(BASEBALL)—The Rites of Spring in Arizona and Florda are finished. Major League Teams are heading back to real-world weather and games that count. Here’s who will line up along the base lines in St. Louis and Kansas City at the end of this week for the first real games.
(CARDINALS)—Two key guys are on the injured list, opening up slots for a couple of other guys to be part of the first game. Center Fielder Tommy Edman and Right Fielder Lars Nootbaar won’t be available. Manager Oliver Marmol has ended questioning about whether Dylan Carlson will be a starter by saying, “yes.” Carlson has had a solid spring, leading the team in homers and runs batted in. His ankle on which hehad surgery last year has healed and he’s going to be every-day in the outfield. Joining him in the starting outfield will be Jordan Walker and Alec Burleson, Matt Carpenter, and Brandon Crawford at various times.
Not making the big club after an impressive spring is Victor Scott II. Marmol and his coaches think he will benefit in the long term from getting a lot of playing time in Triple-A. It won’t be a surprise if we see him in The Show during the season, however. Scott batted .316 in Florida, stole four bases, and played solidly in the outfield.
For now, Michael Siani will be the fourth outfielder. He was taken from Cincinnati’s waiver list in the off-season. He hit .297 in spring training games.
Miles Mikolas will be the opening day starter with ZackThompson (in place of Sonny Gray whose hamstring needs a little more time), Lance Lynn, Steven Matz and Kyle Gibson filling out the five-man rotation.
The bullpen needs some firming up. Keynan Middleton starts the season on the IL. But the Cardinals will have Riley O’Brien, Ryan Helsley, Andrew Kittredge, and Giovanny Gallegos available from the right-handed side with Matthew liberatore and JoJo Romero likely to handle the left-handed relief. That leaves two relief spots open with three guys in contention—John King, Ryan Fernandez, and Andre Pallante.
(ROYALS)—Royals starting pitching has hit a bump in the road just as the team was heading north. Starter Michael Wacha, pitching his last inning of spring training ball in an intra-squad game, took a liner off his pitching hand. He was going to have X-rays on his middle finger.
Wacha signed a two-year, 32-million dollar free agent contract in the off-season and is being counted on to be an anchor in the re-structured pitching rotation.
The other big-money free agent signed during the off-season, Seth Lugo, looked ready to go in his stint in the game. He threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings.
Kansas City, as the Cardinals, hopes its new-look lineup turns things around from 2023. Manager Matt Quatraro made the day Saturday for Matt Sauer, Dairon Blanco, and Nick Loftin when he told them they were on the opening-day roster. None of them have ever experienced a major league opening day.
Loftin is a utility player in the infield and the outfield. He’s 25, played nineteen games in the Bigs last year, hit .323. He’s considered the Royals’ second-ranked prospect by MLB.com.
Blanco, who is 30, impressed the team with his speed last year and his work as a defensive replacement. He went 24 for 29 in stolen bases, hit three homers and batted .258 last year. He wants to get more than forty steals this year.
Sauer has never pitched above Double-A ball. He’ll start in the bullpen. The Royals claimed him in the Rule 5 draft from the Yankees last year. He had a good spring in Arizona, throwing in eight games and recording 13 K’s and rang up a 2.53 ERA. He has to stay on the roster all year or the Yankees can claim him back for $50,000.
The Royals will have some people on the injured list to start the year. Second baseman Michael Massey who has had some lower back tightness issues. Relievers Carlos Hernandez’s right shoulder impingement, Jake Brentz’s left hamstring strain, and Josh Taylor’s left biceps soreness will have them on the sidelines on opening day. Wacha’s status at the time of this posting had not been determined.
Backup catcher Sandy Leon, who signed a minor league deal in January, has been released so he can shop for a slot with another club. He’s 35, a career .208 hitter who is known best for his glove work. He was brought in as a third-stringer behind Salvador Perez and Freddy Fermin. The signing of Austin Nola as another catcher crowded Leon off the roster. He hit just .118 in the CactusLeague
(XROYALS & XCARDS)—Opening day cutdowns have brought some former Cardinals and former Royals players back before the public. Third baseman Mike Moustakas, now 35, was one of 31players to opt out of their minor league contracts at the end of spring training. Moustakas had been signed by the White Sox but hit only .195 in camp. He was a three-time all-star for the Royals and split last year between the Rockies and the Angels, finishing with a .247 average in 386 plate appearances.
It’s a similar story for former Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who was released by the Orioles after signing a minor league deal with them during the winter. He’s 33 but hit just .183 for the Mariners and Dodgers last year. He was only two points better in spring training. He has indicated he’s through if he doesn’t get a major league deal. “I don’t plan on going down to the minor leagues after this,” he told MLB.com. “Whatever happens happens.”
Wong, not known as someone reluctant to express his mind, was critical of the Orioles for sending Jackson Holliday down for the start of the year. Holliday is the son of former Cardinals standout Matt Holliday. Wong has suggested that the demotion was a matter of baseball business with the Orioles delaying the start of young Holliday’s career long enough that they could get another year of service time from him before he qualified for free agency. Wong says the kid is “a stud” who is gonna be an incredible player.” Holliday is 20. If the Orioles don’t call him up before May, they’ll gain the extra year of control.
(FOOTBALL)— The St. Louis Battlehawks of the new UFL open their season Saturday against the Michigan Panthers in Detroit, and the feeling in camp has been upbeat with Quarterback A. J. McCarron returning from last year when he led the now-defunct XFL in completion percentage, passing-efficiency, and touchdown passes.
Wide Receiver Marcell Ateman, who will be playing his second year with the Battlehawks, says McCarron has had a “fire camp,” and has been on the same page with all of the recievers, including two all-XFL players Hakeem Butler and Darrius Shepherd.
(NASCAR)—William Byron is the first multiple winner of 2024 in the Cup Series, leading the field home at the Circuit of Americas road course near Austin, Texas. Byron started on the pole and led two-thirds of the laps in the race, holding off Christopher Bell at the end. His victory is the 28th on road courses for Hendrick Motorsports, a dozen more than any other team.
Bell cut Byron’s ten-second lead with ten laps left to seven-tenths of a second at the end. Sophomore driver Ty Gibbs racked up his fifth top ten finish in the six races this year. Gibbs is now in second place in the point standings and is crowing teammate Martin Truex Jr., who is ahead by only five points.
(INDYCAR)—There was a time in INDYCAR history when green cars were considered bad luck. Then guys from Formula 1 such as champions Jack Brabham and Jim Clark arrived at Indianapolis in green cars with engines behind the drivers and changed everything.
Alex Palou won a lot of green with his green car at IndyCar’s non-points Spring for the Purse event at The Thermal Club in California—$500,000 worth of it by outrunning the field in the 20-lap finale of the event.
Some teams opted to conserve their tires in the first half of the final run but Palou went full out for all twenty laps. Colton Herta, who ran more than 90 seconds behind Palou in the first half of the segment, used his fresher tires to charge through the field to finish fourth behind Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Felix Rosenqvist.
INDYCAR races next on April 21 at Long Beach.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen’s exit on the second lap of the Australian Grand Prix made the race Carlos Sainz’s to lose—and he didn’t. Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win an F1 race last year and is the first to do so this year.
Verstappen’s exit robbed him of a chance to tie the record set last year of winning ten Formula 1 races in a row. He dropped out because of a rear brake failure that led to him pitting with his brakes on fire, his first DNF in two years.
(photo credit: INDYCARNation screenshot)