DOWNTOWN — The Cardinals dispatched a couple officials to Wichita, Kan., in the past few days to meet with and watch fourth-round draft pick and collegiate slugger Kyle Russell. While they might have missed his best game, they told him an offer was forthcoming.

He’s eager to see if it’s the kind of deal that starts his life as a pro.

Time’s ticking.

“If things are what I’m looking for then I’m ready to get started (on a professional career),” Russell said when reached Tuesday. “I’d like to get going on my dream right away. It’s been a goal to play professional baseball and I’m ready. We’ll see what happens.”

(Check out out Russell’s home run at Minute Maid Park at YouTube.)

Some of this is covered elsewhere online and in print here at The Post-Dispatch, but I wanted to elaborate on the note in Wednesday’s paper and offer some quotes from Russell after catching up to him Tuesday.

The Cardinals have until August 15 to sign Russell, who was taken in the fourth round of the most recent draft. As mentioned in Wednesday’s paper, it’s believed that Russell — who led the NCAA in home runs  –  is seeking a signing bonus more reflective of his power numbers than his draft slot. The Cardinals have been reluctant in the past to break from the ranks of set signing bonuses, though there  are several  officials internally who  hopes the franchise makes an exception in Russell’s case.

Russell, pictured here  on his wood-bat summer league club,  hit 28 home runs  as a sophomore for Texas this past season and there  continues to be considerable sentiment that he’ll return to the Longhorns for  his junior season and a chance to enhance his draft position.

On Thursday he repeated  his stance: He’s eager to go pro, if the offer is right.

The Cardinals have kept  close tabs on the lefthanded-hitting outfielder throughout this summer as he’s played for the Santa Barbara team in the California Collegiate  League.  As many as five different Cardinals scouts have seen him play  this summer.  A couple officials attended the opening games of the National  Baseball Congress World Series — where Russell’s Santa Barbara team is the defending champion — earlier this week.  In addition to watching him play, the two Cardinals instructors  took video  of Russell’s batting practice. It’s a practice the Cardinals have employed with other draft picks (like first-round pick Peter Kozma), and  it allows them to  zip what they saw to the laptops of the execs who will  write the formal offer.

Russell joked that it’s too bad they didn’t stick around. The Cardinals officials saw him strike out a  few times, and then on Tuesday he went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, two RBIs and two runs scored in the Foresters’ victory.

A draft-eligible sophomore, Russell has tremendous leverage when it comes to negotiating a signing bonus. He will have two more shots at the  June draft — though if he cranks another 26 home runs he  probably won’t need to wait until after his senior season to score a first-round bonus. When the Cardinals drafted him, there was  belief that he slipped to the fourth round  because signability was a concern.

Not just the cost of signability, but the likelihood of his returning to Texas no matter the offer.

The couple times  I’ve spoken with Russell he’s insisted that his return to Texas is not  the done deal it  has been made out to be. Not like, he offered, when he was coming out of high school and told scouts and teams that he was seeking an outrageous signing bonus that he expected would  scare off suitors.  In his sophomore year at Texas, Russell finished the collegiate season with 28 home runs and  an .807 slugging percentage. He hit .336 and drove in 71 runs on 75 hits  in 63 games.

He struck  out 64 times against 46 walks.

Russell won the Big 12 Player of the Year Award and  a unanimous All-American.

The offer he expects  his advisors to receive in the next couple days from the Cardinals will be the first offer he’s received.

“The ball’s in my court,” Russell said. “If things don’t work out this time, I’ll go back to  UT and we’ll see if something can be worked out  next year at this time. I have a lot of options and it’s an exciting time. …  If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen fast.”

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