Houston Astros vs St. Louis Cardinals Prediction & Betting Tips - MLB Spring Training

Prediction published on 01/03/2024, 15:41  by Matthew Newman | Modified on 01/03/2024 at 15:46 in Baseball Predictions

The Houston Astros will take on the St Louis Cardinals in a spring training matchup on Saturday. Houston has had a serious run of things in recent years, not failing to make the American League Champion Series for the last seven seasons, making the World Series on four occasions, winning two of them. They have been very slow to get the wheels moving so far this spring, towards the bottom of the pile in hits, runs scored and average despite putting up 10 runs on the Nationals on Friday, while only one team have hit fewer home runs at the time of writing and that is the Cards! Things can only get better from here but Yainer Diaz, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman have all struggled at the plate.

2023 was a year to forget for the Cardinals, finishing bottom of the National League Central Division. They have overhauled their starting rotation, adding Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to their current ace, Miles Mikolas, the last named will be hoping to have a big improvement on what he did in 2023. These four could form the basis for a strong rotation for all that their three additions are 34, 36 and 36. That could be a concern as while their experience will count for a lot, they are well enough known around the league to not have any secrets from anyone. There was also a down season on the offence with both Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado below par and surely they won't be that far below average again.