St. Louis Cardinals: Preseason Roster Predictions Part 3

Trevor Rosenthal

Rosie still hasn’t entirely given up on being a starting pitcher at some point in his career. In my opinion, he might as well give that up right now. He’s way too good as a closer. He doesn’t have the makeup of a starting pitcher, nor does he have the secondary pitches necessary for the job. At least not yet.

He’s an elite closer in today’s game. I think that another 45-50 save campaign is going to convince him that the ninth inning is the place for him.

Jordan Walden

Walden could provide so much relief to this bullpen if he’s healthy this season. When he’s right, he has absolutely dominant stuff. His makeup and pitch repertoire make him perfect for a setup role. I’m not sure he starts the season in that spot, but he could end up there by September, of course assuming he stays healthy.

Seung-Hwan Oh

All I really know about Oh is how good he was in Japan. Fangraphs has video of Oh from 2014 throwing a 94 mph (151kph) fastball. So Oh isn’t going to overpower anybody.

Oh has a good amount of deception in his delivery, and throws his sinking fastball early and often. He mixes in a sharp slider while mixing in a curveball sparingly. Should Oh develop some sort of change-up or split-finger type pitch to work off of the sinker, he could be trouble for left and right-handed batters.

It will be intriguing to see how he attacks Major League hitters and how he adjusts to Major League Baseball in general. I will reserve judgement until actually seeing him in game situations. But, all signs point towards him being a high-impact arm in the Cards’ bullpen.

Kevin Siegrist

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if Siegrist would make it back into the pen last year after the struggles with injuries he endured in 2014.

He didn’t just make it back last year, he shined.

When Walden went down at the end of April, Siegrist stepped into the setup role and did a better job than anybody could have expected.

Siegrist was used a ton last year. With the additional power right-handed pitchers in the Cardinals pen this year, I look for Siegrist to be used in lefty-lefty situations much more this year. I don’t think he will be a full blown LOOGY or anything like that, but I don’t think he will be a true setup man any more in St. Louis, either.

Jonathan Broxton

A part of me is really excited about Broxton being in the Cardinals pen, another part of me is worried that his best days are behind him.

Broxton still throws hard, but he isn’t overpowering like he once was earlier in his career. His secondary stuff can be good, but he was far from consistent with anything he threw after joining St. Louis last season.

I’m cautiously optimistic about Broxton this year. We will just have to kick back and see what he goes out there and does. He could go out and blow up early, or he could settle in and be an anchor in the Super Pen. Only time will tell.

Seth Maness

Even with the power arms that the Cardinals feature at the back end of the bullpen, there will always be a spot for Seth Maness. His ability to come into a game and immediately get a double play ball is one of the most valuable assets the Cardinals have down there. He can give you three, four innings in extra-inning situations, too.

Assuming he doesn’t start leaving the ball up and getting hammered, I anticipate seeing plenty of Seth Maness again in 2016.

Tyler Lyons

Alright, I’m officially going back on my Kiekhefer-LOOGY pick. That isn’t because I suddenly realized that Lyons was out of options. I knew that the entire time, despite what some commenters on past posts of mine might think.

I’ve never been too high on Lyons, and think that it would be a big mistake to take a guy who might not help the club on your Opening Day roster, just because you are worried about losing him on waivers.

I’m picking Lyons to make the club because I think that he can fill a very important role for the Cardinals. Matheny needs to limit innings for pretty much all of his starters (outside of Leake), for a variety of reasons.

With Lyons, he can have a much shorter leash on guys because Lyons is capable of throwing starter innings at any time. Instead of leaving a starter in after he’s given up a couple of runs through three innings, Matheny can turn to Lyons to eat those early and middle innings and save the starters innings to be used in the fall.

He could fill some sort of a LOOGY-type role as well, but he’s going to have to get better against left-handed hitters. He’s got the stuff to do it, it’s just about execution at this point.

Next: Presesaon Roster Prediction Part 2

So, there you have it. That is my pick of 25 guys the make the Cardinals’ roster out of camp. Let me know what you think about my picks in the comments, or feel free to get at me on twitter!