Claibs Series Preview

Cardinals vs Blue Jays

Opening Weekend

Game Times and Pitching Probables

Thursday- 3:10p CT Miles Mikolas vs Alek Manoah

Saturday- 1:15p CT Jack Flaherty vs Kevin Gausman

Sunday- 1:15p CT Jordan Montgomery vs Chris Bassitt

What to Watch for:

Cardinals open the season with one of the toughest schedules in baseball, as they face the Blue Jays this weekend before welcoming in the Atlanta Braves. MLB.com listed the Cards as having the 4th best lineup in baseball, with the Blue Jays at #3 and Braves at #5, so expect a lot of offense at Busch this first week.

All eyes will be on Cardinals debut of Willson Contreras and big league debut of Jordan Walker, but it should be interesting to watch the many Cardinals who played in the World Baseball Classic to see how that might have an impact on them in early season games, both positive and negative.

Inside the Numbers:

Nolan Gorman’s Spring flew under the radar down in Jupiter with the emergence of Jordan Walker, and the focus of the Cardinals being centered on so many players being part of the WBC. Gorman has a chance to continue his solid play with a favorable matchup in the opening series, facing Kevin Gausman this weekend, a pitcher that Gorman went 2-5 against in 2022 with a home run

For the Blue Jays, look at Sunday’s matchup of Bo Bichette vs Jordan Montgomery. Bichette has been dominant over the Cardinals lefty, during their AL East battles when Montgomery was a Yankee, owning a .546 batting average against him, going 6 for 11 with 2 home runs.

Predictions

We asked the Claibs Online staff to make their picks for the upcoming Cardinals and MLB seasons. Here’s what they had to say