MEMPHIS — In a clubhouse loaded with rookies that have shuttled between St. Louis and its Class AAA affiliate this season, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse arrived in the Redbirds clubhouse to see a familiar face climb with him up the minor-league ladder.

Second baseman Daniel Descalso, a Double-A All-Star, will play his fourth game for Triple-A Memphis tonight, fresh from a promotion that brought him here hours after he helped Lohse get through his…

TOWER GROVE — The next hurdle between St. Louis Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse and his return to the rotation in time for Sunday’s doubleheader at Wrigley Field comes tonight in Memphis.

The righthander, who is recovering from a strained forearm, will make his second rehab start, this time for the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds. Last week, Lohse threw 79 pitches in a 4 2/3 innings rehab appearance with the Class AA affiliate in Springfield, Mo. Lohse…

TOWER GROVE — Less than a year after the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him 13th overall, third baseman Brett Wallace made his Triple-A debut this past weekend and while he is clearly going places, the club is certain of only the place they don’t expect him to go again — back in Class AA.

Wallace, 22, went 3-for-4 in his first game with Memphis and finished the weekend 3-for-8. He’s the first of the top 15…

JUPITER, Fla. — The players who will open the season with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds, left this afternoon for Tennessee, where they will be joined tomorrow by the (newly revealed) big-league club. They took six starting pitchers with them.

Do the math and you’ll have a good idea that all six won’t be starting.

Adam Ottavino flew north with the Triple-A rotation — a bump up for the righthander from the original…

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. — Violent weather, including a reported tornado a few blocks away from the ballpark, moved into the area about a half hour after the St. Louis Cardinals affiliates finished their camp games Tuesday at Roger Dean Stadium. An early start time and quick games allowed the minor leaguers to finish before rain lashed the fields and angry winds kicked up all kinds of dirt and wood chips that surround the area.

Still, they got…

JUPITER, Fla. — The St. Louis Cardinals trimmed their minor-league camp by seven, including the release of catcher Justin Knoedler — a move that solidifies who will be the catching tandem in Class AAA Memphis and how the depth shapes up at that position.

Matt Pagnozzi, who lingered in the major-league camp until Monday, has won the backup job at Memphis. Knoedler, who played in the majors last with San Francisco, was signed this offseason to get…

JUPITER, Fla. — What is true for major-league spring training is also true in minor-league spring training: The statistics are the ends, and often the means are more important.

Consider Adam Ottavino’s day.

The former first-round pick had a garish line from Monday’s game against Class AA Jacksonville. It read:

4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 runs, 2 BB, 4 Ks

But there is a story behind the numbers. Five of those six runs were unearned, and he was darn…

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. — However the St. Louis Cardinals third base position shakes out at the major-league level, it seems certain that first-round pick Brett Wallace will begin this season at Class AA Springfield. Few think that he will stay there for long.

Though given barely a second glance at the major-league camp this spring, Wallace has clicked along at his usual 3-for-5, 2-for-5 pace during minor-league games. On Saturday, he broke loose.

Wallace, a third baseman, went…

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…

JUPITER, Fla. — The St. Louis Cardinals knew coming into camp who their two major-league catchers were going to be going into the regular season. Yadier Molina is the starter now, later and as long as the Cardinals can keep the Gold Glove-winning, rocket-armed Molina brother behind the plate. Jason LaRue was brought back — one of the first signings of the winter — to be his backup.

But after that …

One of the Cardinals most…

JUPITER, Fla. — One of the St. Louis Cardinals first forays into the Asian free-agent market, pitcher Hyang-Nam Choi, was one of nine cuts from the minor-league camp this morning. Choi, a righthander, was signed this past winter and brought to camp with the idea that he would at least make the Class AAA Memphis bullpen. At 37, Choi had to move fast to make the signing matter, and when it became clear that he…

JUPITER, Fla. — One of the tricky things about reading box scores from spring training back there in the northern tundra is the inability to see the defensive side of the game. It’s impossible to know how Skip Schumaker is adjusting to second base this late in the camp or how he and Khalil Greene are clicking as a double-play combo without the benefit of something beyond the box score.

Ditto with the minors — only…

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…