MLB season preview: As always, don’t sleep on the Cardinals

Editor’s Note: With the arrival of baseball season we’re previewing each MLB team, from worst to best. We’ll look at their key offseason moves, projected lineup, best and worst possible outcomes plus examine the team’s fantasy implications with the help of friends from Roto Arcade. Our daily series continues with No. 8: The St. Louis Cardinals.

By now, all of us should know better than to bet against the St. Louis Cardinals. They are closest thing baseball has to a model of consistency. They’ve won more than 85 games each year since 2009, made the playoffs in five straight seasons and just last year were the only team to win 100 games.

And before most seasons, you’ll find people bent on convincing you they won’t be able to do it again. But they always do. Which is not to say the Cardinals are going to win the World Series in 2016, but short of disaster on the injury front, you can surely count on them being in the mix.

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That’s what they do. They stay competitive, stay in the conversation. Year in and year out, they are improving their team, either through a farm system that’s constantly churning out major-league players or another savvy move from their front office.

Nothing’s especially sexy about this year’s Cardinals team. They brought on Mike Leake. Their young outfielders look poised to take a step forward. But it’s mostly business as usual in St. Louis. And business is usually good.

The NL Central will be a dogfight and they know it. The Cubs look good, The Pirates too. But don’t sleep on the Cardinals. (Mike Oz)

Key additions: Mike Leake, Jedd Gyorko, Ruben Tejada

Key subtractions: Jason Heyward, John Lackey, Mark Reynolds

It was somewhat of a disappointing offseason for the Cardinals, mostly because the club was unable to bring back Heyward. Instead of taking that money and spending it on one of the other premier free agents, the team instead grabbed Leake and opted for modest upgrades elsewhere. Gyorko is a former prospect who could benefit from a change of scenery, and snagging Tejada became necessary once Jhonny Peralta went down. The club also brought in reliever Seung-hwan Oh to solidify the bullpen. (Chris Cwik)

Randal Grichuk: Both Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty exploded onto the scene for St. Louis last season, and both will need to prove their production wasn’t a fluke. Grichuk probably has farther to go as far as that’s concerned.

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While the power is a big weapon, his approach leaves a lot to be desired. Grichuk doesn’t walk at an elite rate, and strikes out in bunches. His 31.4 percent strikeout would have been the highest in the majors had he received enough at-bats. Players who whiff that much rarely post strong batting averages, and there’s already some evidence his line was lifted by a .365 BABIP. There’s promise here, especially considering the Cardinals always seem to get value out of these types of players, but some regression seems likely. (Cwik)

Lineup:
1. Matt Carpenter, 3B (.272/.365/.505, 101 R, 28 HR, 84 RBI)
2. Stephen Piscotty, OF (.305/.359/.494, 29 R, 7 HR, 39 RBI)
3. Matt Holiday, OF (.279/.394/.410, 24 R, 4 HR, 35 RBI)
4. Matt Adams, 1B (.240/.280/.377, 14 R, 5 HR, 24 RBI)
5. Randal Grichuk, OF (.276/.329/.548, 49 R, 17 HR, 47 RBI)
6. Yadier Molina, C (.270/.310/.350, 34 R, 4 HR, 61 RBI)
7. Kolten Wong, 2B (.262/.321/.386, 71 R, 11 HR, 61 RBI, 15 SB)
8. Ruben Tejada, SS (.261/.338/.350, 36 R, 3 HR, 28 RBI)

Rotation:
1. Adam Wainwright (2-1, 1.61 ERA, 28 IP, 20 K)
2. Michael Wacha (17-7, 3.38 ERA, 181.1 IP, 153 K)
3. Carlos Martinez (14-7, 3.01 ERA, 179.2 IP, 184 K)
4. Jaime Garcia (10-6, 2.43 ERA, 129.2 IP, 97 K)
5. Mike Leake (11-10, 3.70 ERA, 192 IP, 119 K)

— compiled by Kyle Ringo

Much like the New England Patriots in the NFL and the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, the Cardinals always find a way to stay relevant. Even with an aging core that struggled to stay healthy last season and even with the loss of key free agents, that will probably be the case again. The Cubs will probably stand in their way of another division title, but St. Louis will be prominent in the wild-card picture. (Mark Townsend)

All the factors working against St. Louis, which this season include age, health, depth and stiffer competition, finally catch up and knock them down a peg. Based on their history it’s difficult to bet against the Cardinals or write them off, but the ground they stand is getting pretty shaky. They won’t completely implode, but they could slip to a 84-86 win team and miss the postseason. (Townsend)

With Jhonny Peralta on the shelf, who plays short for this group? Peralta is out for 10-12 weeks following thumb surgery, so he won’t be helping us any time soon. Briefly, the fantasy community tried to talk itself into Jedd Gyorko, but we all know how that ends. (Not well). The Cards recently signed Ruben Tejada after he was released by the Mets, so he now appears to be the seat-filler until Peralta returns. Tejada clearly isn’t on the fantasy radar. Prospect Aledmys Diaz, 25, might be the long-term answer at short, but he doesn’t project as an immediate fantasy asset.

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The most underrated fantasy commodity on this team is … who? I’m gonna say Grichuk, an outfielder with serious power potential and a no-risk average draft position in Yahoo leagues (186.5). Grichuk delivered 47 extra-base hits over 350 plate appearances in his age-23 season, with 17 homers included. It’s not tough to imagine a 30-90 campaign in the year ahead, making him a ridiculous steal outside the top-150. (Andy Behrens)

Between the funny jokes and the fantasy football advice and takes, Adam Wainwright has enough to keep you entertained on Twitter for a long time. Check out @UncleCharlie50 for those tweets and much more. The Cardinals All-Star right-hander is also heavily involved with some charities and foundations near and dear to his heart, so there’s definitely a more serious side to the man as well. Wainwright is as good a follow as you’ll find in baseball. (Israel Fehr)

Hey schools, I have an idea. How about you keep our kids for 1 more hour…You can be in charge of homework yourself #parentsworstnightmare

— Adam Wainwright (@UncleCharlie50) January 8, 2016

If you like a good nickname, then new Cardinals relief pitcher Seung-hwan Oh has a great one. Oh is a Korean pitcher that the Cardinals signed out of Japan, after establishing himself as a Mariano Rivera-like closer.

(Getty Images)

The 33-year-old has an even better nickname, though. “The Final Boss.” It’s ripped out of video games, where you have to beat the biggest bad guy at the end of the game. Works in baseball too.The only problem is Oh isn’t the Cardinals closer, but we’re still on board with the nickname as being great. And if something happens to Trevor Rosenthal … well, you know the Cardinals have a boss waiting in the wings. (Mike Oz)