NATIONAL LEAGUE PREVIEW

Confident Cards keep pulling aces

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws in the second inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, March 26, 2014, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright throws in the second inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Wednesday, March 26, 2014, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

This is the power of depth and versatility.

St. Louis has only two starting position players - catcher Yadier Molina and left fielder Matt Holliday - in the same spots they held in the majors for most of last season, yet the Cardinals are still considered the favorite in the National League.

Somehow, the team shuffled the other pieces without trading any pitchers from its vaunted postseason staff or the farm system.

“I’m very happy about that,” said Adam Wainwright, a veteran Cardinals right-hander. “I don’t see any reason to change it. We throw the ball pretty good; everybody’s in their 20s and one old guy.We just go out and continue to do what we do.

“We’ve done a great job of piecing together the right guys for this clubhouse, and we trust in our pitchers to get the job done.”

The Cardinals reached the World Series last season for the second time in three years and the fourth time in a decade. They did so partly by trumping National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers twice in a six-game championship series. Michael Wacha, a rookie with nine career starts, beat him twice.

It almost seemed as if the Cardinals were flaunting their pitching depth as they fell two victories short of a championship. Shelby Miller, who was healthy after going 15-9 with a 3.06 ERA in the regular season, worked just one inning in October.

But Miller still exists, and he will team with Wainwright, Wacha, Joe Kelly and Lance Lynn in a strong rotation that fronts a typically dominant bullpen.

The Cardinals’ pitchers need not worry about fly balls, either, with the fleet Peter Bourjos patrolling center field after a trade from the Angels. He is flanked by Matt Holliday and right fielder Allen Craig, proven .300 hitters and run producers who helped the Cardinals score 77 more runs than any other NL team last season.

Carlos Beltran is gone, but Jhonny Peralta takes over shortstop from Pete Kozma, one of the majors’ weakest-hitting everyday players.

It all sets up to be another memorable season in St. Louis, where things are going so well that the team is finally opening its Ballpark Village across the street from Busch Stadium.

It appears the tougher call is how the other teams will stack up in the Central Division.

The Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates all seem fairly even, but the edge goes to the Reds for their rotation depth, the electrifying speed of the rookie center fielder Billy Hamilton and the open-mindedness of their new manager, Bryan Price.

The Pirates won the wildcard game last season and shouldn’t be dismissed, but their rotation looks vulnerable, and that could open the door for Milwaukee.

The Brewers’ rotation might be better with the signing of Matt Garza, although another addition - Hank, a stray dog rescued by a coach outside the team’s complex in Phoenix - received a lot more attention this spring.

The Brewers need all the cheery storylines they can get with Ryan Braun returning after a drug suspension. Braun seems to be making a good-faith effort to win back the local fans, and he showed in 2012 that he could produce at his usual level under a cloud of suspicion.

If he does it again and gets the expected help from Carlos Gomez, Jean Segura, Jonathan Lucroy and others in the lineup, the Brewers should contend.

“We’ve got a good team,” starter Kyle Lohse said. “We need to believe that. I don’t care who’s in our division, if we play the game right and stay healthy, we’ve got the talent in here to do it. We’ve got a great lineup, and our rotation is strong.” WEST DIVISION

The Dodgers could make the same claim as the Brewers, with greater conviction. They went 62-28 to finish last season and have won twice in 2014, against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Australia.

They are the clear favorites in their division, even if they seem to exist in the shadow of right fielder Yasiel Puig, whose talent helps the Dodgers far more than his antics hurt them.

The San Francisco Giants shed one former Moneyball-era Oakland starter in Barry Zito but gained another in Tim Hudson, who is tied with C.C. Sabathia as the majors’ active leader in victories. Hudson, 38, returns after sustaining a grisly ankle injury last summer while covering first base for Atlanta in a game at Citi Field.

“I’ve never been on a team where at the All-Star break I’m planning my off-season trips,” Hudson said. “I’ve always been on teams that play into September with a chance to do something.”

The Giants should be no exception, with a typically stingy rotation led by Madison Bumgarner, 24, who could challenge Kershaw’s grip on the NL Cy Young Award. The middle of the Giants’ lineup - with Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval, who is in a contract year - will produce a lot of runs.

The Diamondbacks have finished .500 in each of the past two seasons, and Paul Goldschmidt and Mark Trumbo are two of the league’s best power hitters. They could contend, but losing No. 1 starter Patrick Corbin to reconstructive elbow surgery doesn’t help.

Injury concerns in the rotation also stalk the Colorado Rockies (Jhoulys Chacin) andthe San Diego Padres (Josh Johnson), teams that need everything to break right to have a chance.

EAST DIVISION

Last year’s preseason darlings, the Washington Nationals, are the favorites again in the NL East.

Matt Williams - whose grandfather Bert Griffith played for the last Washington team to win the World Series, in 1924 - takes over as manager from Davey Johnson, whose final season in the dugout was a letdown as the Nationals bottomed out at 60-64 last August before finishing 26-12.

They led the majors in victories in 2012, and most of that team remains intact.

“I think it helped, just getting through adversity,” reliever Drew Storen said, referring to the strong finish in 2013. “The year before we played pretty well, but we didn’t have the same challenges we had last year.”

The Nationals’ top three starters - Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and Gio Gonzalez - give them an edge on the Atlanta Braves, who had such unrest in their rotation that they signed Aaron Harang, released by Cleveland, as their No. 4 starter. Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy are out after Tommy John surgery, and Mike Minor, Ervin Santana and Gavin Floyd aren’t ready to start the season.

The Braves’ misfortune might seem to create an opportunity for the New York Mets, but they have done almost nothing to address first base, shortstop and bullpen needs.

The Miami Marlins, as usual, are spending little ($47.5 million), but they have at least two compelling reasons to watch: starter Jose Fernandez, who won the NL Rookie of the Year award, and the slugging right fielder Giancarlo Stanton. The Marlins scored the fewest runs in the majors last season and will count on promising outfielders to help change that.

The Marlins went 62-100 in 2013, yet finished with a joyous on-field scrum after a final-day no-hitter by Henderson Alvarez. This year, count on the Cardinals to end their season with the same kind of celebration, for a more important reason: a World Series championship.

Sports, Pages 25 on 03/30/2014

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