DOWNTOWN — With National League MVP Albert Pujols topping the charts with a $175 autograph fee, the St. Louis Cardinals announced this afternoon the schedule and cost for the annual autograph pell mell that is Winter Warmup in downtown St. Louis. A total of 81 former or current Cardinals are schedule to attend the autograph sessions that are the headline event at the three-day fanfest, January 17-19.

Admission passes for the event are $40 for adults, $10…

TOWER GROVE — About a week ago, Baseball America slipped me the information that for the first time since they began publishing their rankings of overall minor-league systems the St. Louis Cardinals would reach the top 10, finishing eighth in a poll and discussion of editors there at BA. Since then, there has been a, ahem, tsunami of questions and criticisms.

The general theme of those comments has been: What does it mean, and what does it…

LAFAYETTE SQUARE — As a result of having so many officially retired numbers and several unofficially retired numbers (See: 25, 51 and 32), the St. Louis Cardinals sported a lineup that at times resembled an offensive line. The team simply did not have enough lower numbers for Chris Perez, Joe Mather, Jason Motte, et. al., to score anything lower than Skip Schumaker’s 55 for their backs.

There were a lot of swingin’ 60s out there, and there…

TOWER GROVE — Five years ago the St. Louis Cardinals and the finest hitter of his generation were steaming toward what could have been a dicey and milestone arbitration hearing when, in the 11th hour, Albert Pujols agreed to the largest contract in franchise history. The deal, still active today, made Pujols the ninth $100-million man in baseball history and, at 24, the youngest ever to reach the salary threshold.

As the MVP enters the penultimate year…

TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals are close to acquiring a new face while continuing a familiar trend.

Late last night the news broke, by Joe Strauss here at The Post-Dispatch and by Padres beat writer Tom Krasovic over at the San Diego Union-Tribune, that the Cardinals had traded for San Diego shortstop Khalil Greene. Greene will become the St. Louis Cardinals’ fourth different everyday shortstop since the start of the 2004 World Series. And, his contract gives every…

WEST COUNTY — The St. Louis Cardinals decision not to offer Braden Looper arbitration by this week’s deadline can be measured in the innings they have to prove they can fill, the dollars they may have saved, and the years of security he may gain.

But don’t forget to count the prospect the Cardinals won’t get.

As a Type B free agent, Looper offered the Cardinals the opportunity to assure a supplemental (i.e., sandwich) round pick in…

TOWER GROVE — This evening at the stroke of midnight on the East Coast the prices for many of the best free agents in baseball will be set by teams deciding whether or not to offer arbitration. Some players are sure to be offered arbitration because of the bounty of draft picks their signings will bring (A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia, for example). Others certainly won’t be, like shortstop Edgar Renteria (the Detroit Tigers made it…

TOWER GROVE — The agent for shortstop Edgar Renteria called a report from a New York sports radio station that the shortstop had signed with the San Francisco Giants “completely false.” Barry Meister, an agent for the free agent shortstop, said he didn’t mind refuting a “false report” and he went on to say that nothing was imminent with any of the half dozen teams that have shown interest in Renteria.

“I don’t really have a…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick, fresh from the official announcement that he had won a Silver Slugger to punctuate his breakout season, was headed to the gym. The spoils of this season are swell, but he has no interest in being a one-hit wonder.

He even used this past week of rumors, reports and headlines to explain why.

“I think it’s an honor just to be named in the same place as Matt…

TOWER GROVE — While reading the coverage of the deal sending Colorado Rockies outfielder and recent Cardinals-target Matt Holliday to Oakland — from the news of the trade, to the players headed to Denver, to Drew Litton’s cartoon — one thing stands out.

There isn’t a Ryan Ludwick in the bunch.

Any time there is a deal of this nature, especially one that we know the St. Louis Cardinals were interested/involved in, it offers up an opportunity to truly…

TOWER GROVE — Fresh from an offseason that included a new contract, a slimmer frame and a healthier knee, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina sat in front of his locker at the Jupiter facility and talked instead about what was missing. It was his first day of spring training and he had no need to hide his personal goal for the 2008 season.

He wants to win a Gold Glove.

“I won’t stop, I’ll keep working…

TOWER GROVE — Back in 1997, a young shortstop named Edgar Renteria was still a few days away from a defining moment in his career — that title-winning single to center field in the 11th inning of the World Series’ Game 7 — when he took a seat at a press conference. Renteria and the upstart Florida Marlins were the surprise winners of the National League pennant, the wild-card team made good, and  they came…

TOWER GROVE — Six members of the 2008 St. Louis Cardinals were among the 65 players who filed for free agency on the first day they could, according to a release from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Filing is a formality that all players, even those pondering retirement or weighing an offer from their previous team, usually do just to be sure the appropriate paperwork is filed if necessary.

The six Cardinals who filed Thursday…

TOWER GROVE — As Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre describes it: A few weeks ago, at Coors Field, he pulled his shortstop, Rafael Furcal, into a meeting to discuss whether or not the switch-hitter’s body would cooperate and let him be a factor in October. As MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick and the player describe it,  the tone of that meeting was a tad different: Furcal quit.

The Dodgers are not the only team pleased he reconsidered.

“We started…

FORT LAUDERDALE — It could have been the cleat that was caught on something in the batter’s box. It could have been a hitch in his swing that left his knee exposed to too much torque. It could have been a conspiracy of both. But whatever the cause, shortstop Tyler Greene calls the events that ripped his knee cap out of place a fluke, a “freak” accident.

And now, he happily says, it’s forgotten.

Greene, 24, has…