Spring Training Eve

Forget the lovey-dovey stuff.  Tomorrow is much more important than that.  It's officially time for pitchers and catchers to report!

Officially the key word there.  Apparently, a number of Cardinals have already made it down to Jupiter, which means Cardinal coverage in the Post-Dispatch.

If you want to keep up with Spring Training, your must-click site is Derrick Goold's Bird Land.  He's there and filing dispatches on a fairly regular basis, at least this week.  Some of what he's written about:

Matt Clement has taken the mound.  He's saying all the right things, about how his arm is fine, that he's doing a regular routine and workout.  Hopefully it's all true.  A return to health by Clement is a key to a successful 2008.  If he can stay healthy and pitch at his level, he'll win a good number of ball game for the club.  Of course, as it's been mentioned, just because he's healthy now doesn't mean he will be in July, but the longer he goes, the closer you are to having Mulder or Carpenter fill in for him.

The young arms are getting some pre-camp work. In fact, it's a camp all to itself.  I think the name to watch is Jamie Garcia.  Could he pitch his way into the conversation for fifth starter?  The back half of the rotation is pretty crowded right now, but with a strong spring, he could at least make a case for being the first promotion from AAA Memphis.

Other notes:  Mark Mulder is still feeling upbeat.  If that early-May timetable holds and if we get to see something closer to the Oakland version of Mark Mulder, that'll be a big addition.  That may be too many ifs, though......It was a big hit last year, so they are doing it again.  Joe Strauss Live returns today at 1:00 PM.  Send in your questions to the Cardinal beat writer and see if he answers....Rick Ankiel did a live chat yesterday at MLB.com.  The transcript is here and you can find out more about Rick at his new web site.  I wouldn't say there are any deeply profound answers in that chat, but it is good to see Rick interacting with the fans.  No HGH questions made it through the screeners, apparently....The UCB All-Star teams continue to trickle in.  Readin' Redbird is back up and running with their selections.


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