2:54: Manning finishes the game as he gets Luis Castillo to ground out into a double play. The Cardinals win the game by a final score of 9-2. Brady and I are going to try to have a video update later today analyzing today's ballgame and Chris Carpenter's first spring training outing.

2:50: Montz hits a 3-2 pitch down the left field line as he hits an RBI single and scores Maxwell. Cardinals 9- Nationals 2. The Redbirds are now bringing in a new pitcher, Charlie Manning, to replace Salas, with runners on 1st and 2nd.

2:46: The right-fielder, Justin Maxwell, walks and that's the second walk of the inning for Fernando Salas. Runners are now on 1st and 3rd with the Washington catcher, Luke Montz, at the plate in the top of the 9th.

2:44: Davis grounds out to the first baseman, Allen Craig, as Milledge scores and Casto moves to third with 1 out. Cardinals 9- Nationals 1

2:42: Kory Casto hits a double to right-center off Salas and the Nationals now have runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and Leonard Davis, the left fielder, is at the plate.

2:40: Fernando Salas stays in the game to close it out for the Cardinals, as he walks the designated hitter Lastings Milledge.

2:37: Joe Mather hits a flyball to centerfield and that finishes the Cardinals for the 8th as the Redbirds were able to add another run to their lead and go up 9-0 going into the top of the 9th.

2:36: Tyler Greene hits a double to right field and that scores Craig. Tyler Greene is now 2-2 with an RBI. Joe Mather at the plate with two outs and a runner on second. Cardinals up 9-0.

2:34: Brian Barden hits a bullet to the third baseman, Kory Casto, but Casto is able to make a great play at field it, throwing out Barden at first. Craig moves up 90 feet to second with two outs and Tyler Greene at the plate.

2:33: Allen Craig, the first baseman for the Cardinals, draws a five pitch walk form O'Connor and thats the ninth walk for the Washington pitching staff.

2:31 Nick Stavinoha at the plate to lead off the Cardinals in the 8th against the Nationals pitcher Michael O'Connor as he grounds out to the third baseman. 1 out.

2:28: Roger Bernadina, the Nationals left fielder, at the plate now as he flies out to Colby Rasmus in centerfield. Good inning from Fernando Salas. On to the bottom of the 8th, Cardinals still up 8-0.

2:27: Salas strikesout Ian Desmond of the Nationals, as he comes in the game and gets two straight strikeouts from his first two batters.

2:26: The new pitcher for the Cardinals is Fernando Sales, as Chris Marrero, first baseman for the Nationals is up to the plate and he strikes out. That is the eighth strikeout for the Cardinals pitching staff.

2:22 Colby Rasmus now up as he grounds out to first base and the Nationals turn the double play. As the 7th comes to a close, the Cards are still up 8-0.

2:20: Jason LaRue reaches first on the fielding error by Washington's Ian Desmond. Thats the fourth error of the day for the Nationals.

2:18: Joe Thurston leads off the Cardinals lineup as he grounds out on the first pitch to the shortstop. 1 out with Jason LaRue at the plate.

2:17: Castillo sends a long fly ball to the outfield, but Nick Stavinoa is there to make the catch. On to the bottom of the 7th, the Redbirds still up 8-0

2:14: Maekawa takes care of the runner on first quickly as he forces the double play on Luke Montz, the catcher for Washington. Luis Castillo up now.

2:13: Kat Maekawa leads off the top of the 7th with a walk to Justin Maxwell as thats Maekawa's second walk of the day.

2:09: Brett Wallace now the batter goes down on strikes and leaves Mather stranded at second. As we go to the top of the 7th, the Cardinals are up 8-0.

2:07: Joe Mather takes a 2-2 pitch almost out of the park, as he hustles out a double and scores Greene and Ankiel. Score now 8-0 Cardinals in the 6th.

2:05: Tyler Greene, pinch hitting for Khalil Greene takes a first pitch fastball up the middle. Now Ankiel is at 2nd and Greene at first. Still two outs. Joe Mather at the plate.

2:03: Duncan hits a long fly ball to the wall, but it is caught and Colby Rasmus, the pinch runner for Albert Pujols, scores on the sacrifice. 2 outs now with runner at 1st. Score now 6-0 Cardinals in the bottom of the sixth.

2:02: Ludwick strikes out. Still runners on the corners with 1 out and Chris Duncan at the plate.

1:59: The new pitcher for Washington is Steven Shell. So far, he's given up a walk and a hit to Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel. That's Ankiel's first hit of the day. Ludwick is now up with runners on the corners.

1:53: Maekawa strikes out Patterson after going to a 3-0 count. Thats the end of the top of the 6th as Maekawa strikesout two with two walks. Score still 5-0 Cardinals.

1:48: The new pitcher is Kat Maekawa for the Cardinals. He's given up two walks so far, to Lastings Milledge and Kory Casto, but has two outs with Corey Patterson at the plate.

1:40: Hey, sorry about the delay guys. We had some problems with the gameday audio, but we're good now. They just made it through the 5th inning. The Cardinals are still up 5-0, but the bright spot is the pitching of Ryan Franklin, who has 5 strikeouts and only given up one hit through 3 innings.

1:05: Mather sac fly, Ankiel scores. 5-0 Cards in the third, one out.
NOTE: I'm going to leave now to take care of stuff and go to work, so John will continue the live blogging when he reaches his computer.

1:00: Duncan walks, bases loaded AGAIN, no outs. Khalil Greene at the plate. Pitching change.

12:57: Ludwick hits a single and brings home Molina and Pujols, 4-0 Cardinals in the third inning, no outs still for Chris Duncan.

12:55: Ankiel walks...bases loaded, no outs for Ryan Ludwick.  Ludwick is batting .000 so far this spring...but he did draw a hit by pitch with the bases loaded against the Marlins earlier this grapefruit league season.

12:51: Pujols draws the walk, and Ankiel comes up to the plate in a lefty-lefty matchup with no outs and two on.

12:50: Molina walked to lead off the inning, Pujols at the plate, batting .750 so far this spring.

12:48: Franklin struck out the side, sounds VERY good today.

12:40: Carpenter replaced by Franklin, who pitches his way through the inning. Carpenter's line: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0.00 ERA. He did allow one baserunner (a HBP)
VERY nice.

12:38: Headed to the third inning, Carp is dealing, Cards are hitting the ball well.

12:37: Jon Jay hit a triple that plated Joe Mather, putting the Cardinals up 2-0 in the second inning.  Jay is turning out to be a big time asset...his bat is making a lot of noise.


12:18: Carpenter hasn't allowed a hit yet, but Pujols hit an RBI double in the first that put the Cards up 1-0.

Here are the lineups thanks to Matthew Leach on his blog.

Skip Schumaker 2B
Yadier Molina C
Albert Pujols 1B
Rick Ankiel CF
Ryan Ludwick RF
Chris DUncan LF
Khalil Greene SS
Joe Mather 3B
Jon Jay DH

And pitching today for the St. Louis Cardinals...


Chris Carpenter.

Big day today, I'm going to blog throughout the game.

Skip Schumaker 2B
Colby Rasmus LF
Albert Pujols 1B
Rick Ankiel CF
Yadier Molina C
Chris Duncan LF
Khalil Greene SS
Jon Jay DH
Joe Thurston 3B

Todd Wellemeyer SP


Note: Thurston came out of nowhere and hit a home run in yesterday's 11-3 loss to the Orioles.
Keep an eye on him, as well as Pujols who is back after resting in yesterday's game.

For those of you interested, today's game is televised.  You can find the schedule here.

-Brady

This is the fourth in a series of posts previewing each position and the pitching staff before the beginning of the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals season.

Out goes one free agent at Cardinals shortstop position. In comes another.

During this past offseason, the St. Louis Cardinals allowed Cesar Izturis to sign with the Baltimore Orioles, much to the dismay of many fans as Izturis was a solid and former Gold Glove winner at the shortstop positon. However, the Cardinals management didn't take long to pick up another big name shortstop early during the winter meetings.

The Cardinals signing of Khalil Greene from the San Diego Padres may turn into a great move for the Redbirds this 2009 season. Last season, Khalil Greene had a somewhat quiet season from normal as he hit .213 with 10 homeruns and only 32 RBIs. Can you guess which number jumps out from those three? 10 homeruns, for a shortstop!. I dont think David Eckstein and Cesar Izturis had 10 homeruns combined last year. Granted he did strikeout alot with 100 strikeouts, I'm anxious to see if continue that power being at probably the leadoff position in the lineup for the Cardinals.

I think 2008 was just an off-year for Greene, just like it was for the rest of the Padres. Having Greene on a stronger contender than the Padres in the weak NL West may benefit Greene. As his fielding goes, he's solid like most Major League shortstops should be. Not spectacular or Omar Vizquel-like, but solid.

I'm not going to go too much into depth about Brendan Ryan. If you want the depth, check my second base preview.

Basically, Ryan is slated for the back-up shortstop job. Depending on what happens at second base with Skip Schumaker competing for the position, Ryan could become the ultimate utility man for the Cardinals this season, granted he doesn't get the starting nod for any position with the exception obviously of pitcher and catcher.

I don't see Brendan Ryan being sent to the minors again anytime this season because La Russa is going to need guys like him to come from the bench when players are tired or hurt and fill the void for the team with an equal if not more amount of talent and versatility, which is basically the type of player Ryan is.

Peter Kozma is third on the Cardinals depth chart for the shortstop position. He was drafted in the 2007 MLB Draft straight out of high school in Oklahoma and was in the minors all of last year.

He made it through the Rookie League and got as high as the single-A affiliate Palm Beach Cardinals last season. His numbers don't really jump off the page during his time with Palm Beach, but according to milb.com, the official site for minor league baseball, Kozma is a fundamentally sound fielder with excellent hitting skills. Going on to say that he has surprising pop in his bat for a guy at his position.

Kozma may not be a guy to shock the world, but it sounds like he does all the right things at the shortstop position, especially when it comes to fundamentals. To be honest, what more could you ask for.

If he has a good spring training, I can see him probably making it out of single-A and into double-A or triple-A. If he plays as good as predicted , he might make that push into the majors toward the end of the season if the Cardinals are in need of a playoff push.

-- John Thomas

The game is already in the 4th inning, and Kyle Lohse gave up 4 runs in 2 innings pitched...
Only for Ian Ostlund to give up 3 more runs in 1 inning pitched.

Yadier Molina hit a 2-RBI double in the first to knock out Danys Baez in just one inning, but the Orioles have had rock solid pitching since.

This will likely be the story of the game, barring a Cardinals comeback.

I'm headed out, but the Cardinals are batting in the top of the 5th right now.

Expect a blog or video post later today.

Orioles 7 - Cardinals 2

-Brady

The Cardinals stranded 15 runners yesterday against the Marlins, and are going with a different lineup today against Baltimore.

Joe Thurston 2B
Joe Mather 3B
Colby Rasmus CF
Ryan Ludwick RF
Chris Duncan 1B
Brian Barton DH
Yadier Molina C
Khalil Greene SS

Kyle Lohse SP

-Brady

Spring training baseball is underway! The Cardinals are about to start play with the Florida Marlins in Jupiter, and here are the starting lineups (and this is the batting order) for La Russa and Co.

2B Skip Schumaker
LF Colby Rasmus
1B Albert Pujols
CF Rick Ankiel
RF Ryan Ludwick
DH Chris Duncan
SS Khalil Greene
C Jason LaRue
3B Joe Mather

SP Blake Hawksworth

Someone will update today, and if not I'll be back tonight with an update after I get off work.
-Brady

If you're feeling a bit brave, you think you've got some vocal talent (or maybe you just want to have some fun) and you're going to be in or around Memphis for some Memphis Redbirds games this season, get a load of this:

Performers interested in singing the national anthem at a Redbirds game can send a tryout tape, CD, mp3 or DVD to the Redbirds by April 1 and be entered into consideration for the chance to kick off America's pastime in the most American of ways. If you're interested, e-mail the Redbirds' Cory Shedd. The recording has to be a cappella, by the way.

Judging by some of the renditions I've heard in the past, you don't have to be Mariah Carey or Nick Lachey to get the gig.

-- Brandon Harris

Tomorrow night (Saturday night) at 10:00 PM be sure to listen to the first edition of The Redbird Media Show!


As of right now, John and I will be hosting the show, but we'll try to line up some guests if we find time.


The show can be LISTENED to here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RedbirdMedia

You can see us LIVE on ustream at this link: http://www.ustream.tv/redbirdmedia


Don't forget to tune in!

-Brady

D. Goold over at the Post-Dispatch reported today that Tony La Russa said at Spring Training that IF the young Colby Rasmus makes the roster and starting lineup, he wants him to bat 9th in order to be a "second leadoff hitter."

In my opinion, the odds that increases the odds of Rasmus making the team by 75% or so.



Secondly, former University of Arkansas standout pitcher Jess Todd put on a show in BP recently, something that should make Cards' fans and Razorback fans happy. Todd is on the fast track for the big leagues, and will likely get called up this season for the bullpen.

-Brady

The second base job was originally slated to go to Adam Kennedy, but after his surprise release from the Cardinals, second base has become one position that will not be filled until Opening Day.

Brendan Ryan is front-runner heading into spring training as he played in 80 games while hitting .244 with no homeruns and only 10 RBIs. For the games that Ryan did play in, it was usually giving starters like Troy Glaus, Adam Kennedy, or any of the outfielders a day of rest as he was the backup for practically every position on the field.

However, this does show his versatility and that he can be an every day player. He is considerably one of the younger guys on the team, but has shown that he has good fielding ability to off-set his sometimes poor batting.

This season will probably be make or break for Ryan as he competes for the open second base job. If he does not get it, then he will probably play the same role as last season, which was only filling in for guys that were injured or needed rest. If that is the case, then Ryan could be trade bait come next offseason.

Skip Schumaker can't seem to make enough headlines for the Cardinals this spring. Even though he is almost guaranteed a starting outfield job, he is listed second on the depth chart for second base.

Last year, Schumaker was one of the surprises as he worked his way into the lineup and played in 153 games while hitting .302 with only 8 homeruns and 46 RBIs. His numbers show that he doesn't hit for power as much as he hits for average. Comparisons could be made to David Eckstein, as he's able to put the bat on the ball wherever it is thrown.

As I said in the first base post a few days ago, Schumaker is very versatile and it is very rare that he will get injured. There are at least five positions on the diamond that he could potentially play which could be good news for La Russa if he doesn't feel comfortable placing an unexperienced rookie into the lineup quickly.

Last but not least, there is Joe Thurston. Thurston played for the Boston Red Sox last season, but only played in 4 games with 8 at-bats. He didn't record any hits, but his on-base percentage was .111, with only one strikeout. This shows that he can put the ball in play and if he has any speed, he might be able to beat out some slow rollers.

-- John Thomas

  

Hey guys, I was browsing the Internet today when I found a couple of interesting columns from Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski and ESPN's Rick Reilly.

Reilly's column deals with recent MVP awards and how they should be reshuffled to the players who really deserved the awards. His biggest point deals with Albert Pujols. He says Pujols got screwed a couple of times (like losing to Barry Bonds from 2002 to 2004). Ultimately, Reilly says Pujols deserved 5 MVPs ... You can read the column here.

Posnanski's column talks about Mark McGwire's persistence to stay silent through this whole steroids debacle has probably served him very well. You can read the column here.

- Nathan Allen

Albert Pujols threw a swinging strike one to the Cardinals management when he asked them to sign Manny Ramirez last month...management responded with a resounding "no."

Now, AP has thrown behind the batter, and both sides have been warned.

The only question is who will win this matchup?

The superstar slugger came out in THIS story with guns a' blazing Sunday.

Now, this story can be read in two ways. First off, the optimistic can see it as "Albert wants to be a Cardinal for life!"

And, for the most part, the omptimistic are right.

But I belong to the other group - the pessimistic. Albert said specifically in this story:

"If the Cardinals are willing to do that and put a team (on the field) every year like they have, I'm going to try to work everything out to stay in this town. But if they're not bringing championship-caliber play every year, then it's time for me to go somewhere else that I can win."

Well, the Cardinals have had an OKAY offseason.  They dropped off unneeded players and salary and brought in serviceable players - but players I believe are the correct roleplayers to WIN this season.

On the other hand, I'm pessimistic about the fact that if these AREN'T the correct role players (Greene, Ring, etc.) then Albert is going to be gone in a hurry when his contract comes up.

And ladies and gentlemen, here's why I respect this man more than any other in the sport.

"It's not about the money all the time," the first baseman said Sunday after his arrival in training camp. "It's about being in a place to win and being in a position to win."

So...out of this jumbled up mess of a blog post, you can get two feelings:

Hope that Albert stays true to his word and stays in St. Louis like he wants to if they continue to be committed to winning.
 
or

Dread that Albert will realize that DeWitt is really proving to be as cheap as he seems to be and that Mozeliak isn't trying to build the team he wants around him.


My final thoughts on this matter are that the Cardinals need to win this year, and need to make the playoffs. If they don't make the playoffs and have a bad year like most of Cardinal nation is feeling, then Albert may not be wearing Birds on a Bat in the future.

This is the single best player in the sport, the single best person in the sport, the single best role model in the sport, and the foundation of this Cardinals organization right now.

You lose a foundation, you lose ground for years and years to come. 

If the Cardinals screw this one up, it could be a long ten-fifteen years for Cardinals fans.  It would be hard to forgive and forget letting AP walk away because they failed to act on his warnings...the man wants to win, so help him win. He may be great, but this is a team sport. Give him a team.






Or else this will be outside Busch Stadium in the near future:

This is the second in a series of posts previewing each position and the pitching staff before the start of the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals season.

 

 

Albert Pujols. There's not much else that can be said for the two-time NL MVP who won the coveted award last year. With first base another position that the Cardinals already have set, Pujols looks to have an injury-free season and improve even more on his already gawdy numbers from last year.

Last year, Pujols played in all but 14 games, hitting .357 with 37 homeruns and 116 RBI's. These numbers are amazing given the fact that Pujols practically played with a sore elbow all year and only missed those 14 games due to a knee injury.

However, being the workhorse that he is, Pujols always works as hard as he can to stay healthy and help his team as much as possible.

Along with being considered by other Major Leaguers as one of the most feared hitters in baseball today, Pujols has shown he is not just a one-dimension baseball player. He showed throughout the 2008 season that he can play a heck of a first base. Look for Albert to make a case for a second Gold Glove of his career.

Basically, the biggest question with Pujols is his health. With his sometime troublesome knees and elbow, having him out of the lineup can be the difference in contending for the NL Central and not even being in the conversation for making the playoffs. With Pujols in the lineup, the Cardinals can count on him to carry them on his back and be playoff contenders all year long.

According to the depth chart, Chris Duncan is the second string first-baseman behind Albert Pujols. Even though he endured a rough year in 2008 playing in only 76 games while hitting .248 with only 6 homeruns and 27 RBI's, the son of Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan looks to rebound and show he can still hit for power and average which is what he showed in 2007.

Duncan will be someone that will get limited playing time at first base if Pujols stays healthy, but with his ability to also play outfield, it will be tough for him to get playing time there as well with the Cardinals plethora of outfielders. Unless Duncan has an amazing spring, don't look for him to get much playing time granted the majority of the team stays healthy.

It is also possible that Skip Schumaker could get some looks as first base. Even though he will be working this spring for the open second base job, his versatility shows that he could almost play anywhere on the diamond. If the second base job doesn't work out for Schumaker, he could easily become Albert Pujols' backup in a heartbeat.

- John Thomas

Here's today's video update! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

It's still processing on YouTube, but keep checking back and it should be working soon.

This is the first in a series of posts previewing each position and the pitching staff before the start of the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals team begins the season.



While several positions on the 2009 Cardinals' roster have not been determined yet, several are easily and by far manned - and have been for some time. One of those spots where Cardinals' fans can expect a familiar face is at catcher, where perennial backstop Yadier Molina stills owns home plate.

Molina is known as a purely defensive catcher, but the Puerto Rico native hit a career high .304 at the plate last year. He also had career highs in at-bats (444), hits (135), RBI (56), runs (37), on-base percentage (.349) and slugging percentage (.392).

All that being said, Molina still won his first career Gold Glove award in 2008 - showing that he did not lose any of his defensive skill in finally becoming a presence at the plate.

2009 looks to continue to be a great year for Molina, as he once again has a dependable backup to give him rest and no stress when he can't be behind the plate. 

Hey everyone, we have a few updates for you.

First off, two stories are floating around...the first is that Colby Rasmus will wear number 28 in Spring Training, the second is that Skip Schumaker will not be traded.

Second, we now have a message board going! http://theredbirdmedia.proboards.com/index.cgi is the link, and we hope everyone hops in and starts talking to us! On the board, you can ask us questions and we'll either answer them on the board or on a video update!

Third, there is now an official domain name for the blog. You can get here either via http://redbirdmedia.mlblogs.com or at www.theredbirdmedia.com.

I'll probably post a video update tonight or tomorrow, and we hope to get the radio show going soon.  Have a great weekend everyone!


P.S. here's some comic relief...for those who remember Howard Dean, and how he entertains America still today with his antics.

A few things everyone should know about this blog:

1. The video updates will be made randomly, we are all journalists and some of us are journalists AND students, so we have a lot of other responsibilities too...BUT we will strive to update as often as possible, especially with the video updates.

2. The blogging posts will come pretty randomly too, just keep checking back.  Since there are four of us, you can expect something every day.

3. Check our links on the right, there are a lot of really good websites and blogs you should check out, including our YouTube channel!

4. The radio show (The Redbird Media Show) is on its way, we just need to get things settled down and set up.  But, we will stream it LIVE from this blog when we go on air, so you can come here to listen!

5. We are also considering streaming LIVE video of us while we're on the air.  If you think this would be interesting, let me know, we're trying to gauge interest in the idea of live video.

-Brady

Matthew Leach just reported over at http://yourenotagolfer.mlblogs.com/
that Rick Ankiel and the Cardinals have settled on a deal and no arbitration will be necessary. Details of the deal can be found on Leach's blog. 

This is great news for the Cardinals, and Ankiel will once again be the center fielder for the Cardinals.

-Brady

If you would like to download the video, you can do so with the following link: 2:12:09.m4v

Does it strike anyone else as interesting that the Cardinals every year manage to steal under-producing and frequently-injured players away from other teams, only to see them find the utmost success in St. Louis (Jeff Weaver, Chris Carpenter, Jeff Suppan, Braden Looper, etc.)?

Then there's the opposite end of this, where other teams continue to take these players away in the offseason, only for them to disappoint on a ridiculously high level. Weaver, as well all know, was a playoff superstar in 2006. As soon as he left, the then Mariner's ERA skyrocketed. Suppan pitched like a Cy Young winner in the 2006 playoffs, but the day he stepped in at Milwaukee, the Brewers got themselves an average pitcher.

Now, it's happened again. The Cardinals turned around Braden Looper's career and made him a starter - and it paid off. He provided much needed depth in the rotation and pitched very well at times, but that magic must have worn off, because I'm hearing Milwaukee has signed Looper to a one-year deal.

The ramifications of this are pretty high, actually.  Releasing Kennedy was one thing, because it opened up room for Colby Rasmus in the outfield, with Skip Schumaker moving to second base. 

But losing Looper to a division rival is unnacceptable. Carpetner isn't even for sure ready to go, and they just took away a legit starter from the Cardinals.

The supposed one year deal has an option for 2010, but who knows if they'll ever pick that up.

Best of luck to Looper, but this one falls on Cardinals management.

Eventually, other teams WILL find St. Louis's players as diamonds in the rough, and it will come back to haunt the Cardinals in the season - especially when Looper outduels whoever the Cardinals throw at him on the mound all season long.

-Brady

Since we got the blog started tonight, I'd like to take this opportunity and write about a couple of things that have happened in the major league baseball world over the last month. Please post as many comments as you'd like, I'd love to see what some of you think about these topics.

1. Former Yankees manager Joe Torre (now with the Los Angeles Dodgers) has a new book that he co-wrote with Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Torre's book, The Yankee Years, is a 500-plus page book that details his stay in New York, dealing with the pressures of managing the Yankees and all of their high-profiled players, including Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, etc. I've watched and listened to several interviews that Torre has conducted with the national media about his book over the last couple of weeks and I find it really interesting that he even decided to do this book. I have not read the book, but supposedly, he gives lots of details about certain players and even talks about the day he was basically fired from the Yankees. I think insight books like this are always fun to read and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the New York Yankees are all about through the eyes of Joe Torre, one of the most respected people in baseball today.

And, oh yeah. I guess the Dodgers were pretty smart when they hired Torre last year, because they put a clause in his contract that states he's not allowed to ever write any books about his years of managing the Dodgers. Does anybody else know any "weird" clauses in manger or player contracts, because I'm wondering how many teams will start putting this clause in every manager's contract ... 

2. Alex Rodriguez -- need I say more? Last Saturday, it was reported on Sports Illustrated's Web site that he, in fact, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. To date, A-Rod is no doubt one of the biggest names to come out of this whole Steroid Era mess, and in a way, it's really sad to see so many great players get busted. SI columnist Joe Posnanski recently did great column about players like Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Roger Clemens and if they should be voted into the Hall of Fame for their "apparent" involvement in the Steroid Era. Verducci also recently wrote a column where he claims A-Rod's interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons was a complete joke. Both columns are really good reads.

3. When the story about Roberto Alomar broke Wednesday afternoon, I was actually pretty shocked. This is a pretty serious case  -- and if you haven't read the story, check it out here on the NY Daily News' Web site. When I read that Alomar apparently has AIDS, the first thing I thought about was MLB umpire John Hirschbeck. Hirschbeck got spit on by Alomar in 1996 after Alomar disagreed with a call he made at third base. I don't know about you guys, but if I'm Hirschbeck, I think I'd be getting tested for HIV really soon!

4. Last, but not least, Cardinals spring training games are literally only days away. The first game is on Feb. 25 against the Florida Marlins at 11:05 CST. I know this a bit ridiculous to do, but the Cardinals play 32 spring training games -- how many do you think they'll win? What's the over-under? I think I'm going to go with 20-12.

-- Nathan Allen