The Cardinals added a couple veteran arms Friday to begin addressing an area that crippled the 2010 squad: depth.

The Cards signed Miguel Batista and Ian Snell to minor league deals and invited them to Spring Training. Batista, 39, and Snell, 29, figure to compete for the “sixth starter” role, which means they will be asked to pitch long relief and make a spot start in the event one of the rotation mainstays need a break. Snell also may put some pressure on Kyle Lohse in competing for the fifth spot in the rotation.

Hopefully the team is not done adding pieces like this. A good number of quality free agents remain on the market, and as Spring Training approaches their asking prices will only go down.

The biggest area of concern continues to be third base. I don’t think anyone wants to give up on David Freese, but he is returning from ankle surgery and has yet to prove he can stay on the field for an entire season. I don’t even have a problem with Freese being anointed the starter before he takes the field; what I do take issue with is the Cards going into the season without a true third baseman as his backup. The Joe Thurston/Felipe Lopez/Pedro Feliz stuff isn’t going to fly anymore. But I also understand the Cards don’t have millions to throw around until they know the outcome of the Albert Pujols contract situation. So the signing will need to be of the low-risk, high-reward variety. Perhaps a bounce-back candidate like Joe Crede would be a good move.

Another bench move should be to get a “damage” bat; a known presence that gives other teams pause. I like the idea of Dan Descalso, Jon Jay, and Allen Craig getting a chance but no one will consider them to be guys that are lurking as a pinch hitter in the late innings. Jermaine Dye and Jorge Cantu are a couple of players who could re-gain their power strokes if given a shot.

I know these are not guys who are going to win MVP awards anytime soon. But the Cardinals already have a full starting roster for 2011; they need pieces and role players. Friday’s signings are a first step in what appears to be the right direction. But thinking they are done would be a mistake.

Chris Reed is a freelance writer who also writes for InsideSTL Mondays and at Bird Brained whenever he feels like it. Follow him on Twitter @birdbrained.

I started blogging because I like talking baseball. One of the unexpected benefits of that love is the occasional opportunity to review books on baseball. Recently I was asked if I was interested in receiving a copy of Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero, by Tom Clavin and Danny Peary. Of course I was.

One could sum up what I knew about Roger Maris (before reading this book) in about three sentences. He broke Babe Ruth’s single-season HR record in 1961. He was a Yankee in his prime and won 2 MVP awards. He spent the last 2 seasons of his career with the St Louis Cardinals. During the summer of 1998, his family was center-stage while Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased, and eventually broke, his record.

I read the 393-page book during a recent business trip. It was a surprisingly easy read. The main part of the book covers Maris’ 1961 season – for which he is most famous today – but the authors try to explain why Maris treated the media the way he did during that season by providing some insight into his childhood and family dynamics. Roger Maris was always a closely guarded man, not sharing personal details with just anyone, and certainly not with the media; his experiences as a youth, as well as a strong family tradition of being secretive, shaped that part of his personality.

Clavin and Peary make a reasonable case that Maris’ reticence, coupled with a new, younger breed of sports reporter who felt largely unencumbered by their predecessor’s code of keeping baseball player’s dirty laundry out of the press, were the causes of virtually all Maris’ trouble in New York. Roger did stick his foot in his mouth (and flash a prominent digit) on a couple of occasions, which didn’t help him, and the press was all too ready to publish those quotes/actions far and wide. No wonder Maris was so ready to get out of New York by 1966.

The book reminds the reader Roger Maris was much more than a home run hitter during his career. It talks about his defense (including his famous play in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series), his baserunning, and his all-around game instincts.

It also reminds us of what the game used to be like. Two separate leagues, with two separate styles of play, where players rarely jumped leagues and most major leaguers learned about the other league’s players by reading about them in the press. It’s interesting most of the 1967 Cardinals thought they knew what kind of a guy Roger Maris was based on the descriptions of him in the newspaper. They were surprised when Maris the man turned out to be nothing like the Maris they had read about.

Once Maris hangs them up following the 1968 season, Clavin and Peary take us rather quickly thorugh the remaining years of his life, touching on his Old-Timers Day appearances, his charitable work, and his business venture as a beer distributor for Anhieser-Busch in the Gainesville Florida area. The authors also talk about the effort George Steinbrenner made to repair the burnt bridges between Maris and the Yankee organization. Maris vowed never to go back to Yankee Stadium after he left the team in 1966. Steinbrenner believed a grave injustice had been done to Maris because of how he had been treated while a Yankee and really worked overtime to fix it. The description of Maris’ first appearance in the House that Ruth Built after he retired (April 1978) may bring a tear to your eye.

I try to keep it simple with book reviews. Was it well-written, did I learn something, and do I recommend it.

Was it well-written? Yes. As mentioned, it was an easy and informative read. I did get a little lost in the beginning when all the relatives were introduced and described. A flow chart would have been a nice touch. Then again, I have trouble following all the ‘begats’ in the book of Genesis, so that’s more a knock on me than anything.

Did I learn something? Yes. I learned a ton. Some examples:

• Frank Lane, GM of the Cardinals in the late 1950s, tried to trade Stan Musial. Owner Gussie Busch had to step in and stop it (page 92). Can you imagine the outcry if Lane had succeeded?
• Bob Turley tipped pitches for Mickey Mantle when Mantle was at the plate (page 132).
• Maris was the first player in the modern era to hit 50 HR in a season before 1 September (page 189).
• In 1961, Maris hit 60 HR in 684 plate appearances. In 1927, Babe Ruth did it in 687 PA. Puts the whole asterisk discussion in a different light, doesn’t it? (page 217)
• Mike Shannon had to move to 3B from RF after Maris was acquired (page 311). I suspect some of you already knew that, but I didn’t.

Do I recommend it? Yes. I found it well written and well researched. I was entertained, and the book made two cross-country flights much more enjoyable, not to mention pass much faster than they typically do.

Disclaimer: The author received a complimentary copy of this book from Simon and Schuster, Inc., and received no compensation for this review.