Top News/Reports:
- Cards catcher Yadier Molina showed up to camp over fifteen pounds lighter then he was at the end of last season.
- Mike Matheny told reporters Saturday that Jason Heyward would not hit leadoff for the team this season.
- Out of concern that his comments made on Thursday might be taken the wrong way, Jaime Garcia clarified to Jenifer Langosch of Cardinals.com that he’d be open to any role that would secure him an Opening Day roster spot:
“My point wasn’t to come in here and say, ‘If I’m not a starting pitcher, I’m not going to go to the bullpen,'” Garcia said. “I never meant for it to sound like that.
“What I meant to say is that I prepare myself to be [a starter], but I’m coming here to compete and win a spot on the team. If it comes down to being something else besides a starting pitcher, then I’ll be happy to do that.
- Langosch provides some interesting notes from camp down in Jupiter in this article on Cardinals.com. A few highlights:
Estimating that it’s the first such instance since he took over the general manager position in 2007, John Mozeliak built a roster that has eight defined starting position players coming into camp. The last of that bunch, Jhonny Peralta, reported to Jupiter on Saturday, three days before the required report day for position players.
Teams are not permitted to structure workouts for position players until an official date, which leaves the players to build their own schedules each day. Coaches will step in when asked, as was the case Saturday when several position players took batting practice and rotated through defensive drills.
More:
- Although he’s okay with the new pace-of-game rules that will be implemented by Major League Baseball during the 2015 season, Cards ace Adam Wainwright told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he’s afraid that the addition of a pitch clock could be the next step taken:
“One of the beautiful things of the game is to see that raw emotion, that adrenaline and to see a pitcher actively trying to calm himself down or fire himself up or whatever it is. That’s so neat in baseball.
“If you’re not ready to throw, it’s not fair to our team to say, ‘Oh, we’ve got one second.’ … that’s just silly to me.”
- Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch reports on how the Cardinals are challenging young righty Carlos Martinez to take on a leadership role in his battle to crack the team’s starting rotation out of the spring:
“In part, pushing him a little bit,” manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s a big responsibility. We’ve been very clear that we want to give this kid a shot. That’s us showing him he can have a leadership position. If you’re one of those five, that’s a leadership position, whether you like it or not whether you have enough (service) time to deserve it or not.”
- Goold also reports on how the Cardinals are planning to preserve and protect both their young and old arms both in the spring and deep into the season in this article.
- St. Louis Baseball Today’s Brian Stull reports on how skipper Mike Matheny is getting used to wearing number 26 so far this spring in this article.
Columns/Opinions:
- In an in-depth piece for Viva El Birdos, Nick Lampe takes a look at how former Cardinals have performed after being traded.
Feature image used under Creative Commons from Ron Cogswell. No changes made. Image License.
