A preview of Cardinals Spring Training.

Spring Training is upon us once more. The offseason is over at last and it’s time to get a new season under way. For the St.Louis Cardinals and their fans, there wasn’t a whole lot of news or big signings this past winter. In fact the two main events of the Cardinals offseason were the passing of Stan the Man and the announcement that Chris Carpenter will probably miss 2013 and may not even pitch again. Despite all this the Cardinals enter 2013 as a contender in the National League once more. They bring back pretty much the exact same team that was one win away from an NL Pennant last October.

The most interesting thing this Spring Training for Cardinals fans will be the pitching and how the starting rotation will align itself. The Cards now have 2 spots open in their rotation. It is already assumed that Lance Lynn will take one of those two spots after having a solid season in the rotation last year. As for the other rotation spot, it’s going to be a interesting competition between Joe Kelly who already had experience as a starter, Shelby Miller who in his first and so far only career start pitched great against the Reds, and Trevor Rosenthal who was brilliant last season coming out of the pen. It’s going to be interesting to see how this starting rotation battle plays out and to see who gets the final spot in the rotation and who will be coming out of the pen.

Another thing Cards fans have to look forward to this spring is watching Oscar Taveras play. Taveras has shined in the minors the last two years and is one of the top prospects in the game. He has the ability and potential to be a great player in the big leagues. Another big question is depending on how he does this year, will he see him at the big league level at some point in 2013. The Cardinals have built one of the best (if not the best) farm system in the big leagues. It’ll be interesting to watch Taveras and some of the other possible future cardinals this spring.  The Cardinals offseason was boring and there wasn’t really a lot of news.  As Spring Training really gets going this week, I’d say this year’s Spring camp is going to be far from boring.