Spring Training Thread

[cardsfan04]

Aside from the potential issues with Carpenter (which don't seem to be as bad as they could be), Cards looking good so far. I got down here on Sunday and went to the game today, and will go again tomorrow. A few thoughts:

-Wainwright looked good, but not great. Still having some minor control issues and his curve wasn't as vicious as in the past. But, that's to be expected 2 starts into spring training after missing a year with TJ surgery. 3 scoreless innings today though is very encouraging.

-Freese jacked his HR today. Wasn't a bomb, but it was a hard line drive that was definitely leaving the park when it was hit.

-Matt Adams is an absolute beast. I saw him in Springfield last year when I watched Shelby Miller pitch, but forgot how big he is. He's listed as 6'3"/230, but he looks bigger. He's been tearing it up, but was quiet today w/o any real good AB's. He needs to smash the ball though because he's not very mobile defensively.

-Cleto isn't throwing upper 90's this year, at least not yet. It occurred to me that he was doing that intentionally to improve his control issues. But, he was all over the place both warming up and then again during the game. Warming up, I saw the catcher dive about 3 feet to his right to prevent a ball from getting away and further into play. Of his first 12 pitches, he only threw 4 strikes. Of those 4 strikes, 1 was a single, 1 was a double, 1 was a sac fly, and one was a called strike on a pitch the hitter was taking all the way because of the count. His first first-pitch strike came to the 5th batter he faced. He settled in and struck out the 5th and 6th hitters he faced.

-Greene could be quicker turning DP's, but was adequate I suppose.

-Beltran seems very calm. I don't know how to articulate it better than that. He just seems comfortable.

-Rzepczynski (or however you spell it) had some very minor control issues in terms of ball:strike ratio, but his curve seems to be there.

-Matt Carpenter doesn't get cheated in his AB's. He fouls lots of pitches off.