Jeff Weaver Has Eyes Only On The Majors

Jeff Weaver returned to the Dodgers' spring-training complex Saturday with two things he didn't have when he came here last year: a new baby boy named Drake, whose prolonged reluctance to enter the world kept his dad away from camp for the better part of a week; and an escape clause in his minor league contract.

ESPN

Bat Rules Being Implemented For 2010

Several types of maple bats will be banned from the Minor Leagues this season, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

MLB

Nationals Teammates Glad To Have Ron Villone

When relievers Brian Bruney and Tyler Clippard found out last month that left-hander Ron Villone signed a Minor League deal with the Nationals, their reactions said it all.

Nationals Official Site

Albert Pujols Graces ESPN The Magazine's Fantasy Baseball Double-Cover Edition

Albert Pujols is the featured story in this week's ESPN The Magazine. And while he is not Derek Jeter from a marketing standpoint, heis becoming more and more the face of Major League Baseball.

The Biz Of Baseball

Skip Schumaker Having Fun A Year After Transition To Second Base

Skip Schumaker laughs when remembering what he went through last year to become the starting second baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals.

STL Globe-Democrat

Matt Holliday Wants (Positive) Lasting Impressions With Cardinals

Matt Holliday was the face of the Rockies' surge into the 2007 World Series, his head first, chin scraping slide in the 13th inning of a one-game playoff victory over the Padres the season's snapshot.

Palm Beach Post

Missouri Senate Vote To Rename Mark McGwire Highway

The Missouri Senate wants to take away Mark McGwire's highway.

A stretch of Interstate 70 in St. Louis was designated the Mark McGwire Highway in 1999, one year after the Cardinals slugger hit a then-record 70 home runs.
AP/Fox Sports

The name of the venerable author and humorist may be added to the highway currently honoring the former St. Louis Cardinals slugger.
The Cardinal Nation Blog

Cardinals Photo Day 2010: Position Players

St. Louis Cardinals photos from spring training in Jupiter, Florida, starting with position players.

The Cardinal Nation

Memphis Redbirds Single-Game Tickets On Sale March 15

Single-game tickets for the Memphis Redbirds 2010 season go on sale March 15.

Memphis Redbirds Official Site

Brendan Ryan's Wrist OK After Increasing Workload

Optimism continues to reign as Brendan Ryan attempts to return from February right wrist surgery.
Cardinals Official Site

On the eve of his first round of throws and swings since his February wrist surgery, St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan was unsure how the repaired joint would react or how it would inhibit his first attempt to catchup with spring training.
Cardinal Beat

Extra Works Suits Ryan Franklin

It's long been known that nothing is accidental in a Tony La Russa Spring Training workout. Veterans hit with veterans, unproven youngsters with unproven youngsters. Infielders work in groups with each other, as do outfielders.

Cardinals Official Site

Ozzie Smith & Jay McGwire On The Fast Lane 3-1-10

Ozzie Smith joins the show now. Smith talks about preparation and hard work in the majors. Smith talks about great hitters. Karraker asks Smith about injuries before spring training. Smith talks about the McGwire situation. Smith also talks about the hall of fame and the Hank Aaron ceremony. Click below to hear entire interview:

101 ESPN

Braves Not Interested In Wagner Mateo

One of our more knowledgeable bloggers inquired today about the Braves possibly having interest in Wagner Mateo, a 16-year-old outfielder from the Dominican whose $3.1 million agreement with the Cardinals was voided last year because he failed a physical.

Bowman's Blog

Spring Training News & Notes: Joe Mather Interview

I got a chance to chat 1-on-1 with Cards infielder/outfielder Joe Mather (the full interview is attached here) and he had some really good stuff to say.

101 ESPN

Wedding Bells Will Chime Again At Modern Woodmen Park

The River Bandits are once again rewarding one deserving couple with an on-field wedding celebration and reception at Modern Woodmen Park this season.

Quad Cities River Bandits Official Site

Monday Camp Tidbits: Albert Pujols, Fun In The Cage, Weather, Skip Schumaker

Today was the nicest day we've had in a while down here, with more of that bright sunshine but also temperatures pushing the upper 60s. It gets even warmer tomorrow, but the forecast also calls for storms.

Obviously, You're Not A Golfer

Round Two: Who Is The Real Kyle Lohse?

THE WATERCOOLER

QUESTION: In 2008 starting pitcher Kyle Lohse tossed 200 innings, going 15-6 with a 3.78 ERA. Injuries brought him back down to earth in 2009, when he threw just over 117 innings with a 6-10 record and 4.76 ERA. Injuries aside, the 2009 numbers more closely resemble Lohse’s career stats (84-90 record with 4.68 ERA). Given all that, what do you think the Cardinals can expect out of Lohse this season? Is eating innings enough, or does this team need him to come closer to replicating his 2008 numbers to have a true impact on the rotation?

STL Today

Felipe Lopez On The Bernie Miklasz Show 3-1-10

Cardinals’ newest addition Felipe Lopez joins the show from Spring Training. Lopez says ideally he would like to play just one position but he has to accept his role and perform. Lopez says he wanted to be with the Cards for the start of spring training and he was frustrated with Scott Boras’ representation.

101 ESPN

Check Out Cardinals Autograph Day, In Time Lapse

One day every spring training, the staff at Roger Dean Stadium opens the ballpark to its season ticket holders and unleashes them on the players who call the ballpark home during spring training. Tables are lined up along the baselines, and fans are lined up all over the stands, snaking through the seats and up into the concourses, especially when it comes to queuing up for an Albert Pujols’ autograph.

Birdland

John Smoltz Gives Thumbs Down To Congressional Bid

Sometimes sports news isn’t on the sports pages. So it was in Atlanta this past weekend.

The Cardinal Nation Blog

Which Teams Have Signed The Most International Prospects?

A team's international scouting efforts can take years to make a difference at the major league level.

Baseball America

Props To Cardinals GM John Mozeliak For Landing Felipe Lopez

Mozeliak’s patient strategy of waiting for the price to drop certainly paid off. Lopez makes a lot of sense for the Cardinals for obvious reasons but he’s even a better fit given his contract. Lopez receives a base of $1 million and playing-time incentives can max the deal out to a reasonable $2.2 million. That leaves plenty of room for Mozeliak to make other maneuvers later, based on the Cardinals’ needs once the regular season gets underway.

Bernie's Five Minutes

FS Tenn & SportsSouth To Cover 122 Cardinals Games

FOX Sports Tennessee and SportSouth have released their 2010 St. Louis Cardinals television schedule.

The Cardinal Nation

St. Louis Cardinals Tickets On Sale

Monday, March 1st marks the day that Springfield Cardinals Season Ticket Holders can purchase single game tickets to nearly every St. Louis Cardinals home game before they go on sale to the general public. This special opportunity will begin at 10am on Monday, March 1st!

Springfield Cardinals Official Site

Baseball Musings Pledge Drive

I asked you, the readers, to help kick start the effort, and you responded with a heartening $3000. In the following two years you responded each March with generous donations. Thanks to all who contributed, as well as to the thousands of readers, commentators and other blogs linking here that make the site a success.

Baseball Musings

Blake Hawksworth's Grandfather: The "Man Behind Vancouver's Olympics"

Cardinals pitcher Blake Hawksworth’s celebratory tweet went up moments after Team Canada won the hockey gold medal to punctuate the rousing and rollicking Vancouver Winter Games on Sunday:

Birdland

Cardinals Will Stretch Out Ryan Franklin In Spring Games

In a nod to his roots, St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin will borrow from the starters’ program as he prepares to open the season as the backend of the club’s bullpen.

Cardinal Beat

Kyle Lohse Faces Middle Of The Order

St. Louis Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire was asked if one of the players he’s working with gets anxious in the box against competitive pitching — vs., say, a coach pitching — and abandons the swing they have honed together in the batting cages.

Cardinal Beat

Felipe Lopez Will Wear The Red Bird

If Felipe Lopez earns the maximum payout on his 2010 player contract, he will earn roughly $2.2M from the Cardinals. Lopez was worth nearly 5 wins last season and roughly 3 wins in the three seasons prior to that. Alex Cora has 5.9 WAR since 2002 and he will earn at least $2M next season with the chance to earn $3M with certain incentives, or vest a 2011 option worth an additional $2M.

Fangraphs

Blake Hawksworth's Blog: A Tribute To My Grandpa

Good morning. I wanted to write this blog as a tribute to my grandpa, Jack Poole, who was the main person responsible for the Olympic games being in Vancouver. He was the man in charge. Canada approached him about pretty much being the front man to help get the bid. It started years ago and then he ended up getting the bid and during that time, he was battling pancreatic cancer.

STL Globe-Democrat

Cardinals International Notebook 3-1-10

Josh Jones’ report on baseball’s international happenings with an eye toward the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinal Nation

Baseball Therapy: The Sixth Tool

A good chunk of what passes as mainstream baseball analysis is actually a mish-mosh of half-true folk wisdom, overly-romantic ideas stolen from Hollywood, and (most grating to my ears) really bad amateur psychology. How’s that for a thesis statement?

Baseball Prospectus

Lineup Insurance

Felipe Lopez has probably never felt so much internet-love, and all he had to give in return for it was most of the money he'd probably earned with his excellent 2009.

Viva El Birdos

Improving Pitcher Projections

What if CHONE could scout pitchers?

What if the niftiest projection system out there could watch the pitchers throw, and make determinations how they would progress based on that?

The Hardball Times

Salary Lost By Team & Year To Time On DL

Since I have already looked at the salary lost to the DL for individual player totals and teams totals from 2002 to 2009, I will now look at the individual teams by year (injury information from Josh Hermsmeyer at RotoBlog.com) . Looking over the lists the only points I noticed was that the Mets and Dodgers did not do a good job of keeping their high priced players off the DL while the Chicago White Sox did an amazing job. Here is the top 20 teams and bottom 10 by total salary lost (link to a spreadsheet with all the teams and years for reference).

Beyond The Boxscore

"100 Things...": The Home Game For The Book

We interrupt this blog and its constant stream of coverage from St. Louis Cardinals spring training to bring you a brief blitz of blatant self-promotion. And, as a bonus, a challenge to fill those 30 or so days before Major League Baseball’s regular season begins.

Birdland

MLB Instituting New Medical Records System

From the moment a player joins any organization in Major League Baseball, his baseball vital signs are well documented. With radar-gun readings, scouting reports and countless game statistics seemingly charting his every move, there's literally a book on every professional player.

MLB

Tyler Greene Tries To Get Back In The Swing Of Things

Cardinals rookie Tyler Greene has his routine down every day, arriving early to hit the batting cages. He does the same work off the tee. He gets in some extra cuts. Then he lets his batting practice later in the day decide if he must to return to the cages when the team's workout is over.

STL Today

Addition Of Felipe Lopez Doesn't Faze Julio Lugo

The addition of utility starter Felipe Lopez answers several questions for the Cardinals. It also invites another: Whither Julio Lugo?

STL Today