Three Up, Three Down Through St. Louis Cardinals’ First Week of Spring Training

The St. Louis Cardinals are a week into their spring training schedule, and several players have stood out and impressed through the early going.

Baseball season is back underway (at least if you count spring training as baseball season), as the St. Louis Cardinals are now a week into their spring schedule. Manager Mike Matheny has definitely taken things slow with his players thus far; Jaime Garcia is the only member of the Cardinals’ rotation who has made multiple starts, while Carlos Martinez has yet to pitch in a game. Most of the starting position players have been eased into action, so the players battling for roster spots have gotten substantial opportunities over the first week.

It’s unreasonable to get too worked up about stats over the first week of spring training; after all, only eight official games have been played, all of which come during a time where most players are still getting up to speed and rediscovering their routine at the plate, in the field, or on the mound. But since spring training plays a surprisingly large role in determining roster spots as teams enter the regular season, it does make sense to keep tabs on which players are building momentum as the spring gets underway.

Here are three Cardinals players who have started the spring particularly strong, along with three who need to step it up over the next few weeks:

Next: Carlos Peguero