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Cardinals news and notes: Siegrist, Piscotty, and aces

Here's the latest of VEB from March 22.

By John J. Fleming
Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

In eleven days, six hours, and five minutes, the 2016 St. Louis Cardinals season will begin.

Not that anyone around VEB is counting or anxiously checking the calendar or anything of that nature. But in between now and the scheduled 12:05 Central start time on April 3, 16,205 minutes will pass. I can't tell you exactly how to kill the time between now and when Francisco Liriano takes the bump for the Pittsburgh Pirates on the first Sunday of April. But here are a few ideas.

  • You can spend just over 53 seconds skimming the Baseball Reference page of every player in MLB history.
  • You can watch Game 6 of the 2011 World Series 77 times, based on the game length per iTunes. You'll have enough time left over to watch another 3/4 of the game, so maybe watch again while skipping over tops of the 4th and 5th innings.
  • You can watch Adam Wainwright striking out Carlos Beltran looking 64,820 times.

It's up to you, of course, how you spend your time. I'll probably go with a mix of the three, plus watching and doing other things. Maybe I'll squeeze some sleep and/or work into those days. It's hard to know for sure.

Here's what happened at VEB yesterday.

The projected Opening Day roster

Craig Edwards wrote about the likely Opening Day roster for the Cardinals. He doesn't project any major surprises: other than Saturday acquisition Ruben Tejada, there are 24 guys most have assumed would make the roster for quite some time. While there are several exciting players omitted from the roster, this roster also includes 25 players who wouldn't exactly be ideal to leave off the team either.

Kevin Siegrist

Resident pitching guru Joe Schwarz analyzed the repertoire of Cardinals reliever Kevin Siegrist. While Siegrist primarily uses two pitches, a fastball and a changeup, to retire opposing batters, Joe suggests that Siegrist could become a more consistently effective pitcher in 2016 if the curveball that he recently learned proves to be a viable pitch against MLB bats.

Adam Wainwright

Lil scooter asks if Adam Wainwright is still the ace of the St. Louis Cardinals. Not all precincts are reporting yet, but judging by the results of the poll (must click link to view, no spoilers here), I think I'm ready to declare a winner.

Stephen Piscotty

Ben Markham believes that young Cardinals outfielder Stephen Piscotty will have a breakout 2016. The batted ball statistics suggest that Piscotty's exciting 2015 is not a fluke, but rather a sign of very good things to come, especially once he adjusts to MLB pitching.

Cardinals on the basepaths

I wrote that as a result of the departure of Jason Heyward, a Cardinals team that previously has been unimpressive at stealing bases could steal even fewer in 2016. However, I also note that if the Cardinals can improve in other facets of offense, such as avoiding strikeouts and hitting for power, the lack of steals could be relatively inconsequential.

Okay, VEB, 11 days. We can survive 11 days. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

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