St. Louis Cardinals: Scraping For News

Well, the Cardinals finally made a signing.  Just not exactly what everyone was looking for.

St. Louis signed Joe Thurston, a utility infielder that started out in the Dodger organization, and catcher Justin Knoedler as they continue to wait, with a hint of impatience, on Brian Fuentes.  Thurston may provide the necessary grit that's necessary for Cardinal utility players, though it remains to be seen if he's closer to Aaron Miles or D'Angelo Jimenez.

I read Joe Strauss's article to mean that the Cards may have an internal timetable and if Fuentes doesn't sign by that time, they'll move on to other options.  I still have hopes that they are at least in contact with Ben Sheets's agent and can make an offer there before he makes his final decision, but there's no indication that's the case.

I also found it interesting (if a potential nightmare as a blogger, having to continually spell these names) that the Cardinals had been in contact with a couple of Japanese pitchers.  Both of those pitchers sound like they'd be a fit in the Cardinal pitching philosophy and probably wouldn't be the big expense some of the superstars of Japan would be.

If you are a big spring training fan, or if you are planning a trip to Florida around that time, the Cardinals have released their spring training schedule.  Now Christmas has another gift—it'll be exactly two months until the first spring training game!

Be sure to check out the Greater St. Louis Cardinals of All-Time from VEB yesterday. If nothing else, it's a nice trip down memory lane.

Also, if you have some time in the afternoons or evenings, be sure to check and see if the Cardinal Nation Ticker is running.  We had some discussions yesterday afternoon and you'll never know exactly when we'll turn up.  Along the same lines, UCB Radio has its last show of 2008 tonight, so listen up!  Tom from CardinalsGM is tonight's host, with scheduled guests Deaner from Cardinal Nation Globe and cards4life from Redbird Ramblings.