JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals healing ace Chris Carpenter threw a light bullpen off the mound Monday, his first trip up the hill since his failed attempt to pitch through bone spurs last season.

Carpenter threw 20 pitches to a squatting catcher, and did so at slightly more than halfspeed. He joked this morning that he wasn’t lobbing the ball, but wasn’t really “firing it” either. Just as importantly, he came to the clubhouse Tuesday with no soreness or discomfort or swelling in the surgically repaired elbow.

“It was fun to get back out there,” Carpenter said. “I got the ball down real good. It had some pop at the end.” 

Carpenter is still months away from returning to the rotation, but he does enter a stretch not unlike Mark Mulder’s when the lefty first arrived in Florida. He’ll have at least two more bullpen sessions like Monday’s before upping his pitch count and increasing his intensity. His recovery from Tommy John surgery remains on a calendar that could make him available in July.

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Colby Rasmus slid into the No. 3 spot for Tuesday’s game against Baltimore, and he promptly provided more proof why his batting average is misleading this spring. The Cardinals’ top prospect entered the game with a .217 average and through his first three at-bats only served to lower it. Yet, he was one of the Cardinals contributing to the offense.

This is why there are other columns past the triple-crown numbers.

Rasmus’ .217 average entering the game was the seventh-best among the outfielders competing for a major-league job. But his on-base percentage was fifth best at .379 and his slugging percentage of .565 was fourth best. The Cardinals with the best OPS (on-base-plus-percentage) this spring coming into Tuesday’s game:

1. Albert Pujols … 1.375
2. Joe Mather … 1.191
3. Brian Barton … 1.121
4. Skip Schumaker … 1.065
5. Colby Rasmus … .945
6. Rick Ankiel … .917
7. Ryan Ludwick … 870

Rasmus’ OPS and slugging is right there among the leaders, some of whom have a batting average 100 points or better. Look no further than one of the other competitors for an outfield job. Juan Gonzalez is batting .308, easily trumping Rasmus’ .217 (and holding). But Rasmus’ OPS routs Gonzalez, .945 (and climbing) to .795. So what did Rasmus do with his plate appearances Tuesday? Typical stuff.

• Walked.
• Out.
• Walked. Stole second.
• Infield single. Stole second.
• Struck out with no outs and bases loaded in the ninth.

On-base percentage surges with a 3-for-5. Average inches up 1-for-3. But game is bruised by his failure win the game in the final at-bat. Go figure. 

The other outfielders “have dynamic averages and his is considerably lower than theirs,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He’s handled himself very well. He’s taken better at-bats than his average.”

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Looks like Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak will put down his cell phone just long enough to host a chat on STLToday.com on Wednesday at noon St. Louis time. Wonder what the questions will be about.

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No responses to yesterday’s question about the five best defensive third basemen since Mike Schmidt retired his Gold Glove, so we bandied the topic around a bit during this morning’s intrasquad game. Here’s one list (Gold Gloves):

1. Scott Rolen (seven)
2. Robin Ventura (six)
3. Ken Caminiti (three)
4. Matt Williams (four)
5. Eric Chavez (six)

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Going to try a little shotgun approach to the blog today. Shorter entries, perhaps more of them. Thoughts?

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Viva el Birdos author Larry Borowsky spins a gem over at The Hardball Times, answering five questions facing the Cardinals this coming season. (Quoting the writer, “Only five?”) The questions range from Albert Pujols’ elbow to “when the future arrives” — not to be confused with uppercase The Future. But in the intro, Borowsky mines this nugget of gold from the history books:

In the last half-century, this franchise has recorded back-to-back losing seasons only once, in 1994-95—the last year of Dal Maxvill’s reign as general manager, and the first year of Walt Jocketty’s.

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