TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals sudden and curious move to release Adam Kennedy on the eve of spring training leaves them with a hole at second base and an open casting call for the job.

So, it’s business at usual down in Jupiter.

With all due respect to the St. Louis Blues, whose revolving door in goal was chronicled and counted in this morning’s paper by Dan O’Neill (ah, where have you gone Tom Barrasso?), the real hot-potato position in St. Louis sports is Cardinals’ second base, passing swiftly from hand to hand, year to year, spring training to spring training. Since Fernando Vina played 150 games at the position in 2002, he and 20 other Cardinals have played the position for manager Tony La Russa and the club. Sixteen different Cardinals have started at least a game at second base. The list of second baseman the Cardinals have used range from Aaron Miles and Mark Grudzielanek (each with at least 130 appearances at the position) to Albert Pujols and Rico Washington (each with one).

Free agent Mark Grudzielanek: The last Cardinal 2B to make 100 starts at the position.

Kennedy leaves the Cardinals with one year remaining on his contract — and that hefty $4 million the Cardinals are on the hook for (unless some team just wants to claim him off waivers today) — and just about one season of service. In two years with the team, Kennedy played 163 games at second.

Now he’s a former Cardinal for the second time in his career.

When the Cardinals held a press conference out in West County to announce the signings of Kip Wells and Kennedy, one of the topics then-GM Walt Jocketty brought up was how Kennedy and his three-year deal would bring an end to the musical chair approach to the position. Since Vina was injured and Hart arrived, the Cardinals had adopted a belief that a second baseman could be found or made every year. And, for awhile, they were right. There was Tony Womack waiting for them toward the end of spring training in 2004. There was Mark Grudzielanek willing to take a reduced deal to get career traction the next winter, and so on and so on. The pool for second baseman, as one Cardinals official told me back then, was deep because you “could always have a shortstop play second.”

Sure there was a financial aspect to the approach.

The high-end second basemen — think Jeff Kent, Chase Utley, etc. — were few and they were either homegrown treasures for teams (Utley) or they were pricey free agents (Kent). There weren’t too many Dan Uggla’s floating around. And it was a position that the Cardinals could “slot” at a certain price and stick to it. Kennedy, when he signed in the afterglow of the World Series win, was above slot.

But he didn’t put a stop the wild rotation. If anything, he only served as an obstacle to the guy who did.

That infielder? Aaron Miles.

Since the end of the 2003 season, here is the unabridged list of Cardinals who played second and how many times they appeared at the position. Cue the music:

• Aaron Miles … 258
• Adam Kennedy … 163
• Mark Grudzielanek … 137 — Won Gold Glove the year after he earned it with Cardinals.
• Tony Womack … 133
• Hector Luna … 82
• Bo Hart … 73 — Ah, remember that debut? The Cooperstown plaque? The switch-hitting.
• Fernando Vina … 60
• Ron Belliard … 54 — Acquired in 2006 to fill the spot, he still shared it with Miles.
• Miguel Cairo … 49 — Including 40 in 2003 and then nine years later in 2007.
• Brendan Ryan … 40
• Marlon Anderson … 37
• Felipe Lopez … 23
• Abe Nunez … 22 — Became renowned for his fill-in work for Scott Rolen at third.
• Scott Spiezio … 13
• Wilson Delgado … 12
• Scott Seabol … 8 — And one memorable blast against the New York Yankees.
• So Taguchi … 3 — The trailblazer for Skip Schumaker.
• Brian Barden … 3
• Jose Vizcaino … 2
• Albert Pujols … 1 — First appeared at the position in the All-Star Game.
• Rico Washington … 1

Multiple sources have said that the Cardinals considered releasing Kennedy several weeks ago as they made an 11th-hour scramble to sign Miles and install him as the de facto starter. They decided against it, or Powers That Be advised against it. Either way, Miles signed with the Chicago Cubs and the Cardinals insisted then that Kennedy was coming to spring training as the starter. Heck, he even attended the Winter Warm-up and said all the right things: He called this season the most important of his career.

His abrupt release Monday, about a week before position players are supposed to report to Jupiter for camp, leaves the Cardinals exposed and oddly unsettled at second. With the expectation of Ryan’s 40 games at the position, none of the other candidates mentioned by name in the Cardinals’ release Monday have more than 15 games in the majors at the position. Three, including Schumaker, have zero.

Brendan Ryan … 40 games at second in the majors.

Joe Thurston … 15 games at second in the majors.

Brian Barden … 3 games at second in the majors.

Jarrett Hoffpauir, Tyler Greene and Skip Schumaker … 0 games each at second.

The most accomplished at the position in this contest is clearly Ryan, who grew up as a second baseman before making the switch to shortstop as he became a pro. There’s a case to be made for Thurston as the most polished at the position, though his work as been in the minors. The most gifted with the glove in the group is Barden, but he’s mostly displayed that on the left side of the diamond. The most athletic of the group is either Ryan or Greene, the former first-round pick (taken a couple slots after Colby Rasmus and signed to a larger bonus). For several years now, even as he scuffled in the minors, Greene has been billed as a potential second baseman in the majors. At one point, a Cardinals official rebuked my preference to list Greene as a second baseman on the depth charts for Baseball America’s prospect list, but last year the Cardinals and Greene embraced the idea that he could play second, third and shortstop as he expanded his versatility.

Skip Schumaker: The next Cardinal to play 100+ at 2B?

The most compelling of the group is clearly Schumaker.

Schumaker played shortstop in college and he did come to the Cardinals — technically — as an infielder. In a pre-draft workout at old Busch Stadium, Schumaker took groundballs during the fielding portions of the drills. It was, according to him, the last time he took groundballs … I mean, seriously took groundballs … until these past couple weeks in Jupiter.

No one can doubt Schumaker’s athleticism or his tenacity, but the Cardinals are asking him to learn a dramatically different position in eight weeks. Second requires throwing away from your forward motion. The angles of a second baseman’s throws can vary from charging a bunt and throwing behind to spinning a double play and throwing across the body. It requires a blend of reaction and range. Schumaker could take a page from Frankie Frisch’s approach — just get in front of the ball, stop it with any part of the body possible, and then find it for the throw.

In his article about Schumaker’s experimentation at second base, MLB.com writer Matthew Leach suggests that Schumaker is working out at second now not for 2009 but to be the answer at the position in 2010. It’s all but certain that 2009 with be a continuation of the rotation at second base, but 2010? Is there an infielder on the cusp of finally bringing stability to the Cardinals’ keystone carousel? Is there an outfielder?

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