Loose Ends and Head Scratchers

We are mere hours away from Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals and I'm happy dancing most of those hours away. The off season of 2016-2017 has felt at times to be about 579 days long. I'm ready to watch our Cards!!

Spring Training and the few months before have left us with some loose ends to tie up. Some aren't necessarily loose ends so much as head scratchers. I think you'll be able to tell. This is my list. Your list could be totally different. It's fairly safe to say if you glance at your TL, we all have varying opinions ;).

*Stephen Piscotty-his spring fell under the head scratching column. As 2016 progressed through the dog days of summer, Piscotty fatigued. Who can blame him? He put a lot of work in offensively on and off the field and this was his first full year in the bigs. It wasn't shocking to see him tired and his offense slipping a little. During the offseason, Mabry contacted him often with articles and thoughts directed towards a more academic approach to hitting. There's definitely a place for that in the game, but I wonder if they've taken it too seriously with Piscotty and gotten a little too far off the beaten path. Maybe it's time to be a little more ball player and a little less Stanford student. I could be completely off about this, but I find myself brainstorming to figure out where Piscotty has gone offensively. I hope it was all a matter of using the Spring Training for just that-training. Then when the season opens in a couple days, he figures out ways to get hits. For now, he has been hitting 6th or so in the lineup and while that's no direct indication of any intentions, it did make me take notice of Matheny possibly having concerns as well.

*Kolten Wong-will he or won't he? That's the question. Honestly, it shouldn't even be a question for my two cents. He was promised a stint and never really give one, and now while working on things during Spring Training as players tend to do, he is looking at a platoon situation at 2B with Jedd Gyorko. I understand his frustrations, handled however poorly in public, and I do get that results need to be there to help the team win. Bottom line in all of this for me: Kolten could make defensive plays that save runs for our ground ball inducing pitching staff and bat around .240 with a few home runs and maybe 50 or so RBIs batting 8th and I'd be perfectly fine with that. I do like Gyorko though....

*Jedd Gyorko-the guy who hit 30 home runs in a season while not playing every day doesn't have an every day position yet again. I'd love, instead of platooning with Kolten at 2B, for Jedd to start at 3B. I've felt since last season that Peralta should be the odd man out. Defensively he isn't outshining anyone at any position and offensively, no one can necessarily be sure 2015 first half Peralta is ever going to show up again. Give Jedd a shot and see what happens. Put Peralta in if Jedd struggles in every day play. I don't think he would though. I'd be ecstatic if Jedd was starting and being spelled by Peralta than the other way around.

*Matt Adams-I saved the best for last. Oh wait. No. This is the biggest head scratcher and I hope it's a loose end that's going to be tied up by Adams being a bench bat. I fear every time he has started in LF lately that Matheny's getting ideas I don't like...such as starting Adams in LF more often than the occasional off day for someone. Walk with me here...if Adams is a bench bat, he can't get hot handed enough for Matheny to play him at the expense of others. However, the whole idea of this experiment was to get his hot hand SPRING TRAINING bat more opportunities. We have a LF and his name is Randal Grichuk. Behind Grich and Piscotty should be our 4th OF, Jose Martinez. Adams should not get opportunities over either at this point in time, but Mo and Matheny have both mentioned getting his offense in. After all these years, they should know full well that they have no reason to know for a fact that this offense will continue against the starting pitching rotations of teams playing in games that matter. Gone are the days of pitchers with pitch count/innings limits and/or days for minor league pitchers to showcase what they can do (all working on things as well, so not necessarily pitching their best). I don't know how the FO made such leaps to Spring Training counting for so much, but they have some delusions of grandeur that they have to reign in a smidge.

That sums up all of my loose ends and head scratchers as we wind down the hours left until the 2017 Cardinals season opens. I'd love to hear yours!