St. Louis Cardinals: Spring Training Recap Day 12

Another day of Spring Training is behind us, and we finally have St. Louis Cardinals game action to talk about.

While many clubs are getting their first action against local college teams today, the Cardinals have started their own game action. Ok, it was just an intrasquad game for the St. Louis Cardinals, but game action is game action.

While there was game action, there was also the normal slew of news from the different media outlets. So, like usual we are going to round all of the news surrounding the day and keep you informed, as we move closer to regular game action.

Team Carpenter beats Hollidayless Team Holliday

So, first things first here people. The Cardinals held an intrasquad game today, featuring a team that featured a lineup of Kolten Wong, Stephen Piscotty, Matt Carpenter, and Randal Grichuk. Before the game, Matt Holliday was scratched from his team’s lineup, because according to Derrick Goold “he had enough swings for the day”.

Goold had the recap of the game in which he mentioned that the Cardinals were pitched to by AAA Memphis pitching coach Bryan Eversgerd where Goold mentioned “he did not spin pitches, as he can. He pitched straight and tried to keep it low,” so no surprise will be had when we go over the results.

While there is no “official score”, Goold guesses that the score “may have been 15-5”. As for the highlights of the game, Grichuk homered twice — while Piscotty and Brayan Pena also hit homers for Team Carpenter.

The cool story from the game is that Team Holliday was responsible for all of the clubhouse cleaning after the game, Goold mentions this, “For Seth Maness, that meant cleaning cleats and cleaning the coach’s bathroom. For others, that meant vacuuming, gathering equipment, cleaning the showers, and any other chores that are usually done by the clubhouse attendants after the players leave the ballpark.”

This is pretty neat to see, and is a cool little competitive camaraderie thing for the club in it’s 12th day of Spring Training. I am sure it brought lightness and a fun atmosphere to the clubhouse amidst the seriousness of getting ready for the season.

Piscotty needing to get strength back

Over the past few days Stephen Piscotty dealt with a bout of the flu, that as Mark Saxon reported netted him a loss of seven pounds. Saxon mentioned that Piscotty had an offseason that included him working to build up his strength and muscle. 

Saxon quotes Piscotty as saying, “It probably put me behind a little bit, but you’d rather it happen early in camp than later or even during the season.” I will second that, I would much rather this happen now, as opposed to later in the midst of a good season, as something like this could really derail a player.

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• Cardinals: New payroll numbers makes Wainwright signing questionable
• Cardinals: Latest updates on rumored catching targets for St. Louis
• Cardinals: Tyler O’Neill not going anywhere this offseason, report says
• MVP voter listed Cardinals’ Arenado 8th on ballot
• St. Louis Cardinals non-tender former All-Star closer Alex Reyes

Luckily, this happened in February and Piscotty is on the mend and will be putting this behind him soon enough. It is nice to see him displaying the power (albeit against a BP fastball) after the bout with the illness.

Lynn becoming the mentor

2016 will feature the first season since 2011 in which Lance Lynn will not be on the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, Lynn is not about to let this deter him, as Jenifer Langosch reports, Lynn is going to take his time to become a mentor for the Cardinals. 

Langosch has some god infer on the situation surrounding Lynn’s choice or lack thereof to have Tommy John surgery in the fall. Lynn spent the first few days unsure of his role says Langosch, but has regrouped and decided that he can have a role on this team. 

She quotes Lynn as saying, “Once you figure out what you’re trying to do, it’s easier to help out other people, I think that’s when it really started to click that, ‘Hey, I can really help other people because I kind of have a clue what I’m trying to get done now.’ That’s just the learning process of figuring out who you are.”

It’s good that Lynn has gotten to this point, as Lynn has admitted that this season is going to be awkward for him, but he is going to make the most of his role.

His manager is quoted as saying, “Really, it’s a long process that he’s in the middle of. We want to keep him engaged. We also don’t want to burn him out. It’s a tough balance, but he’s handling it really well so far,” Langosch mentions that Lynn has reached out to former teammates Chris Carpenter and Jake Westbrook for help in dealing with this this new found role. 

Next: Spring Training Recap Day 11

That will do it for Day 12, tomorrow the team will have the day off, so there may not be much news to report on, but if there is you can be sure that I will get it to you if there is. Have a great night Cardinal Nation!