St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day Roster Prediction 2.0

Lineup vs. left-handed pitching

1. 2B Brendan Donovan 2. DH Tyler O'Neill 3. 1B Paul Goldschmidt 4. 3B Nolan Arenado 5. C Willson Contreras 6. LF Jordan Walker 7. RF Lars Nootbaar 8. CF Dylan Carlson 9. SS Tommy Edman

In the last few seasons, the Cardinals have had really good numbers against left-handed pitching. This year, that should only become even better with how strong this lineup is.

Leading off against left-handed pitching is still Donovan, but O'Neill receives a bump up to the two-hole with his great career numbers against lefties, and it allows him to see even better pitches with two MVP candidates and lefty mashers following him. Nootbaar swaps places with him in the lineup and gives St. Louis a left-handed power bat toward the bottom of the order along with some speed as well.

Carlson gets the start against lefties, and he still mashes them during his career and is a great defender that is underutilized on the bench. One specific change I made to this lineup was making O'Neill the DH, so if a right-handed pitcher comes in later in the game, they have the ability to swap in a Nolan Gorman or Alec Burleson, should O'Neill not be hitting well against right-handed pitching at the beginning of the season.

These are just what I think the typical lineup against each handedness would be, but the beauty of this club is the lineup flexibility they have. Oli Marmol can manage this lineup in a number of ways depending on matchups, player performance, and fatigue, and still maintain having the best lineup in baseball on the field at all times. It's mind-boggling.

Get ready Cardinals Nation, this Opening Day Roster is shaping up to be pretty special.