TOWER GROVE — When the St. Louis Cardinals left Cleveland having lost a three-game series to the momentarily resurgent Indians, manager Tony La Russa dialed up general manager John Mozeliak and left him a short, succinct voice mail. The exact words have been forgotten in the weeks since. But the message was clear:

If we can get him, get him.

Him was Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Mark DeRosa. On Sunday night of that series, DeRosa homered off…

TOWER GROVE — One of the pitchers who has put himself on the prospect radar this season, converted catcher Casey Mulligan was promoted this morning to High-A Palm Beach after a monthlong turn as Quad Cities shutdown closer.

Mulligan was 2-0 with a 0.45 ERA in 17 games for the St. Louis Cardinals Low-A affiliate in the Quad Cities. He also had 36 strikeouts against five walks in 20 innings for the River Bandits.

The 21-year-old righthander was…

SOUTH GRAND — The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen inherited four innings of work and a one-run lead Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs and turned it into a victory. It was a large-scale example of what the bullpen has been doing remarkably well within individual innings all season.

Say this about the Cardinals’ relievers: They are stingy with their inheritance.

When the Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak set out to rebuild the bullpen, one of the…

TEMPE, Ariz. — The St. Louis Cardinals have three saves so far this season and they are by three different players — and not one save is from the guy who broke spring training ostensibly as the club’s closer.

Manager Tony La Russa’s take on the ninth-inning jumble can be summarized: Get used to it.

After giving young gun Jason Motte two save opportunities and see him struggle in both, the Cardinals have elected to slide him out…

TOWER GROVE — In a city that can treat baseball like college football — right down to the raucous, hearty and wonderful tailgates that surround Busch Stadium — no wonder there’s such agonizing this morning. One loss means already means no BCS bowl for the St. Louis Cardinals this season.

But this was more than one loss. It was deja vu.

There are 161 more games to go and a loss in Game 1 does not a…

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. — The plan was to play Curt Smith often, but not necessarily every day. Then Smith got in the lineup, his manager at Johnson City told me this past fall, and it was impossible to take him out. He just kept hitting. He hit his way from Johnson City all the way to the league’s Player of the Year award. He hit his way from that hardware all the way to Low-A Quad…

TAMPA, Fla. — After slicing eight more names from his spring-training roster, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said a scheduled meeting with him, his coaches and the front office “probably wasn’t still necessary” for Tuesday’s off day.

“This took care of it,” he said. “We have a good idea.”

The most notably cut Monday was outfielder Brian Barton. The former Rule 5 pick had struggled recently — 1-for-16 — and the Cardinals decision to option…

LAKELAND, Fla. — With each passing transaction this winter, St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin’s rank within a rebooted Cardinals bullpen moved another year or two away from the average age. Gone is Russ Springer. Gone is Jason Isringhausen. Still relatively new to this whole relieving thing himself, Franklin enters this season as mentor, sage and the longest-tenured consistent member of the Cardinals bullpen.

That role he was ready for.

But there’s another role the Cardinals may ask…

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Down Gil Hodges Road and not too far from Tom Seaver Curve, the New York Mets have turned Field No. 7 here at Tradition Field into a replica of Citi Field, their new ballpark in Queens. The dimensions of Field No. 7 have been cut and reformed to the exact measure of Citi Field’s — right down to the quirky corner cut out of right field.

It was on this mini-Citi…

JUPITER, Fla. — They had already survived the ridicule of their teammates for dressing in their home whites on a day there was clearly no game to be played, but wait until the clubhouse gets a look at the picture below. Four Cardinals sporting game-ready jerseys and pants as white as they will be on Opening Day and each wearing a straw hat.

Hey, they could have been the ones who had to wear the fake…

JUPITER, Fla. — Having removed the rockstar hair from his chinny chin chin the night before, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter rubbed his shaved face and pondered what he saw as a developing theme of spring training.

“What’s with all the facial hair?” he said.

Hey, he started it.

Carpenter arrived at Winter Warm-up with a shaved-slick dome and a tuft of hair to make King Tut envious. What’s followed is a parade of hairy — er,…

TOWER GROVE — By definition, any list of the top 10 or top 30 prospects within the St. Louis Cardinals system is flawed. The concept itself has one glaring weakness: Cardinals prospects are compared only against Cardinals prospects, leaving the reader to wonder if a top-10 talent here is a top-five talent in Cleveland? Maybe a top 20 talent in Boston … and so on.

Rankings prospects within an organization has value. It just doesn’t have…

DOWNTOWN — Back on Oct. 8, just a little bit after pitching coach Dave Duncan agreed to his new contract, a poll went up in this blog asking the simple question: Who closes? Some 1,300 readers voted and “anointed” Chris Perez the closer with 42 percent of the vote. (Brian Fuentes finished third, one spot behind where the Cardinals finished for his services.)

That poll, meant as a prelude to the St. Louis Cardinals’ search this winter,…

DOWNTOWN — One of the best aspects of spring training is the access each day to the backlots — the scattered fields behind Roger Dean Stadium that host drills, batting practice and some scrimmages, and that the prospects call home. Each day it’s possible to go back there and see Colby Rasmus step-in against, say, Jason Motte or Daryl Jones shag flies beside Jon Edwards. It’s not game speed, but it does allow you see the prospects in…