Time Will Tell If Adam Wainwright Can Still Be Waino

His woo woos.

Hochman

Shelby Miller's Demotion Likely To Delay Free Agency

With Shelby Miller scheduled to make at least one more start with Triple-A Reno, it appears the Diamondbacks, whether they intended to or not, will gain an extra year of club control over the right-hander.

AZ Central

Max Scherzer Eager To See How Nationals' Rotation Stacks Up

Inside the Nationals' spring clubhouse at Space Coast Stadium is a row of lockers that's indicative of how strong their starting rotation may be this season.

Washington Official Site

The Curious Case Of Jake Westbrook

Cardinals' sinkerballer Jake Westbrook has a 1.76 ERA and six quality starts in eight starts this season.

Bernie Bytes

Ian Kennedy Slated To Start Third Straight Opener

For the third straight year, Ian Kennedy will get the ball on Opening Day for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona Official Site

A New Price For Albert Pujols?

So now it appears that Albert Pujols will have about six to eight weeks toward the end of this season to demonstrate that his left wrist is healthy, to show that the primary lever in The Machine will be as powerful as ever. He'll have to show this not only to pitchers, who will pound him inside with fastballs, but also to prospective employers, who Pujols needs to drive up his market value and push the St. Louis Cardinals' bidding.

ESPN

MVP Vs. Cy Young: Albert Pujols Holds His Own

When Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols faces Brewers pitcher Zack Greinke this weekend in Milwaukee, it will create one of the sport’s most special matchups: a player who has won a league Most Valuable Player Award against one who has won a league Cy Young Award.

Retro Simba

Cardinals Going After Heath Bell, Jason Bartlett A Good Thing?

And it would make a lot of sense for the St. Louis Cardinals to work hard on a Bell deal. It would be interesting to see if St. Louis would expand the talks with San Diego in an effort to land a shortstop -- Jason Bartlett, who the Cardinals tried to land in the offseason.

ESPN

Derrick Goold's 10: All You Need Is Glove

Part of why Cardinals' starter Jake Westbrook seems to personify the pitching doctrine stressed by Dave Duncan is the excellence of his sinking fastball, a groundball-getter of the highest order.

Birdland

Did The Cardinals Overwork Chris Carpenter?

The hits just keep coming for the St. Louis Cardinals, as Chris Carpenter left the mound with the team trainer after throwing 32 pitches today. Following the loss of Adam Wainwright and the devastating blow of Nick Punto‘s absence – as well as some contract talks that might not have gone very well – the Cardinals just can’t afford to keep hemorrhaging talent.

Fangraphs

Albert Pujols In Ranger Red? It's Not As Crazy As You'd Think

To begin, Albert Pujols is royalty in St. Louis. He's like Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle to those annoying Yankees fans. He's already a mythical figure to one of the most loyal, rabid fanbases in all of Major League Baseball.

NBC

Comebackers: Starting Pitchers Who Need Strong Springs

Kyle Lohse, St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals' chances of contending rest largely on a rotation that is potentially as deep as the Cincinnati Reds'. But Lohse must come closer to the 3.78 ERA he posted in 2008 than the 6.55 ERA he posted in 2010.

The Sporting News

J.D. Drew Slowed By Lingering Hamstring Issues

J.D. Drew, RF, Red Sox — He had some lingering hamstring issues this offseason and may be slowed up a tad to start spring training. The Sox have Ryan Kalish ready to go as Drew’s eventual replacement in right field, as this is the last season of Drew’s five-year, $72 million contract. He gave indications last spring that this could be his last year in baseball but backed off that when he felt healthy during the season. He still appears to have something left in the tank at age 35, going into his 14th season.

Boston Globe

Jermaine Dye Won't Settle For Minor League Deal

Jermaine Dye appears headed for retirement.

The free-agent outfielder sat out last season rather than accept a contract that he deemed unsuitable.

Fox Sports

Star Pitchers Returning From Injury

Penny was supposed to be a reclamation project for the St. Louis Cardinals last season, but a back injury in May ended his year after just nine starts, two weeks before Detroit's Armando Galarraga had a perfect game taken away by a missed call by umpire Jim Joyce in early June.

Penny finished the year 3-4 with a 3.23 ERA but he had apparently done enough to warrant a contract from the Detroit Tigers this offseason worth $3 million with another $3 million in incentives. His arrival in the Motor City allowed Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski to trade Galarraga to the Diamondbacks, leaving Detroit with a rotation of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello and Phil Coke.

Penny, 32, is a two-time National League All-Star who pitched for the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins. He's won 108 games in 11 seasons, including consecutive 16-win seasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2006 and 2007. But he's struggled in the American League. He had a 5.61 for the Boston Red Sox in 2009 and was traded to the San Francisco Giants at midseason, where he went 4-1 in six starts.

Sports Illustrated

Russell Branyan Will Find A Job This Offseason

Russell Branyan. The slugger isn't quite in the same mold as Thome, etc., because he can still play first base decently when he's healthy. "He'll get a shot someplace," one GM opined earlier this week.

ESPN

Mariners Sign Brendan Ryan To Two-Year Deal

Seattle also has agreed to a $2.75 million, two-year contract with shortstop Brendan Ryan, acquired last month in a trade with St. Louis. In a deal that avoids arbitration, Ryan gets $1 million this season and $1.75 million in 2012.

Brownsville Herald

Unidentified NL Central Team Expresses Interest In Brandon Webb

The Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals continued to show strong interest in Brandon Webb on Tuesday, while a third reported suitor, the Chicago Cubs, fell off the pace in their pursuit of the free-agent starter.

ESPN

Ahead Of The Count: Ground Ballers - Better Thank You Think

There are two more important reasons why Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average's (SIERA) is so successful at predicting the following year's ERA. First, most other Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics, like FIP and xFIP, assume that pitchers have no control over their Batting Average on Ball in Play (BABIP), but we know that they do have some control. I have shown before that pitchers with high strikeout totals and low ground-ball rates tend to allow fewer hits per ball in play, and thus lower BABIPs. Of course, BABIP is subject to so much luck that it is nearly impossible to discern a pitcher's true ability to prevent hits on balls in play from his historical BABIP. That is why last year's FIP is much better at predicting this year's ERA than last year's ERA is. It strips ERA of BABIP (and sequencing) altogether and assumes league-average BABIP for all pitchers and random sequencing.

Baseball Prospectus

Rockies Sign Matt Pagnozzi To Minor League Deal

Matt Pagnozzi, meanwhile, adds depth at catcher and will have a shot to land the backup job there.

Denver Post

Matt Pagnozzi: Colorado Bound