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 preferred hitters in Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday. Here is a closer look 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 will need to have one of the far 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 way of an injury plagued season. Theriot should certainly get on base a lot which will need to lead to a lot of runs with Pujols waiting in the hole. Pujols can carry an offense all by himself with his ability 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 wonderful power and should continue to profit from hitting behind 1 of the 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 3 put together pretty solid seasons in 2010. Skip Shumaker was a bit of a disappointment final 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 need to have these four guys to play effectively.

Projected Rotation

The loss of starter Adam Wainwright is a major blow not only to the Cardinals starting rotation, but to their probabilities of getting back to the postseason. Wainwright practically won the Cy Young award last season with a 1.04 WHIP, and it is rather hard to replace a player of this skill level.

It is now becomes quite very important that veteran Chris Carpenter remains injury-totally free this year, one thing he has had had a hard time doing over the last couple of seasons. Carpenter demonstrated he was far from completed, winning 16 games with a three.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 significantly greater for the Cardinals to still be a factor in the Division. Westbrook came over from the Indians in a mid-season trade final year, and even though he compiled just four games in 12 begins, he pitched well and could be in for a breakout season in St Louis. Garcia won 13 games with an stunning two.70 ERA and 1.32 WHIP as a rookie, and the Cardinals are expecting him to be even superior this year. Lohse wasn't excellent at all final year, going four-8 with a 6.55 ERA, but there truly is not a lot St Louis can do with Wainwright obtaining hurt. P.J. Walters could end up taking over the No. five spot in the rotation, unless the Cardinals make a move for one other starter.

2011 Prediction: 4th Place NL Central

The Cardinals are stacked at the leading offensively, and until the loss of Wainwright they were fairly strong at the top in the rotation as properly. 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 feel the Cardinals will struggle to compete with the likes of Milwaukee, Chicago, and Cincinnati.