SOUTH GRAND — Starting with a possible trade partner that probably doesn’t have what the Cardinals are looking for and ending with a question about the chances of a fan-favorite outfielder trying on an infielder’s glove, this week’s edition of the mailbag is loaded with all manner of things middle infield.

Oh, and there is also an advocacy of a four-man rotation.

Reliever Russ Springer is back. Rico Washington gave everyone a great story. And…

DOWNTOWN — Taped on the door into manager Tony La Russa’s office is an advertisement ripped from a magazine and featuring Chris Carpenter delivering a pitch. La Russa had the same 8 1/2-by-11-inch picture stuck on his door down in spring training and he insisted on bringing the picture up north with him.

La Russa calls it “a reminder.”

The manager said Carpenter is a personification of what’s coming and what has to be accomplished for he arrives….

TOWER GROVE – The PostCards inbin was overrun with spam and the Cyrillic alphabet – who knew four years of Russian would help me wade through questions for a baseball mailbag? спасибо Большое. One email that had the subject line: “Thanks Houston/We Have Liftoff!”

Thought for sure that was a love letter to Brandon Backe. But no.

It was a religious group’s mass email with a space travel pun. Houston? Liftoff? Getit? Dah. (Just wait until…

TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals jet off on their first road trip of the season having let so few of their opposing hitters take flight at all this season. Much has been made of the Cardinals rotation’s sub-1.00 ERA through six games and the staff as a whole has an ERA of 1.83, better than every team in baseball save the LA Dodgers and their 1.70.

That’s the macro picture. The micro is even more…

DOWNTOWN — The Cardinals four highest minor-league affiliates will open their regular seasons today, and already there was a move of some consequence.

Trey Hearne, who became something of an Internet darling in 2006 with his performance at Low-A Quad Cities, will pitch this season in the Mexican League. The righthander reported to Minatitlan, the same club outfielder Amaury Marti started with last summer. The Cardinals were lacking innings to give the starter, so they…

JUPITER, Fla. — Still bothered by muscle discomfort in his ribcage, Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan will remain in Florida after the team leaves for its two-game trip to Springfield, Mo. The club is packing a couple different options as insurance.

Ryan had to cut short his work in the batting cages Wednesday, manager Tony La Russa disclosed Thursday morning. Ryan is allowed to participate in activities “as tolerated”, and he had no hesitation during baserunning drills this morning. But…

JUPITER, Fla. — The Cardinals placed seven players Tuesday on the disabled list for the opening week of the regular season, but the list was noteworthy for who wasn’t on it as much as who was.

Brendan Ryan was not placed on the disabled list and the Cardinals believe that he could be ready for opening day despite the lost time because of soreness in his right rib cage.

“He’s feeling better,” GM John Mozeliak said….

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals starter Mark Mulder passed another mile marker in his lengthy trek back to the rotation by throwing batting practice to three minor leaguers early Saturday morning. The lefty threw 30 pitches and improved tremendously from the first batch of 15 to the second.

“I could come away and say my command wasn’t very good but I didn’t really think it was going to be,” Mulder said. ”Did I make a handful of…

JUPITER, Fla. — A year ago at the Civil Rights Game, a Cardinals fan — a man Adam Wainwright knew only through his father — approached the Cardinals righthander about giving him a gift. He wanted him to have a baseball, a prized ball, one of two he owned.

It was signed by Johnny Sain.

The phrase scrawled in Sain’s handwriting near his autograph says it all:

“First to pitch to Jackie Robinson. Last to pitch…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals healing ace Chris Carpenter threw a light bullpen off the mound Monday, his first trip up the hill since his failed attempt to pitch through bone spurs last season.

Carpenter threw 20 pitches to a squatting catcher, and did so at slightly more than halfspeed. He joked this morning that he wasn’t lobbing the ball, but wasn’t really “firing it” either. Just as importantly, he came to the clubhouse Tuesday with no…