Fantasy baseball: St. Louis Cardinals 2020 fantasy preview

2020 At. Louis Cardinals projected starting rotation

Jack Flaherty, RHP (11-8, 2.75 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 231 K in 196.1 IP)
Carlos Martinez, RHP (4-2, 3.17 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 53 K in 48.1 IP)
Dakota Hudson, RHP (16-7, 3.35 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 136 K in 174.2 IP)
Adam Wainwright, RHP (14-10, 4.19 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 153 K in 171.2 IP)
Miles Mikolas, RHP (9-14, 4.16 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 144 K in 184 IP)
Giovanny Gallegos, RHP (3-2, 2.31 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 93 K in 74 IP, 1/5 saves)

Don’t look now, but Flaherty is an ace. Sub-3 ERA, sub-1 WHIP and over 200 strikeouts. He’s not quite among the elite tier of pitchers, but I’d be happy to have him as my ace in the third round.

Dakota Hudson’s WHIP is going to serve to keep his stock down. The lack of elite strikeout totals will depress his value even further, but 15 wins and a mid-3’s ERA in the middle rounds is good no matter how you look at it.

What are we going to get from Carlos Martinez? He was the hottest pitcher going for St. Louis a few years back. He went from that to losing a rotation spot in 2018 to pitching solely out of the pen last year, serving half of it as the closer. However, his ERA hasn’t been over 4 since 2014. He’s going to be valuable somewhere be it as a starter or closer. Gallegos is far from a sure thing.

Wainwright has had a great career, all in a Cardinals uniform. However, he has not had an ERA under 4 since 2015 (he threw just 28 innings that year) and hasn’t had a WHIP under 1.40 since then either. Wainwright is a late round pick at best but is probably best used as a streamer in standard leagues.

MIkolas provides decent peripheral numbers, but the low strikeout totals and lack of elite stuff make him a fringe pitcher on your fantasy roster.

Gallegos may be the guy to own right now, but the presence on Andrew Miller, Brett Cecil, Jordan Hicks, and John Gant, all of whom have closer experience, means Gallegos has a very short leash. It also means that if you throw a dart with Gallegos, you will likely have to hedge with one or two of the other options just in case.

Prospects to watch:

Most of the Cardinals’ pitching prospects are projected bullpen arms. Angel Rondon is a guy to keep an eye on. He blew through high-A and AA last season and seems to be getting stronger. If he gets called up, he’s worth watching. He can rack up the strikeouts.

Even though the Cardinals have plenty of closer options in the majors, Kodi Whitley is worth keeping an eye on. He has great peripheral numbers and a nasty slider. That may be enough to promote him should Gallegos struggle.

There are 12 more of these where this came from! Sports may be on hold, but we will have baseball sometime this season. We here at FanSided Fantasy are going to make sure you’re prepared!