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So yesterday was "Super Tuesday" in the United States. And although I am a fan of political theater in its own right, I am also delighted that I get the opportunity to write for a blog about baseball. Politics is a stressful headache to follow, and baseball is just a fun thing we can all enjoy.
But sometimes, baseball and politics are impossible to separate. And last night, we had one of those moments.
BREAKING: Stephen Piscotty makes it official, announces run for president #stlcards #Piscotty2016 pic.twitter.com/Ip9AjiHD6i
— Double Birds (@2xBirds) March 2, 2016
We will, of course, cover this story as it develops. In the meantime, here is what we covered in VEB on the first day of March.
Alex Reyes projections
Ben Markham posted the Alex Reyes projections post. Reyes is an interesting case, as he has no MLB experience and limited experience in high levels of the minors. I could see him not making the majors; I could see him struggling due to youth and inexperience; I could see him being dynamic and vaulting himself into the upper echelon of MLB pitching prospects. There's a wide range of possible outcomes, and no matter how outlandish you think your expectations are, you should contribute to what should be an interesting array of answers.
Yadier Molina's injury concerns
Joe Schwarz believes the Cardinals should not rush Yadier Molina back from injury, and for all of the reasons he states, I agree. While a diminished Yadier Molina may be palatable, he is not nearly the player that a healthy Molina can be. While Brayan Pena may not be nearly as exciting of a name as Yadier Molina, he is a serviceable replacement, particularly if in the long term it means a version of Molina closer to 2014, or even 2012/2013, than 2015.
TRIVIA
Lil Scooter posted a trivia question in yesterday's Hunt and Peck. I don't want to spoil the answer, like so many others did in the comments, but it is possible he will leave St. Louis after the 2016 and take the number 45 that Bob Gibson prevents him from having with the Cardinals.
This is a bad joke.
Offseason in review
Craig Edwards wrote a very direct piece about the Cardinals offseason. In case you're checking out VEB for the first time in a while now that Spring Training is getting up and going, this would be a good primer. Surely, even if you were not avidly paying attention, you are aware about the departures of Jason Heyward and John Lackey, along with the addition of Mike Leake, but this post also points out all of the little moves here and there which could impact the structure of the Cardinals in 2016.
Aroldis Chapman
It's not directly related to the Cardinals, but I wrote about Aroldis Chapman's 30 game suspension for domestic violence and the message that MLB could have sent about the seriousness of domestic abuse. By contrast, Alex Reyes was suspended 50 games for a positive test for marijuana. I wrote about this and was not happy about the way this situation was resolved.
The Cardinals play a Spring Training game today at 12:05 St. Louis time against Florida Atlantic University. And by a very loose definition of the term, it is baseball season.