Rants Daily: Red vs. Blue

The St. Louis Cardinals are one day away from the beginning of the spring training calendar. The Miami Marlins visit the Cardinals tomorrow at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL. In preparation, the team will play an intrasquad game today. Yesterday, manager Mike Matheny revealed some more of the starting pitching schedule. Let’s take a look at yesterday’s announcements and look ahead to the game tomorrow.

ROTATION SCHEDULE

According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Matheny has established his rotation for the week. We already knew that Kyle Lohse would get the initial start tomorrow against the Marlins. He is expected to throw two innings. Brandon Dickson, who could see some time with the big club this season in case of injuries will follow Lohse.

Jake Westbrook goes Tuesday, and Kyle McClellan is also scheduled to get work in against the Mets.

Shelby Miller will start his first Grapefruit League game on Wednesday, Jaime Garcia is on the hill Thursday, and Adam Wainwright gets his first start since the end of the 2010 season on Friday.

Miller is likely getting his start because Chris Carpenter is being taken along slowly this spring after a heavy workload in 2011. Miller is expected to be in Memphis this season playing for the AAA Redbirds.

INTRASQUAD GAME

In today’s intrasquad game, Goold gave us the lineups. The game is being played as an easy ramp up to the first official spring game. It gives the players for some true game sequences unable to be drawn up in drills. Matheny split players assumed to be his regulars between the two teams. There are a couple telling decisions within the lineup.

Carlos Beltran is hitting third on the red team, which has Skip Schumaker leading off and playing second base. On the blue team, Tyler Green is at second base and batting second. That forces Daniel Descalso, also on the blue team to third base. Regular third baseman David Freese is on the red team.

We probably shouldn’t read too much into an intrasquad game, but I thought it was an indication of where Matheny may be hitting Beltran and who has the upper hand in the second base competition so far. There has been discussions of Beltran hitting anywhere from second to fifth in the lineup so where Matheny has him hit during the spring will give us an idea of where he’ll be slotted for the regular season.

The second base job is up in the air according to Matheny, who earlier in the week said that Greene will see more starts at the onset of spring games due to his inexperience at the position. Matheny stated that nothing else should be read from that.

Wainwright and Garcia were set to throw live batting practice this morning.

OTHER NOTES

According to David Villavincencio of MLB.com Chris Carpenter was among those who threw live BP yesterday. Reliever Scott Linebrink, who is in camp on a minor-league deal with the hopes of latching onto the team, did not throw to hitters as scheduled yesterday. He is still nursing a sore hamstring. There was no further word on when he will be back on the mound.

MONDAY’S GAME

As of now we only know Lohse will start things off against the Marlins tomorrow afternoon. Matheny has given no indication as to who will be in the lineup as of yet. Monday’s game is the first of a 28 game Grapefruit League schedule.

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