TOWER GROVE — The extreme makeover of the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen continued with an early-April move for another righthander — the team’s confessed depth entering the season — and the wish to carry 13 pitchers on the 25-man roster. All arms on deck.

The arrival of Blaine Boyer from Atlanta tonight throws the Cardinals’ reliever depth chart into a bit of a scramble, though that’s rapidly become a theme of the season as the Cardinals…

JUPITER, Fla. — That 2005 draft that the St. Louis Cardinals have billed as transformative for the organization had its first player make his major-league debut last year, could produce its first major-league contributor officially this weekend (see: Colby Rasmus), and it passed another milestone within the past couple weeks. One of the picks is coming out of retirement to try again.

Josh Wilson, a righthanded pitcher taken 70th overall, had his agent contact the Cardinals…

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals reliever Chris Perez had a lot of down time during the week he couldn’t pitch because of soreness in his shoulder, so he found other ways to busy himself. One was by listening in on some of his teammates answer The P-DQ list. He said he loved quizzes and puzzles and other time-passers of that ilk, and he wanted to give it a try.

And then he realized it was…

JUPITER, Fla. — A time-honored tradition here at Roger Dean Stadium for a few members of the copy klatch is keeping a stopwatch on the National Anthem. It’s spring training for the vocalists, too, and some can run a little … say, showy … with their interpretations. A similar exercise could be done with the questions that make up The PD-Q.

As mentioned before, some click through the questions and others ponder. And then there are…

JUPITER, Fla. — Weather threatened to wash out an entire day of minor-league games all across the Grapefruit League on Sunday. Advisories zipped around the inboxes of minor-league officials announcing how games here were cancelled, games there were cancelled.

But games involving the St. Louis Cardinals’ affiliates went on — though not entirely as scheduled.

Some quick thinking and re-organizing by camp coordinator Mike Shildt and coaches Derek Lilliquist and Dyar Miller allowed the Cardinals to race…

JUPITER, Fla. — As innings get more scarce and at-bats get more important late in spring training, some of the major-league players — or, more precisely, those battling for major-league jobs — have to find their swings and their pitches elsewhere. Enter the minor-league games.

The trip across the state and a couple other assignments put me a couple days behind on the Vuch Reports. How better to spend an overcast Sunday back here at the…

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…

JUPITER, Fla. — When working my way through the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse with The P-DQ this spring training, many of his teammates have suggested that, “Oh, you’ve got to try this Todd.” Todd being the clubhouse Colonel, the bluegrass conservative and starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer.

On Wednesday morning, I pulled up a stool — Josh Kinney’s stool, to be precise — next to Wellemeyer’s locker and asked him the handful of questions that make up…

JUPITER, Fla. — There is little doubt that Mark McCormick has the arm that merited a big signing bonus and early selection in the 2005 draft. He just hasn’t been able to do much with it. Injuries have hurt his development, but so has his inability to rein in that right arm.

Last season was billed as a pivotal one for the righthander. This one just better be a productive one.

McCormick, a starter since his days…

JUPITER, Fla. — Way back during the Junior Spivey era of Cardinals second basemen, the Cleveland Indians passed a big-hype, big-frustration prospect through waivers. Every other team had a crack at landing this infielder who once showed up at spring training with personalized batting gloves that read, “The Franchise.” The St. Louis Cardinals, governed by general manager Walt Jocketty, and scrambling for an alternative when the Spivey signing whiffed, were one of 28 teams who…

JUPITER, Fla. — Turns out, for a guy who could have played hockey in college and has turned into a fine major-league pitcher, what Chris Carpenter would really like to be able to do is lace up his Chucks and … Well, don’t want to give away the ending.

In this morning’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, colleague Joe Strauss explored the pitch-by-pitch uncertainty that is the health of Carpenter’s joints. Every time he wheels back to fire a…

JUPITER, Fla. — During the tour of Florida this past week, there were several opportunities to unfurl the list of questions that make up the Vanity Fair-esque PD-Q and get some answers from around baseball. And it’s like today’s will disappoint. Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge will forever have a place in St. Louis Cardinals’ lore for one pitch — one pitch that Albert Pujols hit into history that October night back in 2005. It was the…

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick isn’t too overly concerned about the torso soreness that sidelined him the other day. He was, instead, semi-comforted by it because it gave him cause to realize something rather remarkable about missing a game due to injury.

He hadn’t done it in a long time.

After years lost and seasons abbreviated by a host of injuries, Ludwick said he’s gone two years without missing a game due to…

JUPITER, Fla. — This offseason, the St. Louis Cardinals’ former Rule 5 pick and renaissance man with the engineering jones, Brian Barton, was a man on the move. He jetted off to Jamaica for a few days, and that was the smallest trip he took. The Cardinals’ outfielder also spent about 10 days in South Africa — where he continued to conquer a fear he mentions below — and another 10 days in Australia.

Last season,…

JUPITER, Fla. — Infielder Skip Schumaker’s first diving play in a game this spring training came this afternoon at about 1:30 p.m. EST, for those of you keeping score. Dashing to his left, Schumaker dove, snared Joe Thurston’s speedy grounder, got to his feet, and …

Threw high to first base.

“I have to realize I have more time,” Schumaker said later. “I can only learn that in games.”

Schumaker said his goal is to improve each day…