TOWER GROVE — At one point this season, manager Tony La Russa approached Brendan Ryan to assure the young, live-wire infielder that some people just had it wrong. No matter what he heard or read or inferred from any comments, La Russa told Ryan he really, really did like him, 3-0 swinging and all.

Now it’s time to show him.

With shortstop Cesar Izturis on the 15-day disabled list with a sore hamstring, there is an opportunity…

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…

DISNEY WORLD — If only he had been as aggressive in the first inning Monday as he was in the four innings that followed and in the post-game with the media, Adam Wainwright might really have had himself a dandy start against Atlanta.

It was Dave Duncan that spurred him to perk up in the game.

It was a question about Duncan’s rotation that stirred him after the game.

One of the things manager Tony La Russa and Duncan have discussed…

TOWER GROVE — A quick-hit sampler of things I’ve read, reported or researched recently:

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More from the latest Bill James Handbook below, but on the day the Cardinals potentially add a righthanded bat to their bench, how’s this for a surprise number: 405. That would be the average length, in feet,  of Ryan Ludwick’s home runs this past season, tied for sixth-longest in the National League with … Jim Edmonds. On the next page of the…

TOWER GROVE — The present absence of David Eckstein on the Cardinals’ roster leaves them with uncertainty at shortstop and a glaring hole in the leadoff spot.

As the Cardinals lineup is currently constructed, there isn’t a clear-cut leadoff hitter in the group. Try and find one.

There’s Brendan Ryan, perhaps the best candidate, but the Cardinals aren’t sold on him as the everyday starter, so how can he be the best bet at leadoff?…

TOWER GROVE — A reminder of the Cardinals possible future was in Nashville yesterday, a free agent selling his services to the gathered general managers.

Outfielder Steve Finley, who rejected acceptance to a prestigious chiropractor school ot pursue a career in baseball, visited the Opryland this week to talk with club executives about his desire to keep playing, at 42. It’s a name that has not only been mentioned as a prospective Cardinal, in the…

COLUMBIA, Mo. — If the Boston Red Sox are World Series champions, the Cardinals must be looking for a starting shortstop and Orlando Cabrera is probably a meddling presence.

And we know how this turns out.

After the Cardinals checked out of the 2004 World Series having done their part to start turning the suffering Red Sox Nation into the insufferable Red Sox Nation, they began a search for a starting shortstop. Three shortstops, all…

TOWER GROVE — From all across baseball, general managers are gathering in Orlando this week to talk shop, talk trade and play footsy with free agents — and it’s all happening in the backyard of one of Cardinal Nation’s Favorite Sons.

David Eckstein is a free agent and his market is brewing.

Eckstein, the Florida native whose home is a short drive from Disney and its World, has maintained his wish to remain a Cardinal. (See…

TOWER GROVE — Ten years to the day that Edgar Renteria laced a base hit up the middle in extra innings of Game 7 to win Jim Leyland his first World Series as a manager, the two were reunited as Detroit Tigers on Monday.

The Atlanta Braves traded the All-Star shortstop to the Tigers for a couple high-ceiling prospects. In Detroit, the move is being heralded as yet another example of the Tigers being in…

DOWNTOWN — What could have been his last meal as manager of the Cardinals, all but assured he would return for a 13th season.

Tony La Russa said he’s a big believer in “coincidences” and so it was that as he spent his last night in St. Louis he ended up dining and talking and swapping tales with three members of the Cardinals’ crowded Mount Rushmore — Stan Musial, Red Schoendienst and Mike Shannon. The…