Posted on 3/28/2008 4:08:22 PM

2008 MLB Baseball Betting Preview – St. Louis Cardinals

By Dave Golokhov

Starting Pitching:

No starting rotation is more beat up than the St. Louis Cardinals as the season is set to begin.

The Cardinals will be without Joel Pineiro, Matt Clement, Chris Carpenter and Mark Mulder until mid-April as all of them spend time on the disabled list.

In the meantime, the Cards will use Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, Braden Looper, Todd Wellemeyer and Brad Thompson as their five-man rotation.

When everyone is healthy, it is tough to gage what this roster will produce. Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan traditionally have produced overachievements from average pitchers, which might make guys like Mulder, Pineiro and Lohse serviceable.

Adam Wainwright is the clear staff ace and there are enough arms to fill out the remaining spots but the question is what type of pitching can we expect from everyone else?

Relief Pitching:

The Cardinals bullpen looks like a strength but they need to be prepared for extended innings in the early going.

Jason Isringhausen is still a good closer, but he is not among the premier closers any more. He should be helped out vastly if Ryan Franklin can solidify the eighth inning.

Russ Springer is expected to handle the seventh inning duties while Randy Flores and Ron Villone will be the token left-handers.

Pitching is typically a forte of a Dave Duncan coached team so this group to play well barring injuries.

Hitting:

The batting lineup is a concern for the Cardinals and they don’t have enough proven hitters throughout the lineup.

Right at the top, Skip Schumaker will get his first crack at full-time duties but there are no guarantees that he can set the table at the top. Chris Duncan and Albert Pujols are good at the two and three spots, but there are questions abound with Rick Ankiel – mostly due to his struggles after getting busted with HGH late last season.

Troy Glaus figures to spend some time in the cleanup role but he too didn’t do so well at the plate last year. He, too, was busted with HGH last season.

Yadier Molina, Adam Kennedy and Cesar Izturis round out the bottom of the order but there isn’t much to be excited about here.

La Russa will have to work some of his magic to produce runs.

Regular Season Win Total: 76.5

The Cardinals are dealing with injuries in the rotation, have a weak batting order and don’t appear to have any front-line prospects ready to bust out. It’s clear that their World Series days are a distant memory at this point.

But they were faced with a lot of these problems last year – and nagging injuries to Albert Pujols – yet were still able to win 78 games.

I’ll credit La Russa and Duncan of being the Bobby Cox/Leo Mazzone of the NL Central. When players go to St. Louis, they seem to improve by 10-15% and the Cardinals seem to find a way to hang around. This doesn’t look like a team that can compete but they should be able to win 77 games.

Free Pick: Over 76.5 wins

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