St Louis Cardinals baseball team

The Cards are about to embark upon the spring season’s lone overnight trip, with back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., against the Braves.

“It would be nice to have the Dodgers still here and the Orioles here nearby,” manager Tony La Russa said. “But the one saving grace — and it is a huge saving grace — is this is a Major League road trip. You are a big leaguer, and it’s not a lot to go through. You’re on the bus an extra hour. It’s one of those things you grind through.”

When the grind is complete, the axe will probably fall on a few of the depth guys, as the Cards will be due for another round of roster reductions.

“I think the guys are paid through Friday, is my understanding,” La Russa said.

But La Russa said he’s “not pushing” the final roster. He’s going to take his time with the Cards’ biggest decisions.

On the whole, La Russa said he’s been pleased with camp, despite some notable distractions along the way.

“I don’t know what more you can ask them to do,” he said. “I haven’t seen one drill where guys have just been punching the clock. I think we’ve had energy in every game.”

Cautious optimism continued to reign in the Cardinals’ clubhouse on Wednesday as the injuries to both Chris Carpenter and Mitchell Boggs seem to be relatively minor.

The two pitchers went down in consecutive innings on Tuesday, adding frustration and foreboding to a camp that has already endured more than its share of both. But both hurlers seemed relatively confident on Tuesday afternoon and more so on Wednesday morning.

Carpenter in particular expressed optimism on Wednesday morning regarding his strained left hamstring. Though no timetable for his recovery has been set yet, it appears that he will not be out for an extended period of time.

“Everybody that has evaluated me this morning is excited about the way it looks,” Carpenter said Wednesday. “I’ve never done this before, so I don’t know anything about it.”

Boggs also sounded relatively sanguine about his prospects for recovery from a lower back strain, though it seems that Boggs’ situation is somewhat more fluid than Carpenter’s at this point. Boggs spent much of the day Wednesday receiving treatment.

“I feel a little bit better,” Boggs said as he left Roger Dean Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. “It was a little bit stiff this morning, but we’ve been doing heat and ice all day. A few little exercises to get the core working again. So I feel good. We’re going to be cautious with it. There’s no reason to rush it this early. It should be no big deal.”

Carpenter appeared to be moving well in the clubhouse on Wednesday. He said he hadn’t been notified how much time he would miss, but indications at this point are that it won’t be more than two starts, and might possibly be just one.

“I woke up and it feels better this morning than it did yesterday,” Carpenter said. “So that’s encouraging. I’m not concerned about it. I’m not concerned that it will be an issue. If I have to miss one [start], I’ll miss one.”

Manager Tony La Russa said he believes that Carpenter could miss one or two starts and remain on track to start Opening Day for the Cardinals, March 31 at home against San Diego. It helps that the right-hander threw just about his full scheduled complement of pitches on Tuesday before he got hurt.

“If he just missed one [start], we’re ahead of the game,” La Russa said.

The next turn in the rotation for Carpenter would come on Sunday against the Marlins. Pitching coach Dave Duncan said he was not ready to divulge who will take that turn in the Cardinals’ rotation.

Boggs’ situation seems a bit more uncertain, though the right-hander is considered a day-to-day proposition.

“He’s got a little something back there but they think it’s correctable, whether it’s exercising, the way he stretches,” La Russa said.

While the Cardinals were preparing for their workout in Florida on Wednesday morning, one of their three most valuable commodities — Adam Wainwright — was beginning a trek that would take him to St. Louis for an examination and ultimately, possibly, to the disabled list.

General manager John Mozeliak solemnly acknowledged that a significant injury to the pitcher’s right elbow — ligament damage — was likely.

The general manager didn’t speak the phrase, but when Tommy John surgery was mentioned to him as a possibility, Mozeliak said, “When you have ligament damage, that’s what it usually results in.”

Mozeliak also said the Cardinals would wait until they received word from their doctors of an evaluation of Wainwright this afternoon to speak more definitively about the circumstances.

The loss of Wainwright would be a most significant blow to the Cardinals, who were identified by some as favorites to win the National League Central title. He was their primary starting pitcher in 2010, placing second to Roy Halladay in the balloting for the NL Cy Young Award after finishing third in 2009. Wainwright won 20 games last season and produced a 2.42 ERA in 33 starts and 230 1/3 innings. He had won 19 games the previous season.

Wainwright has pitched more that 200 innings in three of the past four seasons. When he pitched merely 132 innings in 2008, the problem was unrelated to his right elbow. A finger ligament had betrayed him then.

Wainwright, 29, experienced elbow problems in 2004, the year before he made his big league debut. Mozeliak identified that problem as a strained ligament. He said Wainwright had experienced no recurrence of the issue until last summer, when he pitched against the Cubs on Sept. 14. He made two subsequent starts, pitching eight and six innings, but ended his season Sept. 24, though he could have made one more start.

Entering his 23rd season of professional baseball, there’s not a lot that Miguel Batista hasn’t experienced. But as Batista pondered his options this winter, he realized one thing he’d been missing. So he signed with the Cardinals to play for manager Tony La Russa.

“In my case, I’ve been around forever, 23 years,” Batista said. “For me, the main reason to come here was Tony. I never played for a Hall of Fame manager. … You hear from some of the greatest players of the past saying, ‘When you play for the guy that he knows the game, you will notice the difference.’ Probably this was my last chance to play for a Hall of Famer. Bobby Cox retired, Joe Torre retired. Jim Leyland is on the other side the American League. So this was probably my only chance.”

So he jumped at it, despite not having any guarantees. Batista is on a Minor League contract, competing with a number of pitchers for the last job in the Cards’ bullpen and perhaps the chance for some spot starts.

“I just came here to help the team,” he said. “When I talked to Tony on the phone, he told me just to come and do what I do best. He said, ‘You’ve been one of the best in doing that, like a utility right-hander. Just do whatever is needed at the time.’ I said, ‘I’ve done it for other teams and I would like to do it for you. You have a really good team.’”

For the Cards’ part, they had long considered Batista an appealing pitcher. So although he’s a few years removed from being a solid starter for the D-backs and Blue Jays, Batista was a welcome addition in St. Louis.

“The first thing that general manager John Mozeliak and I both said was, ‘We finally got him in our uniform,’” La Russa said. “We’ve been after him for years. Because his experience is all across every role. He’s started, he’s pitched late, he’s pitched to a hitter, one inning, multiple innings. He’s in great shape and he’s got great experience. He’ll get a lot of activity.”

Around the country, the story of Albert Pujols’ contract negotiations is a major baseball story. In St. Louis, it’s the baseball story. Pujols’ agent, Dan Lozano, has notified the Cardinals that a Spring Training deadline is in place, and that if a deal doesn’t get done before the game’s greatest player begins camp, it won’t get done until after the season — if at all. As a result, at least one “Pujols countdown” web site has sprung up, ticking down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Spring Training.

All of baseball is watching. Because if Pujols’ deal isn’t signed by Feb. 18 or so, the chances of him hitting the open market as a free agent next offseason will increase dramatically. The Cardinals would have an exclusive negotiating window that lasts from the end of their season until five days after the World Series, but that’s not a lot of time.

One sensible scenario in that case might seem to be a trade, but you can just about rule that out. Pujols has reportedly notified the club that he would invoke his “10-and-5″ rights (10 years in the Majors, last five with the current club) to veto any trade. Besides, if the Cardinals are anywhere close to contention at the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline, there’s no way they would be interested in moving Pujols. It’s been more than a decade since the Cardinals were full-on sellers at the Deadline; it would be pretty shocking to see that change in 2011.

It’s worth mentioning that despite the deadline, if the two sides are close to an agreement when infielders and outfielders report to Spring Training, there might be a little bit of leeway. But one would have to think they’d need to be very close. In the meantime, club and player are maintaining positions of silence through the talks, a stance that suits both quite well.

“My agent is talking with Bill [DeWitt, principal team owner] and Mo [general manager John Mozeliak], and let’s leave it up to that,” Pujols said last month, in his most recent public comments about the situation. “We’ll tell you guys. Whenever we get a deal done, I think everybody’s going to know. And that’s it.”

That, of course, hasn’t shut down conversation and speculation. It’s just all gone on without Pujols or the club weighing in publicly. Make no mistake, it’s an enormous matter, especially for the club.

If an agreement is reached, the Cardinals will have plenty of issues to deal with. Pujols won’t come cheap, and they’ll have to adjust either their total player payroll, their salary structure or both beginning in 2012. Neither side has publicly stated its negotiating position, but it’s all but impossible to envision Pujols agreeing to less than the $25 million per year that Ryan Howard will make in his new deal with the Phillies, or signing for fewer than Howard’s five years.

That would be a bump up of $9 million per year from what the Cards are paying now. Pujols’ minimum raise would be the same amount as what Adam Wainwright is slated to make in 2012 if he stays healthy and triggers his contract option. That’s a major bump. It’s more than Jake Westbrook will make in 2012, more than Yadier Molina will make if his option is picked up.

It would force some serious decisions. The Cardinals would almost certainly need to raise their total player salary outlay, which is expected this year to be in the low $100 millions, already an increase from recent seasons. They might also need to divest themselves from another big deal or two — perhaps coming up with an alternative to picking up Chris Carpenter’s $15 million option.

And this is the less painful of the possibilities. Even if Pujols re-ups, the ramifications will be significant.

But if he doesn’t? Hoo-boy. What then? What happens if Pujols, already a certain Hall of Famer, becomes available to any team with the means to sign him? It’s fair to say that every team with even a chance would have to make a call. Even the Red Sox and Yankees, apparently set at first base for years to come, would have to check in.

Never mind the Rangers, Angels, Dodgers, Mets and the one team that gives every St. Louis fan chills: the Cubs. Perhaps even the Marlins would be interested in making Pujols the centerpiece player in their new stadium, which is to open next year. Washington and Baltimore have both shown a willingness to pursue top free agents aggressively, even if they’ve only occasionally landed them.

They’d all at least have to call. To fail to call Lozano would count as malpractice for any general manager who had any money to play with. Pujols is too good, too special, not to put out feelers and at least find out.

There’s good news for the Cardinals, though. Just about every one of those teams comes with a hangup. The Yankees have a first baseman, Mark Teixeira, who will earn $22.5 million a year through 2016, and the money it would take to sign Pujols is awfully big to pay for a designated hitter. Likewise the Red Sox, who have yet to announce a long-term deal with recently acquired Adrian Gonzalez but are reported to have one in place.

The Angels, who have emerged as a big spender in the past decade, have eight-figure commitments already on the books to four different players for 2012, not to mention arbitration-year deals to work out with Jered Weaver and Kendry Morales. Oh, and Morales is a first baseman. The Dodgers and Mets have ownership issues to sort out. And while Florida is getting a new ballpark, it’s hard to see the Fish making a Pujols-sized leap in year one.

And if Pujols wants to win, which he has repeatedly said is a top priority, history would not seem to favor the Nationals or the Orioles.

Texas could make an intriguing fit. The club’s new ownership has shown no hesitation to break out the checkbook, and first base is not set in stone in Arlington. However, the Rangers spent big on free agent Adrian Beltre this winter, and they have arbitration-eligible Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Mike Napoli to take care of in 2012.

Chicago, then, might be the team to watch. The Cubs signed Carlos Pena to a one-year deal, meaning they’ll have an opening at first base. They have some large contracts coming off the books next year, too. And obviously they’d love nothing more than to poach their arch-rival’s biggest star.

Pujols would have to listen if the Cubs called. But even though rivalries often mean more to fans than to free agents, that’s one jump that might be difficult to make.

You can’t rule it out entirely, though. And it only takes one team. They don’t all have to come through — only one of them needs to, and Pujols could wear another uniform for the first time in his career.

That’s what’s at stake in the next two weeks. The clock is ticking.

Skip Schumaker feels a little bit like he got a reprieve.

Coming off the worst full season of his Major League career, Schumaker knew there was a chance he’d be playing for someone other than the Cardinals in 2011. St. Louis made no secret of the fact that it intended to upgrade its middle infield — and that meant some sort of change in status for Schumaker, shortstop Brendan Ryan, or both.

The club elected to trade Ryan to Seattle, holding on to Schumaker.

“This offseason was a little bit different,” Schumaker acknowledged. “As a player, you can only control what you can control, and any moves are out of my hands. I knew something was going to happen in the middle. I wasn’t sure if that was me or Brendan or what it was, but the bottom line is I didn’t have a good year, the year that I wanted to have. The first half was bad, so I figured something might happen. I’m glad they’re giving me another shot.”

Based strictly on 2010 performance, a move would have been equally appropriate at either position. Ryan suffered an absolutely dismal season at the plate, clearly worse than Schumaker’s. Ryan, however, played absolutely elite-level defense at short, while Schumaker endured a difficult year in the field as well as at bat.

However, the move quite clearly wasn’t made with only 2010 in mind. Schumaker’s track record — he was a solid offensive contributor from 2007-09 — and his personality meant that he was the player the Cards chose to keep.

“When you look at believing who’s more likely to have the bounceback, that’s part of it,” general manager John Mozeliak acknowledged earlier this winter.

Schumaker also had a pretty decent second half, even in his frustrating ’10. From June 15 until the end of the year, he hit .288 with a .350 on-base percentage, much closer to his career norms than he managed in the season’s first two-plus months.

“I didn’t have the start I wanted,” he said. “I made such a hole that it was tough to get out of. It wasn’t from a lack of trying. I can’t put my finger on it. It could have been a really bad year, but it ended up being just a bad year, not really bad, because the second half was a little better.”

Still, Schumaker needs to be better in 2011 than he was in 2010. There’s a reason the Cards considered both shortstop and second base as positions for a potential upgrade. After three years as a catalyst, almost always in the leadoff spot, he didn’t hit up to his standards last year. He also didn’t field up to his expectations, but that of course is a bit of a different matter.

Schumaker is entering his third year as a second baseman. To the eye and according to the numbers, he didn’t really advance much in his second year, and that’s something he’d like to change.

“I had a few bad spells there that were tough on me — and I felt more comfortable, believe it or not, at second base,” he said. “The errors obviously were up, but it was a few bad weeks that felt like … There was one week I had four errors in one week or whatever it was. It was kind of like a domino effect from that week. It kind of carried over. I wasn’t hitting good, so I was trying to [do more on defense].”

As Spring Training approaches, Schumaker is more or less safe in his role as the Cardinals’ starting second baseman, and he’ll likely get some shot at leading off again in 2011. He knows, though, that he doesn’t have a whole lot more rope before the club starts looking at other options. He welcomes the challenge.

“[Manager Tony La Russa] has confidence in his players, because if you’ve done it before in the big leagues, he feels like maybe you can figure it out eventually,” Schumaker said. “But he wouldn’t play me if he didn’t think I had a chance to win. He’s not just going to play his guys just to play them. He’s a competitor. He wants to win. So if I wasn’t going to do it, they were going to find someone else.”

Fortunately for just about everyone involved, Monday night’s 53rd annual St. Louis Baseball Writers’ Dinner lived up to both halves of its advance billing.

The dinner was touted as both a toast to and a roast of Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, and both aspects were in abundant supply. Old friends like college basketball coach Bob Knight and Tigers manager Jim Leyland spoke of La Russa’s loyalty and competitiveness, while former St. Louis pitcher Steve Kline was among those who garnered hearty laughs for some occasionally bawdy digs at La Russa.

Actor Billy Bob Thornton, a Cardinals fan and a friend of La Russa’s, set the tone for the roast when he asked for 10 seconds of silence from the crowd. When the moment ended, he quipped that it was for “Tony and [pitching coach] Dave Duncan’s personalities.” Thornton, though, walked both sides of the line, professing his great admiration for manager and team during his stint at the microphone.

Kline, however, held nothing back. He mused about potential other occupations for La Russa and noted that the manager could never play Santa Claus because he doesn’t “put up with annoying kids,” such as recently traded shortstop Brendan Ryan. He was also one of two roasters to poke La Russa for his 2007 arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Friends such as Knight and Leyland kept a different tone, though each took gentler jabs at the manager.

La Russa’s toast and roast, meanwhile, weren’t the only events of the evening. Adam Wainwright and Albert Pujols were recognized as co-winners of the St. Louis Baseball Man of the Year Award, while Jaime Garcia received both Rookie of the Year and Physical Comeback honors. Rip Rowan, the Cardinals’ clubhouse manager, won the annual “Good Guy” Award.

Chris Carpenter knows that it’s at least possible that he’s in his last year as a St. Louis Cardinal. He hopes that’s not the case. But for a pitcher who has spent the past eight years or so knowing that nothing is guaranteed, that’s not such an enormous worry.

Carpenter is signed through 2011, and the Cardinals hold a club option for 2012 worth $15 million. If St. Louis is able to reach agreement on a new deal with slugger Albert Pujols, it could become much tougher for the team to fit that sum within its payroll. And if media and fans can put two and two together, you know that Carpenter has done the same.

“It has been brought up,” Carpenter said on Saturday at the Cards’ annual Winter Warm-Up fan festival. “It has been talked about — I’m not going to lie about it — inside of my family. But I have no concerns. I have no extra pressure. That stuff, it doesn’t bother me. My only goal this year is to be healthy, to be consistent every fifth day every time I get the ball, and do the best I can.”

A lengthy injury history has caused Carpenter to never take his next start for granted, never mind his next season. So while he doesn’t relish the thought of his time in St. Louis coming to an end, he’s prepared to cope if it happens.

“If they want to keep me, they can keep me,” he said. “If they don’t, I guess I’ll have to find another place to play. I don’t want to, but that’s the way this business is. It’s the way it works. Like I said, there’s no question it’s been talked about. And we’re OK with it.”

Lee Smith is a candidate on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the eighth year. The Class of 2011 will be announced Jan. 5. You can watch the announcement live at 1 p.m. ET on an MLB Network simulcast on MLB.com.

Lee Smith's time is coming. Maybe not this year, maybe not until his back is even closer to the 15-year-eligibility wall. But it is becoming more apparent that Large Lee's large puzzlement will eventually end.

"This confuses the heck out of me," Lee had said in reacting to his 47.3 percent support on the 2009 Hall of Fame ballot, his seventh. "But I've always been baffled by it."

He has not been alone. Smith had held Major League Baseball's career saves record for 11 years when he first landed on the ballot in 2003, and kept it through two more fruitless elections, until he was passed by Trevor Hoffman. During Lee's candidacy, the perceived cold shoulder to relief pitchers has warmed up with the elections of Dennis Eckersley (in 2004), Bruce Sutter ('06) and Goose Gossage ('08).

So, for Smith, will eight be enough? Unlikely — it would require a quantum leap from last year's percentage to the 75 percent of the vote required for election.

But the man who once seemed destined to be the one who threw open Cooperstown's doors for closers would be more than thrilled to follow his peers across the doorsill.

Even in the fickle world of Hall of Fame certification, the rejection of Smith, who turns 53 the first week of December, has been interesting. He was so dominant for so long that, in 1995, he was singled out by the respected columnist Jim Murray as the active player most likely to make it to Cooperstown.

As it turned out, 11 others active at that time have beaten Smith through baseball's pearly gates.

If a new trail has indeed been blazed, few belong in the footsteps of Sutter and Gossage more than the 6-foot-6, 240-pound jovial giant whose 478 saves survived as the career record until September 2006. Smith still ranks No. 3, having since also been passed by Mariano Rivera.

That saves record had been viewed as the leading plank of Smith's heretofore unsuccessful Hall campaigns, so it would be ironic for him to gain entry without that distinction. Yet, there is no denying the encouraging precedent set in the recent elections of Sutter and Gossage who, incidentally, between them combined for only 132 more saves than did Smith during his 18 seasons.

Both Sutter — elected in his 13th year on the Baseball Writers' Association of America Hall of Fame ballot — and Gossage — affirmed in his ninth year — began their candidacies with lower support than had Smith, who earned 42.3 percent of the votes in his first year of eligibility. Smith, in an up-and-down mode the past few years, polled 258 votes in the latest election.

Smith ranks fifth among the top returning vote-getters, a list headed by near-misses Bert Blyleven (74.2 percent) and Roberto Alomar (73.7), followed by Jack Morris (52.3) and Barry Larkin (51.6).

Smith and other closers have been dealt a unique hand by the modern proliferation of their specialty. While perspective tends to raise appreciation for past players' performances, in the case of closers, each season appears to dilute their accomplishments.

Putting up 30 saves just isn't as big of a deal as it was in 1984, when Smith broke that barrier for the first of 10 times. In '84, six other big league closers notched 30-plus saves; in a typical season in the current era, that number triples (an average of 17 the past four seasons).

"They claim it's an easy job," Smith once remarked, "talking about how guys now are only pitching one inning. I wish you could get all the guys that vote one opportunity to pitch the ninth inning and let 'em see how tough a job it was."

And few have done that job as consistently as did the hard-looking, soft-speaking Louisiana native who went 12 seasons between his first 30-save season and his last (1995).

That extended success is also part of Smith's handicap. He isn't recalled as an impact reliever. Thus, contemporaries Sutter and Gossage, whose heydays were more concentrated, were widely regarded as more deserving of enshrinement.

Smith's have-hammer-will-travel career keeps him from being identified with any particular team, creating another image problem. He logged saves for eight different teams.

Yet, until recently, he held the career saves record for two of those teams, among the most storied franchises in the game. He still holds the Cubs' record of 180, and also had the Cardinals' mark until Jason Isringhausen notched his 161st save for St. Louis on June 13, 2006. This is noteworthy also because those were Sutter's primary teams as well.

For someone who supposedly lacked impact, Smith certainly had his dominant years. During one six-year stretch (1985-90), he averaged more than one strikeout per inning each season, with 580 total punchouts in 509 frames during that span. Gossage, reputed to be the fire-breathing flamethrower of his era, did that in only four of his 23 seasons.

Smith supporters love to point out that when he notched his first save, in 1981, the career record was 272, a number he would surpass by more than 200. And that old lifetime mark was held by Rollie Fingers, who was recognized for it by being inducted into the Hall of Fame on his second time on the ballot (after a near-miss as a rookie candidate).

But Smith presented a compelling argument that lasted 18 seasons, during which he appeared in 1,022 games, which usually ended with him throwing the last pitch, good or bad. He held another Major League record for most games finished — 802 — until Hoffman surpassed that late in the 2009 season.

Considering that he either saved or won more than half of the games in which he appeared (549, to be exact), the good comfortably outweighed the bad. Does he have one more good finish in him?

"You always wonder if you don't make it in the first five or six years," Smith said. "Hopefully, people remember you and you don't fall out of favor."

That hope was realized by Sutter and Gossage, so one of these years, Lee could be living large, too.

Smith hopes to follow fellow relievers into Hall