FORT MYERS, Fla. — For the most part, every player I’ve approached this spring with the 20 or so questions that make up The P-DQ has gamely taken the time to answer them. Sometimes they breeze through them with short, precise answers. Sometimes they labor over them, crafting an answer. Often they draw a crowd of teammates who encourage or needle their answers.

And then there was Dustin Pedroia.

The Boston Red Sox second baseman, reigning American…

TAMPA, Fla. — In the days that followed the release of the Mitchell Report in December 2007, I spoke with a player mentioned in the report and asked about how he was going to explain it to his kids before they heard about it at school. He said when the time was right he would tell them the whole truth. It was only fair to give them the facts.

What works at home, works at large,…

TOWER GROVE — As I waded through various research projects this offseason, a fluke of clutter provided a jolt of inspiration. There, nosed up against one another in the flotsam of loose and scattered legal pads and books, was my scorecard from Opening Day 2001 at Coors Field and a Cardinals encyclopedia-of-sorts opened to Rogers Hornsby’s page.

As a sidebar jockey for The Rocky Mountain News in 2001, I was at Coors Field to cover Mike Hampton’s brilliant debut…

TOWER GROVE — The list of players offered arbitration is in, with 24 free agents getting the notice from their former teams and not one St. Louis Cardinal. While the deadline revealed more about who won’t be a Cardinal in 2009 than who will be, the list of players not offered arbitration will expand the Cardinals’ shopping list.

Houston opted not to give Randy Wolf an arbitration offer and the Astros, with Mike Hampton on the way,…

TOWER GROVE — We’ve had plenty of time to mull over the numbers and choose sides in the National League MVP race, one that is likely going to come down to a showdown between the raw power of Philadelphia Phillies’ first baseman Ryan Howard and the unwavering uncanny production of St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Albert Pujols. It’s 2006 all over again. Only the one with a World Series ring coming his way his different.

Either…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols continued gathering momentum toward the ultimate prize of baseball’s award season Friday as the Major League Baseball Players Association and its members named Pujols their Player of the Year.

Pujols edged LA Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez and Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee for the award, which is based on a vote of his peers, fellow members of the players’ union. The award punctuates a week of accolades…

DOWNTOWN — Beginning what could be a week of plaudits for Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols, the Major League Baseball Players Association announced Tuesday that his peers voted him the National League’s Outstanding Player.

Pujols is also a finalist for the Players Choice award for Player of the Year and for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award, one given for work off the field as much as on the field.

This is the second time…

TOWER GROVE — Cardinals first baseman and MVP candidate Albert Pujols is a finalist for two of the most prestigious Player Choice awards handed out by the MLB Players Association after a vote of his peers, the union announced Friday afternoon. Pujols is one of three finalists for the Player of the Year Award, and he is also the only National League player who is a finalist for the Marvin Miller Man of the Year…

TOWER GROVE — I watched Bob Costas’ interview with Willie Mays and Hank Aaron the other day, and while the whole of the interview is brilliant there was a line from it I couldn’t shake. Costas said if there were a Mt. Rushmore for baseball — and why isn’t there, already? — Mays and Aaron would both be on it. Presumably Babe Ruth would be riding shotgun.

That leaves a fourth, the Teddy Roosevelt spot.

Does Teddy…

DOWNTOWN — Back in my early days at the P-D covering hockey, the selection of the “Three Stars” at each game was, loosely, my responsibility. Toward the end of the game, a quick straw poll was taken of the other writers in the box. Sometimes the selections were obvious. Sometimes they weren’t. Sometimes they drew compliments. A few times they sparked debate. My name was on the box score, so I took it seriously.

(Ask Chris Kerber…

DOWNTOWN — Even though they cannot commit to his glove, the Cardinals had Brett Wallace’s bat in their crosshairs for the 13th pick for awhile. They figured only one thing could keep Wallace from being their first selection in this year’s draft.

Those so-called Moneyball guys out in Oakland.

As the players the Cardinals expected to go early in Thursday’s first round came off the board, the Cardinals narrowed their choice at 13 to two players – Wallace and high…

TOWER GROVE — Albert Pujols came one walk shy last summer of a first in his career, a 100-walk season. This season, he’ll get there by August.

Pujols has 13 walks in 54 plate appearances so far — so early — this month. Take his average season of 677 plate appearances and at his current rate he’ll walk 163 times this year. That would break by one base on balls the franchise record, set in 1998…

DOWNTOWN — His convertible just pulled up last, the tail end of today’s ceremonial player introductions. Clearly the order was not selected by Opening Day performance.

Cardinals infielder Aaron Miles will make the third Opening Day start of his career today, and he brings an uncanny streak of performances into it. He’s yet to make a start on the first afternoon of the season and not get at least five hits. A couple doubles? Sigh. Par…

JUPITER, Fla. — When Colby Rasmus dug in against the crafty veteran in Tuesday’s game, the Cardinals’ could-be rookie outfielder had a simple plan.

“Just trying to work the count,” he said, grinning. “Get a good pitch to hit.”

Of course, the purpose of the coach-pitch game is to have plenty of pitches to hit and plenty of action for the defense. Many of the Cardinals’ younger players and non-roster invitees squared off in the annual coach…

JUPITER, Fla. — In the fallout of baseball’s nuclear winter of steroid revelations, apologies and denials, spring training has added a new tradition.

It’s the Mitchell moment.

During the first weeks of spring training, a handful of teams have had a player mentioned in the Mitchell Report arrive and answer a salvo of questions about being cited in the record of baseball’s Steroid Era. If it appears like more of those stories are coming out of Cardinals camp than others,…