TICKETS

Cardinals announced today that individual game tickets will go on sale March 3 at 9 a.m.

Ricky A.

After going 2-2 in the first big game of the Spring, Ankiel is looking promising. however, he will head to memphis in triple-a ball. when asked if he would move to the majors by the end of march, la russa simply said, "Ankeil needs to play."

The Rocket in Cardinal Red????

According the the Post Dispatch Walt and Co met for two hours with agent Alan Hendricks who is the agent of Braden Looper and Kip Wells, but is also the agent for one Roger Clemens. And supposedly they at least talked about the idea of the rocket pitching in the Lou. Not sure what I would think about that....guess it would all depend on how much we would be paying for a few months service. He did show last year that's he's still got it. It is kinda crazy to think what that guy's numbers would have been the past few years if he would have had any kind of an offense to support him. Still think he'll end up in pinstripes.

The final out of the 2006 World Series

if i only we could have been there...

New steroid implications coming

I'll tell ya what. This whole steroid problem is getting crazier and crazier. Just today a Florida pharmacy was raided and was believed to have provided illegal prescriptions over the internet. According to sources many sports figures COULD be implicated and one name has already surfaced. Could be another mark on the game of baseball. But for me, I would rather these guys get caught and bring the sport back to it's true form. Just not sure that will ever happen:(

Coach Walker

Justin mentioned below that Larry Walker has been helping out Duncan in the outfield. Let's hope this helps Dunc out since he needs any help that he can get in the field. Perhaps just as good of news, is that it appears that Larry is at least considering coaching in the future. Personally, he is one of two guys that I would LOVE to see sitting on that bench next to Tony and Dave. Bring in both Larry and Mike Matheny as bench coaches. That way if this IS Tony's last year, and say Dunc leaves too, you have a potential hitting coach and pitching coach already set up to go!!!
But this is just me getting WAY to ahead of myself. At least for now I can settle with having a former Gold Glove winner working with C. Duncan. That's has to improve his defense. Then again...it couldn't get much worse!!

Musings

So who cares - dumb old Manny reported two weeks earlier than expected...so still a slacker, just not so much as originally thought?

With Duncan hitting as many homers in his first season in the Majors as Ryan Howard did the year before he his 58 - should we be as excited about him as Boston is about Manny? Dunc has been working a bit with Larry Walker and should be improved...but did he hit 22 homers on pitchers that had never seen him before? This is do or die year for Dunc jr.

In other news, Yankees expensive outfielder, Bobby Abreu, is out for 2-4 weeks with a strain from batting practice.

Feud Finally Over

After five long months of silence, La Russa and Rolen finally crack and call a truce. Evidently Papa Jockety thought enough was enough and made the two hug and make up. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Rolen was contemplating his no-trade clause at one point - but then soon came to his senses and realized what he had going with the Redbirds. What should we expect to happen when two like-minded men clash? Hopefully bygones can be bygones and Rolen has learned his lesson. Hopefully.

In other news, the Cards will approach Yadier on setting up a one-year deal for 2007. If he can get that batting average up, the 24-year old could tap into some good money.

Rotation

Obviously, the biggest questions for the Cards this year is going to be their starting lineup. Carp and Wells are a lock, but the other three spots are up for grabs.

According to Dunc though, Reyes, Wainwright and Braden Looper will get “priority” during spring training this year. Where does that leave Ryan Franklin?

“You know what I think about Dave Duncan, and if he makes that claim that we’ve got five guys and the other two guys or three guys have to show something extra to nudge one of them aside, then he’s thought about that and he understands the pitcher better than I do, so we’ll go with that,” La Russa said. “But down deep, and I want to make sure I say this when he’s not around, I don’t agree with that.”

And with a surplus of pitchers (11), will the Cards sit on who they have or deal before the season begins? If we play our cards right, when Mulder comes back, limp arm and all, maybe we'll have enough to make a push for an Ichiro trade before the mid-season deadline...

spring training

let's post.