Swingin’ into Spring
By Derrick Goold
St. Louis Post Dispatch
2.15.08
JUPITER, FLA. — It's the signature sound of spring's start that John Mozeliak doesn't want to miss today.
For more than a dozen years, as long as he's been coming to spring training and long before he became general manager, Mozeliak attends the first throws of spring. The pitchers line up — half on a foul line, the other half several paces into the outfield — and, all at once, they ... fire.
Dozens of baseballs hit dozens of gloves in a crackle of leather that sounds like a string of firecrackers popping.
Mozeliak said the sound is the same every season.
So are the Cardinals' expectations.
"We expect to be competitive," Mozeliak said on the eve of the Cardinals first workouts, his first spring training as the club's general manager. "The message is here, even though there have been a lot of changes, expectations are still very high."
===
La Russa said this team is being "underestimated."
"If I was (a pundit), I would look at the track record that is not there in many cases," La Russa said. "I have no problem if somebody looks at our club and says we're not a first-division team. (But) if we work hard, we have some talent, and it can come quicker than some people think."
The manager, back for a 13th season with the Cardinals, was downright playful in his first day at Roger Dean Stadium. He went up to Rick Ankiel and said it was good to see him, and then called him Anthony Reyes. He announced ace Chris Carpenter, though still recovering from elbow surgery, would be the closer on opening day.
La Russa wasn't out to get Carpenter back as soon as possible; he was just out to get closer Jason Isringhausen, who gave coach Marty Mason the concert tickets La Russa coveted.
Ah, the riffs of spring.
But change is in the air.
"When I say 'getting younger,' it's not only age specific, it's about adding a new energy," Mozeliak said. "We had the opportunity this offseason to make some changes, to make some changes to the culture. When I looked around last year, a lot of the people had been together for a long time. We wanted to inject a new look, some fresh faces."
===
The infusion of youth means a change in approach.
La Russa had already announced a strict "Scott Spiezio Rule" for spring. Players who are late for a workout, like the veteran so nearly was often last year, do not participate. Asked how inexperienced players might further alter camp, La Russa said there will be more base-level instructing.
A veteran like departed shortstop David Eckstein might only need 10 minutes of groundballs, he said. The kids will get 20.
La Russa said he's "fired up" for this season after a 2007 season that he called "relentlessly difficult." While he has great fondness for the 2007 team, he does not share that feeling for 2007. "It was body blow after body blow after body blow after body blow," he said. He insists it could have been worse than the 78-84 record, if not for a rescue party that consisted of the same kind of players the club is turning to this spring.
"The young guys came in," he said, "and saved our year."
===
Camp Cards
By Derrick Goold
St. Louis Post Dispatch
02/14/2008
On a far less joking note, La Russa said he didn’t watch all of the hearings in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday but while running errands during his last day at home he did hear plenty of the testimony from Roger Clemens and others. Asked if he felt hearings like Wednesday’s and the hearings three years ago were necessary, La Russa said:
“I thought it was pretty compelling. It wasn’t pretty. It was just compelling. I think the message that Congress is sending is the one that fans want to hear: No tolerance. Zero tolerance. Baseball get your act together. It’s like a triangle there — it’s the owners, it’s Major League Baseball and it’s the players’ association. If all three of them pull together then we straighten it out. If one of the three is reluctant to get involved and be as stringent as we have to get them we’re going to have issues.”
===
Brendan Ryan joined the major-league side of the clubhouse for the first time this spring training, and he said he’s here early “because I don’t want to give them any reason to move me back to the other side of the room.” Ryan arrived Thursday and stepped into the clubhouse initially looking for the No. 75 jersey hanging somewhere.
Having logged major-league time last year, he’s graduated to No. 13.
And he’s moved into the high-rent district in the clubhouse, a couple lockers down from Albert Pujols and near the likes of Troy Glaus and Aaron Miles. He said he felt it was important to arrive early and start working out with the other early ‘Birds “to show how much I want to be on this team.”
===
Mike Matheny and Cal Eldred are among the spring training instructors who came by the facility Thursday. La Russa said a selling point for Jason La Rue when the Cardinals approached the backup catcher was having Matheny around during spring training. La Rue told La Russa that “he never played a game against the Cardinals with Matheny catching that he didn’t study Mike Matheny.”
“Big advantage for us,” La Russa said.
===
Molina is set to pursue his golden dream
By Derrick Goold
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
2.14.08
JUPITER, FLA. — Coming off surgery that ended his season early, catcher Yadier Molina decided the best way to protect the health of his knee was to improve his overall fitness.
Molina arrived at spring training Wednesday, a day before Cardinals pitchers and catchers report. And, in the words of his pitching coach, he "looked great, doesn't he?" The 25-year-old catcher not only sports fresh ink on a four-year contract but also a slimmer, lighter build.
All the better for his knees, he said.
"I'm 25, and I need to be thinking about not only this season but in two more years, three more years, how is that knee going to be?" Molina said. "I need to keep it in good shape and that means I need to keep myself in good shape. I really feel good right now, and I think I can maintain this."
Molina said he lost 10 to 15 pounds this winter, and has altered his nutrition to help keep the weight off. The Puerto Rican winter league did not play this time, giving Molina the chance to rest and recover after surgery in September to repair cartilage damage in his right knee. Rehab didn't slow his workouts this winter; they just guided them.
Molina believes that by increasing his fitness, he'll preserve his knee. That will keep him agile, keep him on the field and keep him playing toward one of his chief ambitions.
He wants a Gold Glove.
"It's my goal, one of my goals," he said. "I won't stop, I'll keep working hard, because I want to get my first Gold Glove. ... It means you're one of the best at your position. That is important to me."
...
Albert Pujols has cautioned Molina to "take it easy" in pursuing a Gold Glove, telling his teammate and friend that one will come his way. Molina has the best arm in the league — single-handedly shutting down opponents' running games — and has been deft behind the plate. Molina said having former Cardinal catcher Mike Matheny in camp as a coach this spring is a good start toward his goal.
Matheny has four Gold Gloves.
"I won't stop working hard for one," Molina said. "I'm going to get it. One of these days, I'm going to get it."
===
