{"id":35167,"date":"2011-03-07T10:26:43","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T18:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=35167"},"modified":"2023-02-07T07:38:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T15:38:17","slug":"odds-2011-st-louis-cardinals-predictions-gambling-preview-7311","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/mlb-baseball\/odds-2011-st-louis-cardinals-predictions-gambling-preview-7311\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Cardinals Predictions | 2011 Season Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011 MLB Team Preview: St. Louis Cardinals<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Hard to believe, as many of us watch the snow fall outside, that the Boys of Summer are almost back. But it\u2019s true; teams have started reporting to 2011 Major League Baseball training camps and it\u2019s time to start our team-by-team baseball gambling<\/a> previews for the year. <\/p>\n

SIGN UP TODAY With MySportsbook.com – 10% Sign UP Bonus – 10cent Baseball Lines – Gamble On 2011 MLB Future Odds and 2011 World Series Championship Lines<\/a><\/h3>\n

Cardinals Calender<\/strong><\/p>\n

FEB. 1-18, 2011 – Salary arbitration hearings
\nFEB. 14, 2011 – Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for pitchers, catchers and injured players
\nFEB. 19, 2011 – Voluntary Spring Training reporting date for non-pitchers and catchers
\nFEB. 26, 2011 – Mandatory Spring Training reporting date for all players<\/p>\n

Does any team have a worse taste in its mouth than the St Louis Cardinals entering the 2011 season? After contending in 2009 but missing the playoffs in 2010, the Cards were ready to write last year off, take a mulligan and return to powerhouse status. But a lot has gone wrong over the offseason. They couldn\u2019t strike a long-term deal with superstar Albert Pujols, meaning they\u2019ll play the entire year with the distraction of not knowing his future. Worse yet, ace Adam Wainwright blew out his elbow two weeks ago and had season-ending Tommy John Surgery.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, St. Louis has some major obstacles to overcome it if wants to even play .500 baseball, let alone return to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
\nWorld Series odds: +3000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the Pujols uncertainty and Wainwright injury, we can\u2019t immediately write the Cardinals off. There\u2019s still plenty to like about this team. Pujols is still Pujols, perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter of all time, and it\u2019s scary to wonder how good he might be in a contract year.<\/p>\n

He has some professional hitters backing him up in Matt Holliday, still one of the game\u2019s best all-around players, and Lance Berkman, who is aging and an injury risk in the outfield but still has pop. Colby Rasmus, compared to a young Jim Edmonds by some scouts when he broke into the bigs, may need an attitude adjustment but he\u2019s still a talented young player who should keep improving.<\/p>\n

After that quartet, things get a bit spotty. Will Ryan Theriot, Skip Schumaker, David Freese and Yadier Molina combine to drive in as many runs as Albert Pujols? It\u2019s almost debatable. At least Freese has potential to mature into a legit RBI man if he stays healthy at the hot corner. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I know pitching coach Dave Duncan is a miracle worker but what can he do with this staff now that Wainwright, who won 40 games over the last two years, is out? To put the problems in perspective, St. Louis now has to bank on Chris Carpenter to be the \u201cguy who stays healthy.\u201d Gulp. It\u2019s terrifying to imagine what will happen if (when?) Carp goes down.<\/p>\n

Jake Westbrook and Kyle Lohse look like they\u2019ll be two of the Cardinals top four starters. Yikes. St. Louis has to hope Jaime Garcia doesn\u2019t slump after his outstanding rookie season. If the Cardinals trade for a starting pitcher \u2013 Kevin Slowey, anyone? \u2013 their rotation could survive, but management has repeatedly suggested it wants to fix the problems from within. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n

Ryan Franklin is perhaps baseball\u2019s least intimidating closer but he\u2019s done a fine job for the Cards over the last three seasons and leads a solid if unspectacular St. Louis bullpen that includes guys like Jason Motte. The Cards\u2019 pen isn\u2019t a major strength but it doesn\u2019t look like an Achilles\u2019 heel either.<\/p>\n

2011 OUTLOOK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since 2000, the St. Louis Cardinals have won the National League Central seven times. But I have to wonder if their era of dominance is ending. The Reds are a young team on the rise and the Brewers improved dramatically this offseason while the Cardinals regressed. St. Louis still has enough talent to be a competitive team and win 85 games but i think it has too many hurdles to climb to be a playoff team this year.<\/p>\n

Prediction: 3rd, National League Central<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEAM BY TEAM MLB PREVIEWS —-><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

View The MLB Cappers Leaderboard For 2010 \u00a0– Picks Packages for 2011 On Sale! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shea Matthews weighs in with his St. Louis Cardinals 2011 Team Gambling Preview. Since 2000, the St. Louis Cardinals have won the National League Central seven times. But I have to wonder if their era of dominance is ending. Do your MLB betting with Cappers Picks MLB expert picks in 2011…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":23089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[46070,43915,12548,26464,8350,12549,46071,66513,10729,66497,678,681,740,12170,901,11260,11215,11210,12546,12547,46072],"class_list":["post-35167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2011-cardinals","tag-2011-mlb-team-preview","tag-cardinals-futures","tag-cardinals-mlb-picks","tag-cardinals-odds","tag-cardinals-predictions","tag-cardinals-world-series-odds","tag-handicapping","tag-handicapping-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-gambling","tag-national-league","tag-national-league-central","tag-nl-central","tag-nl-central-predictions","tag-nl-central-preview","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-st-louis-cardinals-picks","tag-st-louis-cardinals-predictions","tag-st-louis-world-series-futures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35167"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107871,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35167\/revisions\/107871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}