No. 8 Red Sox | No. 6 Blue Jays | Nos. 10-1
St. Louis Cardinals
Last Season: 100-62
Projected record: 86-76 (second in NL Central)
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The Cardinals are kind of stumped as to why everyone thinks they are worse than the club that survived a grueling three-team race to win another National League Central title last season. After all, they feel like they're finally getting healthy and have a chance to be even better. "We won 100 games with half the people in the room that we have here," third baseman Matt Carpenter said as he stood in the team's Florida spring training clubhouse. The national perception is that the team's championship core -- namely, Adam Wainwright, 34, Matt Holliday, 36, and Yadier Molina, 33 -- is aging and the Cardinal Way is in jeopardy, with thinner-than-usual talent at the upper levels of the minor leagues. But Holliday and Wainwright are finally healthy again after missing big chunks of last season, and the team is hopeful Molina will be ready sometime in April after two rounds of thumb surgery. The Cardinals think those three, bolstered by a promising young rotation, strong bullpen and good outfield depth, could have another World Series run in them.
One of the keys to the Cardinals' success has been spending well in free agency and developing their own players so they don't need to spend at all. Over the past eight seasons, the Cardinals are second in baseball in wins, but just 16th in money spent in free agency. -- ESPN.com (graphic by Dan Szymborski)
The Cardinals didn't just pitch better than everybody last season, they blew the competition out of the water. The team's 2.94 ERA beat that of the next closest team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, by nearly a third of a run. Carlos Martinez and Michael Wacha did a lot of the heavy lifting last season and probably suffered the consequences. Martinez finished the season with a tight right shoulder and Wacha's results dipped at the end. The Cardinals are hoping an offseason of rest and closely monitored innings will help them grow into two of the most dominant starters in the league. Wainwright pitched only 28 innings in 2015 because of a torn left Achilles tendon and he said this spring his arm feels the freshest it has since 2013. The Cardinals lost their best starter from 2015, John Lackey, to the rival Chicago Cubs and Lance Lynn will miss the season after undergoing elbow surgery, but they think a healthy Wainwright and the addition of Mike Leake will more than make up for the loss of those two.
When a Cardinal hit a home run last season, it came as an utter surprise to anyone who watched them frequently. In fact, power has been diminishing around Busch Stadium for several years now. Carpenter led the team with 28 home runs last year, and a lot of people view that as the upper limit of his power capabilities. Randal Grichuk has pop, but has never been able to consistently stay healthy. Stephen Piscotty is still unproven and Holliday hits the ball hard, but has become more of a line-drive hitter than a launcher of long balls. If there is one worry that strikes home for Cardinals management, it's that the offense won't adequately support the pitching staff.
No. 6 Blue Jays | No. 8 Red Sox | Nos. 20-11
