St. Louis Cardinals: Spring Training Recap Day 6

Today was yet another milestone day for the St. Louis Cardinals, as today was the first day of full squad workouts.

With the St. louis Cardinals finally coming together for a full day of full squad workouts, we are that much closer to the start of the 2016 season. Now that position players are officially in the mix at Spring Training, the news and information surrounding the team has gotten even greater.

Grichuk and Piscotty best friends and swing instructors

Derrick Goold had a wonderful story on the friendship that has developed between Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty. The interesting friendship developed when the two were in Memphis and has become more than just a friendship between the two teammates.

Goold mentions that when Piscotty was tasked with developing more power in his swing, it was Grichuk’s swing that he studied. It has apparently worked as between Memphis and St. Louis last season, Piscotty had 18 homers.

However, it doesn’t end there as Goold mentioned that Grichuk had Piscotty fly down to Memphis to help him add a “baby kick” to his swing to help him time the ball better and make better contact. If the transition works as well as Piscotty’s has, we could be looking at one dynamic RF/CF combination.

Molina doing a different kind of catching

Jenifer Langosch tweeted out that Yadier Molina has started to do some light catching duties. However, it is not behind the plate, as he did some catching from first base on pitcher pickoff moves.

Garcia in camp and healthy ready for a full season

Jenifer Langosch had a story today about Jaime Garcia attempting to put the past behind him. Langosch mentions that this is the first Spring Training in four years that Garcia doesn’t enter camp with baggage regarding an injury that ended his previous season.

He’s entering camp ready to prove that he is going to be healthy this coming season, that wasn’t the case last season, as Mike Matheny told Langosch “Last year, we just didn’t know what we were going to get.” Many wrote Garcia off last season before Spring even started. This was for good reason as Garcia was attempting to recover from thoracic outlet surgery last season, the same exact surgery that forced guys like Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett to retire.

Langosch mentions “the flashes of dominance Garcia has offered remain enticing, even in the context of a dotted injury history,” I have been saying it for a while now, Garcia has the stuff to be an ace on any other team in the league, the injury history has been what has held him back with the Cardinals.

Garcia tells Langosch, “I’m never satisfied with where I’m at, I’m always striving for better and pushing for more, which is the reason why I work extremely hard. I’m constantly working on all the areas of my life and with my pitching. I’m going for it.”

This is good to hear. Garcia is certainly the wild card in the rotation, as if he is healthy and right, he is going to be dominant throughout the season.

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Hitters face live pitching

It seems almost unfair that on the first day of combined camp that the hitters had to face live pitching from the likes of Adam Wainwright and Seth Maness. However, that was the case today.

Ah one step closer to our Cards actually playing in some games. These workouts are already starting to weigh on me. I want games to cover dang it!

Next: Spring Training Recap Day 5

What are your thoughts on the stories surrounding Spring Training so far? Let me know in the comments!