DOWNTOWN — As the Cardinals settle in to make their first pick of this year’s draft, oh, about an hour from now, a little history lesson in player acquisition: Seventy-one years ago today, as colleague Bernie Miklasz discovered with his research, the Cardinals signed a 16-year-old pitcher to a contract.

His name: Stan Musial.

While that pitching career never really worked out for the lefthander, Musial went onto quite a luminous (and voluminous) career as a  hitter. Musial’s bat was, in scoutspeak, a heck of a “safety net.”

This year’s draft, while stocked with first baseman and laced with some premium athletes, features an intriguing twist with all of the two-way players that could go in the early rounds today. (Commissioner Bud Selig is stepping up to the podium now for the first pick: SS Tim Beckham.) Ranked in Baseball America’s top 20 prospare four prep stars who could be selected as either pitchers or position players:

7. Eric Hosmer, 1B/LHP … Plantation HS, Fla. More of a hitter with his power and hitting approach. (TAKEN 3rd — KC)

13. Aaron Hicks, RHP/OF … Wilson HS, Calif.

16. Ethan Martin, RHP/3B … Stephens County HS, Ga.

19. Casey Kelly, RHP/SS … Sarasota HA, Fla. 

There have been reports of the Cardinals having Hicks and Kelly at workouts. Kelly was seen at the Cardinals’ Jupiter facility, where he apparently worked out for both the Marlins and Cardinals. According to a national report, Hicks impressed the Cardinals during his workout. I have been cautioned about the information about these reports by a Cardinals official. Fine. It’s that time of year.

What the Cardinals did do when looking at these two-way players is have them workout at one position. That position could be determined by the Cardinals or by conversation with the player — asking him which he prefers. When the players who can handle a position and pitch came to the Cardinals workouts they only did so at a position OR pitcher.

No one did both, vice president Jeff Luhnow said.

“We wanted to look at them at their preferred position and hopefully the one we saw them as a best fit for us,” Luhnow said. “I’m not sure that it helps (a player’s cause for an early pick). I’m not one to really talk about the ’safety net’ that means a player who doesn’t hit can workout as a pitcher. It does mean that a position player has a strong arm. So that’s one tool we don’t need to worry about.

“But there’s always a little guesswork with a position change,” Luhnow concluded. “It’s not always an ideal situation.”

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An interesting name that has come up for later in the draft: OF Jarred Bogany. A former LSU recruit and Arizona State player, he ended up at Lubbock Christian. One official said he impressed at the Cardinals’ invitation-only workout in Houston. He hit .322/.385/.615 for Lubbock Christian. … The Cardinals had about 200 players attend their five workouts around the country.

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We now begin the video portion of this entry, something I’ve been trying to put together. There are a lot of good videos of players in this draft over at MiLB.com. There is also a story on the just-drafted Hosmer at the Sun-Sentinel. But here are a view videos of guys mentioned in connection with the Cardinals, starting with Brett Wallace at Arizona State and the likely top-1o Gordon Beckham of Georgia. And the onto to of the two-way players linked to the Cardinals, Aaron Hicks and Casey Kelly, Pat’s kid. 

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The draft’s schedule today has the Cardinals picking around 2:15 p.m., as the first round is set to go until 3:40 p.m. Major League Baseball has told teams they will go as far as they can until 8 p.m. tonight.

Fourth pick coming up …

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