JUPITER, Fla. — As manager Tony La Russa was quick to point out the other day when asked about his team’s annual difficulty against lefthanded pitchers, it’s going to take more than Troy Glaus to turn that trend around.

Ryan Ludwick, for example.

As discussed in a lineup posting earlier this spring here at the B-Land blog, the Cardinals seem to have the bats on hand to make a difference in their performance against lefties this season. Check out that link for some of the career and recent numbers of guys like Glaus and Juan Gonzalez. Add to that mix, though, Ludwick and, possibly, Brian Barton. That duo combined for seven hits and two home runs in Wednesday’s afternoon game, with rookie Barton raising his batting average more than .200 points with four swings.

The Cardinals offense was relatively average when it came to the single-base stats last year. But when it came to damage, thump, extra-base pop the Cardinals went … plop! They were singles hitters in a doubles world.

That was especially true against lefties (MLB rank):

.276 BA (17th), .350 OBP (11), .401 SLG (27)

The .401 slugging against lefthanded pitchers was far below the National League average of .431, continuing a three-year decline from .425 in 2005. The Cardinals’ stats against lefties in the previous two seasons show that fall:

2006 … .264 BA (14), .330 OBP (21), .401 SLG (28)

2005 … .271 BA (11), .345 (7), .425 SLG (15)

Ludwick came to spring training this season with a refined swing, but also an interesting role in what the Cardinals hope will be — no, no, needs to be – a more productive lineup against lefthanded pitchers. The righthanded-hitting outfielder hit .221/.307/.377 against lefties last season. Those are reverse splits that La Russa noticed and asked Ludwick about. See, he’d always hit lefties until coming up to the majors last season.

His stats against lefties in Triple-A Memphis last year:

.387 BA, .413 OBP, .692 SLG … in 75 plate appearances

As the Cardinals split their roster for two games today, the obvious split guided La Russa’s hand. Washington started LHP John Lannan, and the Cardinals looked in midseason form. Throughout Lannan’s innings, the Cardinals put runners on, failed to bring them in. Joe Mather tripled with one out in the first. Didn’t budge. The first two runners of the third inning reached base. Neither scored. It was the middle of the order failing to bring the runs in.

So they got base hits against the lefty. Just not the runs.

“Offensive mistakes,” La Russa said after the first game of the doubleheader. “Didn’t capitalize on counts, on opportunies. We could have easily scored eight or nine runs.”

That fits the riddle La Russa describes as his team’s record against lefty starters. He has batters with good splits against lefties, just can’t translate average into runs.

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The Cardinals heard back from the doctor they sent the MRI of Tyler Johnson’s shoulder to, and he confirmed the diagnosis made by the club’s team doctors. Johnson will not need surgery to repair a strained rotator cuff and tendinitis. He will not throw for a week, and his shoulder will be re-evaluated next Wednesday, trainer Barry Weinberg said this afternoon. If he’s progressing as planned, Johnson will begin a long toss program with an intent to return to the mound shortly thereafter.

“Complete agreement,” Weinberg said, “with the findings and with the treatment. So now we’ll start a strengthening program for him right away.”

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Outfielder Brian Barton still falls somewhere in the Rule 5 spectrum between Juan Mateo and Hector Luna, but he continues to get prime playing time show where (and if) he belongs on the major-league roster this season. La Russa said he does not yet have a ”read” on Barton, but likes him enough to keep playing him as one of the righthanded outfielders.

“Done more good things than he hasn’t,” the manager said.

Like:

• Speed enough to leg out an infield base hit. His single in the third inning today.
• Ability at the bat to rope line drives, as he did up the middle in the fifth inning and up the middle agains in the sixth inning to raise his average to .333.
• Then there was that homer he hit in the eighth. Two-run shot, 2-2 pitch.
• Can cover ground in center. For example, on consecutive balls in play he ranged deep into the left-center gap to make a catch, and then he sprinted to the opposite extreme and nearly collided with Ryan Ludwick as they both came short of the catch.
• And there is his arm.

Barton has not displayed what La Russa called ”a plus arm”. On both runs into the gap, that was apparent. It’s possible his legs are a fit for anywhere in the outfield, but his arm puts him in left. 

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Once Mike Parisi got his curveball cooking Wednesday in his first 1 o’clock start the righthanded prospect continued his bid to be the First Guy Up should the Cardinals need a spot start or assistance from the Triple-A rotation. Parisi pitched three innings, but had to get two extra outs in the first because of infield play. He struck out three batters, including Stan Musial fan Lastings Milledge on a biting curve in the third inning.

Check back here later, because there’s a night game to cover, for more on Parisi.

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Cannot beat the anecdote that tops this story out of Philadelphia’s spring training about former (and beloved) Cardinal So Taguchi.

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Asked La Russa about his rotation at leadoff hitter this spring, and if he plans to continue using the same three guys in the spot. He apparently took it as a criticism of the practice, saying that if we thought a fourth player should be used, the dadgum he’d put a fourth player there. “You want Skip Schumaker to bat leadoff tonight?” La Russa asked us. “Just say so. Schumaker will be in there.” Guess we’ll see. 

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Rules dictate that teams must take four major-league regulars to each game, even road games, and on Tuesday the Cardinals stretched the definition of regular to get a representative team to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and fit the veterans’ schedules for a doubleheader today. La Russa counted off the regulars he took to Lauderdale.

“Yadi, Izturis, Ryan,” the manager said. “Ryan was last year. That’s what you go by, is last year.”

A reporter inquired: “And the fourth?”

“Rasmus,” La Russa grinned, “this year.”

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If you’re looking for more than your daily serving of sarcasm and exclamation points, JSL!!!@$!$%! returned to form today.

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KC columnist Joe Posnanski has channeled his inner Rice (Grantland, not Jim) to offer up season previews in verse over at his self-titled blog.

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Former Missouri State pitcher Ross Detwiler was one of the minor-leaguers reassigned in Washington’s camp early Wednesday, the Nationals first cuts of spring. Detwiler, a lefty taken sixth overall last summer, was a September callup for the Nats and came to spring training with a chance to win a big-league roster spot. So they said. According to reports today, Washington has told him he could return to the major-league camp if innings are available. Or, he could be in Class A.

Here’s the quote today, posted at The Washington Times’ Web site, from GM Jim Bowden:

“I am not opposed at all to developing him out of the bullpen,” the GM said. Bowden also added he wouldn’t be surprised if Detwiler “starts the year at [Class A] Potomac, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts the year in Washington. That will be determined on the field.”

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And the latest in reader Kurt Hunzeker’s designs for the t-shirt slogans of spring. Today’s is inspired by Brendan Ryan’s appropriation of trampoline as a verb earlier this spring to describe a groundball taken a wicked awful hop, high and at his head. Check out the details:

The font that Hunzeker has been using in these designs, it should be noted, is one of his own creation. It’s a riff on the font used for Busch Stadium’s signs, and he calls it “Busch”.

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