The most official, yet unofficial, annual holiday in St. Louis is here again: Opening Day. And this year, return home of the Cardinals brings much into its fold, both traditional and not. While the pageantry of the Clydesdales march around the Busch Stadium outfield, leading in Hall of Famers to remind all of what the tradition of the Cardinals truly is will set the tone, a stark reminder of the greatest loss the organization has ever taken will be there as well. Not the disheartening loss at the hands of Barry Zito in the last game played on the field, but rather the passing of the greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan Musial.

Around this all however, the business at hand on the field is there as well, as the team’s most potent competition in the division waits in the Cincinnati Reds. With all of these factors combined, this will surely be an unforgettable Opening Day, and one that will be played with an emotion that is rarely seen in April. Here’s all you’ll need to know to get ready for the debut series of the season of the home season.

The Cardinals coming in: The Cardinals (3-3) are coming in as winners of their previous two games, including a 14-3 dominance of the San Francisco Giants yesterday afternoon. In the game they scored 14 runs on 15 hits, a scoring trend that has been the norm this season. Despite being third in the National League in runs scored, they have hit only four home runs on the year, with three of them coming in one game vs. the Diamondbacks last Tuesday.

Pete Kozma enters as the most consistent Cardinal bat thus far. The rookie shortstop has continued his improbable hitting run with eight hits in 24 at-bats (.333), along with a team best five RBI…Matt Carpenter enters tied with Kozma with eight hits as well, half of which have been doubles, putting him atop the NL in the category…Matt Holiday has matched the five RBI mark to lead the team as well…Matt Adams has six hits in 10 at-bats, spread across two starts thus far…Adam Wainwright has struck out 12 in his first 13 innings and Trevor Rosenthal is averaging 13.50 strikeouts per nine innings over three appearances.

The Reds coming in: Cincinnati (4-2, first place NL Central) enters as an impressive offensive force as well, although they are doing it in a different fashion than the Cardinals. They have hit 11 home runs as a team, with both Todd Frazier and Shin-Soo Choo having three a piece. They enter their first road trip of the year in the midst of a grueling opening schedule, coming off winning series versus the Los Angeles Angles and Washington Nationals. They have scored at least five runs in five of six games, including a 15-0 win over the Nationals on Friday.

Frazier is the hottest hitter in the young National League season. He’s leading the league in batting average at .480 (12 for 25), and has driven in nine runs as well. He has taken over as full-time third baseman a year after finishing third in Rookie of the Year balloting, and leads the team in five categories…Joey Votto has opened up slowly, with a .238 average and 1 RBI…Cardinal Nation’s public enemy number Brandon Phillips returns with nine hits in his first 27 at-bats…Jay Bruce has 10 strikeouts in 29 at-bats…the Reds bullpen is surrendering only a .198 batting average against, and is highlighted by Aroldis Chapman’s nine strikeouts vs. 16 batters thus far

Pitching Matchups

Tuesday (3:15)—Jaime Garcia (1-0) vs. Mat Latos (0-0): Garcia surrendered one run across 5.2 innings in his debut vs. Arizona last Tuesday. In his career, Garcia has 20-11 home record, with a 2.48 ERA. Versus Cincinnati, he has an 8-2 career record. Latos gave up seven hits over 6.2 innings in a no-decision outcome for him, but 5-4 win for the Reds. In 2012 vs. St. Louis, he was beaten to a 7.84 ERA and 1-2 record.

Wednesday (7:15)—Lance Lynn (0-0) vs. Bronson Arroyo (1-0): Lynn couldn’t escape the fifth inning is his start, surrendering six hits, four runs and tossing 94 pitches. He has a 7.50 ERA vs. Cincinnati all time. Arroyo went six innings, giving up three runs in his win vs. the Angels last Wednesday. He is in the last year of his deal with the Reds, and has an 8-13 career record vs. STL.

Thursday (12:45)—Jake Westbrook (0-1) vs. Homer Bailey (1-0): Westbrook didn’t surrender an earned run, but still took the loss in his 116 pitch, 6.2 inning debut on Friday. The only run coming on a base loaded walk following an error. Bailey had a similarly impressive start, going six innings giving up only two hits, but getting the win. In 13 career starts, Bailey has a 3-7 record with a 5.00 ERA.

Injury Impact—St. Louis: Chris Carpenter, Rafael Furcal (Out for season), Jason Motte (15 Day DL, elbow issue), David Freese (15 Day DL, returns today). Cincinnati: Ryan Ludwick (Separated shoulder, out for four months), Nick Masset (15 Day DL)

A look back: The Cardinals won the season series in 2012, 8-7. They outscored the Reds 60-46. On the year, the Reds won the NL Central with a 97-65 record, while the Cardinals finished in second place with an 88-74 record. Both made the postseason, with the Reds losing in the NL Division Series 3-2 to the San Francisco Giants. The Cardinals lost the National League Championship Series to the same Giants, four games to three. All-time, the Cardinals lead the series 1,064-946 in the Modern Era, with their first game taking place in May, 1901.

News and Notes

-          Third baseman David Freese will make his season debut with the Cardinals after a rehab stint from a late spring back injury. While rehabbing with the Memphis Redbirds over the weekend, he had four hits in 12 at-bats, with two doubles and four RBI.

-          The team will reveal a display for Stan Musial, featuring his #6 and the logo the team is wearing as a patch on his left shoulder, in the outfield during the pregame events.

-          Injured pitcher Chris Carpenter is expected to participate in the pregame introductions for players today. It will be the first time he has been in uniform with the club this season.

-          Promotional giveaways for the series include a Magnetic 2013 schedule on Monday and a charity haircut day, sponsored by Great Clips, on Wednesday.

One of the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest questions marks during the offseason was how the team would fill the middle infield positions, and the answers the Cardinals found could end up making those positions of strength throughout the season.

The Cardinals had planned to have Rafael Furcal be their starting shortstop on opening day, as he had been last season. But Furcal’s torn right elbow ligament didn’t heal in the offseason and he had to undergo surgery during spring training.

That left Pete Kozma, the player who hit .333 in 26 games for the Cardinals last season, as the man to fill one of the most important positions on the field. However, the Cardinals still didn’t have much confidence in Kozma because they still had bad memories of him being the organization’s first-round pick in 2007 that had a .236 batting average in six minor-league seasons.

But shortstop was only one half of the uncertainty surrounding second base for the Cardinals during spring training.

Daniel Descalso played 143 games for the Cardinals in 2012 and played stellar defense whether he was at second base, shortstop or third base, but he also hit just .227. The Cardinals didn’t think they could survive another season with a second baseman who hit under .230 so they asked Matt Carpenter work on learning the position during the offseason so he could potentially take over second base in 2013.

Carpenter did his work and won the job in spring training, but that still meant the Cardinals planned to enter the season with a rookie at shortstop and a former utility player who hadn’t had more than 300 at-bats in a single season.

That combined inexperience justifiably sent shivers down the spines of many Cardinals fans, and for good reason.

The Cardinals had tried to patch holes in the middle infield before with limited success. They traded for Furcal only when Brendan Ryan and Tyler Greene proved they weren’t going to be good enough at shortstop. Also, the Skip Schumaker experiment at second base lasted for a couple of years, but he was replaced by the .227-hitting Descalso last season.

So for better or worse, the Cardinals ended up with Kozma and Carpenter as the middle infield combination for 2013, but early results show this concoction could not only work, but it could work pretty well.

Carpenter hasn’t played second base yet because he’s been over at third base while David Freese recovers from an injury, but he and Kozma have already made an impact one series into the season.

Carpenter had three doubles in the team’s first three games, and he played solid-to-great defense at third base. Kozma hit .308 in the opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, including a double and a homerun.

Granted, that is an incredibly small sample size. Both players could eventually be exposed throughout the course of the season and consistently take terrible at-bats. But at this point, each has looked confident at the plate and in the field, and they are both getting results.

If that continues, the Cardinals might win a lot of games because of a middle infield composed of two players who the team didn’t even consider good enough to start until circumstances forced them into the lineup.

Sometimes the unexpected gifts are the best of all.

The St. Louis Cardinals will send nine players on to the field Monday at Chase Field in Phoenix for their season opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they won’t have many replacement options if one, or more, of those players can’t play the entire game.

The team will have a dugout full of bench players, of course, but recent injuries have suddenly taken a lot of talent that would be on the bench and put it into the starting lineup.

The Cardinals already had limited depth at the middle-infield positions once Rafael Furcal found out at the beginning of spring training he couldn’t throw and would need elbow surgery. Pete Kozma suddenly became the team’s first option at shortstop with Ronny Cedeno as the back-up.

But then the team released Cedeno on March 19 after he hit .290 in 16 games with the club.

That left the Cardinals with three middle infielders: Kozma, Matt Carpenter and Daniel Descalso.

Carpenter had all but wrapped up the starting job at second base, but third baseman David Freese eventually succumbed to a sore back that had plagued him much of the spring. Freese will now start the season on the disabled list, and Carpenter will have to take over the third base job in the meantime.

As the game of musical chairs goes, Descalso will fill in at second base, and Ryan Jackson will take the spot on the bench as the team’s back-up middle infielder. However, Jackson has hit .136 so far in spring training and hit .118 in 13 games with the big-league club in 2012.

Granted, that is a very small sample size, and the Cardinals have seen with players such as Kozma how past struggles don’t predict a bad future. Kozma hit .236 in more than five years in the minor leagues before helping spark a late-season surge by the Cardinals in 2012 with a .333 batting average in 26 games.

Still, a player who hasn’t hit above .150 as a major leaguer isn’t much of an insurance plan to open the regular season.

The Cardinals made Freese’s move to the disabled list retroactive to March 22 so he will be eligible to play in the team’s home opener April 8 against the Cincinnati Reds.

So if all goes well, the Cardinals should have their starting third baseman back within the first week of the regular season, which would allow Carpenter to move back to second base and Descalso could become the utility infielder that provides solid production when the starters need a day off.

Right now the Cardinals can’t afford for their starters to take a day off.

And that could be something to keep in mind late in the season when Kozma and Carpenter, who have started a combined 95 games in two seasons, start to feel the fatigue of a full Major League Baseball schedule.

The same could be said for the Cardinals pitching staff, as well. Closer Jason Motte’s injury had a ripple effect through the bullpen and the starting rotation.

Mitchell Boggs will have to fill Motte’s spot at the back of the bullpen, but Motte’s injury also made Joe Kelly more valuable in a relief role instead of the fifth and final spot in the rotation, which went to Shelby Miller, who the Cardinals have groomed to be a starter throughout his minor-league career.

Kelly at least pitched out of the bullpen in college and made 15 appearances as a reliever last season for the Cardinals in the regular season and playoffs combined.

The Cardinals have remarkably sustained success through a multitude of injuries in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

They’ll have to maintain that resiliency again in 2013, but this time there is no Carpenter, Descalso, Jon Jay or Allen Craig to insert into a key situation late in the game. Those players now must be the team’s foundation instead of its accessories.

The only position the St. Louis Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak knew would be unsettled for certain entering spring training was second base. And now nearly a month later, it is a situation that is still sorting itself out. However, it’s not doing so because of injury or lack of options, rather it is doing so because of the positive performance of the three primary players in the picture. Matt Carpenter has made a smooth transition to the position in the field, while incumbent Daniel Descalso has risen to the occasion with at bat to justify his already superb glove work.

All the while, top prospect Kolten Wong has put up a consistent effort that has even further solidified the fact that his second baseman of the future tag is legit. Yet there are still questions to be considered, mainly who will see the majority of the play at the position in 2013, as well as what is in the system beyond just Wong.  Is there true depth, or just a few name recognition properties? And how does this project the three-to-five year picture at a position the team has long struggled to have a consistent presence at?

St. Louis: The position entered the spring has a question mark, and has quickly turned into a win-win proposition. Both Descalso and Carpenter have performed well at the position, and have made a legitimate time split at the position a strong possibility this year. Carpenter has hit over .400 in the spring, while showing a consistent glove and throwing ability at his new position. Descalso on the other hand has stayed consistent in the field while making some adjustments to his swing that has seen him hit .292 through 16 games thus far in camp.

With both in the fold there is a chance for a variety of dominoes to go into play because of what having one or the other in the everyday lineup means. Carpenter has an impact at third and first base, as well as the outfield. He was the team’s best regular bench bat a year ago, and putting him in the everyday lineup does change both the versatility of the club off the bench, both in the field and at the plate. With Descalso in reserve, it gives the club a viable defensive upgrade in late game situations across the infield.

Yet moving ahead, the distinction of Cardinal second baseman most likely doesn’t involve either in a full-time capacity, as Wong has begun to make it clear his established role as middle infielder solidifier is legit.

High Minors: Wong will open the season at Triple-A Memphis despite a strong effort this spring thus far in Major League camp. He has swung the bat at a .292 clip through 16 spring games, and has displayed the range of talents that could make him factor into the picture by late in the summer. Whether he is pushed through to St. Louis this year before September has as much to do with his play (which has been an even .300 through his first two pro seasons) as it does with how the Carpenter/Descalso split works out. Getting him regular at-bats is an established point of emphasis for the team, as is continuing to evolve his defense.

After Wong, the system gets a bit more questionable at second base. Jose Garcia could factor into the picture every day at Springfield. The 24-year-old hit .260 while splitting time behind Wong and Greg Garcia at Double-A Springfield last summer.

Low Minors: Breyvic Valera reached Springfield last year after playing the majority of the year at Low-A Batavia, where he hit .316 for the year as a 19 year old. He could either play ahead at Springfield again this season, or start at High A Peoria this spring. In addition to him, the presence of Starlin Rodriguez (.315 average at Palm Beach in 2012), Ildemaro Vargas (.314 average across Rookie to High-A a year ago) and 10^th round pick Jacob Wilson all will factor into the picture at the lower levels of the organization this season at second.

Prognosis: It’s an interesting situation developing at second base in the organization currently. While the lower minor league rungs of are sorting themselves out now with the ascension of Wong nearly complete, it is a position that definitely has both a secure future plan that is playing out as consistently as could be hoped.

With Carpenter potentially providing an everyday boost to the lineup offensively and Descalso being a plus defender, there is a real chance for Mike Matheny to “ride the hot hand” at second this season. In the immediate, Carpenter has continued to hit at his expected level, and the fact he has taken to the position so quickly in the field may be giving him the edge currently. But the plus that Descalso gives in the field cannot be taken lightly, especially in the light of Rafael Furcal being permanently out of the equation. The insertion of Wong into the St. Louis scene by next spring (at the very latest) assures that the second base role in St. Louis, as well as the domino rally created from it, is far from over.

The scene at third base for the Cardinals has been an ever changing one in recent years. It was one they addressed in multiple ways over the past five years, by drafting two collegiate third basemen in the past 4 first rounds, and trading for another. The one that was acquired via traded panned out for the best, and now David Freese has become the clear long-term preference at spot.

However, the club is aware that the page will turn on even him soon enough, and have recently once again focused heavily on upgrading the position within the organization. What does this mean for the team, both now and moving ahead?

Majors: Freese has stepped up to become one of the main bricks in the foundation of the organization. His postseason heroics in 2011 pushed him up a notch on baseball’s radar, and he responded in kind with his first All-Star appearance last season. Biggest difference in his performance was that he stayed healthy across a full season to post the type of numbers he was capable of all along. He played in a career-high 144 games a year ago, and posted career bests in over eight categories along the way. The 29-year-old is under control via arbitration for another two seasons, and if he remains healthy, will be the mainstay through his prime.

Matt Carpenter (who basically seems like the fallback option at every position on the team) rose through the system at the hot corner is a very credible back up option. At age 27 however, his best years and Freese’s will occur simultaneously, thus the desire to try his hand (and bat) in other more available roles. Daniel Descalso is also capable of spending time there if needed. He made 61 starts at the position in 2011 filling in while Freese missed time due to a fractured hand.

High Minors: Moving to Memphis, there’s no true next of kin on deck. That distinction belonged to Zack Cox, the club’s 2010 first round pick, until last season when he was exchanged for Edward Mujica at trade deadline. Moving down to the Double-A, the same story carries over; there was no real prospect that is moving through the system that has a potential future impact in St. Louis. The idea could be that Stephen Piscotty, who has moonlighted in right field but played third in his debut last year at Quad Cities at the High-A level.

Low Minors: The lower rungs of the minors show where the franchise is starting to plan for the future at the position, as it is one of the positions most heavily focused on in recent years. In addition to Piscotty, the club took two more third basemen in the last spring’s draft in Patrick Wisdom and high schooler Carson Kelly. Both were included in Baseball Prospectus’ Top 10 prospects for the organization this season.  Wisdom hit .282 in short season Batavia in his pro debut as a 20 year old, while Kelly hit nine homers in 56 games at Rookie level Johnson City.

Prognosis: While there is a bit of a gap from Major League level down to the next wave of talent at the position, the organization’s succession plan is clear. In the next three seasons, Freese will likely continue to be option A in St. Louis, with Carpenter in tow in some capacity as well potentially. The club used the 2012 Draft to provide plenty of long-term options over the next half decade to succeed Freese in St. Louis, or at the very least, work into a role with the Cardinals in a capacity such as Carpenter has over the last two years.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be breaking down each position/area of the St. Louis Cardinals organization, from the Majors down to the rookie levels. Sparked in part by the organization’s multiple top rankings as “best minor league” system and Major League future, as well as questions about ETA’s and “who’s next” conversations based on injuries and depth. Today, we start in the outfield…and with one of the most obvious questions of the spring…

Majors: The St. Louis outfield is a position of strength for the club entering into 2012. The lineup could potentially feature all three everyday outfielders hitting in order to start the game off, with Jon Jay leading off, followed by Carlos Beltran and Matt Holliday hitting third.   Both Beltran and Holliday stood in as All-Star representatives, and both topped 95 RBI and 25 homers. Jay played his best ball in the second half once he was made an everyday leadoff hitter, and for the season he notch a .303 average and .362 on-base percentage while at the top of the lineup.

Behind them, the backups are mostly situational replacements.  Shane Robinson and Adron Chambers are the clear alternatives for the likely one opening for a full-time back up coming out of the camp. Matt Carpenter spent a good deal of time in right field a year ago, and Allen Craig saw time there as well.  But with Carpenter in the mix for the second base job and Craig taking over full-time at first base, they likely won’t be as available for outfield duty as a year ago.

High Minors: The high minors for the Cardinals obviously yields the most intriguing part of the entire farm system, Oscar Taveras. The consensus top prospect in the organization will open up the season at Triple-A Memphis most likely, where he’ll get work in right field, but perhaps center as well. He’ll be pushing the doors of the St. Louis clubhouse; really he’s already banging on them. Eventually he’ll be let in, and it could be in the same party crashing fashion that Bryce Harper pulled off a year ago.

Outside of Taveras, non-roster invitee Justin Christian is making an interesting case in Spring Training as well. The numbers game will probably force him to Memphis as well, but there could be a chance for him to see some action in a limited role with the Cardinals this year if injuries hit the outfield. Back at Double-A, Mike McNeill hit .359 at two levels last season, including an 18-for-32 rip through Springfield. At 5’9 and around 180 pounds, he could be the next Shane Robinson-type at the upper levels of the Minors.

Low Minors: The depth of interesting prospects for the club starts in the lower rungs of the minors, especially at the center field position. There is legit athletic talent in Cardinals outfield system developing amongst its younger members. CJ McElroy stands out as a unique talent in the system, one with the ability to run up his stolen base numbers in a hurry. He swiped 24 bases in 61 games as a 19-year-old at Johnson City last season. He’s even drove in two runs on two hits in as many at-bats in big league camp this spring.

James Ramsey, the club’s second first round pick a year ago, debuted at High Class-A Palm Beach a year ago. He also manned center field, and struggled a bit at the plate, hitting only .229. But he was a very accomplished collegiate hitter at Florida State, hitting .378 last season as a senior before joining the Cardinals. He’s projected as a fast riser, who should see action at Springfield this year.

Another 2012 first rounder, Stephen Piscotty is getting some work in right field this spring despite being drafted as a third baseman and manning the position for 55 games at Quad Cities (now Peoria) last year.

Another player of note at the lower levels is Charlie Tilson, who was impressive in a brief debut stint in 2011, but missed all of 2012 due to shoulder surgery. And guess what: he’s a speedy center fielder as well.

Prognosis: In the three year picture, the starting Major League outfield projects as set. Holliday has another four guaranteed seasons under his belt, while Jay won’t be eligible for free agency until 2017. While Beltran’s contract ends this year, Taveras is already making it very hard to leave him down south as is and will inherit the right field position, uncontested, from the first day of camp next year.

However, the depth in the outfield in the organization over the next few years is questionable. While there is promising talent in the lower levels of the minors, there isn’t much else besides Taveras who projects to be a safe bet as a contributor at the Major League level. Some of this hinges on how McNeil’s impact translates over a full year in the upper minor leagues.  If Ramsey fares well in his first full season, and Piscotty continues to stay in the outfield consistently and develops quickly, this could ease the need the team to add outside the organization in the next few years.

Our friends over at InsideSTL spent last week hanging out at a picnic table, and eventually under a tent, in Jupiter, Florida and talking with any Cardinal players that came by and were willing to sit down for a few minutes.

What resulted were some great candid shots of the guys as well as a very candid interview with Adam Wainwright about his contract situation.

The images below were posted to their website and are being shared here with their permission.

Carlos Beltran

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Bill Ivie is the editor here at I-70 Baseball
Follow him on Twitter here.

In an offseason of sparse, small moves, the St. Louis Cardinals made another signing Monday that will minimally impact their season, and hopefully it won’t be a factor at all.

The Cardinals signed shortstop Ronny Cedeno to a one-year contract to be a back-up option in case starting shortstop Rafael Furcal’s right elbow has problems again in the upcoming season.

The 30-year-old Cedeno is an eight-year veteran with a career .247 batting average while playing for four different teams: the Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets. At best, he’s been an inconsequential player on irrelevant teams.

The Cardinals aren’t an irrelevant team, and something will have to go terribly wrong if Cedeno sees much playing time. The team has Furcal penciled in to be the everyday shortstop, and  Pete Kozma would seem to be a fairly solid back-up option given his .333 batting average in 26 games at the end of last season.

In many ways, the Cardinals had no need for Cedeno unless they think Kozma can’t hit above .250 and play decent defense. Both Kozma and Cedeno are righthanded hitters without much power, so the Cardinals certainly didn’t improve the back-up shortstop situation by this move.

Maybe the Cardinals think Kozma needs to be pushed during spring training or during the season if he has to regularly play shortstop with Furcal out because of injury. But still, the team has Daniel Descalso and Matt Carpenter as other middle infielders who could supposedly move over to shortstop if Furcal gets hurt and Kozma plays terribly.

General manager John Mozeliak said the team needed “insurance” at the position. Well, as some television commercials suggest, this is a cut-rate insurance policy and not the Allstate value plan. Cedeno should have to play above his career average in spring training just to break camp with the club.

This move also adds fuel to the fire of people who are already frustrated the Cardinals haven’t improved enough during the offseason, while the Cincinnati Reds traded for Shin-Soo Choo, the Atlanta Braves added the Upton brothers and the Philadelphia Phillies added the steady and productive Michael Young, formerly of the Texas Rangers.

Many of the top teams in the National League made significant moves to improve during the offseason, and the Cardinals basically stood pat. OK, they signed bench players Ty Wigginton and Cedeno. Sorry, but those two won’t even make opponents’ scouting reports.

Overall, the Cardinals are going to need their core players to stay healthy and be consistently productive throughout the entire year because the rest of the league has improved. If the Cardinals fall behind six to 10 games in the division or wild-card race, the teams above them might be too good to allow for another miracle comeback.

Right now the Reds, Braves, Phillies, Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are all built to be strong playoff contenders. Even with the expanded playoffs, only five National League teams will make the postseason, so a playoff berth is far from guaranteed for the Cardinals this season.

That competition should make for a fun season, so long as the Cardinals don’t have to file a claim on the Ronny Cedeno insurance policy.

Two of the most discussed attendees at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up have been Daniel Descalso and Matt Carpenter, and their respective places on the team…which happens to potentially be one in the same. While there is no question that with good health, both will break camp in March as members of the Opening Day roster, but in what capacity is up in the air.

The second base spot has been the really the only debatable position within in the starting lineup, sparked by the desire to find more at bats for Carpenter , although Descalso is the incumbent starter from a year ago. While general manager John Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny have both given votes of confidence to Descalso for the starting role, neither has disqualified Carpenter from being in the fold for time at the spot either. Both players have shown up in full awareness of the situation at hand, and the opportunity within their reach.

On one hand, there is Descalso, who has a season of starting at the position and makes the team much stronger defensively than any other option in the organization. Of his 96 games played last summer, 74 were played at second, and all but eight were starts. In that time, he established himself as a plus defender, committing only five errors. In regards to his defensive effort, he has worked steadily at improving his output the last few years. “It was one of my weaker parts of my game coming into pro baseball” he said over the weekend “I’ve worked hard on my defense the last couple of years”.

For Carpenter, that has also been the new found focus of his winter as well. After a rookie season that saw him play over 20 games in the outfield, first and third base, respectively, his homework for the winter was to adjust to yet another role. His focus on being ready to get time at second base, a position he played only five games at a year ago, sparingly. It was a decision made mostly to get his bat in the lineup on a more regular basis, partly due to his .294 average and 46 RBI effort a year ago, but also due to Descalso regressing to a .232 clip in his second full season.

It has been a crash course for Carpenter to get acclimated to the role, which has included as much scenario work as he can possibly due at the position. Working on the different scenario plays around the diamond, such as double plays and ground ball simulations hasn’t truly given him an “off” season. “I’ve been pretty encouraged with how it’s going”, he says. “Regardless of how it goes, it won’t affect me and Daniel’s relationship. He’s been a good friend of mine, and we both know it’s just part of the business.”

St. Louis has slogged through the first half of yet another gray, cold winter in the country’s heartland, especially without the aid of St. Louis Blues hockey until Saturday. But that all changed this weekend as the St. Louis Cardinals opened up their annual Winter Warm-Up celebration.

Friend of the site Cadence with Chris Carpenter in 2012

Each year, just as fans start to feel the pangs of being baseball-deprived for three months, the Cardinals host the Winter Warm-Up event in downtown St. Louis. The event serves as a pep rally for the club before it heads to Jupiter, Fla., in about a month, and gives fans a chance to meet with past, current and future members of the organization.

This year’s event ran Saturday through Monday at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch hotel.

For many fans, the Winter Warm-Up is their chance to get re-acquainted with their team and enjoy a baseball-filled weekend even though temperatures hovered in the 30′s Sunday and dropped to 24 degrees Monday.

In several ways, the Winter Warm-Up is similar to the Fanfest events that Major League Baseball has in the All-Star Game’s host city in the days leading up to the game. There are interactive displays and activities, as well as opportunities for autographs, although that’s an additional expense.

The Winter Warm-Up is also a chance for fans to ask questions about the team heading into spring training and the upcoming season. This year, people will surely have plenty of questions for the Cardinals about players such as Jaime Garcia, Rafael Furcal, Matt Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.

Those four players, in particular, will be vital to the Cardinals success in 2013, but they each come with legitimate concerns for either the coming year or future years.

Garcia turned down an opportunity last week to pitch for Mexico, his native country, in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. That’s certainly his right to choose, but concerns about that decision arise because Garcia dealt with left shoulder problems last season and has spent the offseason trying to rehab so he can be ready for the start of the season. That rehab is especially important since he decided against surgically repairing the shoulder.

Furcal also has injury concerns. He tore a ligament in his right elbow Aug. 31 against the Washington Nationals and never returned to the field. His return as the starting shortstop is important to the team because the Cardinals and their fans aren’t sold on his backup Pete Kozma, even though Kozma hit .333 in 26 games down the stretch and played a key role in the Cardinals’ first-round series win over the Nationals.

Carpenter doesn’t have any injury concerns, but the Cardinals have asked him to pull a Skip Schumaker move during the offseason and transform into a second baseman. Carpenter has been a great utility player for the Cardinals in the past two seasons, but asking a player to change positions at the big-league level is always a dicey proposition.

The only questions for Wainwright about the 2013 season will be if he can fully return to his dominant form before suffering a season-ending elbow injury at the start of spring training in 2011. All of the other questions will likely be about the years following 2013.

Wainwright’s contract is up at the end of the season, and with another solid season he will be a highly sought-after free agent in the offseason. With pitchers signing increasingly large free-agent contracts in the last few years, Wainwright’s price tag could be incredibly high. With those factors in place, Cardinals fans could be on a Pujols-like watch at next year’s Winter Meetings.

All of those issues will be sorted out at the proper times, of course. Most importantly, the third weekend is always a chance for St. Louis sports fans to start dreaming about the warm summer days and nights they’ll experience in the heart of downtown St. Louis surrounded by a sea of red clothes in one of the best places on Earth: Busch Stadium.