4 overreactions to the Cardinals' first week of Spring Training games

Hot takes abound during Spring Training. It's also the perfect time for fans to overreact to things that likely won't matter in the grand scheme of things. Take last year for example; the St. Louis Cardinals won the Grapefruit League in Spring Training, but they ended up finishing with one of the worst records in baseball last year during the regular season.

Spring Training isn't a time for teams to go full force and use results as the Gospel truth for a given player. Pitchers and hitters alike are refining their crafts before the marathon that is the MLB regular season. While there is always the semblance of competition for roster spots, the roster is largely set in stone come March barring injuries.

Therefore, whatever results or rumors we hear out of camp should be taken with a grain of salt. The regulars aren't consistently playing, and pitchers are still ramping up to their usual velocities. Even up to this point, players who won't even make the major league roster out of camp are leading the team in at-bats in spring.

Foremost of these overreactions would be the team's sub-.500 record at this point. Once again, do not take Spring Training as a sign of things to come. St. Louis won the Grapefruit League last year but definitely lost the season. This is a time to work out the kinks, not go full force.

Regardless of the microscopic data totals and the futility of analyzing spring stats, it's still fun to look at overreactions and analyze them. While it is probable that these out-of-proportion assumptions pan out as inaccurate, it is still possible that they could be signs of things to come.

Here are four overreactions to the first week of the Cardinals' spring training games.

1. This team isn't built for power.

Entering Thursday's games, the St. Louis Cardinals had yet to record a home run in 6 games played. In 54 innings of play, not one ball that has come off the bat of a Cardinal player has sailed over the fence. In 2023, the Cardinals averaged 1.29 home runs per game, good for 12th in the league. At this rate, St. Louis would need to clobber 9 home runs in their next game to match that average.

Players such as Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Nolan Gorman, Paul Goldschmidt, and Jordan Walker all have the potential to hit 20 or more home runs, so a lack of the long ball in spring thus far shouldn't be much of a concern. This overreaction is unfounded and something we shouldn't be worried about as fans.