Hunt and Peck

Which Cardinal will mash the first dinger of their season? - A Hunt and Peck

Get your predictions in now!

By lil_scooter93 Mar 28, 2019, 12:00pm EDT

MLB: Spring Training-New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals

Today is Opening Day for the Cardinals. It is a beautiful thing. The slate is clean. The future is ripe with possibility. The moments leading up to the first pitch of the season are some of the best of the year.

One thing we know about this year’s Cardinals team is the lineup from top to bottom is capable of going yard — even Cardinals pitchers were at the top of the leader boards in home runs hit in 2018. This raises the question: who is gonna dinger first?

I think the fashionable choice will be the Cardinals newest acquisition Paul Goldschmidt. The first baseman has not hit under 20 homers since he hit 19 in 2014 (when he only appeared in 109 games). Perhaps he will be looking to start his Cardinals career — that with the contract extension will at least extend to 2024 — with a bang.

The smart money might be on someone like Matt Carpenter, who like Goldschmidt has hit over 20 homers the last four seasons hitting a career high 36 in 2018. He will be the first batter of the season for the Birdos. An Opening Day leadoff homer would be mighty fine and a first for the longtime, yet also on-again-off-again leadoff man. In his Cardinals record-23 leadoff bombs, none have come on Opening Day.

One might be inclined to choose Marcell Ozuna. A shoulder injury dampened his productivity in his first year wearing the Birds on the Bat, but he still managed to mash 23 dingers. He will be batting fourth in game one of the season, so while Carpenter, Goldschmidt, and Paul DeJong will have the first crack it, Ozuna is more known for his homer potential. He could put doubts about his shoulder to rest quickly with one mighty crack of the bat.

Or maybe no Cardinals homer today. Hitting a home run is not an easy thing to do, even for people who are exceptional at it. If that is the case, at least there was baseball and now that the season has started there is always tomorrow.