JUPITER, Fla. — On the 17th pitch Anthony Reyes threw, a hitter finally got the ball out of the batting cage. And that was lofted foul.

In a 40-pitch session, three balls were put in fair territory.

Two fly balls. Both outs. One grounder up the middle. Probably a single.

Reyes’ second throw to hitters of spring was more eye-catching. It was, in the word of one Cardinals’ official onlooker, “very encouraging”. It was also very retro. Reyes whipped his fastballs like it was 2005. His curve had a tighter, less loopy life to it. He located his changeup … Down. Down. Down. Rick Ankiel has been one of the most impressive hitters in camp and he swung and missed at Reyes’ first two pitches.

The first one was a changeup, low in the zone.

The second was a high fastball.

But, hold off on that four-seam/two-seam teeth-gnashing.

This was an approved high fastball. Pitching coach Dave Duncan cautioned that it is still early spring and it is a batting practice, but there were things to like about Reyes’ throw Sunday. Velocity. Location. And, yes, how he set up that high fastball that he so loves to throw. By working down in the zone, Reyes is able to alter a hitter’s eye level by climbing ladder with a pitch just outside the upper edge of the fastball.

“I feel like my old self again,” Reyes said, a mantra he has repeated with subtle variations throughout this spring. “I’m doing things I used to be comfortable doing.”

There is an obvious benefit to having Reyes seize one of the open spots in the rotation — as will be discussed in tomorrow’s Post-Dispatch — and there is a glaring need for some pitcher (two, even) to swallow innings for this club. Reyes was a pitcher groping for his mechanics and grasping at uncomfortable approaches the last couple years. He has not been that this spring. The Cardinals are eager to see how far it goes.

Reyes starts Thursday. In the spring opener. Against the New York Mets.

“I’m rooting for Anthony Reyes,” Duncan said.

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If Reyes starts Thursday, that puts Adam Wainwright on Friday. Wainwright on Friday, if you do the math, equals only one thing: Opening Day Starter.

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Mitchell Boggs will start Wednesday’s game against St. Louis University. The righthander will throw two innings and then the plan is to follow him with: P.J. Walters (two innings), Clayton Mortensen (two innings), Jaime Garcia (two innings) and Chris Perez (one inning).

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And, as for Mortensen, the word used to describe his session against hitters on Sunday was “overmatched”. As in, according to Duncan, the hitters were overmatched by the power sinker. Asked if he’d like to see Mortensen fill out his lithe frame, Duncan said: “He’s doing pretty well now without that.”

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Following up on today’s article about Tyler Johnson. He threw well in his first appearance against hitters today. Several of us have seen him tinkering around with a curve this spring, the pitch that got him through the minors until that slider put him in the majors. Johnson has said he starts with the curve to work on the tight, rapid rotation he wants for the slider. It’s a good stepping-stone pitch. But it’s also one, he concedes, still good enough that he has been known to use it (sparingly) in games. He threw four or five of them, to righthanders, last season.

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While Johnson is viewed as the true lefty specialist of the bunch vying for the lefty spots in the Cardinals bullpen, it’s really his strikeouts of lefties that sets him apart as an accomplished LOOGY. The lefty splits for the four lefty pitches for the last three seasons (BA/OBP/SLG):

• Tyler Johnson … .228/.324/.416 … 149 AB/40 K … (26.8 K-rate)

• Randy Flores … .259/.324/.376 … 263 AB/64 K … (24.3 K-rate)

• Ron Flores … .215/.282/.292 … 65 AB/21 K … (32.3 K-rate)

• Ron Villone … .210/.304/.303 … 290 AB/70 K … (24.1 K-rate) 

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Ah, Hack Attack, what will you do next. The Cardinals new pitching machine has the ability to throw fastballs, sliders, changeups and … knuckleballs. It can fire the fastball at 100 mph, coach Dave McKay said, but he had it only dialed-up to 75 mph or thereabouts during the simulation game Saturday. The beauty of the machine, the coaches explain, is that it’s good for more than just BP and situation drills. It can be set for curve and will bounce balls to catchers for them to block. It can be set for fastball and put flush to the ground to give infielders true-hop grounders. And, because it can fire a ball from home plate to over the fence, it can be used to fire fly balls out to the outfielders.

Just make sure you check the settings.

On Sunday, the first fly balls flung out to the hitters wobbled and floated and veered and sailed like balloons. Outfielders tried to track the butterfly path of the balls and ended up scattering around the field in pursuit. Coaches checked the dial. It was set for knuckleball. 

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The Cardinals, annually vulnerable to that lefty starter like Colorado’s Jeff Francis (the likely opening day start), will have a lefty batting-practice pitcher around, full time, this season: Mike Aldrete, the assistant to the hitting coach.

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Walt Jocketty has come to Cincinnati to help Wayne Krivsky, not replace him.

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Some additional info on the Hungarian catcher the Cardinals invited to minor-league camp, as provided with John Vuch: Catcher Denes Simonyi switched to baseball at 11 and by 15 was playing professionally for the Sleepwalkers. During the most recent playoffs, Simonyi cracked a walk-off grand slam to invert a 9-6 deficit into a 10-9 victory and a trip the league’s finals.

Simonyi is attending Budapest Corvinus University, and he speaks multiple languages, including German and English.

His signing was such an event in Hungary that the Cardinals had to create a paper copy of the invitation for him to be presented. The press conference was held at the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, April Foley, handed Simonyi a Cardinals jersey with the No. 1 on it.

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Over at La Russa’s film company, Red Bird Cinema, they have acquired the rights to Sugar Ray Leonard’s life story. La Russa said the deal was struck this offseason after he and his partners met with Leonard and realized there was more to his story than the just the boxing. Author Buzz Bissinger is writing the script, La Russa said, and the Leonard movie — and it will be a movie, not a bio or documentary, he said – joins the line of Red Bird movies that already includes an adaptation of “3 Nights in August”, a Pete Rose movie and others.

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