2025 St. Louis Spring Training Games thread

Last time I looked at a roster with the potential firepower as this one, Mike Jorgenson was the Cardinal manager.

Hopefully it is precautionary but Jordan Walker removed from his game due to knee pain.

Cardinals pitchers have looked good in both games so far. Pallante, McGreevy, Liberatore and Helsley

Have one game on the TV and the other on my phone.

Uh oh on the Walker injury. The Cards released anything more informative yet?

Yeah I agree with your questions Brian and comments. I was surprised they mentioned Wetherholt potentially this year as I was thinking 2026 he breaks camp with the club. On Arenado, I do think they really need to find a trade partner at the deadline or this offseason. As time goes on, his salary each year decreases and he should get easier to trade. Hopefully he can perform well this year to up that trade value as well.

Just an observation/opinion, could be my imagination….but I thought Gorman looked different at 3B than he does at 2B. He is, after all, a third baseman even though he’s been playing second base since he reached the majors.

12 Spring Training Games in . . . Highlights and Lowlights:

Highlights:

Yordelin Pena is running a 5.000 OPS. That’s max that you can get. 1 at bat. 1 home run. I’ve had this guy as an honorable mention to my Top 50 the last 2 years. I’ve heard lots of good things, especially about his power. And now it’s just fun having a player with a 5.000 OPS.

Luken Baker is another guy I’ve been relatively high on for years. I love watching him when I go to games in Memphis. He is just a behemoth. He now has 3 homers. I hope he makes the team this year. He would have been so much more useful as a right handed bench option last year vs signing Matt Carpenter who was redundant at everything we already had on the team and left-handed. No offense to Matt because I love Matt. But bring on Luken the Giant and let him play.

Victor Scott continues to rake. 12 at bats. 7 hits including a double, triple, and homer. 3 walks. And 4 steals.

Matt Koperniak has 5 hits in 16 at bats including a home run. He’s doing a good job showing he can be a 4th or 5th outfielder.

Jose Barrero has 3 hits in 11 at bats, but 2 of those went over the wall. Plus, he’s played really solid defense. This was a great pick-up. I’m starting to suspect he makes the team. There’s even a chance he’s a starter.

The pitching in general has been really, really exciting. Aside from a few innings where some pitchers have fallen apart, the pitching has been overall very effective. And there’s a laundry list of guys who look to have had improvement in their stuff overall. Lots of strikeouts and weak contact results. I’ve said it again and again to whoever will listen, our pitching will be much better this season that it was last season if they don’t trade Helsley. I’m not as sure about the hitting side. It might be better. But it also could be worse.

Lowlights:

Most of the presumed starting position players . . . Here are their names and OPS’s:

Siani: .246
Walker: .348
Gorman: .356
Donovan: .426
Burleson: .594
That’s over half the starting lineup with what would be completely unacceptable OPS levels. Throw in Pages at .580 and it’s 2/3 of the lineup when he’s at catcher. Things may change though. Note the above sections entitled Victor Scott and Jose Barrero as possible usurpers.

Pallante still didn’t look right in his last start even though the overall results were better.

I didn’t watch Sonny Gray yesterday, but he did get beat up in the box score. I’m interesting to hear anyone else’s take on that.

Don’t read much into any of this. It’s still just the first half of Spring training. The offense has started to look a little better lately with guys taking better at-bats.

Last year Jordan Walker crushed Dylan Carlson in a spring training collision.

This year Walker steps on a sprinkler head. Good grief you can’t make this stuff up.

If Vince Coleman is in camp he better look out for that tarp.

Yankees may be in the market for a starting pitcher