Cards preview compressed

Sunday • 03.29.2015 • SECTION S

On deck As the Cardinals’ longtime nucleus gets on in years, players such as Jason Heyward, Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong are in position to one day become the core of the team.

Clockwise: Jason Heyward, Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong.

Chris Lee • clee@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S2 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

CORE OF THE CARDINALS

BY DERRICK GOOLD St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Since the Cardinals won their first World Series championship in 1926 at Yankee Stadium, it is possible to map the team’s success and National League-leading 11 titles by linking Hall of Famer to Hall of Famer to potential Hall of Famer, the nucleus of standout players who defined a generation of success. The term “core” player was used most often by Tony La Russa, but it’s one that has been carried on to describe Matt Holliday, Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina.

It also can be retroactively applied. A look at the six most successful eras in Cardinals history and, using Wins Above Replacement, the three players who were at the core of champions:

1926-1934

Five World Series appearances, three World Series wins 2B Frankie Frisch (HOF) … 31.0 WAR 1B Jim Bottomley (HOF) … 20.9 WAR RHP Dizzy Dean (HOF) … 20.6 WAR As Rogers Hornsby’s title team of 1926 gave way to the rambunctious Gas House Gang of the 1930s, it was Frisch with his .316 average and Bottomley with his 133 homers who paced the Depression-era Cardinals. Dean’s flamboyance and 2.97 ERA edge Jesse Haines’ steadiness and 111 wins to lead the era from the mound.

1942-1946

Four World Series appearances, three World Series wins OF Stan Musial (HOF) … 32.1 WAR SS Marty Marion … 20.6 WAR RHP Mort Cooper … 20.2 WAR Musial missed a year in this span to serve in World War II, and still he hit .348 with 350 RBIs and a .551 slugging percentage. The young Musial also won two of his three National League MVP awards, and he combined with Marion and the rest of the Swifties, who won 316 regular-season games from 1942-44.

1964-1968

Three World Series appearances, two World Series wins RHP Bob Gibson (HOF) … 32.2 WAR LF Lou Brock (HOF) … 24.7 WAR CF Curt Flood … 21.4 WAR The El Birdos of the 1960s re-established the Cardinals’ rule in the National League after an 18-year absence. Gibson went 95-52 with 95 complete games, 28 shutouts and a 2.47 ERA during this stretch. He won the first of his Cy Young Awards and an MVP, while Brock and Flood brought exceptional speed to the bases and sterling defense to the field, respectively.

1982-1987

Three NLCS appearances, three World Series appearances, one World Series win SS Ozzie Smith (HOF) … 32.1 WAR CF Willie McGee … 19.7 WAR 2B Tom Herr … 16.6 WAR One of the more charismatic teams in club history inspired and spawned a generation of fans who now are passing the Cardinals down to their children, doing for the fan base what McGee, Smith and others from Whitey Herzog’s era are doing in the organization.

Whiteyball came one call and one debacle shy of a second World Series, and all three World Series went to a decisive Game 7.

2000-2006

Five NLCS appearances, two World Series appearances, one World Series win 1B Albert Pujols … 46.0 WAR CF Jim Edmonds … 37.6 WAR 3B Scott Rolen … 24.0 WAR The MV3 — who thundered through the league in 2004 — were the headliners for what truly is the beginning of this unprecedented age of Cardinals baseball. Even with the expanded playoffs and more ways than ever to lose in October, the Cardinals took two 100-win teams to consecutive NLCS appearances and then won the championship with an 83-win team in 2006.

2011-PRESENT

Four NLCS appearances, two World Series appearances, one World Series win C Yadier Molina … 18.2 WAR LF Matt Holliday … 14.3 WAR RHP Adam Wainwright … 13.4 WAR The contemporary core doesn’t have the individual decorations of previous classes, who were draped with MVP trophies or Cy Young awards, but what this trio has is relentless consistency, and that steels a contender. The dizzying win in the 2011 World Series could have been the end of the era with Pujols’ departure and La Russa’s retirement.

Instead, it launched Molina & Co. toward a first in the Cardinals’ rich history — four consecutive postseason berths.

Sources: Wins Above Replacement is a statistic that distills a player’s contributions into a single number and assigns the number of wins that player added to his team’s success beyond that of a journeyman player. The WAR used here is Baseball-Reference.com’s calculation, and it was combined with Post-Dispatch research.

Derrick Goold @dgoold on Twitter dgoold@post-dispatch.com

Cardinals have a long tradition of leaders training their successors

Passing the baton Carpenter

BY DERRICK GOOLD • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JUPITER, FLA. • With veterans to his

left and prospects to his right, Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter leaned back into his locker this spring and measured the arc of his young career as it moved from one side of the clubhouse to the other, from a player watching to a player being watched. It’s not the numbers he’s had as the National League’s most reliable leadoff hitter. It’s not the bigger numbers on his paycheck. It wasn’t the number of times he’s been an All-Star, the number of postseasons he’s seen, or the number of positions he’s played.

It was the number on his back.

“You’re talking about going from No. 99 to No. 13,” Carpenter said, motioning to the red jersey hanging nearby. “When you’re in your first camp, wearing a big number, you’re trying to be as quiet as possible and you don’t ever want your voice heard and you don’t ever want to be seen unless you’re doing something productive. Now I’m at a point in my career where I want my voice heard, I want to be considered a leader. Now I can feel those eyes on me.”

In the past four years, Carpenter has ascended from a cameo appearance in the majors to a bench player to a fixture atop the lineup. Wherever he started the season, from 2011 to 2014, the Cardinals finished in the same place — the playoffs.

It’s tradition. As the Cardinals begin their 124th season in the National League with opening night at Wrigley Field on April 5, they chase a third pennant in five years.

And Carpenter is scaling the next rung in his career. He is the newest and youngest member of the Cardinals’ core, an unofficial but obvious group at the center of perennial contention.

They are the rebar of the team, giving it strength and structure. They also need reinforcement. The eyes aren’t just looking to Carpenter.

For a team that has had only one losing season since Carpenter was in high school and has reached the playoffs in 11 of the past 15 seasons, 2015 is as close to a transition year as perpetual success allows. As they did in 2006 and 2011, both seasons that ended with World Series titles, the Cardinals enter with an aging core and a next generation set to be identified. Adam Wainwright (age 33), Matt Holliday (35) and Yadier Molina (32) have championed a golden age of Cardinals baseball, one that rivals any era before it.

With center fielder Jon Jay (30), they are the first foursome of starters in club history to reach the postseason in four consecutive years.

With the organization’s past always present — “The greats check in on us, to be sure,” Wainwright said — this year’s Cardinals aim to win a third consecutive division title. They can also define their future.

Carpenter is in.

Who’s up next?

“I think we will have an idea what that looks like,” general manager John Mozeliak said. “We don’t have to have the answer today. ... This is something that evolves. The problem will be if we wake up in 2017 or 2018 and we don’t have an answer, we haven’t found the next group.”

CORE POTENTIAL One of the first things outfielder Jason Heyward, the Cardinals’ prize acquisition of winter, did at spring training was to approach Carpenter and synchronize their watches. If Carpenter was going to hit in the cage at 7 a.m., Heyward would, too.

Carpenter spent most of his first three seasons with the Cardinals observing other hitters or asking veterans, like Holliday, for pointers. They set the clock. He followed.

He cannot recall the first teammate to approach him as he had once done.

But Heyward is one of the first.

“One thing about baseball and this clubhouse is you can’t hide who you are for long,” Carpenter said. “Who he is as a person came out right away. He’s kind of a clone of all the guys we have in the clubhouse. He wants to work. He wants to win. He wants to be great.”

The biggest drag on the 2014 Cardinals

Heyward

Wong

and one of the bigger questions for the 2015 Cardinals is the offense. A year after hitting an uncanny .330 with runners in scoring position to mask a power fade, the 2014 Cardinals returned to earth, at .254. They didn’t reach base as often, they didn’t steal bases, they didn’t have extra bases, and as a result they basically leaned on a pitching staff and defense for 90 wins. For the first time in 17 years they didn’t score 700 runs.

A major culprit was right field.

The Cardinals’ right fielders combined to slug .326 with a .609 OPS, baseball’s nadir at the position. From a traditional power position, the Cardinals got the production of a defense-first middle infielder.

As the Cardinals point to places where offense must improve this season they cite Matt Adams at first base, Kolten Wong at second base, and Heyward, the right fielder acquired in a four-player deal with Atlanta.

Unlike the other two, Heyward will be a free agent at the end of the season. That’s why he could be the answer to two questions — who produces this year and who joins Carpenter at the core.

“We’ve been pretty successful in maintaining players who fit that mold and they in turn become core players,” Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said, listing examples such as Holliday, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen. “A big part of that is the culture of the previous (core). If you’re constantly moving players in and out it’s not what you would be looking to do. ... We would prefer to have that continuity where we can be competitive year in and year out.”

The churn of overlapping cores allows for that.

In 2006, as Rolen and Edmonds neared the end of their time with the Cardinals, Molina and Wainwright emerged. As Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols came to the end of their time with the Cardinals in 2011, players like Lance Lynn, Allen Craig and Jay flourished.

The trend is clear. Manager Mike Matheny described how the “culture here is (that) our best work the hardest and it keeps perpetuating because the next group of best players know they have to be the hardest workers because that’s how they were taught.”

LINKS TO THE PAST Matt Carpenter’s first hitting coach in the majors was Mark McGwire, a Cardinals slugger lured into coaching by Tony La Russa, who often mentioned Red Schoendienst as an adviser. Schoendienst played alongside Stan Musial and managed Bob Gibson, a teammate of Joe Torre’s. Dave Ricketts served on Torre’s Cardinals staff, and Ricketts was a father figure for Yadier Molina, who replaced his mentor, Matheny. Matheny caught Pat Hentgen and saw how he inspired Chris Carpenter, who in turn worked with Adam Wainwright. Matheny also learned from Ricketts, who was part of the “College of Cardinals” coaches with George

Kissell and Hub Kittle.

Kissell told La Russa to go into managing.

Kissell taught Torre to play third base.

K issell shaped how Jose Oquendo, a player for Whitey Herzog, teammate of Ozzie Smith, and coach for La Russa, approached instruction. Oquendo then turned a young third baseman into an All-Star second baseman.

That was Matt Carpenter.

Six degrees of generations have poured into him.

“That’s the way it is,” Smith said. “People always ask what makes this organization special.

That’s the stuff. It started with George Kissell and Dave Ricketts and now it’s Jose Oquendo. One helps the next.”

A core begets a core.

As the modern Cardinals look to continue history they also rely on history. On its team pages, Baseball-Reference.com features the top 20 players for every organization ranked by Wins Above Replacement, a single stat that defines a player’s production. At least one player in the organization’s top 20 has been on a team every year since 1915, connecting Rogers Hornsby to Wainwright.

That’s a continuum through an organization other regal teams cannot match.

The Yankees and Cubs have years without a top 20 player.

“That’s our common denominator,” Mozeliak said. “We’re so lucky here in St. Louis, we do have that past. We do have a history that we can tap into. This is not a start-up organization.”

Continuity gives the Cardinals an edge over their division rivals.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Holliday said.

There is a closer feel to the current core that has been nurtured by Holliday. Small gestures like open invitations to dinners or table-tennis trash talk are important to “create a brotherhood,” Holliday said.

“Quickly it can be deteriorated by the wrong people,” veteran reliever Matt Belisle noted. “It’s not a guarantee that you keep a culture this long, and can keep it going longer. It speaks volumes that it’s transcendent here, that it’s developed, and that it’s a priority for it to continue.

To me, that’s just as dynamic and a more significant achievement as all of the pennants and championships.”

SHINING EXAMPLE Before they reach the major-league clubhouse and see their No. 99 — or thereabouts — hanging at a locker, Cardinals minor-leaguers either know Matt Carpenter or know his story.

A fifth-year senior out of TCU, Carpenter received a $1,000 bonus and no promises. Four years after he was drafted, he was an All-Star. Five, and he signed a six-year, $52 million deal. Six, and he’s the head of the next core.

“If you’re not working every day to get better,” Carpenter told a group of minor-leaguers last spring, “you’re getting worse.”

Mozeliak defined a core player as “a complete employee,” and that includes the ability to welcome new colleagues and improve young ones. Matheny has likened it often to being a family, and it emanates from the core.

It has to buy in. It has to pass it on.

“They show us the way and then we do the same, almost like father to son,” Carpenter said. “It’s a family tradition – but without the same last name.”

That’s not entirely true. They all do share a name.

It’s just not on the back of the jersey with the number.

It’s on the front, with the birds on the bat: Cardinals.

Derrick Goold @dgoold on Twitter dgoold@post-dispatch.com

CARDINALS PREVIEW

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

Changing with the times Mozeliak has shown Cards aren’t afraid to trade young talent Mo’s moves since taking over

By Derrick Goold St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In the first trade he made as the Cardinals’ general manager, John Mozeliak shipped an eight-time Gold Glove Award-winner and one of the finest all-around center fielders of his generation — Jim Edmonds — to San Diego for a Class A infielder. No one knew then what David Freese would become later, but it was clear from that moment the kind of mover Mozeliak would be.

Unafraid to deal from the team’s major-league roster and willing to peddle a player — any player — who was no longer a fit at the price, Mozeliak has traded All-Stars, core players, first-round picks and, recently, young starting pitchers, the club’s long-guarded currency.

Using Wins Above Replacement to measure what the Cardinals got from a new player (WAR added) and what the departing player gave his new team (WAR given), it’s possible to audit Mozeliak’s moves and see the blockbusters, the lottery tickets, the favorite trading partners, and the duds – but also how Mo’s major moves have molded success.

Dec. 15, 2007: San Diego • OUT: OF Jim Edmonds (AS) … minus-1.0 • IN: 3B David Freese (AS) … 6.3 • NET: plus 7.3 WAR Mozeliak Chris Lee • clee@post-dispatch.com

The years of control traded in the past eight months by Mozeliak underscore that whiff of urgency.

In exchange for 1½ years of Lackey JUPITER, Fla. • Several times and a minor-league lefty, the Carsince the Cardinals’ clubhouse dinals sent Craig and his three was shocked July 31 by a redefinyears of control (plus an option) ing trade that sent two cherished and Kelly’s four years of control. It teammates to Boston, general was a total exchange of potentially manager John Mozeliak has used eight years for the promise of 1½ that day in San Diego as an example plus a minor-leaguer. The fourof the two-way trust that must explayer deal with Atlanta was even ist between suits and jerseys. more tilted. The Cardinals traded Trades happen, and sometimes Shelby Miller (four) and Tyrell Jenthey hurt personally. kins (at least six) for Heyward (one) But the players should never and reliever Jordan Walden, who doubt the execs’ intent – to help, signed an extension for a potential professionally. three. That’s 10 for four.

“I think Mo made a really great But it’s the one with Heyward comment on how we trust the that is revealing. players that we have and we would The Cardinals have an in-house hope they trust him and us to do algorithm and scouting process the right thing and give them the that assigns dollar figures to playgreatest opportunity for sucers. They use this for the draft and cess,” Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. as a model to view free agents and said. “We’re all trying to win divitrade targets. It can be difficult for sions and win championships, and them to make trades with teams sometimes you have to make decithat use similar measures, like the Tampa Bay Rays, but all of “There was a time in the 1990s when people were the teams arrive at the same calculation: A moving minor-league talent to acquire major-league 25-year-old, All-Star outfielder with room talent and people didn’t feel like they were giving to grow and the potenthat much up for that. I think people realize today tial to re-sign is rarely available. Of course the importance of having a strong farm system, l a n d i n g H ey wa rd would be costly. the importance of having a pipeline of players, and “Getting core playtherefore it’s harder to make these deals.” ers is hard,” DeWitt said. “Our model is Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak value-based, and what we want to do is get value back for value sions that are hard and unpopular. deal necessitated by an irreparable given. Because there is always opBut the end goal is to be competi- fissure between Rolen and man- portunity to use resources to active, to be successful and to have ager Tony La Russa. In his first quire talent. What we wanted to do two trades, Mozeliak dealt two of on some of these deals is have an that chance to play in October.”

Standing before the assembled the MV3 core that took the Car- opportunity to get a premium regteam at the start of spring training, dinals to three consecutive Na- ular position player who hopefully Mozeliak revisited that trust theme tional League championship series will want to continue to be a Carwith the players. He didn’t have to (2004, 2005 and 2006) and won dinal. There is certainly a risk with the 2006 World Series. In 2010, him being a free agent at the end of look far to see examples.

On the far wall was veteran he traded All-Star Ryan Ludwick the season if that doesn’t happen.”

The message sent last July 31, pitcher John Lackey, the major- for pitching and three years later league prize from the Red Sox for traded Freese, who had become an said one player who was in the Joe Kelly and Allen Craig in that All-Star and World Series legend in clubhouse, was that “the organization wants to win.” That has been a deadline deal. Along another wall, a Cardinals jersey.

Mozeliak has traded 18 play- constant. How trades support that his locker close to Matt Holliday’s corner, sat outfielder Jason Hey- ers from the major-league roster. have changed. This was an active ward, the centerpiece of a four- Four of those were involved in the offseason for trades, as baseball player deal with Atlanta that came July 2011 deal with Toronto that re- teams that had hoarded young talin November. Both share more than shaped the team and sped it toward ent reached a critical mass of sorts.

Moves had to be made. And while being traded in common. They a World Series title.

As the market has changed, power might be the rarest comeach cost the Cardinals young, starting pitching to acquire. They evolving to be ultra-protective and modity in the game, pitching still is each have a contract that expires at even overvaluing of young, cost- the game’s cash. Everybody takes it.

In Mozeliak’s first 20 deals incontrolled players, Mozeliak has the end of the 2015 season. volving a major-leaguer, he traded For an organization – and a gen- been willing to move them, too.

From 2005 to 2010, the Cardinals three young starting pitchers: Aneral manager – that has treated thony Reyes, P.J. Walters and fuyoung pitching like gold bullion, had 14 first-round picks. ture reliever Clayton Mortensen.

Eight have been traded. collecting it, stacking it, and rarely Pete Kozma is the only first- Since July, he’s traded five. Kelly spending it, the traits of the two new players sitting in the club- round pick drafted before 2011 still and Miller already have had 10-win seasons in the majors. house stand out. The cost and the in the organization.

These have been the types of tal“I think the biggest difference in short-term return hint at an urgency. The Cardinals don’t refute the industry from what was hap- ents the Cardinals hold.

But when there’s a need and a pening in the early 2000s to where that description.

But, they say, it’s not a departure. we are today is just the value of the chance to win, there’s the urgency.

“I could see why someone would prospects,” Mozeliak said. “There They have to spend the currency feel that way after this year, but we was a time in the 1990s when peo- that the market requires.

“I think that was the plan all try to remain disciplined and true ple were moving minor-league talto our process,” Mozeliak said. “Be- ent to acquire major-league talent along,” manager Mike Matheny lieve it or not, even though in these and people didn’t feel like they were said. “I think you guard it for when deals it appears like we’re giving up giving that much up for that. I think you do need to make those moves the control factor, we felt they were people realize today the importance (so) you have the pieces you can fair deals for both sides. Put it this of having a strong farm system, the move. You keep giving your talent importance of having a pipeline of the opportunity until there’s an way: We understand the risk.”

Since moving into the general players, and therefore it’s harder to obvious hole that we need to have filled. We have had an organizamanager role on Halloween 2007, make these deals.”

The shift Mozeliak described tion very deliberate in keeping the Mozeliak has constructed a titan that has twice been named Baseball happened when moving contracts young talent that is coveted in the America’s organization of the year became less necessary in a game game. … Mo and Bill have done a since 2011 and once ranked atop the flooded with revenue, fewer core great job keeping a finger on the magazine’s farm system ratings, a talents reached the open market, pulse.

“They understand it’s so rare to first for the Cardinals. The Cardi- and cost-controlled talent became nals have appeared in four consec- the coin of the realm. Most players have a season with a chance and utive National League champion- come with six years of salary con- not to let it slip away.” ship series, and they have done so trol before they reach free agency, Derrick Goold by relying on contributions from and some deals can be defined by @dgoold on Twitter players drafted, developed and de- years of control and value of picks. dgoold@post-dispatch.com

By Derrick Goold St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ployed in the organization. In consecutive summers, 2013 and 2014, the Cardinals had first-round picks Michael Wacha and Marco Gonzales reach the majors less than 12 months after leaving college.

The Cardinals are the only team in baseball to do that.

Mozeliak has zealously guarded the team’s young talent, passing on overtures for Carlos Martinez from teams like the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies and declining to include Oscar Taveras in any talks at last year’s trade deadline. And, yet, just as telling as how he treasures young talent is this M.O. from Mo: He’ll trade favorites.

This was clear from his first deal.

Less than two months into the job, Mozeliak traded Jim Edmonds, one of the finest center fielders of his era, to San Diego for a Class A third baseman, David Freese. A month later, Mozeliak moved third baseman Scott Rolen to Toronto for third baseman Troy Glaus – a

Jan. 14, 2008: Toronto • OUT: 3B Scott Rolen (AS) … 7.4 • IN: 3B Troy Glaus … 4.2 • NET: minus-3.2 WAR Dec. 4, 2008: San Diego • OUT: RHP Mark Worrell (!), RHP Luke Gregerson (*) … 3.9 • IN: SS Khalil Greene … minus-0.8 • NET: minus-4.7 WAR 2009 NL Central Division champions June 28, 2009: Cleveland • OUT: RHP Chris Perez (1st), RHP Jess Todd … 4.0 • IN: 3B Mark DeRosa … 0.4 • NET: minus-3.7 WAR July 22, 2009: Boston • OUT: Chris Duncan (1st) (!)

• IN: SS Julio Lugo … 0.6 • NET: plus-0.6 WAR July 24, 2009: Oakland • OUT: RHP Clayton Mortensen (1st), 3B Brett Wallace (1st)(!), OF Shane Peterson … minus-0.9 • IN: OF Matt Holliday (AS) … 22.5 • NET: plus-23.4 WAR July 31, 2010: Cleveland, San Diego • TO INDIANS: RHP Corey Kluber (from San Diego) … 8.2 • TO PADRES: OF Ryan Ludwick (AS) … minus-0.9 • TO CARDINALS: RHP Jake Westbrook, LHP Nick Greenwood, cash … 1.2 • NET: plus-0.4 2011 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS Nov. 30, 2010: Los Angeles Dodgers • OUT: RHP Blake Hawksworth … 0.0 • IN: 2B Ryan Theriot … 0.1 • NET: plus-0.1 July 27, 2011: Toronto • OUT: OF Colby Rasmus (1st), LHP Trever Miller, LHP Brian Tallet, RHP P.J. Walters … 7.5 • IN: RHP Edwin Jackson, LHP Marc Rzepczynski, RHP Octavio Dotel, OF Corey Patterson … 0.2 • NET: minus-7.3 WAR … and a World Series trophy July 31, 2011: Los Angeles Dodgers • OUT: OF Alex Castellanos … minus-0.7 • IN: SS Rafael Furcal … 2.1 • NET: plus-2.8 WAR July 31, 2012: Miami • OUT: 3B Zack Cox (1st) (!)

• IN: RHP Edward Mujica … 2.8 • NET: plus-2.8 WAR 2013 National League champions July 30, 2013: Cleveland • OUT: LHP Marc Rzepczynski … 1.3 • IN: SS Juan Herrera (MiLB) • Net: minus-1.3 WAR, for now Aug. 30, 2013: Milwaukee • OUT: RHP Michael Blazek … minus-0.1 • IN: RHP John Axford … 0.3 • NET: plus-0.4 WAR Trades still defining themselves Nov. 22, 2013: Los Angeles Angels • OUT: 3B David Freese (AS), RHP Fernando Salas … 2.0 • IN: OF Peter Bourjos, OF Randal Grichuk … 1.6 • NET: minus-0.4 WAR July 30, 2014: Cleveland • OUT: OF James Ramsey (1st) (!)

• IN: RHP Justin Masterson … minus-0.9 • NET: TBA July 31, 2014: Boston • OUT: 1B Allen Craig (AS), RHP Joe Kelly … minus-0.2 • IN: RHP John Lackey, LHP Corey Littrell (MiLB), cash … minus-0.3 • NET: minus-0.1 WAR Nov. 17, 2014: Atlanta • OUT: RHP Shelby Miller (1st), RHP Tyrell Jenkins (1st) • IN: OF Jason Heyward, RHP Jordan Walden Nov. 20, 2014: Seattle • OUT: RHP Sam Gaviglio (!)

• IN: UT Ty Kelly KEY WAR: Wins Above Replacement is a statistic that distills all of a player’s contributions down to single number that can be represented as the wins added to the team’s success above a journeyman major-league player. The statistic is provided by Baseball-Reference.com.

(AS): All-Star with Cardinals.

(1st): First-round pick (!): Never reached or has not yet reached the majors with the new team.

(MiLB): Minor-leaguer in the Cardinals’ system (*): Player to be named later in deal.

Derrick Goold • @dgoold on Twitter • dgoold@post-dispatch.com

CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • Sunday • M 1

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S6 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

CARDINALS PREVIEW

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

NL Central time Division seems to have no weak link, and a tight race is expected 2015-2019 NL CENTRAL CORE

BY RICK HUMMEL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY RICK HUMMEL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JUPITER, FLA. • For the first time since each major

league had three divisions and played a full 162-game schedule in 1996, the National League Central Division well could have all of its teams finish within 15 victories of one another.

“It’s going to be tough to win 90 games in our division,” said Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin.

The closest NL Central race was in 1996, when the Cardinals won the division with 88 victories and sixthplace Pittsburgh had 73. (The Central had six teams until Houston moved to the American League in 2013.)

The tightest major-league finish since three divisions came into full-season play was in 2005, when the National League Eastern Division champion Atlanta Braves finished just nine games ahead of the last-place Washington Nationals. Atlanta won 90 games and Washington 81, the Nationals blowing a chance to have all five teams in the division finish above .500 by losing their last three games.

Unlike any other division, each team in the National League Central can presume it could win the division, given good health.

“Somebody told me the other day that there’s no lastplace team in our division,” Melvin said.

In the National League, Philadelphia and Atlanta would seem to have little chance in the East, with Colorado and Arizona unlikely to contend in the West. In the American League, rebuilding Tampa Bay would seem to be out in the East, and maybe even the New York Yankees, with Minnesota having little or no chance in the Central and both Texas and Houston almost sure also-rans in the West.

But in the NL Central, even the 2014 last-place Chicago Cubs can talk – and they have talked – of contending.

Breaking it down, the Cardinals could win if Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez are as good as the Cardinals think they are and if Jason Heyward adds some needed power and speed to the lineup. To win a division, a team has to have a good closer, and the Cardinals do in young Trevor Rosenthal, especially if he can learn consistently to throw strike one before he throws ball two.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, who surprisingly have made the playoffs the last two years after not qualifying for 20 years before that, could win if Francisco Cervelli gives them the solid catching and leadership lost when Russell Martin signed with Toronto. They also need young Gerrit Cole to break out into a 16- to 20-game winner and young outfielder Gregory Polanco to be what the Cardinals thought the late Oscar Taveras was going to be.

The Milwaukee Brewers, who surprisingly led the division for some 150 days last season, could win if star outfielder Ryan Braun is healthy and if catcher Jonathan Lucroy remains as potent offensively as he showed he was last year — and if Jonathan Broxton can be the lockdown closer he used to be.

“We know we can do it. We showed we could do it last year with basically the same team,” said Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke. “There’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”

The Cincinnati Reds, who were beset by a raft of crippling injuries last year, could win because they may have the best righthanded starter and most fearsome closer in the division in 20-game winner Johnny Cueto and 102-mph-throwing Aroldis Chapman, who struck out an astonishing 106 in 54 innings. And they could win if Joey Votto doesn’t miss another 100 games like he did last year, and if Jay Bruce bats considerably better than .217.

The Reds’ shelf life seems limited, though, because like Milwaukee they don’t have the financial resources of the Cubs or Cardinals and may have trouble retaining Cueto, who will become a free agent.

The Cubs could win because they landed one of the free-agent pitching plums in Jon Lester and certainly the managing free-agent catch in Joe Maddon. And they could win if young slugger Kris Bryant is as ready as he appears to be at third base, if outfielder Jorge Soler follows up on his strong August and September and if the coaching staff can convince the young position players that defense is something they should begin thinking about.

“We know the Cubs are better,” said Roenicke, “and we had trouble with them before they made all those moves.”

The Cubs were 11-8 against Milwaukee last year, including 5-1 in September, and a respectable 9-10 against the division-leading Cardinals, faltering really only against Pittsburgh at 5-14.

Melvin said, “There are four phases to a rebuilding process, and the Cubs are in probably three to four. Maybe it’s not totally complete but they’re getting there.”

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said, “From what 2015 might look like, compared to the last 10 (seasons), there always seemed to be a team you could circle and say it was likely to finish last. You can’t do that today.

“I think it’s just a great compliment to the National League Central. Some teams took a major step forward and others were maybe in a steady state, but that’s still good.”

Mozeliak, when asked to offer his quick take on each of the division teams, answered with one word in each instance.

Chicago? “Improving.”

Cincinnati? “Health.”

Pittsburgh? “Athletic.”

Milwaukee? “Pitching.”

Cardinals? “Consistent.”

Counting 2011, when the Cardinals emerged from wild-card status to win the World Series, the Central Division has accounted for five of the seven wild-card teams, with the Eastern and Western divisions having just one apiece.

“I keep saying our division is the toughest division in baseball,” said Melvin.

Yet, Mozeliak says, “It does seem that the Central Division, in general, whether it’s the National League or the American League, never truly garnishes the respect of any of the coastal teams. When you’re looking at it from a reputational standpoint, the Central just doesn’t tend to get that, sort of, coastal love.”

But the only NL coastal team that lately has done better than anybody from the NL Central is San Francisco, which has won three of the last five World Series. There hasn’t been an NL East champion since Philadelphia in 2008 that won the World Series.

Of course, the coastals could point out that there is one NL Central team, Chicago, that has gone 107 years since winning the World Series. And another franchise that never has won one in the Brewers, who, counting their year in Seattle when they were the Pilots, have been in one just World Series since the franchise’s inception in 1969. But in 1982, when the Brewers lost to the Cardinals, they weren’t in the NL Central – or even the National League at all.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

CARDINALS

RHP Adam Wainwright, 33 Already has won 20 games twice and 19 twice. Signed through 2018, he might be down to 15 or 16 by then, but he still will be a leader.

RHP Michael Wacha, 23 Yet to pitch a full season in the majors but has proven to be almost unhittable when he’s healthy.

RHP Trevor Rosenthal, 24 He’s OK with being a closer now and if he can ever master the art of pitching ahead in the count, he will be much more than OK. Molina

C Yadier Molina, 32 By 2018, when his contract is up, Molina may not be catching 140 games a year. But he will want to.

Holliday

3B Matt Carpenter, 29 He is the only one of this group signed through 2019 at this point, with an option for 2020. He may not always be at third base but he’ll be somewhere.

LF Matt Holliday, 35 Signed through 2016 with an option for 2017, Holliday probably won’t be here in 2019, but his presence for the next three years will be considerable.

Wainwright

McCutchen

PITTSBURGH PIRATES

CF Andrew McCutchen, 28 Only a five-season veteran, he should have at least five more top-grade seasons.

RHP Gerrit Cole, 24 If he can steer clear of arm problems, he has stuff of 18- to 20-game winner.

OF Gregory Polanco, 24 Like late Cardinal Oscar Taveras, he struggled in first bigleague try, but there are too many tools not to like.

Polanco

OF Starling Marte, 26 He already has a 30-stolen base season. Twenty or more homers not far behind — and he’s a leadoff man.

3B Josh Harrison, 27 After bouncing around from infield to outfield and back, Harrison established himself as a third baseman and productive .300 hitter.

Harrison

Lucroy

Nelson

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

C Jonathan Lucroy, 28 His doubles total of 53 last year was astounding for a catcher.

With his time at first base, he was durable enough to play 153 games.

CF Carlos Gomez, 29 One of best combinations of speed and power (23 homers, 34 steals) in league and has great range and arm in center field.

Gomez

RHP Wily Peralta, 25 One of baseball’s most unsung 17-game winners, Peralta approached 200 innings last year and should sail beyond it this year.

RHP Jimmy Nelson, 25 Only 2-9 with Brewers last year in a couple of stints, he was the organization’s top pitcher in the minors at 10-2 for Nashville.

OF Ryan Braun, 31 Braun is signed through 2020. Even without any outside assistance, Braun should bounce back for several more big years with good health.

CINCINNATI REDS

C Devin Mesoraco, 26 Hit 25 homers and drove in 80 runs while playing in only 114 games. Should have plenty of mileage left to catch regularly at least five more years.

Mesoraco

3B Todd Frazier, 29 Another breakout player last year with 29 homers and 80 RBIs. Improved significantly in the field, too.

CF Billy Hamilton, 24 Wore down in first big-league season, dipping to .250 at the end. But he stole 56 bases and could go to 80 or 90 with experience.

Votto

1B Joey Votto, 31 Not exactly a youngster, but he is signed through 2023 when he will be 39. Still one of the game’s best hitters for average when healthy and a consummate defender.

RHP Homer Bailey, 28 Injuries have plagued him, even now. But he is signed through 2019. Already has two no-hitters.

Hamilton

CHICAGO CUBS Lester

1B Anthony Rizzo, 25 One of three 30-homer hitters in majors last season, Rizzo is projected as the leader of a young Cubs squad that soon could become a power.

LHP Jon Lester, 31 Lester has signed for at least six years and $155 million, which says he is a core player. He’ll find that the wind blows in more often than he thinks.

OF Jorge Soler, 23 Stunning power and a strong outfield arm. A little raw yet, but give him time. He’ll be around for a while.

Baez

2B Javier Baez, 22 Ridiculous strikeout total of 225, counting Class AAA and the majors, but he also had 32 homers. Obvious that he needs some plate discipline.

3B Kris Bryant, 23 He may be the best, with 43 homers at Class AA and AAA last year, and he had four in his first 18 spring at-bats. If he goes out, it won’t be for long.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

Welcome mat is out Birds’ leaders make a point of encouraging newcomers old and young

By Derrick Goold St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JUPITER, Fla. • Shortly after he signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals as a bat for hire, Mark Reynolds received two text messages on his phone from numbers he didn’t recognize.

The names he did.

“What’s up Mark? It’s Matt Holliday …” began one.

“Hey, Mark, this is Adam Wainwright …” said the other.

Reynolds, an eight-year veteran, had no relationship with either player and read with some surprise as each, in a paragraph, welcomed him to the Cardinals and offered help finding a place to live in St. Louis. The slugger has been around in his career, play-

ing in both leagues and for six teams, including the august New York Yankees and kindly Cleveland Indians. He’s been traded once and signed as a free agent four times. Joining an unfamiliar team is nothing new, but this was. He could quickly count the number of times before he’d received a welcome call or note from new teammates, let alone the two highestpaid players in the clubhouse: “No. Never,” he said.

“This is what’s important to Adam and I,” Holliday explained. “We have a goal of winning the World Series and to accomplish that we’re going to need this group to be tight. We’re going to need everyone together. We’re going to need to have that high team chemistry. Being

very hard to create that atmosphere with a group of grown men. It can feel forced. … But I’ve never experienced something like this. It’s genuine and vast and spread through the entire clubhouse, and it seems so natural.

“It’s just flowing.”

Holliday sets the example

chris lee • clee@post-dispatch.com

Matt Holliday (right) tosses the rosin bag to Mark Reynolds as they prepare to take batting practice.

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close in times of struggle — which every team is going to have — is important.

So when the heat comes everybody doesn’t break apart. We’re going to win a championship and ultimately to do that you need a lot of things to go your way, so why not start that right away?”

The Cardinals enter the 2015 season on a run of four consecutive postseason appearances unprecedented in the team’s robust history. All-Stars have come and gone. Icons have faded or been traded.

An MVP has bolted. A Hall of Fame manager retired. Young players have debuted. Some stick and sizzle. Some fizzle and fall.

Players like Reynolds have joined and departed. And, yet, this era of success has continued and at its nexus are three players management calls “the pillars.”

Catcher Yadier Molina and the two texters, left fielder Holliday and ace Wainwright.

They each came to the organization in a different way. They have different personalities and leadership. What they share is performance and a belief in fostering what the Cardinals call a “mentorship culture.” For the clubhouse, they are the three legs of a stool: They approach their role from different angles, but at the top it’s their strength that brings balance to the team and lifts others higher.

“In baseball we talk about character and makeup a lot, right?” general manager John Mozeliak said. “My answer to this is that’s what you’re looking for from players you’re identifying

like the Molinas, the Wainwrights, the Hollidays — all of them realize the game has been great to them, and they’re willing to give back.

They do it in their own ways. But they do it in a way that shows they’re willing to service a young generation.”

Said manager Mike Matheny: “We have such a learning culture here where our most-decorated guys are our hardestworking guys to make everybody better.”

With their minor-league players, the Cardinals have a program called “Cardinal Core,” and elements of the class touch on off-field life as well as in-clubhouse expectations. An element of the “Core” is how players inhale instructions and examples and breathe out leadership to perpetuate the success of the organization. The idea is to create ripple effects in the organization by affecting others.

Teach as they were taught, mentor as they were once mentored.

The examples given from the major-league clubhouse are often Holliday, Molina and Wainwright, the three players with the richest active contracts.

“It’s just a very pronounced core that welcomes anybody wearing the same uniform,” said reliever Matt Belisle, an 11-year veteran and new to the Cardinals this spring.

“I think you have to look at the positions they play, too. The catcher. The top of the rotation. The middle of the order. Those are your leaders, too? That’s ideal.

A lot of people talk about culture and camaraderie and the close-knit groups, but it’s not always real. It’s

Like Reynolds, Kolten Wong knows what it’s like to receive a text from a foreign number attached to a familiar name. He was just a first-round pick with little pro experience when he got a text inviting him to fly to St. Louis, with his hotel paid for, and bring him to a workout each day for a week. The text came from Holliday. Acquired via trade and then signed to the biggest deal in club history, Holliday is the one “pillar” who didn’t grow up in the Cardinals’ system, but he has embraced it. In 2012, he invited Wong, Matt Adams, Charlie Tilson and Ryan Jackson to St. Louis – on his dime – to just spend time with him. Vocal only when he has to be and even then on a more personal level, Holliday prefers to do his leading in the cage, or in the weight room, or egging on a young player during table tennis, or at his house as an eager dinner host.

Wainwright sets the tone Wainwright, acquired as a minor-leaguer in 2003 as the prize of a deal that also included J.D. Drew and Jason Marquis, has inherited Chris Carpenter’s role atop the rotation. Carpenter called it the “team within a team,” though Wainwright has broadened that reach beyond the five members of the starting staff. Wainwright organizes golf outings as a vehicle for competition and team-building. He organizes Bible study. He’ll speak when something needs to be addressed or joke when tension needs to ease. He will, during spring games, find an unsuspecting young pitcher, stand beside him and start quizzing him on pitch selection.

Molina sets the expectation Molina, the only one of the three drafted by the Cardinals, has less overt leadership. He can be fiercely demanding on the field

and during games, but also a soothing presence for the young pitchers. He has replaced Albert Pujols and joined coach Jose Oquendo as a mentor for Latin players. Teammates say the outgoing, playful Molina is something only they get to see regularly.

Several young pitchers said private gestures made by Molina changed their careers. Most of the teaching and influence from Molina is done out of sight of the public. Except for on the field, where everyone in baseball takes note.

As the Cubs have undergone an overhaul the past three years, one of the things they sought to do was invent a winning culture. Baseball operations president Theo Epstein said a way to do that “is stuffing as many high-character guys in the clubhouse as you can.” He mentioned the Cardinals’ trio as an example.

Holliday said the chance to play with Molina and Wainwright for the remainder of his career was a reason to stay a Cardinal.

By the end of his current contract he’ll have spent nearly nine seasons with them.

During that overlap the trio have, so far, shared 12 All-Star invites, at least one MVP vote for one of them every year, five postseason appearances, two National League pennants, a World Series championship and one lifelong bond.

“Jumping into somebody’s arms after winning a World Series — how many people can you say you’ve done that with?”

Wainwright said.

They feel compelled to pass that on.

Through instruction.

Through invitation. Sometimes through a simple text.

“I would want nothing more than to look back on my career and know that I was a Cardinal for life and to know I had an impact on the organization that was great,” Wainwright said.

“When I leave this organization and retire I would hope that the system of mentorship, discipleship would still be here, would still be in place and that we’ve made it stronger than ever.

“And that’s why when I step away, it’s in good hands. No doubt.”

Derrick Goold @dgoold on Twitter dgoold@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • SUNDAY • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S9

Before they were mentors

BY DERRICK GOOLD • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The members of the Cardinals’ organization who make up the masthead of clubhouse leadership all share at least one trait: Before they embraced their roles as mentors on the team they were mentored. The Post-Dispatch asked four of the Cardinals’ leading voices to describe the people who shaped them or their teammates, both professionally and personally.

Mike Matheny, manager: Coaches early in his career showed way

B

big leagues and had a big-league career, so he had all of the credentials and all of the respect. But he wanted to work.

That guy just worked. Chris Brando was more on the human side. It was a good blend of baseball and the undertones of our similarities with faith and family.”

Matheny said he was compelled to write his book, “The Matheny Manifesto,” in part because of the guidance he received from his youth league coach, Ron Golden, and also the support he received from a close-knit circle of friends. Mike Hansen, the Rams’ chaplain and a former executive at Nestle Purina, remains a close mentor, one Matheny shares with his coaches.

Hansen “is always at least one step ahead with his kids, his marriage, and in his life.”

y the time Matheny reached the Milwaukee Brewers organization he had already learned work ethic from his father, Jerry Matheny, and their West Virginia farm roots, and catcher ethics from his college coach, Michigan’s Bill Freehan. It was Freehan who told Matheny that a catcher calls the pitches, not the dugout, and it was Freehan who urged Matheny to take Spanish classes in college so that he could speak to Latin teammates and begin gathering the résumé of a future manager. With the Brewers, Matheny met minor-league manager Chris Brando and catching instructor Del Crandall.

“I love the saying, ‘When the student is ready the teacher arrives,’” Matheny said. “(Crandall) had managed in the

Adam Wainwright, ace: In the beginning there was his brother

W

prepared than the guy in the box.” From former pitching coach Dave Duncan, Wainwright learned how to scout hitters and develop a game plan. From pitching coach Derek Lilliquist, Wainwright learned how to enact that game plan by “being athletically, emotionally, physically in one place.” And from a trio of Hall of Fame Atlanta Braves pitchers – Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine – Wainwright proved not all mentors know they are mentoring.

“There were qualities of their game that I picked out and tried to emulate even before I met them or got to know them,” he said. “I became their shadow even when I wasn’t there.”

hen the Cardinals’ righthander was just a self-described “tater tot” growing up in Georgia, he was the youngest son of a single mother.

And while she showed him the importance of strength, it was his older brother, Trey, who taught him how to channel it. Wainwright can list the different characteristics he’s adopted from a litany of mentors, and they start with “outworking anybody anywhere, at school or on the baseball diamond and on the basketball court, like Trey did.”

From Chris Carpenter, Wainwright heard and internalized the importance of mental toughness and “being more confident than the guy in the box, more

Matt Holliday, left fielder: A baseball family, teammates who taught

T

Off it, Mark Sweeney and Todd Greene, two teammates in Colorado, insisted Holliday eat lunch with them, almost every day.

“We’ll teach you to pay attention, watch these guys, this is how they do it, this is how we did it,” Holliday recalled them saying. “This is the time to be at the field. This is when you keep your mouth shut and guys will come to respect you with your hard work. … There are mentors for the personal side. There are the players who show you how to become a pro. There are mentors for hitting. There are so many people who pour into you.”

he Cardinals’ outfielder had his game shaped early by father Tom Holliday, a successful college coach at places like Oklahoma State, Texas, N.C. State and Auburn, and by older brother Josh, now the head coach at Oklahoma State.

When he arrived in the majors with the Colorado Rockies, Matt saw quickly how to shape his game to the highest level. Watching All-Stars like Larry Walker and Todd Helton, whether they knew it or not, Holliday borrowed suggestions from their workouts and their preparation and merged the mentoring he received on the field.

Yadier Molina, catcher: ‘Mr. Ricketts’ had an indelible role

T

their defense. Yadier had the raw tools to catch and the passion for it. Ricketts and Matheny sharpened those tools to what could be a Hall of Fame edge.

Behind the plate, Molina has echoes of Matheny, said Wainwright, because he can “command attention without commanding it.”

“Dave was hard on him but he just kept being available to Yadi,” Matheny said. “Without question, Dave cared for him. I think that instilled that incredible discipline and work ethic you see from him. Yadi inherently learned that to be giving back and teaching is important because he saw what happened in his life with Dave.”

he day longtime coach Dave Ricketts died in 2008 his young protégé, Molina, sat near his locker in the visitors’ clubhouse in Pittsburgh and tried to find the words for his loss.

Mr. Ricketts, to his catchers, “was like my dad,” Molina said. “I’m here because of him. He made me into a catcher. I wasn’t a catcher when I got here. He was like my dad, there for me since I was 17.”

Molina was surrounded by forces that helped build him into one of the game’s better catchers. His father, Benjamin Sr., was an excellent shortstop in Puerto Rico, and he would arrive home, like clockwork, each afternoon to run his sons through drills. Bengie and Jose, Yadier’s two older brothers, became major-league catchers lauded for

Derrick Goold @dgoold on Twitter dgoold@post-dispatch.com

PHOTOS BY CHRIS LEE • clee@post-dispatch.com

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Formulating a winner Cards succeed by making sure certain numbers are in their favor to a point. The Cardinals finished third with a .264 average with RISP in 2012 and were a respectable sixth (.254) last season.

BERNIE MIKLASZ St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DEFENSE MATTERS There’s been so much talk about the “Cardinal Way” that the mere phrase inspires derision and resentment among non-Cardinal fans. And even some of the team’s loyal followers are sick of the branding. Understood.

That aside … in terms of how the Cardinals play the game, is there a specific style that represents a “way” of baseball? I’m referring to the identifiable markers of the team’s onfield success.

As the Cardinals launch a new season, I’m intrigued by the team’s ability to win consistently despite undergoing major changes since the end of the 2011 World Series-winning season.

The list includes the retirements of manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan; the free-agent departures of first baseman Albert Pujols, right fielder Carlos Beltran and starting pitcher Kyle Lohse; and the injuries that ended or severely impacted the careers of starters Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia and closer Jason Motte.

The Cardinals have also prevailed despite a substantial loss of home-run power, changes at closer and the in-season loss of talented starting pitcher Michael Wacha in 2014.

Since Mike Matheny took over as manager in 2012, the Cardinals rank second in the majors in wins, lead the majors in postseason victories and extended their streak of reaching the National League championship series to four consecutive seasons.

There are some common threads to be found in Matheny’s first three seasons.

I bring them up only because they seem to apply to the Cardinals’ chances of winning the division for a third straight year.

As noted baseball writer Billy Shakespeare once wrote: What’s past is prologue.

So let’s take a look:

PITCHING COVERS WEAKNESSES Over the past three seasons the Cards rank third in the NL in the more accurate fielding-independent ERA metric, with an overall FIP of 3.55 and a startingpitcher FIP of 3.52. Their starters have thrown the fourth-highest amount of innings, rank sixth in quality starts and have surrendered the fewest homers (0.77) per game.

The bullpen, meanwhile, has the NL’s best strikeout-walk ratio since 2012.

And the bullpen has limited damage; over the last three seasons the Cards’ relievers have the NL’s second-best percentage of preventing inherited runners from scoring (76 percent).

The low homer total is important. If your team doesn’t hit a lot of homers, then one way to come out ahead is limiting the other team’s home-run count. And the Cardinals have done that over the last three seasons, hitting 389 bombs while giving up 369.

The team’s Duncanespoused tradition of ground-ball outs is still thriving. Over the past three seasons the Cardinals have the league’s second-highest ground-ball rate (49 percent) and have turned the most double plays (420.) Combining quick ground-ball outs with a low walk rate, the Cards’ pitchers show an efficiency that provides a definite advantage.

ON-BASE PERCENTAGE IS LIFE The quality of the Cardinals’ at-bats makes a difference. For all of the digs we’ve made at batting coach John Mabry, there’s no denying the effective-

CHRIS LEE • clee@post-dispatch.com

Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny talk it over while watching practice.

ness of the team’s overall approach. If you lack HR power – and the Cardinals rank 25th in the majors in homers over the last three years – then you have to make up for it in other ways.

The Cardinals score runs by putting more runners on base than most teams.

Since 2012 they lead the NL in on-base percentage (.336), and that creates enough opportunities to put the Cardinals No. 2 in the league in runs scored

over the three-season period.

One obvious key is making pitchers work, rolling up a good walks total and avoiding strikeouts. Over the last three seasons Cardinals hitters took a higher percentage of pitches (54 percent) than any NL team, had the best contact rate, posted the NL’s lowest strikeout rate and ranked third in most walks.

Over the past three seasons only two NL teams had more plate appearances with runners in scoring position than St. Louis. And the Cardinals have done the best job of hitting with runners in scoring position, batting a league-leading .283 over the last three seasons. That’s inflated by the outlier .330 average with RISP in 2013 – but only

The evidence is mixed.

Over the past three seasons the Cardinals have allowed the second-lowest total of unearned runs, have notched the highest number of double plays and have given up the fewest stolen bases. Their overall defensive efficiency was lacking in 2012 and 2013, when they ranked 10th and 13th in the league, respectively. But last season their defensive efficiency rating improved to No. 3 in the league. A mediocre defense would have sabotaged this team in 2014. Instead, that enhanced defense was a key component in another division title.

THE GM ADDS IMPACT As the Cards’ John Mozeliak would tell you, no GM is infallible. They all make deals or signings that blow up. (See: Ty Wigginton, Mark Ellis and Justin Masterson.) But Mozeliak has a good sense of what his team needs, and he’s done a good job of securing timely, meaningful help.

The Cards’ farm system has produced enough talent to patch most roster holes, but that doesn’t always work. So over the last three seasons Mozeliak has gone outside the orga-

nization to make major or minor moves that brought in run-producer Beltran; shortstop Jhonny Peralta; starter John Lackey; relievers Edward Mujica, Pat Neshek, Randy Choate and John Axford; and outfielders Randal Grichuk and Peter Bourjos. (Sneer at Bourjos if you want, but he played a role in the improved outfield defense in 2014.)

In advance of 2015 Mozeliak traded for right fielder Jason Heyward and reliever Jordan Walden and added some wallop to the bench by signing slugger Mark Reynolds. We’ll see how those maneuvers work out, but the Heyward addition could impact the team’s core nucleus for years to come.

It’s been a rather delicate formula without much margin for failure.

The 2015 Cardinals may be limited by a sparse home-run total again, so it’s mandatory to maintain a high on-base percentage and take advantage of the subsequent run-scoring opportunities. Can they keep it up? Can their pitchers continue to work efficiently and keep the ball in the park? Can the team maintain last year’s cleaner defensive performance?

The Cardinals’ continuation of their winning way depends on it.

Bernie Miklasz @miklasz on Twitter bjmiklasz@post-dispatch.com

CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • SUNDAY • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S11

Counting blessings Matheny says ‘it’s not false modesty’ when deflecting credit for success JOE STRAUSS St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Told he is the answer to a not so trivial question, Mike Matheny hesitates before replying with an appreciation cut by perspective.

Last October, you see, the Cardinals’ 44-year-old skipper became the first manager in National League history to both amass 275 regular-season wins and reach postseason play in his first three years in the role.

This should be heady stuff for a guy who followed Hall of Famer Tony La Russa into office without a shred of managerial experience.

One recalls Matheny as general manager John Mozeliak’s inspiration, a trusted, low-profile roving catching instructor given little chance to emerge from a loaded interview pool that included former World Series manager Terry Francona, Cardinals third-base coach Jose Oquendo and rising star Ryne Sandberg, since named Philadelphia Phillies manager.

Except, as far as Mozeliak was concerned, the fix was in for Matheny, who cemented his standing during a compelling interview with the team’s four-man search committee.

Matheny alternately recalls the climate as “unique” and “different.” Mozeliak had previously discussed managing with him, but suddenly in November 2011, theory was becoming reality.

Two NL Central titles, three National League championship series and one World Series brush later, Matheny has validated Mozeliak’s instinct while riding a learning curve in a market expecting, even spoiled by, October success.

The Cardinals have won 88, 97 and 90 games under Matheny. La Russa’s last team won 90 games to slip into the playoffs as a wild card on the final day of the 2011 season.

It then captured the World Series as a massive underdog to create the perfect exit for TLR — and a pre-

cipitous stage for the new man.

“You look at a lot of guys who come in with teams fighting from the start while rebuilding,” acknowledged Matheny, who benefited from MLB adding a second wild card in 2012. “Something usually has gone wrong so somebody else gets an opportunity. Not many managers get the job after a team has won the World Series. A lot of things were in place here.”

True enough. But the Cardinals immediately disgorged several significant pieces of that championship team. First baseman Albert Pujols left for Anaheim via free agency. Right fielder Lance Berkman returned on a one-year contract but literally limped through 2012. Chris Carpenter paid with his career for strong-arming the Redbirds through six postseason starts, three during an epic seven-game World Series against the Texas Rangers. Late-season additions Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes and Edwin Jackson were pitching rentals. Only Yadier Molina, Jaime Garcia, Jon Jay, Matt Holliday and Lance Lynn remain from that World Series roster.

(Adam Wainwright was recovering from surgery.)

The ensuing “churn” further elevated a productive player development system. When the Cardinals won their next division title in 2013, they did so with organizational products standing at seven positions.

Only 15 major-league managers have won 275 games in their first three whole seasons.

Since the leagues split into three divisions to coincide with 1995’s first appearance of the wild card, Matheny and former Minnesota Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire are the only managers to couple that success with three postseason appearances.

The Cardinals under Matheny have won a wild-card play-in over Atlanta, three division series, one NLCS and two World Series games. One division title arrived while the team averaged 3.8 runs a game, unprecedented since the leagues split into three divisions.

Matheny CHRIS LEE • P-D

Without benefit of an interim assignment, Davey Johnson (296) and Gardenhire (276) accumulated more wins in their first three seasons than Matheny. Gardenhire steered the Minnesota Twins to three straight postseason appearances in 2002-04 but failed to reach the World Series. Johnson, who took the New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals to the postseason, didn’t benefit from a wild card when his first two Mets teams missed the playoffs with 90 and 98 victories.

Walter Alston (283) and Sparky Anderson (276) won more games in their first three full seasons after taking over the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, respectively.

Former Cardinals managers Frankie Frisch (278) and Billy Southworth (308) also bested Ma-

theny’s win total in their first three full seasons as manager, but they managed parts of earlier seasons.

Before Matheny, Grady Little ranked as the last manager to win 275 games in his first three full seasons without benefit of previous exposure at this level. Little won 276 games with the 2002-03 Boston Red Sox and the 2006 Dodgers.

He navigated the latter two teams to the postseason but was fired following the Dodgers’ 82-win 2007.

He has not managed since.

Matheny is a National League gate-crasher in what had been exclusively an American League club.

Only the Detroit Tigers’ Hughie Jennings (1907-09), the New York Yankees’ Ralph Houk (1961-63), the Orioles’ Earl Weaver (1969-71) and Gardenhire coupled at least 275 regular-season wins with trips to the postseason their first three seasons. Of course, Jennings and Houk did not benefit from divisional alignment. Weaver predated the wild card. Frank Chance took over the Chicago Cubs before the 1905 season midpoint before leading them to three consecutive pennants and consecutive World Series titles in 1907-08.

“It’s not false modesty. I really understand I’ve been fortunate to have good teams,” Matheny said during a lengthy Grapefruit League drive to Kissimmee. “The success comes from players and staff. If I was in a contract negotiation then I’m sure I’d have those numbers around. But for the most part I’ve felt an urgency not to drop the ball, an urgency to keep it going. That was my responsibility.”

Matheny created a narrative of service to his players when installed. At 44, he is less than nine years removed from his final season as a player. His last season with the Cardinals was Molina’s first on the major-league roster. Throwing batting practice and warming up pitchers remain indulgences.

He speaks of a culture that rarely brokers those on the outside. Matheny’s teams come with a kick.

The last three regular seasons, the Cardinals are 53-30 in August and September.

“It comes down to pure winning. There are a lot of things that go into how I evaluate myself and the staff. What kind of injuries and obstacles and distractions do we have to overcome? What else went into it that maybe nobody on the outside knew about?” Matheny said. “If we have an internal issue we try to keep it internal. I believe we’ve stayed true to our cause.

“It comes down to whether we’re creating a culture that guys invest in. You look at them as people first. If we’re not winning I’m not going to be there very long.

Then there’s something I need to do differently. I’ve yet to be short on talent. We’ve always had the talent here. It’s a matter of how we maximize it. I’m not trying to manipulate guys. I’m trying to invest in them.”

If Matheny has overseen an evolving roster, he has never had to experience a rebuild. “I didn’t have to create anything,” he said. “I was trying to sustain. I walked into a spot few people experience.”

Managing can be described as part science, part art. Matheny is open to the wave of advanced metrics that have made defensive shifting commonplace while heavily impacting lineup construction.

If there is a persistent criticism, it stems from game management, specifically bullpen usage.

Fans recall the 2013 World Series concluding with forsaken Shelby Miller warming in the Fenway Park bullpen and the San Francisco Giants’ Travis Ishikawa ending the 2014 NLCS with a home run off Michael Wacha, a dry-docked starter making the first appearance of the postseason.

Last year’s most memorable issues stemmed from a shortage of lefthanded arms against a Giants team especially problematic against righthanders.

Without reliving every pitch, Matheny does not run from the lessons. “I learn more from mistakes than from success,” he says.

“I open that door often.”

Joe Strauss @joestrauss on Twitter jstrauss@post-dispatch.com

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ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S13

Year after year after . . .

Redbirds will try to match Atlanta’s five consecutive trips to NLCS

By Rick Hummel St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JUPITER, Fla. • Call it the Drive for Five.

The Cardinals will be shooting for their fifth consecutive appearance in the National League championship series and, of course, hoping to go a step beyond this year. The only comparison to that since a three-round playoff format began in 1995 is what the Atlanta Braves accomplished from 1995 to 1999.

The Braves were in the NLCS every year in that time frame, winning it in 1995 and 1996, losing in 1997-98 and winning again in 1999. The Cardinals are 2-2 so far in their four straight visits to the NLCS. But the Braves have been in the league championship series only once since 1999 – in 2001, when they were ousted in five games by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It’s quite difficult. Very difficult,” said Atlanta president John Schuerholz, who was the general manager of those Braves teams and also the ones that played in league championship series from 1991-93 in the two-tiered playoff format.

“The challenges a general manager has in constructing a roster are stout enough,” Schuerholz said. “You may have half your staff undergoing Tommy John surgery, or you’ve got too many big contracts where you’re going to lose somebody. But you have more likelihood of achieving this if you have strong support from ownership, you understand your goals and you have a good leadership team from baseball operations to player development and scouting.

“It’s hard to achieve, but it’s even harder to sustain. When you do that for three, four, five years, that’s pretty darn successful.”

“How difficult is it?” asked Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak, repeating the question. “It’s hard to answer that in a vacuum because, right now, all we’re worried about

is now. Trying to put years together is always a dangerous thing, in our business. You really need to separate them and keep moving on.

“This is a new club, a different team than last year, and our division is going to be more difficult. But the biggest thing that comes to mind when I think about winning is when it’s expected versus when it just happens.

“When you’re in a more organic state, growing and slowly building up to that achievement, there’s a different level of pressure than when you’ve already done it and people expect it. That’s one of the reasons why we do feel it’s important to bring in fresh faces and new talent every year.

It is so demanding on players that have been through it.

“You look at our roster and three names come to mind real quick, and that’s (Yadier) Molina, (Adam) Wainwright and (Matt) Holliday. They’ve been through a lot, and adding energy to surround them is a really important part of keeping people hungry.

“We have expectations. We have leaders that understand it. And we have new players hoping to achieve it.”

The Braves actually put together a run of 14 straight division championships until they missed in 2006.

“That just doesn’t happen,” Schuerholz said. “The Yankees haven’t even done it.

That the Braves haven’t been in a championship series since 2001 lies largely, Schuerholz said, “in the odds.

No matter how good you are, the odds are against you.”

After all, it isn’t exactly as if the Braves fell off the roof after 2001.

From 2002 through 2013, they finished under .500 only twice and had seven seasons of 90 or more wins, only to fall short of the league championship series. But after last year’s 79-83 record the Braves decided to change general managers from Frank Wren to John Hart, who built a mid-

The last four years 2014 • Rec: 90-72 • Playoffs: Central champs lost to the Giants in the NLCS 2013 • Rec.: 97-65 • Playoffs: Central champs lost to the Red Sox in the World Series 2012 • Rec.: 88-74 • Playoffs: As a wildcard team, the Cards eventually lost to the Giants in the NLCS. 2011 • Rec.: 90-72 • Playoffs: As a wildcard team, the Cards beat the Rangers in seven games to win its 11th World Series title

1990s power at Cleveland. And they started unloading players they didn’t think they could sign long-term (Jason Heyward, Justin Upton) for prospects.

“I don’t think we’re rebuilding,” Schuerholz said. “We’re resetting.

“We’ve made the decision to focus on building our core values. Those are scouting and player development.

“It takes time,” he said. “You can’t turn a battleship around very quickly.

You have to be patient in making turns and heading in the direction you want.

“It may take longer than we like. It may take longer than our fans would like.”

Schuerholz did something along the same lines in Kansas City when the Royals built their 1985 World Series champion, primarily through a pipeline of homegrown talent.

Then he went to Atlanta, where general manger Bobby Cox, who would become their manager again, had started a program in which the Braves would rebound from a hideous period in the late 1980s. But along the way they were developing from within with the likes of Tom Glavine, Steve Avery, David Justice, Ron Gant, Jeff Blauser and a young John Smoltz, who had been acquired as a minor-leaguer from Detroit.

The philosophy then, and perhaps it will be now, allowed Schuerholz, was, “If you get beat up at the major league level, you don’t accept it. But you understand it.”

Under Schuerholz, the Braves dabbled a bit in free agency, getting future most valuable player Terry Pendleton from the Cardinals and Sid Bream and Rafael Belliard from Pittsburgh, and signing Otis Nixon to play center field. The first three had been with championship teams in the preceding years, and soon the Braves were winning themselves, going from last in 1990 to first in 1991 and making the World Series.

It was the beginning of the run of 14, much of which would later in-

clude Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, one of the best free agent buys ever. It was capped by the five straight NLCS appearances (and one World Series title) from 1995-99.

Mozeliak, asked to compare the Cardinals’ and Braves’ situations, said, “Every one has a story. In their case, it was built around their rotation. They had talent throughout their lineup, but nothing is going to last forever.”

To maintain quality teams and stave off the reality that a team isn’t apt to win every year, Mozeliak said it was important not to be blinded by the most recent accomplishment.

“The one thing we recognize is that having (roster) churn is beneficial,” Mozeliak said.

“We’re not looking back at what we did last year and saying we can just replicate it to get where we are.”

Surveying the Cardinals from some distance, Schuerholz said, “They have an excellent organization starting at the top with the support of ownership. Their consistency at putting a quality team on the field is obvious to most everybody in baseball.

“They have proven assets in their players and proven facets of their ownership, their baseball operations and consistency in the production of their player development and scouting.”

But, he said, “What you have to remember is there are 29 other teams trying to do the same thing.”

Like the Braves from 1990 until the mid-2000s, and notably from 199599, the Cardinals expect their seasons to last seven months (including playoffs) and not six, and so they plan and train accordingly.

“We don’t have to discuss it,” Mozeliak said. “Years ago, that was something that was talked about.

That’s just not something that is discussed here.

“I think that is what is expected.”

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S15

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S16 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

CARDINALS PREVIEW

M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • Sunday • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S17

2015 Cardinals schedule

David Carson • P-D

E 6 7 FS 7:05 p.m.

7:05 p.m.

CHI CHI 12 FS 13 FS 14 12:10 p.m. 3:15 p.m.

CIN MIL 19 E 20 21 FS 7:05 p.m.

6:05 p.m.

CIN WSH 26 FS 27 FS 28 FS 1:10 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

MIL PHI PHI

JULY

FS 1:15 p.m.

SD 12 E 7:05 p.m.

PIT 19 FS 1:15 p.m.

NYM 26 FS 1:15 p.m.

ATL

5

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FS 9 10 FS 11 FS 1:20 p.m.

6:10 p.m. 12:10 p.m.

CHI CIN CIN 15 FS 16 FS 17 FS 18 FS 7:15 p.m. 12:45 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m.

MIL MIL CIN CIN 22 FS/E 23 FS 24 FS 25 FS 6:05 p.m. 3:05 p.m. 7:10 p.m. 6:10 p.m.

WSH WSH MIL MIL 29 FS 30 FS 7:15 p.m. 12:45 p.m.

PHI PHI

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3

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7:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

CWS SD SD 6 FS/E 7 FS 8 FS 9 FS 10 FS 7:05 p.m. 7:05 p.m. 7:05 p.m. 6:05 p.m. 6:05 p.m.

CHI CHI CHI PIT PIT 13 14 15 16 17 FS 7:15 p.m.

All-Star Break NYM 20 21 FS 22 FS 23 24 FS 7:10 p.m. 7:10 p.m.

7:15 p.m.

CWS CWS ATL 27 FS 28 FS 29 FS 30 FS 31 FS 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

CIN CIN CIN COL COL

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PIT 18 FS 6:15 p.m.

NYM 25 FS1 6:15 p.m.

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PIT CHI CHI CHI CHI 10 FS 11 12 FS 13 FS 14 FS 12:35 p.m.

5:10 p.m. 5:10 p.m. 11:10 a.m.

PIT CLE CLE CLE 17 E 18 FS 19 FS 20 FS 21 FS 7:05 p.m. 6:10 p.m. 6:10 p.m. 6:10 p.m. 12:10 p.m.

DET NYM NYM NYM NYM 24 FS 25 FS 26 FS 27 FS 28 1:10 p.m. 3:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

KC AZ AZ AZ 31 FS 1:15 p.m.

LAD

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FS 3 1:15 p.m.

COL 9 FS 10 1:10 p.m.

MIL 16 FS 17 FS 1:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

MIA SF 23 FS 24 FS 3:10 p.m. 8:40 p.m.

SD AZ 30 FS 31 FS 3:05 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

SF WSH

T

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TH

SA FS

1

3

2

F 7:15 p.m.

PIT 8 FS 6:05 p.m.

PIT 15 FS 7:15 p.m.

DET 22 FS 7:10 p.m.

KC 29 FS 7:15 p.m.

LAD

2

1:15 p.m.

PIT 9 FS 6:05 p.m.

PIT 16 FS 1:15 p.m.

DET 23 F 6:15 p.m.

KC 30 F 6:15 p.m.

LAD

F

SA 1

FS 6:10 p.m.

CIN 11 FS 7:15 p.m.

PIT 18 FS 7:15 p.m.

SF 25 FS 8:40 p.m.

AZ

4

FS 6 FS 7 FS 6:10 p.m. 11:35 a.m. 7:10 p.m.

CIN CIN MIL 12 FS 13 FS 14 FS 7:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

PIT PIT MIA 19 FS 20 21 FS 6:15 p.m.

9:10 p.m.

SF SD 26 FS 27 FS 28 FS 8:40 p.m. 8:40 p.m. 9:15 p.m.

AZ AZ SF

5

FS

FS

6:15 p.m.

COL 8 FS1 6:10 p.m.

MIL 15 FS 6:15 p.m.

MIA 22 FS 7:40 p.m.

SD 29 FS 3:05 p.m.

SF

JUNE

T

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SEPT.-OCT.

M

MAY

APRIL

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FS = Fox Sports Midwest • F = Fox (KTVI, Ch. 2) • E = ESPN • FS1 = Fox Sports 1 • All games broadcast on KMOX radio (1120 AM)

AUGUST

Away

Home

SU

M 1

FS TBD LAD 14 FS 1:15 p.m.

KC 21 FS 12:35 p.m.

PHI 28 FS 1:15 p.m.

CHI

7

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2

W FS

TH FS

3

F FS

4

7:10 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 12:45 p.m. 9:10 p.m.

MIL MIL MIL LAD 8 FS 9 FS 10 FS 11 7:40 p.m. 7:40 p.m. 2:10 p.m.

COL COL COL 15 FS 16 FS 17 FS 18 FS 7:15 p.m. 12:45 p.m. 7:10 p.m. 12:10 p.m.

MIN MIN MIN MIN 22 23 FS1 24 FS 25 FS 6:10 p.m. 6:10 p.m. 6:10 p.m.

MIA MIA MIA 29 30 FS 7:10 p.m.

CWS

M

T 1

W FS

2

5

9:10 p.m.

LAD 12 FS 7:15 p.m.

KC 19 FS 6:05 p.m.

PHI 26 FS 7:15 p.m.

CHI

TH FS

3

7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m.

WSH WSH 8 FS 9 FS 10 FS 7:15 p.m. 12:45 p.m. 6:10 p.m.

CHI CHI CIN 15 FS 16 FS 17 FS 7:10 p.m. 7:10 p.m. 7:10 p.m.

MIL MIL MIL 22 FS 23 FS 24 FS 7:15 p.m. 7:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m.

CIN CIN MIL 29 FS 30 FS 1 6:05 p.m. 6:05 p.m.

PIT PIT

SA FS

F 4

FS 9:10 p.m.

LAD 13 FS 3:10 p.m.

KC 20 FS 2:05 p.m.

PHI 27 F 6:15 p.m.

CHI

6

SA FS

5 FS/FS1

7:15 p.m. 3:05 p.m.

PIT PIT 11 FS 12 F 6:10 p.m. 12:05 p.m.

CIN CIN 18 FS 19 F 1:20 p.m. 12:05 p.m.

CHI CHI 25 FS 26 FS1 7:15 p.m. 6:15 p.m.

MIL MIL FS 2 FS 3 6:35 p.m. 6:10 p.m.

ATL ATL

FS 7 FS 1:15 p.m. 1:15 p.m.

PIT CHI 13 TBD 14 12:10 p.m.

CIN 20 TBD 21 FS TBD 7:15 p.m.

CHI CIN 27 FS 28 FS 1:15 p.m. 6:05 p.m.

MIL PIT 4 FS SOURCE: St. Louis Cardinals | Post-Dispatch 2:05 p.m.

ATL

6

CARDINALS PREVIEW

S18 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

SP Back in the picture, Garcia adds to Cards’ mix of veterans and youngsters

TALENT APLENTY

Lackey

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS Questions abounded at the start of camp. Was Adam Wainwright’s balky elbow going to be a recurring theme?

Was Michael Wacha over his mysterious shoulder problem of the year before? Was Carlos Martinez ready?

Wainwright’s elbow wasn’t an issue but his abdomen was, setting him back but not in a damaging sense.

Wacha seemed quite all right, and Martinez seemed ready for his first real test in the rotation but might not get it for a while.

Wainwright has won 20 games twice, including last year, and 19 games two other times. Whether he will duplicate those seasons at age 33 going on 34 is problematic, but he should be able to turn in another 200-innings season and win in the high teens.

Inasmuch as righthander Lance Lynn has won 15 or more games in each of the last three seasons, it is reasonable to think he will achieve at least that many again. Lynn was set back a bit himself by a mild left hip flexor strain but should be ready for his first start in Chicago. Veteran John Lackey has won in double figures every year he has been able to pitch in the majors since 2003.

The sights for Wacha and Martinez are more uncertain, although that has nothing to do with their immense talent. It is that neither has pitched for a full season in the majors and neither has won more than five games in the big leagues in a season. But, ideally, both are capable of being 15-game winners.

2014 COMBINED STATS

(Includes all 12 pitchers who started a game)

64-49 RECORD 3.45 ERA

969.1 IP 794 Ks

310 WALKS

893 HITS ALLOWED

Wacha

PLAN B Jaime Garcia seems forever to be part of Plan B. But finally healthy for the first time in years after having a nerve problem addressed last summer, Garcia, who is making $9 million this year, was strong enough and effective enough in camp to re-stake a claim in the rotation, health permitting, of course.

Lefthander Marco Gonzales, the 23-year-old who was a force out of the bullpen last year, is earmarked to be a starter in the long run, but in the short run he is ready, too, if Garcia or Martinez or someone else falters. To keep him sharp, the Cardinals probably will open with him in Class AAA Memphis.

There is always lefthander Tyler Lyons, who hasn’t won in the majors since his first two games in May 2013 — he is 0-8 since then. Lyons was 8-2 at Class AAA Memphis last year, and he has the best curveball among the young pitchers, but he lacked consistency this spring and was an early cut.

Farther down the line is fast-rising righthander Alex Reyes, who is only 20 years old but may be only a year or so from the majors as the possessor of a crackling, mid- to high-90s fastball. And lefthander Tim Cooney, who won 14 games at Memphis and was impressive in relief this spring, has to be considered a possibility for call-up, too, as does righthander Zach Petrick, who will be at Memphis.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • SUNDAY • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S19

RP Walden and Belisle join several familiar names in a mix of young and old

Walden

NEW PIECES

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS

PLAN B

2014 COMBINED STATS

Pat Neshek, who had a remarkable career year with the Cardinals, is gone, and so is former closer Jason Motte.

But the Cardinals believe they have filled those slots with righthander Jordan Walden, acquired from Atlanta, and righthander Matt Belisle, signed as a free agent. Walden has an unusual delivery in which he hops at the hitter, throws hard and has decent offspeed stuff. He was a more than reliable setup man last year to Atlanta’s great closer, Craig Kimbrel.

Belisle, 34, has been a middleinnings workhorse for Cincinnati and Colorado and can be counted on for 65 to 70 appearances. Lefthander Kevin Siegrist held righthanders to a .138 average and lefthanded batters to .118 in his rookie season and was one of the few southpaw relievers able to stay in the game against both types of hitters.

But he was plagued by forearm and nerve issues last year and wasn’t effective at all. He appeared healthy this spring and could be a weapon again in the late innings.

Lefthanded specialist Randy Choate, who wasn’t used quite as he had expected to be last year, is more effective facing just one or two lefthanded hitters at a time. But the rest of the bullpen has to be strong enough to carry such a specialist.

The wild card could be lefthanded rookie Marco Gonzales, the club’s top draft pick in 2014, who emerged as a surprise bullpen star in the postseason when he was the club’s top lefthander.

If Siegrist has trouble, Gonzales could find himself back in the bullpen.

Lefthander Sam Freeman is out of options. But if he can conquer some nagging control issues, Freeman can be a force in the late innings because he is a high-strikeout pitcher. Too often, though, he has thrown ball one and ball two.

Young righthander Sam Tuivailala didn’t do well in his two brief appearances with the Cardinals last year, but he has high-octane stuff and is only 22 years old. Another good season in the minors — he fanned 97 in 60 minorleague innings — soon will shoot him into the seventh and eighth innings in the majors.

Lefthander Nick Greenwood, who showed he could pitch as many as four innings at a time, surely will surface at one time or another this year. Greenwood is an inexpensive insurance policy. And keep an eye on much-improved Mitch Harris, a 29-year-old graduate of the Naval Academy whose career started late but who has blossomed in the past year with a noticeable pickup in velocity.

24-17 RECORD 3.69 ERA

409 IP 340 Ks

118 WALKS

370 HITS ALLOWED

Gonzales

Tuivailala

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S20 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

CL Rosenthal will aim to avoid control issues that made 2014 so difficult

A HARD NINTH

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS

PLAN B

2014 STATS

Trevor Rosenthal had a successful, albeit adventuresome, first season as the Cardinals’ closer. His 45 saves ranked among the league leaders, but his 42 walks in 70 1/3 innings often gave manager Mike Matheny, not to mention the fans, some pause. Rosenthal didn’t have those control issues in 2013 after assuming the closer role late in the season, but he too often fell behind in the count after entering games last year.

The solution, of course, would be to throw strike one, and Rosenthal is very aware of that. There is reason to expect that Rosenthal will be more comfortable in the role this year and not be prone to overthrowing. He is just 24 but already, with his save total of 2014, has joined the rich history of Cardinals closers from Al Hrabosky to Bruce Sutter to Todd Worrell to Lee Smith to Tom Henke to Dennis Eckersley to Jason Isringhausen to Adam Wainwright (2006 postseason) to Jason Motte, who has moved on to the Chicago Cubs.

A starter in the minors, Rosenthal has an electric fastball that reaches nearly 100 miles per hour, a good curveball and a developing changeup.

Catcher Yadier Molina will apply a guiding hand and will keep Rosenthal as grounded as a closer possibly can be, although Rosenthal’s nerves seem steady enough anyway. Matheny will try to be careful about using Rosenthal more than three days in a row and probably would prefer to summon him no more than two days in succession, unless one of those days was a relatively easy one requiring few pitches.

Righthander Jordan Walden, acquired from Atlanta along with outfielder Jason Heyward, probably would be the next closer if something happened to Rosenthal.

Walden has closed before with the Angels and has closer stuff with a high 90s fastball, a slider and a changeup, which he throws mostly to lefthanders. Lefthander Kevin Siegrist, who had a spectacular rookie season in 2013, posting a 0.45 ERA, seems healthy after a virtually lost 2014 and could be a ninth-inning man on occasion. Siegrist was outstanding against both righthanded and lefthanded batters as a rookie.

He has 95 mph stuff and is developing a breaking ball. The coaching staff has made progress on the 6-foot-5 Siegrist being able to deliver the ball more quickly to the plate to curtail the opponents’ running game.

The next big closer to come through the system will be righthander Sam Tuivailala, who struck out 98 hitters in 61 innings while pitching at all the levels last season – Class A Palm Beach, Class AA Springfield, Class AAA Memphis and for the Cardinals for one inning. Tuivailala could be the closer at Memphis and surely will be in the majors again before the season is over.

45 SAVES • 6 BLOWN SAVES 2-6 RECORD • 3.20 ERA

70.1 IP 87 Ks

42 WALKS

57 HITS ALLOWED

Rosenthal

Walden

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S22 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

OF Heyward adds defense, speed and potential power to Jay’s and Holliday’s solid skills

TOUGH TRIO

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS Left fielder Matt Holliday, even at age 35, largely is a given, although his production dipped last year. Put him down for at least 20 home runs and 90 RBIs and somewhere near a .300 average if he stays healthy. Though he labored at the plate at times last year, especially in the first half, Holliday had one of his stronger years in the field and probably is underrated in left. He doesn’t have great range, but he almost always throws to the right base and generally hangs on to what he runs down.

Right fielder Jason Heyward should be more productive now that he doesn’t have to worry about hitting leadoff, as he did in Atlanta, where his power numbers dropped after he was changed in the lineup. Whether or not Heyward approaches the 27 home runs he hit in 2012 for the Braves, he will provide a speed and defense combination that has been lacking in right field for a while. Heyward has stolen 20 or more bases twice and has committed just one error in the outfield in the last two years, besides providing a strong throwing arm.

Lefthanded-hitting Jon Jay, who was 14 for 29 last October, has nailed down the starting center field job in the spring for the first time in several years. Jay again hit better than .300 last year and played better defense than in the previous season. His arm seemed stronger, and he showed both good gap-to-gap coverage and the ability to retreat on balls. He didn’t play most of the first half of the exhibition schedule this spring because he was recovering from surgery on his left wrist, but he took plenty of swings in the batting cages.

2014 COMBINED STATS (Holliday, Jay and Heyward)

.279 AVERAGE 194 RBI

30 STEALS

226 Ks

79 DOUBLES 6 TRIPLES

357 SINGLES 149 WALKS 34 HRs

2014 INDIVIDUAL STATS

HOLLIDAY

JAY

HEYWARD

.272 average 20 HRs 90 RBI 99 singles 37 doubles 0 triples 74 walks 4 steals 100 Ks

.303 average 3 HRs 46 RBI 103 singles 16 doubles 3 triples 28 walks 6 steals 28 Ks

.271 average 11 HRs 58 RBI 115 singles 26 doubles 3 triples 67 walks 20 steals 98 Ks

PLAN B Oscar Taveras was that choice last year, but his career ended almost before it started when he and his girlfriend were killed in an offseason auto accident. Young Randal Grichuk, an intriguing blend of speed, power and defense, could fill in at all three outfield positions and probably be a regular in case of a long-term injury. Grichuk hit a couple of postseason homers and three during the season, but he does have a tendency to strike out. His range is good and his arm is strong. Jay also could go to either corner if Holliday or Heyward were sidelined, with Peter Bourjos moving into center field.

Nonroster prospect Stephen Piscotty was one of the Cardinals’ best players in spring training last year and is close to a big-league player now but he is likely again to go to Class AAA Memphis, where he hit .288 last year but with a disappointing home-run total of only nine. The club might like to see him hit 15 or so homers. Tommy Pham, a righthanded-hitting outfielder who can hit (.324 at Memphis) and catch the ball, will be here at some point this season but probably not at the start. Pham hit more than .400 during the first two weeks of camp but then strained a left leg muscle.

Grichuk

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

1B Matt Adams has put up decent numbers, but lefties remain a challenge for him

BACK TO WORK

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS Matt Adams showed last season that he is above average defensively at first base with an ability to glove the low throw and also move to his right. To play every day, however, Adams must hit better against lefthanded pitching, which held him to a .190 regularseason average. But it must also be remembered that Adams homered off Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw and San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner, easily the two best lefthanders in the league, in one week’s time in the postseason.

Often, teams overshifted for Adams last season, giving him almost the entire left side of the field at which to shoot, and Adams poked a number of singles that way. None, however, was a bunt, which manager Mike Matheny advised him to consider this spring in light of Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo fooling the Cardinals twice with bunt singles late last season. Taking what the defense gave him, Adams popped just 15 homers in 524 at-bats.

Adams knows he must try to lay off the pitch in the dirt from lefthanders. He never has hit under .284 (his 2013 average) for a full season. He will not be a base-stealing threat but, again, he is a better baserunner than some might envision. Well-traveled Mark Reynolds, a righthanded hitter who has seven 20-homer seasons in succession, could play against some lefthanders if Adams falters, but Reynolds never really has been a parttime player, and his strikeout levels already were very high when he was playing every day.

2014 STATS .288 AVERAGE 68 RBI

114 KS 34 DOUBLES

5 TRIPLES

98 SINGLES 26 WALKS 15 HRs

PLAN B In case of injury to Adams, Reynolds could step in and play regularly, but he wouldn’t hit for much average; last year’s .196 average with Milwaukee was not atypical. The former third baseman would not hurt the club defensively at the position and, with some games of three strikeouts, a three-run homer also might come. The Cardinals also could go to righthanded-hitting Xavier Scruggs, who had a big year at Memphis last year (.286, 21 homers, 87 RBIs) but had only three hits and fanned seven times in 15 late-season at-bats.

Scruggs is not as good a defender as Adams or Reynolds. He is a slow developer at 27, but he has had four consecutive 20-plus homer seasons at Palm Beach, Springfield (twice) and Memphis and might be worth a look. His strikeout total shrank from 177 in Class AA in 2013 to a more reasonable 114 last year in Class AAA. Scruggs’ value would be enhanced if he could play elsewhere, and he did take a few spring training tours in right field.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

Reynolds

CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • Sunday • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S23

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S24 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

2B Wong can provide both power and speed to end the revolving door

SECOND SECURITY

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS The Cardinals have made a habit of converting players from other positions and making them second basemen in recent years (Skip Schumaker, Matt Carpenter), but they should have their second baseman for years to come in Kolten Wong. The former No. 1 draft pick proved himself a double-figures power and speed man last year when he had 12 homers and 20 steals while playing only about two-thirds of a season in the majors because (a) he had a sore shoulder and (b) he spent three weeks in the minors. He is one of the few speed threats the Cardinals have, and they expect him to hit better than the .249 he put up as a rookie.

Ultimately, the Cardinals might want Wong to be their leadoff man, but he will hit down in the order again at the start of the season. He should be a .280-plus hitter at some point if he can rein in a swing that sometimes is too power-conscious.

Defensively, Wong can make all the plays, shows good range and stands in well on the double-play pivot with a strong enough arm. Some of his errors come when he gets careless or too flamboyant making a play, but experience and maturity should help in that regard.

Successful in the postseason, Wong brings more confidence to the table than he had at almost any point last season.

2014 STATS .249 AVERAGE 42 RBI

20 STEALS 14 DOUBLES

3 TRIPLES

71 SINGLES 21 WALKS 12 HRs

PLAN B There is no real veteran presence behind Wong. Pete Kozma, a natural shortstop, started at second base once in the postseason and can play acceptably there on defense. Minor-leaguers Greg Garcia, Dean Anna and Ty Kelly all have second base on their résumés and all have had success offensively at the minor-league level. A future prospect is Jacob Wilson, who hit .298 at Class A Palm Beach and then .305 at Class AA Springfield before suffering a knee injury. Wilson rebounded to play in the Arizona Fall League and showed extra-base pop and versatility this spring in bigleague camp. He is on track sometime this season to be playing at Class AAA Memphis, near his hometown of Bartlett, Tenn. In an emergency, the Cardinals could go back to Carpenter, who made the All-Star team in 2013 at second base before moving to third base. In recent history, the Cardinals have had almost as much turnover at second base as they have had at shortstop. Counting Bo Hart, they have had more than a half dozen starting second basemen since Fernando Vina’s career with them ended in 2003. Wong, who will be starting the season at second base for the Cardinals for the second year in a row, might stop that trend.

Kozma

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

3B As Carpenter shows more ability to hit homers, he could move down in order

POWER PLAY

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS Matt Carpenter should be more comfortable in his second full year back at third after spending most of 2013 at second base. Carpenter’s defense was spotty at times last year, but he was better in the second half of the season.

Offensively, it would have been difficult for him to duplicate his 73 extrabase hits of 2013, but he showed bigtime power in the 2014 postseason with four homers and four doubles in nine games. Eventually, Carpenter will be dropped down in the order from the leadoff spot, where his ability to reach base or at least force the pitcher into long counts has been of value. The question will be whether Carpenter’s burgeoning ability to hit for power is more valuable in perhaps the No. 3 spot. Wherever he hits, Carpenter will play nearly every day. His 158 games played led the club last year, coming off 157 games played the year before.

Though he had just five stolen bases last year, Carpenter could be a doublefigures base stealer, according to no less an authority than Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who had nearly 600 himself. At any rate, Carpenter still could be labeled an ideal leadoff man because of his .375 on-base percentage. Starting his second year of a sixyear deal, Carpenter figures to be one of the faces of the franchise for many years to come. He isn’t as young as one might think. Carpenter spent five years at Texas Christian and already is 29 years old. Although in just his third season as a regular, Carpenter has become one of the leaders in the clubhouse, and players both young and old have taken note of his hard work.

2014 STATS .272 AVERAGE 59 RBI

111 Ks 33 DOUBLES

2 TRIPLES

119 SINGLES 95 WALKS 8 HRs

PLAN B Should Carpenter be out for any length of time, the Cardinals’ initial replacement probably would be righthanded-hitting veteran Mark Reynolds, a decent defender with 20-homer power but with a penchant for 200-strikeout seasons when he played regularly.

Reynolds probably would be a more productive performer if he played for several weeks in a row, rather than once every two weeks or so.

Lefthanded-hitting Scott Moore, who has seen big-league time, mostly with Houston, could be summoned from Class AAA Memphis if the club wanted to do some sort of platoon with Reynolds in Carpenter’s absence. Moore had nine home runs in limited duty with Houston three years ago and seems sound enough around the bag besides being a potentially damaging hitter. But Carpenter is one of the more indispensable Cardinals players, perhaps ranking behind only catcher Yadier Molina.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

Reynolds

CARDINALS PREVIEW

03.29.2015 • SUNDAY • M 1

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • S25

SS Peralta is giving Cards some stability at a position that has seen much turnover

ENCORE SEASON

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS Eyebrows were raised a year ago when the Cardinals opened their wallets to PED suspendee Jhonny Peralta and gave him $53 million for four years. Peralta became the eighth starting shortstop in eight seasons for the Cardinals, but that streak will end as Peralta will start for the second consecutive year after an impressive 2014 for them.

Struggling at bat in the first half, Peralta finished at .263 with a club-high 21 homers and proved more agile and adept in the field than had been anticipated.

Peralta has shown durability throughout his career and played in a high number of games, 157, for a shortstop last year. After his signing, it was thought that the 215-pound Dominican Republic native might be good for only a couple of years at shortstop but Peralta, nearly 33, might be able to play three or more years there.

Peralta, who was slow to find his stroke this spring, can bat anywhere from second to seventh in the lineup.

Not blessed with great range, he relies more on positioning and a strong, accurate arm.

Infield coach Jose Oquendo, who has been in the National League for nearly 30 years, again will help with Peralta’s placement. Peralta impressed manager Mike Matheny with how smoothly he makes a play in the field with little wasted effort, much like former Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran. Peralta should be good for another 20-homer season given his better knowledge of the pitchers in the NL. Depending on where he bats in the lineup, he could drive in 75 to 80 runs.

2014 STATS .263 AVERAGE 75 RBI

112 KS 38 DOUBLES

0 TRIPLES

88 SINGLES 58 WALKS 21 HRs

PLAN B If Peralta would miss any significant time, Pete Kozma, the regular at the end of 2012 and most of 2013, could return to regular status. Kozma is a very steady fielder with a strong arm. He has occasional power but too often in the past hasn’t used the whole field when he bats and thus is not a high-average hitter, although he led the club in hitting much of the spring.

The next shortstop in line was supposed to be Aledmys Diaz, the Cuban who had a sore arm much of last year after being signed and who was hurt again this spring. Diaz has power and has shown that he might be a good average hitter, but he probably is more than a year away. He played only parttime last year and not at all the year before after escaping Cuba. Diaz was signed to a four-year deal midway through last spring training.

Peralta, theoretically, could be moved to third base when Diaz is ready.

On a shorter-term, part-time basis, lefthanded-hitting Greg Garcia and Dean Anna, both of whom have seen time in the big leagues, could battle with Kozma for the job if Peralta were out for a significant period.

Diaz

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

C Molina’s injuries in 2014 showed just how much the Cardinals need him

STILL VITAL

BY RICK HUMMEL • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EXPECTATIONS In Yadier Molina, the Cardinals have the major leagues’ best all-around catcher.

He is a seven-time Gold Glover and sixtime All-Star, but he was limited to 110 regular-season games and missed three postseason games because of injury, first to his right thumb and then to his left side. While his average remained solid at .282, his power production shrank to seven homers and 38 RBIs, down from 80 in 2013, although he still threw out nearly half the runners who tried to steal off him and he had a steady hand with pitchers young and old alike.

Molina, who used to bat eighth, now has reached the point where he could hit anywhere from second through seventh, although more likely he will bat fifth or sixth.

Hopeful of playing 140 or more games, as he used to, Molina dropped 20 pounds in the offseason, which should take pressure off knees that get more sore every year. There is no question that the Cardinals’ staff is better when he’s behind the plate, and his leadership may be critical in the club’s ultimate hope to install young Carlos Martinez as a reliable back-of-therotation starter.

A tireless worker, Molina played between 136 and 140 games from 201013. Manager Mike Matheny doesn’t want to play Molina quite that much, although he knows he needs more than 110 games from Molina, who is an extension on the field of Matheny in the dugout. Molina may not be able to replicate his .300 season with 80 RBIs in 2013 but, if he didn’t lose his power in losing weight, should be able to contribute double figures in home runs.

2014 STATS .282 AVERAGE 38 RBI

55 Ks 21 DOUBLES

0 TRIPLES

86 SINGLES 28 WALKS 7 HRs

PLAN B The Cardinals have depth, abundantly so, at several positions, but catcher is not one of them, at least not at the big-league level or the high minors.

Molina unequivocally is the player the club least could afford to lose for any significant time.

Tony Cruz, the backup for Molina the last three seasons, has improved his receiving skills each year. For his part, Cruz gained confidence with a strong offensive showing, including a home run in the fifth game of last year’s league championship series.

Cruz’s job is not an easy one as he gets to play basically once a week when Molina is healthy. Because the Cardinals carry just two catchers, Cruz rarely is called on to pinch hit. When Molina was hurt in July last year, Cruz started off well as his replacement but went into a threefor-35 dip and wound up sharing time with veteran A.J. Pierzynski, who has moved on to Atlanta. If Cruz had to play any appreciable time as a regular because of an injury to Molina, the Cardinals could reach to Class AAA Memphis for backup in veteran minor leaguer Ed Easley, who batted .296 there last year, or rising prospect Cody Stanley, who hit .283 at Class AA Springfield and opened some eyes this spring. The catcher of the future might be Carson Kelly, the Cardinals’ second-round pick in 2012.

Rick Hummel @cmshhummel on Twitter rhummel@post-dispatch.com

Cruz

CARDINALS PREVIEW

S26 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S28 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

MEDIA VIEWS

McCarver’s role grows Analyst will work 40 Cards games on Fox Sports Midwest this season DAN CAESAR St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Last year, Tim McCarver said he had a “tremendous experience” serving as analyst on 30 Cardinals games televised by Fox Sports Midwest. It was a nice landing spot for McCarver, whose recordsmashing 34-year run as a network television baseball analyst, which included doing 24 World Series, had just ended.

With Cardinals radio broadcaster Mike Shannon 74 last season and starting to reduce his schedule by bypassing about 50 road games, there was room in the team’s

broadcast mix for another voice, and the shuffling began.

In came McCarver. And Al Hrabosky and Rick Horton began doing more radio work. Their primary role had been on FSM’s Cards telecasts, but they took turns working on radio alongside John Rooney when Shannon wasn’t present. Hrabosky and Horton are to continue in the dual roles this season, with Horton again doing some play-by-play.

The moves ended up with McCarver coming full circle. He was back with the team with which he broke into the major leagues, as a catcher in 1959. That began a standout big-

league career that he has followed with an even more prominent broadcasting run.

Although he excelled in FSM’s booth, he wasn’t sure if he’d return.

But now, at age 73, he isn’t pulling back — quite the opposite. Although it became known in January that McCarver would come back, the plan was for him to have the same workload as last season.

But that now has been ex p a n d e d , w i t h t h e schedule being set at 40 games this season. And that’s a welcome development for those fans who appreciated his nononsense, candid commentary last season, a refreshing development for a lineup that often seems afraid to offer much negat ive a n a lys i s about the Cardinals w h e n it is

CHRIS LEE • clee@post-dispatch.com

Tim McCarver (right) broadcast 30 Cardinals games with Dan McLaughlin (left) on Fox Sports Midwest last season, and McCarver’s schedule is set to increase 33 percent this year.

warranted.

He’s to work with playby-play announcer Dan McLaughlin on all his assignments this season, as he did last year.

“I enjoyed working with Dan — I had no idea I’d be as happy working with Dan as it turned out to be,” McCarver has said.

“He ... works harder than anybody I’ve ever worked with.”

Sure, McCarver had detractors last year who thought he overanalyzed — but he’s heard that for decades at the national level. That comes with the territory, and the bottom line is that his

Another...

n g i z A m A rom: DEAL f

presence significantly elevated Cardinals telecasts.

“I thought Tim was great,” Fox Sports Midwest general manager Jack Donovan has said. “He’s a great announcer and that’s why he had the long run (nationally), because he is so good at what he does. On top of that he’s got the legacy of playing for the Cardinals. He knows the history of the team better than most people would.”

And McCarver will be there at the start this year — he is scheduled to work on FSM’s first two Cards telecasts this season — April 7 and 8 against the Cubs in Chicago.

(ESPN has the Redbirds-Cubs standalone MLB season opener, on April 5. Then April 6 is a scheduled off day for the clubs.)

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Fox, home of the World Series, is in the second year of dividing its national baseball coverage between its over-the-air operation (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) and one of its cable/satellite TV components, Fox Sports 1.

They will combine to show at least 48 games in each market, primarily on Saturdays. Most will be full national telecasts, with regionalized coverage in nine of the instances.

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As if it were a federal mandate, the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry is the focal point of all national TV schedules.

In fact, all three of the games in the first series they have this season (April 10-12) are to be carried nationally. Never mind that not only did these teams fail to make the playoffs last year, they finished a combined 37 games out of first place.

Nonetheless, almost all their 2014 meetings received national coverage.

And their meeting April 11 in New York starts this season’s Fox/FS1 package, with the contest set for noon on FS1. That night, FS1 has defending American League champion Kansas City playing the Angels in Los Angeles.

ESPN has the YankeesRed Sox the following night on “Sunday Night Baseball’’ — as it also does May 3.

The Cards already are on ESPN’s Sunday night schedule four times. The maximum number of appearances is six, so two more could be forthcoming.

MLB Network has the most games nationally, with more than 150 scheduled. Most will be simulcasts of local broadcasts, though MLB Network also has some telecasts it produces itself — beginning with the Red Sox-Yankees contest April 10. Bob Costas has the play-by-play for that one.

When MLB Network has a Cards game, that telecast will be blacked out in the St. Louis market in favor of the Fox Sports Midwest production.

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WGN no longer is the national home of Chicago Cubs telecasts, as it is making the transition from a “superstation” that carried its programming nationally into two separate signals — one shown only in the Chicago area and a separate feed that goes to the entire country and is known as “WGN America.”

Programs such as Chicago newscasts and telecasts of Chicago sports teams that viewers across the U.S. had become accustomed to are being relegated to the local outlet only.

Many major programming providers already have made the switch, and those that haven’t continue to show the Chicago-based programming — including Cubs games that WGN has been showing nationally since the 1970s. But those days are fading fast.

Dan Caesar • 314-340-8175 dcaesar@post-dispatch.com

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S30 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH cardinals 2014 statistics Batting

avg oba ab r

h 2b 3b hr rbi bb so sb cs e

Kozma

.304 .385 23 4 7 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0

Jay

.303 .372 413 52 125 16 3 3 46 28 78 6 3 2

Adams

.288 .321 527 55 152 34 5 15 68 26 114 3 2 9

Molina

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M 1 • Sunday • 03.29.2015

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Descalso .242 .333 161 20 39 11 0 0 10 20 33 1 3 4 Taveras .239 .278 234 18 56 8 0 3 22 12 37 0 1 1 Bourjos

.231 .294 264 32 61 9 5 4 24 20 78 9 3 2

Cruz

.200 .270 135 11 27 5 0 1 17 13 28 0 3 1 .180 .253 178 15 32 6 0 0 12 14 38 4 1 1

Robinson .150 .227 60 3 9 1 1 0 4 6 10 0 1 0 G. Garcia

.143 .333

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Pham

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Totals

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2 0

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ip h

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Wacha

5 6 3.20 19 19 0 107.0 95 41 38 6 33 94

Miller

70.1 57 25 25 2 42 87

10 9 3.74 32 31 0 183.0 160 78 76 22 73 127

Martinez

2 4 4.03 57 7 1 89.1 90 41 40 4 36 84

J. Garcia

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Gonzales 4 2 4.15 10 5 0 34.2 32 16 16 4 21 31 Lackey

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Lyons

0 4 4.42 11 4 0 36.2 33 23 18 4 11 36

Choate

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Motte

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Greenwood 2 1 4.75 19 1 0 36.0 36 19 19 5 5 17 Siegrist

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CARDINALS PREVIEW

S32 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • SUNDAY • 03.29.2015

Writers’ predictions DERRICK GOOLD

RICK HUMMEL

BERNIE MIKLASZ

JOE STRAUSS

JEFF GORDON

Cardinals

Cardinals

Cardinals

Cardinals

Cardinals

Dodgers

Dodgers

Dodgers

Dodgers

Dodgers

Nationals

Nationals

Nationals

Nationals

Nationals

Cubs, Marlins

Marlins, Brewers

Marlins, Pirates

Marlins, Pirates

Pirates, Marlins

White Sox

Tigers

Indians

White Sox

Tigers

Mariners

Angels

Mariners

Mariners

Angels

Yankees

Blue Jays

Red Sox

Red Sox

Red Sox

Angels, Tigers

Orioles, Athletics

Tigers, Angels

Angels, Indians

Mariners, Indians

Dodgers

Nationals

Dodgers

Dodgers

Nationals

Tigers

Angels

Indians

Mariners

Tigers

Dodgers

Nationals

Dodgers

Mariners

Nationals

NL CENTRAL CHAMPION NL WEST CHAMPION NL EAST CHAMPION NL WILD CARDS AL CENTRAL CHAMPION AL WEST CHAMPION AL EAST CHAMPION AL WILD CARDS NL CHAMPION AL CHAMPION WORLD SERIES CHAMPION

Baseball Is Back!

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