St Louis Cardinals

For a spring training game, yesterday's matchup with the Boston Red Sox was a darn good pitching matchup. Josh Beckett went for the visitors and allowed nothing over four innings. The good news for Cardinal fans is that Chris Carpenter did the same.

It's really starting to look like Chris Duncan is healthy.

He had another strong game against the Tigers yesterday, going 2-for-2 with his second home run of the spring, raising his average up to .385. I don't think anyone expects Duncan to be challenging for a batting title this season, but if he can continue to show that he's healthy, he could be a valuable guy for this team.

Easiest way to annoy a St. Louis Cardinals fan?

Tell them Albert Pujols used steroids. That will really fire them up.

Since 2001, the guy has set the league on fire. Also occurring in the early 2000s, baseball's steroids era.

Tell me its not reasonable to question Pujols. Do you remember the last guy with his build?

He played first base for the Cardinals, too, and he hit 70 home runs in 1998. Then, when his playing days were over, Mark McGwire told Congress in front of an eager television audience that he did not want to talk about the past.

No game to talk about from yesterday, so just a few random topics for discussion.

First off, Rick Ankiel notched a 83.7 percent approval rating from 56 voters, sliding him right in between Mike Shannon and Tony La Russa. I gave him a 90 percent, because I've been a big fan of Rick's since his original time in the minors. 

With all the drama this spring over who will be starting and who is healthy, and all the other mumbo-jumbo going on with the starting rotation, it seems I had forgotten all about the real question: Who's gonna close?

"The process now," said Tony La Russa, "is to give guys appearances, make evaluations, and then sort it out at some point at the end." TLR has told the media he has narrowed his options down to five. That sounds like a lot, but a few months ago there were about a million. I'll break down his options one by one.

A mixed bag this weekend.  Good stuff Saturday, but it sounds like Sunday was a doozy.

Let's hit up Saturday's game against the Astros first. Remember that I said that a good start from Joel Pineiro might get me dreaming about this team? Well, he did his part, throwing one-hit ball through four innings and striking out three.