WWu Day 2: Encarnacion, Rolen, Weaver & Wilson
DOWNTOWN — With Tony La Russa and Walt Jocketty in attendance and tag-teaming on the main stage with KTRS today, there was bound to be some news jangle loose. But there was just as much info harvested in the media room, where Scott Rolen and Juan Encarnacion gave updates on their health.
Quite different updates, too.
News and notes from Day 2 of the Winter Warm-up:
– Encarnacion just had the cast removed last week from his surgery to repair damage in his left wrist. He said he will be rehab this week. An audio file of the interview will be up on StlToday.com shortly.
– Rolen, more than a year removed from his shoulder surgery, said he feels completely different from when he came to Winter Warm-up a year ago. He feels “like new”.
– The Cardinals are still interest in Jeff Weaver and have engaged in conversation with his agent. There is a deal that the Cardinals are ready to strike with the righthander if he is interested in returning.
– He is the only pitcher they are looking at, Jocketty said.
– The outfield remains a part of the team Jocketty would augment, and that means pursuing Preston Wilson. La Russa contacted Wilson around Christmas and that helped spur the interest in the righthanded-hitting outfield. The Cardinals view him as a corner outfielder, and a hitter who could compete with as a complement to Chris Duncan and backup any of the starters. There has been little exchange between Wilson’s agent and the Cardinals, but Wilson is expected to attend the team’s trip to Washington D.C. on Tuesday and the Cardinals have been focused on another outfielder in recent days.
– That outfielder is So Taguchi.
– Taguchi filed for arbitration last week and on Tuesday the Cardinals will submit their proposal. Taguchi is under contract for next season, but it could take arbitration to decide his salary, or an 11th-hour agreement.
– Adam Kennedy signed Sunday morning, and he spoke about being at a recent charity event with Mark McGwire. Kennedy and McGwire attended a casino night to support Robb Nen’s charity and the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center. It was at the event that The Daily Titan asked McGwire about the Hall of Fame vote — check out the original article for a photo of McGwire. Said Kennedy of his first time talking with McGwire in more than two years:
“Seemed to be in good spirits. He was having a good time. He enjoys living out there (in Southern California), in the privacy. He seemed to be doing well.”
Other than that, Kennedy echoed the sentiment also expressed by Jocketty and other players. He was disappointed but not all that surprised with the vote total McGwire received.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
can’t you print those interviews with narvesson and flores? that is why people come to this site, not to go thru the hassle of loading up and listening to the audio file. if that is what one wanted they would go look at the Television broadcast.
can’t you print those interviews with narvesson and flores? that is why people come to this site, not to go thru the hassle of loading up and listening to the audio file. if that is what one wanted they would go look at the Television broadcast.
they NEED to sign Weaver. He blossomed under duncan and if you put him in this rotation, that would make it very competitive.
The signing of Russ Springer and talk of making Looper a starting pitcher is more of an indication that they have no faith in him in important situations. Plus the whole having a rookie rather than a veteran guy be the closer last fall. Looper had decent stats but Tony had little faith in him.
Keith,
Not the reaction expected for additional, multi-media coverage, but OK. The Randy Flores interview was transcribed in a Q&A for the paper and it can be found here:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/E5CE3383F01E0F4A8625726300124AD9?OpenDocument
The Narveson interview was some lagniappe I put up for the online people. Juan Encarnacion’s Q&A also appeared in the paper, and I’ve got at least one more to put up that will probably only appear online. The trick, I guess, is make it worth your while to listen to. I would like to hear if others share Keith’s opinion or if this audio feature is something that is working.
dg
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Two things. First, I have to believe that Wainwright will be the Cards #2 by year end. He won the competition for 5th starter last spring but Tony decided to go with the veteran Ponson. The competition wasn’t really close. He blew away Reyes and Ponson. (No disrespect to Tony.)
Second, while I love Chris Duncan almost as much as his dad, I think the prospects of his defense in left with David X’s arm in the cut-off spot might be the biggest, every-day rub on the team this year. Learning left field isn’t going to be that easy for the kid and for as much as all Cardinal Nation loves X-man at short, that isn’t Renteria’s or Jeter’s arm in the cut-off.
Derrick, I would have to say I love so much of what you do. However, with regard to going to alistening to a full audio broadcast, I am in agreement with Keith above.
While I don’t just want the sound bytes, I also don’t want the entire thing either.
then again, there may be tons of others who regularly listen to the audio (my suggestion is watch the number of times it’s loaded and fully listened to over the first several weeks or months, then pay attention to whether numbers increase or decrease….novel suggestion i know
).
thanks for all your work, Derrick
then again…why not have both and watch numbers…
For what it’s worth, I appreciate being able to hear the individual player interviews.
What can be easier than clicking a RA link and listening???