JUPITER, Fla. — Way back during the Junior Spivey era of Cardinals second basemen, the Cleveland Indians passed a big-hype, big-frustration prospect through waivers. Every other team had a crack at landing this infielder who once showed up at spring training with personalized batting gloves that read, “The Franchise.” The St. Louis Cardinals, governed by general manager Walt Jocketty, and scrambling for an alternative when the Spivey signing whiffed, were one of 28 teams who…

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…

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…

LAS VEGAS — In their past 420 games, a stretch that reaches all the way back deep into that golden season of 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals have had a grand total of ZERO games started and won by a lefthanded pitcher.

Since Mark Mulder won his start on June 15, 2006, the Cardinals have trotted out Mike Maroth, Randy Keisler, Jaime Garcia and Mulder (a few times) to make starts. That group has made 15 starts total…

TOWER GROVE — Scanning the message board, Cards Talk, this morning, I saw a subject line that piqued by interest: “Cards to Get 10,000th Win in August.” Well, that really depends on who you ask.

Early this past season, the Chicago Cubs became the second team in baseball history to reach 10,000 franchise victories. The San Francisco/New York Giants had done it earlier, and of course the Philadelphia Phillies were the first to reach 10,000 losses. The race…

TOWER GROVE — As the weekend arrived, the St. Louis Cardinals continued to work Friday on the details of the deal for lefthanded reliever Trever Miller while also keeping conversations open with other lefthanded relievers and free agents on the market.

Miller, 35, came to St. Louis on Thursday for a physical, a clear sign of the team’s and player’s mutual interest and what some baseball sources believed was a step toward finalizing a deal. The…

TOWER GROVE — One of the last awards to be handed out in the annual weeklong roll-out of the Baseball Writers Association of America awards is the one award that’s dominated so much conversation around St. Louis this month — the National League MVP. Here’s a safe best: Somebody with ties to St. Louis will win it.

Heck, the winner will be a player who calls St. Louis home during the offseason.

But before we find out…

TOWER GROVE — Incumbents Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina won the Fielding Bible awards at first base and catcher, respectively, according the annual awards that are decided by a panel of experts and featured each winter in the Bill James Handbook.

Pujols, the St. Louis Cardinals first baseman, has won three consecutive Fielding Bible awards and this is catcher Molina’s second consecutive. Unlike the Gold Glove awards, which are determined by a vote of managers and…

SOUTH GRAND — Would have had the weekly PostCards posted much earlier this morning if the first question — from the sharp, witty and ever-adept keyboard of regular Frank Fuhrig, of course — had not been as much a homework assignment as a question.

It’s written less for a mailbag and more for a syllabus.

One element of the St. Louis Cardinals’ interest/chances in landing San Diego ace Jake Peavy is the amount of money the Cardinals…

SOUTH GRAND — A few years ago, the biggest challenge to Albert Pujols’ MVP candidacy was a slugger in the National League East who had big numbers in home runs and RBIs, but couldn’t quite match Pujols when it came to just about everything else.

So, we’ve seen this before.

Back in 2005, Andruw Jones hit 51 home runs and drove in 128 RBIs — both numbers that surpassed El Hombre’s totals — yet hit .263. The…

TOWER GROVE – By not playing at all or only seeing limited duty as a pinch hitter this weekend, Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones will almost certainly avoid what happened to him a year ago.

Barring one memorable weekend by Albert Pujols, that is.

Last season, Colorado’s Matt Holliday edged Jones on the final weekend for the National League batting title. The chase technically went down to game No. 163, in which the Rockies defeated San Diego for the wild-card tiebreaker….

TOWER GROVE — This past weekend, Chipper Jones’ son, Shea, got to visit his namesake for the first time. Jones and the Atlanta Braves visited Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets, for the final time, a locale that embraced Chipper Jones as “Larry Jones,” a favorite (but beloved) rival and annual target of cheers. He grew so fond of the place — and hit so well there — that he named his son after…

TOWER GROVE — The headline above the masthead — a skybox, was we call them — on the front page of yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times  shouted, “All is Forgiven”, and next to it was a photo of Chicago Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol, the sudden All-Star.

Marmol was the last addition to the National League All-Star team for tonight’s All-Star Game — the celebrated send-off of venerable Yankee Stadium — and just by joining the team he helped…

TOWER GROVE — The C.C. Sabathia era in Milwaukee was barely a few innings old this evening and the ink wasn’t yet dry on the news reports of the Cubs acquiring Rich Harden when one of the Brewers’ broadcasters said something to this effect:

“Your move Cardinals.”

The jockeying for supremacy in the National League Central bounded out of the standings and into the front offices the past two days, as the Cardinals chief rivals added potential…

TOWER GROVE — One of the players the Cardinals just signed from Latin America they found because they were looking at the same player as everyone else.

On one of several trips to Venezuela for the Cardinals vice president of player development Jeff Luhnow, the Cardinals held a private workout with shortstop Cesar Valera and outfielder Yorman Rodriguez. The former signed with the Cardinals last week.

The latter is coveted and going to command what Luhnow expects…