St. Louis Cardinals: Opening Day Lineup Prediction

The St. Louis Cardinals are less than a week away from the start of the regular season. What will the Opening Day lineup look like?

We are just days away from the calendar flipping to April and that means one thing — the return of St. Louis Cardinals baseball.

That’s right Cardinal Nation, your Redbirds are just days away now from kicking off the regular season in Pittsburgh this Sunday afternoon. Spring Training, after what has felt like forever, finally wraps up this week and the Cardinals will fly north to take on the Pirates in the first game of 2016.

All of our debates, analysis and commentary here at Redbird Rants will culminate to Sunday afternoon when that starting lineup is posted. But why wait until then?

So, what will the Cardinals Opening Day lineup look like?

Here’s my take:

Matt Carpenter – 3B

Stephen Piscotty – RF

Matt Holliday – 1B

Randal Grichuk – LF

Kolten Wong – 2B

Tommy Pham– CF

Yadier Molina – C

Ruben Tejada – SS

Adam Wainwright – P

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So, right off the bat you will notice two unique things about my lineup prediction — Holliday is at first base and Pham is in center field. I’ve gone over opening day lineups constantly in my head over the last few weeks, and this is the one I keep going back to. There is a crucial reason why I believe these will be the starters come Sunday — the Cardinals are facing a left-handed starter. Holliday has gotten plenty of time at first base this spring and, for the most part, has shown that he can handle the position well.

More importantly, Holliday can hit lefties. The 36-year old owns a career .299 batting average and a .905 OPS in 1,700 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. First base hopefuls Matt Adams and Brandon Moss aren’t viable options against lefties, especially Adams. Adams has a dismal .197 batting average and a .547 OPS in 230 plate appearances against lefties. Moss hasn’t fared much better with a .246 batting average but still a bit of pop with a .722 OPS in 560 plate appearances against southpaws.

The case for Holliday at first base looks much more intriguing against lefties, and a lineup similar to this one could be one that Cardinals fans should get used to seeing in 2016 when a left-hander takes the mound.

Pham is the other piece of this lineup that I believe will bode well for the Cardinals. Pham has handled lefties fine so far in the Majors, albeit a small sample size of just 46 plate appearances, with a .270 average and a .764 OPS. More than that, Pham brings extra speed to a Cardinals lineup that needs it, and the 28-year old can take over in center field. Why is that a big deal? While Grichuk’s arm has been just fine this spring, I’d imagine the Cardinals will slide him over to left field as much as they can when Pham makes starts to preserve his arm and create those shorter throws for him throughout the season. Grichuk is an x-factor for this Cardinals team and they need him healthy and hitting bombs all season.

I really believe the Cardinals one through four of Carpenter, Piscotty, Holliday and Grichuk have a chance to do something special in 2016. Those four are likely to be cemented in those spots in the order for the majority of the season.

As far as the Cardinals facing right-handed starters throughout the season, I can see manager Mike Matheny playing the hot hand at first base with any combination of Holliday at 1B and Moss in LF or Holliday in LF and Adams or Moss at first base. The beauty of Moss is that versatility he brings being able to play both left field and first base.

A recent development this morning shows possible cause for concern as it was noted on Twitter that Molina has been scratched from today’s lineup for reasons unknown at the time of this post.

But signs so far have pointed to Molina being a full go for Opening Day, which would be huge for the Cardinals and the pitching staff.

Tejada is by far the weak link offensively in this Cardinals lineup. If newcomer Jedd Gyorko is showing enough pop, he could supplant Tejada for some starts there with the Cardinals trading defense for power, which I would have no problem with.

What kind of power this team will show is the big question as we get closer to Opening Day. For now, let’s enjoy that baseball is finally (almost) back.

I’m going to predict a 4-2 Cardinals win with Wainwright going seven strong innings and yielding just one run and Grichuk powering up for a two-run homer that winds up being the game-winner.

Next: Cardinals: Jose Oquendo Taking Medical Leave

That’s my lineup and final score prediction for Opening Day. What’s yours? Comment below or drop me a line on Twitter. Thanks for reading.

Update: Catcher Yadier Molina was scratched from today’s lineup with a bruised right foot and is considered day-to-day, according to Derrick Goold and Jenifer Langosch.