OFFICIAL 2017 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS thread: The return to glory for the BFIB (1 Viewer)

Yadi wants an extension, Kolten wants a trade and Vegas says 84 wins. Oh, and the Cubs are the defending world champs. Other than that, feel free to make jorts jokes in here.

Looks like we'll break camp with this as the 25-man roster:

C- Molina
1B- Carpenter
2B- Wong
3B- Peralta
SS- Diaz
LF- Grichuk
CF- Fowler
RF- Piscotty

BN- Adams (1B/LF?)
BN- Gyorko (2B/SS/3B)
BN- Garcia (2B/SS/3B)
BN- Fryer (CA)
BN- J. Martinez (OF)

SP- C. Martinez
SP- Wainwright
SP- Lynn
SP- Leake
SP- Wacha

CL- Oh
SU- Siegrist (L)
SU- Rosenthal
RP- Broxton
RP- Cecil (L)
RP- Bowman
RP- Socolovich

I'd guess Tommy Pham (OF) and John Gant (P) are likely the first to get a call from Triple-A.

It's an interesting lineup with good depth, no huge holes but no big stars to speak of. 

Their rotation has a wide range of possible outcomes.  Carlos Martinez is this close to being an ace.  Wainwright wasn't his typical self last year and Lynn wasn't anything.  Wacha has assume Jaime Garcia's role as the who will be good if healthy.  Losing Reyes obviously hurts but probably not as much as it might other clubs.

I think they're a wild card team but that may be partially force of habit.  It also wouldn't be a complete surprise if they ended up a few games under .500

Eephus said:

It's an interesting lineup with good depth, no huge holes but no big stars to speak of. 

Their rotation has a wide range of possible outcomes.  Carlos Martinez is this close to being an ace.  Wainwright wasn't his typical self last year and Lynn wasn't anything.  Wacha has assume Jaime Garcia's role as the who will be good if healthy.  Losing Reyes obviously hurts but probably not as much as it might other clubs.

I think they're a wild card team but that may be partially force of habit.  It also wouldn't be a complete surprise if they ended up a few games under .500

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I agree with pretty much all of this. Which is why I'm a weird mix of optimistic and uneasy about the chances of a good 2017.

If the bullpen performs up to snuff, and I think STLs is again one of the better ones in baseball, by default they should be at least .500.

This team isn't all that different from the 2015 version that won a MLB-best 100 games.

Lineup differences:
2015: Heyward, Holliday, M. Reynolds
2017: Fowler, Piscotty, Diaz

Rotation differences:

2015: Lackey, Garcia
2017: Wainwright, Leake

Bullpen differences:

2015: Maness, Choate, Villaneuva, Belisle
2017: Oh, Cecil, Broxton, Bowman

Almost went to a Cardinal spring training game today, but opted for the beach instead. 

Through 43 games, the Cards' starting rotation has a fantastic 3.01 ERA, and that outdistances any team in baseball.