The Morning After is my favorite sports talk show in St. Louis. Each year the crew spends a week in Jupiter talking it over with the Cardinals and getting ready for the season. This is the show's tenth year going down to Spring Training. Each day I'll be recapping some of the happenings:
Derrick Goold: The Post-Dispatch's Cardinals beat writer joined the show as the team prepared for the exhibition opener against the Marlins. Goold said that Carlos Martinez would be limited to thirty pitches today and the key thing to watch would be his pitch efficiency. If he were able to get through two or more innings, that would be very successful. Martinez will pitch every five days this spring and the organization wants him to win the fifth starter role. Goold is also impressed with Jaime Garcia's early spring showing and agreed with the guys that Mozielak's praise was warranted and a departure from the norm. Jaime will make his spring debut Saturday and the major question with him is figuring out how to get good innings from him in May and June rather than March and April. If he's "ready" in April, it's possible he could prove his durability in the minor leagues. Goold is unsure if Garcia will be able to prove his durability to the Cards or other teams, so his trade value may not be high by the end of Spring Training.
Goold notes that Jason Heyward is hitting second in the first lineup of the spring and that's a place he'll be used frequently during the season, but not everyday. Goold also thinks that Matt Carpenter's approach could be more power oriented this year. This approach, and not always taking the first pitch, has been something that Matt Holliday has urged repeatedly. With the exception of the Brewers, all of the teams in the Cards' division got better last year and it's unlikely the Reds will have as many injury problems. It makes sense to Goold that the Cardinals' consensus over/under win totals dropped from 91.5 last year to 87.5 this year because whichever team wins the NL Central division will face increased competition for every win.
John Lackey: Contrary to what has been reported, there has not been much conversation between Lackey and the team regarding an extension or modification to his contract. This jives with what Mozielak said on yesterday's show. Lackey said the game has been great to him and he's going to go out and continue to perform at the level he's capable. He got married this offseason and has two kids, but he's still competitive and enjoys being in a clubhouse. The Cardinals clubhouse and a chance to win this season are big reasons he's sticking around. If he'd been traded to another team, it's possible he'd be sitting at home instead of at Spring Training. Lackey said the best team he's been a part of is the 2011 Red Sox when they were hitting their mid-season stride. He started pitching hurt down the stretch and the team ultimately missed the playoffs on the final day of the season. Lackey did not have any problem with being removed in last year's NLCS Game 4. The first inning killed his pitch count but in the situation - a tie game with the pitcher's spot up - he understood why he needed to come out of the game.
Mike Claiborne: The KMOX broadcaster better known as 'Claibs joined the show prior to calling the game with Mike 'Big Irish' Shannon. Claibs discussed the team and said his ideal lineup would be Kolten Wong - Carpenter - Heyward - Holliday - Matt Adams - Yadier Molina - Jhonny Peralta - Jon Jay but it's a versatile group of hitters so the order doesn't matter much. He thinks that Carpenter's ability to make pitchers work could give Wong an edge on the basepaths but the burden would be Wong to improve his approach to the level required to hit leadoff. Lou Brock has pointed out that Wong shares some characteristics to Joe Morgan. 'Claibs does not think Heyward will hit leadoff at all this season. Molina has lost a lot of weight to help his knees, but will that come at the cost of his power? Ultimately, his defensive ability is what gives him most of his value so if he's able to stay on the field more, it will be ok if the power does not come back.
Jon Jay: There were two items to note during Jay's offseason. First, he had wrist surgery in October. Second, he signed a two year contract which buys out his last two arbitration years. He has been swinging in the cage and is looking forward to getting into spring games in the coming weeks but his only goal is to be ready for Opening Day. His wrist had been bothering him for several years and it got to a point where he needed to have the surgery to be comfortable. Even though he has the first multi-year contract of his career, he wants to continue showing the team that he belongs here beyond the next two years. Jay weighed in on Monday's discussion agreeing that Yadi's Bentley is the best car on the team. Against left-handed pitching, Jay tries to stay in the box as long as possible and he has improved his performance through drills. He's never had prolonged struggles against them but acknowledges it's something that he constantly works on.
With Daniel Descalso's departure, Jay is the last remaining member of the Memphis Mafia. As such, this is the first Spring Training he's living alone and not with a close friend. He keeps in touch with all the guys and still travels with them in the off-season. Jay feels that Heyward fits in with the team well and they've been talking all offseason. It's strange that he's now one of the leaders and he feels like it's his duty to step into the role after learning leadership from veterans like Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols and he is for the opportunity to lead. The culture surrounding the franchise is amazing as it's a family atmosphere and retired greats are constantly coming back to contribute to the organization's future success. Every postseason loss hurts, but Jay says losses like last season are easy because the team could have easily lost in 2011, so it all balances out. He constantly watches 2011 World Series highlights.
Jay has a reputation for being fashionable, but he doesn't have a preference between the red and blue caps on the road. He and Matt Holliday both like wearing the powder blue throwback uniforms, but the team has not done so since 2012. Jay will be continuing Jason Motte's charity work in St. Louis now that Motte has moved onto Chicago.
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