6 Cardinals spring training performances to buy into, 4 more to forget

Spring stats to forget: Gray, Donovan, Winn, Walker

Opening Day starter Sonny Gray has had a spring to forget so far, including his potentially record-setting start where he entered the game five separate times. The home run ball has continued to be an issue for Gray, allowing six long balls in 9.2 innings. Another interesting factor has been Gray's out-of-character command issues, walking another six batters in his appearances. I have confidence this spring is just another example of a pitcher "working on things," because he has put up top-20 command stats in seven of his big league seasons. If he can show the walks this spring were an anomaly, then the home run ball could do significantly less damage when paired with his continued ability to strike hitters out at an above-average rate.

As stated previously and covered multiple times, the Cardinals' offense struggled. Again. While this trend is concerning, each of Brendan Donovan, Masyn Winn, and Jordan Walker have been working through different plans this spring. In Donovan's case, it appeared he was going to be the everyday second baseman after Nolan Arenado was expected to be traded. With that not happening, Donovan has again been moving all over the diamond. For now, it appears he could be the starting left fielder, where he has spent the majority of his career. His spring performance has been a bummer so far, with a .188 batting average, but he has continued to limit his strikeouts and seems to be more willing to take walks. After finishing second on the team in RBIs last year, Donnie will be moving around the lineup again, hitting anywhere from first to sixth in the order.

Masyn Winn had a great rookie campaign and had an uphill battle for the Rookie of the Year award that he may have won any other season. He totaled 52 extra-base hits and was a force with two strikes, hitting .251 in those counts. The spring, though, has not been kind to the shortstop, as he only has four hits in 41 at-bats with 12 strikeouts. To continue his development as a quality major league hitter, Winn will have to keep working on his plate discipline and be willing to work a walk if he plans to stay at the top of the order.

Finally, Jordan Walker. As someone who stands at a massive 6'6, there is no reason for the guy to be hitting the ball on the ground as much as he does. He worked with new hitting coach Brant Brown and appeared to see some positive results before a rogue sprinkler head knocked him out of action for a week or so. Early in spring games, Walker struck out multiple times looking on pitches on the outside corner, and I took this as him working on simply not chasing pitches on the outer half, which gave him massive problems last year. Because of the injury, Walker has only received 19 at-bats to this point, and while the strikeouts remain a massive concern, he's still just 22 years old and is guaranteed 500 at-bats this season. The true showing of Walker's offseason changes will not be coming from his truncated spring, but the actual at-bats he will be receiving in the regular season.