The News Starts Flowing: 2009 St. Louis Cardinals Baseball

As we start to hear the pop of the mitt and the crack of the bat, the other sound we here is the scratch of a pen on paper. When baseball players start getting together down south and the media is there to chronicle it, the news starts flowing.

Of course, the top headline, as usual with the St. Louis Cardinals, involves Albert Pujols.  El Hombre reported to Jupiter, Fla., this weekend and sat down with the media throng after getting some hitting in.

Pujols stated that he was happy in St. Louis and would like to end his career there, but if they aren't committed to winning, he'll have to go elsewhere.

Now some of the doom and gloomer Cardinals fans might start intoning, "Even Pujols realizes this team is in trouble!" 

Not quite. 

He thought the front office did a good job this offseason, or at least was headed in the right direction. And then there's this quote:

"But winning is the point, and I believe every year this organization is trying to put together a team to compete."

Hopefully the team will never give him cause to doubt that. An unhappy Pujols would cause ownership much more headaches than trying to stay competitive would ever do.

As for steroids:

"I always say 'People can say things about me and think I'm doing crazy things. But whatever is in the dark is going to come to the light.' I'm a big believer of that. It's in the Bible," Pujols asserted. "I can fool all you guys, but if I'm hiding something, it's going to come to the light."

"I fear God too much to do any stupid things in this game," he added. "Not all the people think like that, and that's what's so sad."

One of the things I've always appreciated about Pujols is his Christian faith which is also one of the reasons I think he's clean. He'd have so much more to lose than just baseball if he wasn't.

As we switch gears, let's toss out another quote:

"If (Carpenter's) smiling, I'm smiling,"

That was Cardinals GM John Mozeliak after Chris Carpenter's most recent session on the mound. "Carp," who will be the focus of news anytime he's throwing, had a little trouble with the breaking stuff, but that'll come as they get their repetitions in during the spring.

Most importantly, no pain and everything is just hunky-dory. Being that this is probably the biggest piece of any contending puzzle, it's not surprising even early sessions are being dissected.

Finally, Ryan Ludwick's arbitration case is scheduled for tomorrow, but things are looking better about a settlement, according to the outfielder. It'd be nice to see that get settled without a hearing, and if the team was able to avoid one with Ankiel, I bet they will with Ludwick as well.  I wouldn't even be surprised if they got a three-year deal signed.

Today's Playing Pepper hits both of the Ohio teams, so be sure to check back for that. Later this week, the preseason United Cardinal Bloggers roundtable gets started.

21 blogs will be involved this year, so it'll be a month-long celebration of the upcoming season.

I'll have a schedule available later in the week so you can plan your browsing accordingly.