2011 St Louis Cardinals Preview and Predictions

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The St. Louis Cardinals are coming off of a rather disappointing season that included losing the lead in the division over the final weeks of the season to miss the playoffs. St. Louis was active in the offseason, notably adding Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman. The Cardinals already owns two of baseball's finest hitters in Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. Here is a closer appear at the starting lineup and projected rotation for St. Louis and make our MLB predictions on their 2011 season.

Projected Lineup

With Theriot projected to leadoff and Berkman projected to bat second in front of Pujols and Holiday, the Cardinals should have 1 of the a lot more potent 1-four combos in baseball. A lot of that will depend on what the Cardinals get from Berkman, who had to struggle by means of an injury plagued season. Theriot should get on base a lot which should really lead to a lot of runs with Pujols waiting in the hole. Pujols can carry an offense all by himself with his capacity to take it out of the park anytime he walks up to the plate Although Holliday isn't at the very same level as Pujols, he has great energy and will need to continue to profit from hitting behind 1 of the very best hitters in the league.

The Cardinals are hoping that they will continue to see improvements from David Freese, Colby Rasmus, and Yadier Molina. All three put together fairly solid seasons in 2010. Skip Shumaker was a bit of a disappointment last season, as he wasn't the same player offensively as he had been in years past. For the Cardinals to compete in the NL Central this year, they want these four guys to play properly.

Projected Rotation

The loss of starter Adam Wainwright is a key blow not only to the Cardinals starting rotation, but to their probabilities of obtaining back to the postseason. Wainwright nearly won the Cy Young award final season with a 1.04 WHIP, and it is especially hard to replace a player of this skill level.

It is now becomes highly very important that veteran Chris Carpenter remains injury-free this year, one thing he has had had a challenging time performing over the final few seasons. Carpenter demonstrated he was far from finished, winning 16 games with a 3.22 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in his 14th year.

Wainwright's injury also puts a lot of pressure on Jake Westbrook, Jaime Garcia, and Kyle Lohse, as they now have to be that a great deal greater for the Cardinals to still be a factor in the Division. Westbrook came over from the Indians in a mid-season trade last year, and while he compiled just four games in 12 begins, he pitched nicely and could be in for a breakout season in St Louis. Garcia won 13 games with an stunning 2.70 ERA and 1.32 WHIP as a rookie, and the Cardinals are expecting him to be even better this year. Lohse wasn't good at all final year, going four-8 with a 6.55 ERA, but there certainly isn't a lot St Louis can do with Wainwright finding hurt. P.J. Walters could end up taking over the No. five spot in the rotation, unless the Cardinals make a move for a further starter.

2011 Prediction: 4th Location NL Central

The Cardinals are stacked at the top offensively, and until the loss of Wainwright they had been pretty powerful at the top in the rotation as well. The addition of Berkman, plus the emergence of young players like Colby Rasmus and Jaime Garcia would have most likely had the Cardinals competing for the NL Central title this year, but with the loss of Wainwright we think the Cardinals will struggle to compete with the likes of Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cincinnati.