rowan Wick, Magneuris Sierra, Sandy Alcántara, Zac Gallen, Daniel Castano

Point team prediction: 85-87 wins, 2nd place. The Cardinals will enter the season hoping to get back into the playoffs somehow. They are looking to avoid missing the playoffs for three straight years in a row. The last time they missed the playoffs three years in a row was 1997,1998, and 1999. After the 99 season, they became one of the most dominate teams of the 2000's. That seems to have slipped a little knowing the Chicago Cubs are now better. It makes the rivalry more fun, but the Cardinals need to do their part to remain competitive. Could the Cardinals be trying to send a message to Mike Matheny?

The Cardinals made changes to Matheny's coaching staff in the offeason. They brought Mike Maddux in as pitching coach, he had been with the Washington Nationals as their pitching coach. He should be an upgrade over Derek Lilliquist, who was fired. Interestingly, Lilliquist became the new Nationals pitching coach. Lilliquist did a fine job for the Cardinals, but it seemed like Mike Matheny didn't want to listen to him much. So the Cardinals figured they'd try a new voice. They also brought back Jose Oquendo, to be third base coach. He had left the coaching staff to work the prospects. They Cardinals also added former Cardinals great, outfielder Willie McGee to the coaching staff. He will work with outfielders and base running. It's early but right now it seems like the new voices will help.

If the Cardinals start off bad who's on the hot seat hitting coach John Mabry or manager Mike Matheny or both? It seems like Matheny could be a better manager, but he hasn't fully figured it out. Maybe the new voices will help him improve a little? That would be nice if that happened. This will be Matheny's first season of his three-year contract.

The Cardinals seem to have a good lineup in place. What kind of scares me is the starting pitching. You can only count on Carlos Martinez, and Michael Wacha. Luke Weaver seems like he can be counted on, but he hasn't pitched much. Adam Wainwright seems to be at the end of the road. It would be nice to see Wainwright prove people wrong. Starting pitchers Jack Flaherty, and Alex Reyes might both be starting at some point. Matheny will probably go with an extra pitcher at first, so that means John Brebbia will be on the team. The bullpen looks better on paper, except they don't have a closer. If I were the Cardinals, I'd give Sam Tuivailala first shot at closing. He's out of options.

Starting rotation:
Carlos Martinez
Michael Wacha
Adam Wainwright
Luke Weaver
Miles Mikolas

Bullpen:
Sam Tuivailala
Bud Norris
Dominic Leone
Luke Gregerson
Matt Bowman
Brett Cecil
Tyler Lyons
John Brebbia

Lineup:
Dexter Fowler, RF
Tommy Pham, CF
Matt Carpenter, 1B
Marcell Ozuna, LF
Jedd Gyorko, 3B
Yadier Molina, C
Paul DeJong, SS
Kolten Wong, 2B
pitcher

Bench:
Carson Kelly
Greg Garcia
Harrison Bader
Jose Martinez

Prospect(s) to watch:
OF José Adolis García
RHP Ryan Helsley
RHP Jordan Hicks

Fantasy Stud: Carlos Martinez

Martinez will be in his 4th season as a starting pitcher. In his previous three he ranks 6th in wins in the National League, with 42. He's tied for 11th with an era of 3.26. Innings pitched you ask? 579.3, which ranks 5th. In strikeouts he ranks 7th with 575 strikeouts. Martinez has 60 quality starts, which ties him for 6th. He has a ground-ball rate at 54 percent, that ranks 2nd best. If you like WAR, 10.1 ranks him 12th.

There's only two other starting pitchers who have those numbers close to Martinez. Those two pitchers you ask? Max Scherzer, and free agent Jake Arrieta.