Refreshing St. Louis Cardinal Nation

After a long winter of really little news, having spring training begin is like turning on a hose of cold water after a hot summer day.  It's much needed, refreshing, and you can't get enough. It's great to have stories and pictures and, yes, even video coming out of Jupiter.

The top story from yesterday, of course, was Ryan Ludwick coming to terms on a contract and avoiding arbitration. It's good to see the Cardinals get all that out of the way without having to resort to the mess that can come out of arbitration hearings. 

That said, reading the comments ,you get the impression they are more committed to Ludwick than they are to Rick Ankiel. I'm sure in part the fact that Ankiel is a free agent at the end of the year has tempered what they say, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rick's the one sent out before spring training is over.  Because someone just has to be, don't they? 

Even if Schumaker plays second (a huge stretch, but go with me), they still have Ankiel, Ludwick, Joe Mather, Chris Duncan, and Colby Rasmus, not to mention Brian Barton, who will probably start at AAA. The organization seems much higher on Rasmus than they did even last year, so they've got to make room for him. Don't they?

In other news, Albert Pujols won't be playing for the Dominican in the World Baseball Classic this year. That wasn't exactly a shocker—the insurance issue had come up earlier in the year—but it's good to have that finalized.

Part of me is disappointed—I like seeing familiar names in the WBC, and I love watching Pujols anytime—but it's probably best for the Cardinals that he doesn't. Though last time he played, he hit 14 homers in April. Maybe it gets him into a groove earlier!

There's an Izzy sighting. Jason Isringhausen would like a minor league invite to Cards camp. I can understand where management is coming from in not tendering him one.  The argument that the young guys don't need that extra pressure is a rational one. 

My opinion, though, would be to bring him in on a minor league deal, sit him and the others down, and say, "Look, Izzy's just here to help y'all. If he makes the team, he's not going to be the closer. Go out, do what you do, don't worry about him."

I know a lot of people are completely writing Isringhausen off, but I'm not sure that is the smart thing. A lot of people wrote him off after 2006 as well, but he had the surgery and came back strong for 2007. It's possible 2009 could be a similar type year for him. If he doesn't get an invite from the Cards, I hope he does somewhere soon.

If you like thinking about pitching questions, though, Joe Strauss has some for you.  The bullpen is going to be something to really watch this spring. I think most of the pieces are pretty obvious, but how they get put together will be the story. I continue to hope that the training Kyle McClellan did this offseason to prepare to be a starter will pay off in more endurance during the season.

Top off your morning by watching Albert Pujols do what he does best. The video section of the Post-Dispatch site is going to be a valuable thing this spring.

Tomorrow night, the United Cardinal Bloggers Radio Hour moves from a bi-weekly setup to a weekly one at 10:00 CST. Listen in while we talk about Ludwick, Schumaker, Pujols and anything Cardinal that strikes our fancy. Call us with your questions and we'll do our best to answer!

Today's Playing Pepper checks in with Detroit and Houston, so be sure to come back for that.