JUPITER, Fla. — Before one of the big-league starters threw a bullpen session this past year, bullpen coach Bryan Eversgerd took a string and pulled it taut between two posts so that it offered a visual for the bottom of the strike zone. He explained to the starters the purpose of the string and asked if any of them had ever used anything like it.
On the first official day of workouts for pitchers and catchers, the Cardinals and their batteries headed to the back fields where a string had been strung in front of every home plate at a series of mounds.