JUPITER, Fla. — Two of the batters sent out “to get more playing time” — a common phrase these days as minor-league camp swirls into games — are thriving with the additional at-bats. One has continued his superb spring at the plate. The other may yet save his spring and put himself back on the cusp of the majors.

Both Allen Craig and Brian Barton homered for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate in games Sunday….

JUPITER, Fla. — This morning, the St. Louis Cardinals minor-league staff is bunkered in here at Roger Dean Stadium for the final hours of their pre-camp meetings. This afternoon, about the time the meetings end, pitchers will start reporting and within the next couple days the backlots will bloom with minor leaguers. Even as minor-league camp opens for 2009, there are certainly plenty of questions about who is headed where and what is expected when…

JUPITER, Fla. — With the first off day of spring training here for the St. Louis Cardinals, there’s time to ride some tangents — when you’re not riding the birthday boy’s “tsunami,” that is.

While working on a blog entry that you will see up in this space shortly about outfielder Colby Rasmus and how to read the recently released Baseball America Top 100 Prospects, I was intrigued by how BA took the depth charts us correspondents file…

JUPITER, Fla. — They’re calling it a campaign that focuses on a few “rising stars”, and representatives from Rawlings have made several surgical strikes into the Grapefruit League to film the four players selected to appear in docu-commercials. This morning, they visited Camp Cardinals.

Catcher Yadier Molina is one of the four. Have Gold Glove, will shine.

“His reaction upon receiving his first Gold Glove was really something that stood out,” said Lindsey Naber, a brand manager with…

JUPITER, Fla. — The fortunes of Blake Hawksworth as a St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguer can be traced by the injuries as they traveled up his right side or the prospect lists as he dropped down them. Once the organization’s top prospect — not just top pitching prospect — Hawksworth will make the first start of spring training today, against Florida at Roger Dean Stadium.

He feels fortunate just to be around.

If he wasn’t slowed by ankle surgery…

JUPITER, Fla. — New Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene spent a good part of his first day in red chatting with — or rather listening to — manager Tony La Russa about how he runs his spring training camp and about how Greene usually uses February and March to get ready for April and beyond.

Greene said he probably doesn’t remember everything that was thrown his way Monday, but his ears are open to anything La Russa or…

JUPITER, Fla. — What with its keystone combination of Rogers Hornsby and Ozzie Smith leading the way — batting .346 and .325, respectively — and center fielder Jim Edmonds topping the team with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs, the St. Louis Cardinals would appear to be a virtual juggernaut in the virtual world of Seamheads.com’s (simulated) Historical League.

And, yet, the ‘Birds are struggling. Could be that injury to Stan Musial.

Hall of Famer Rick Hummel is at…

TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals sudden and curious move to release Adam Kennedy on the eve of spring training leaves them with a hole at second base and an open casting call for the job.

So, it’s business at usual down in Jupiter.

With all due respect to the St. Louis Blues, whose revolving door in goal was chronicled and counted in this morning’s paper by Dan O’Neill (ah, where have you gone Tom Barrasso?), the real…

DOWNTOWN — There will be much more in Tuesday’s Post-Dispatch about Albert Pujols’ meeting with the local media a few minutes ago, but there’s no reason not to share a little bit of it now, here, in those wonderful 140-character bursts from the Twitter feed.

(For all those editors out there who told me tighter, brighter, better — Twitter has won this battle, but not the war. Not the war.)

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was just…

DOWNTOWN — The big-ticket day of the 13th annual Winter Warm-up continues this afternoon with National League MVP Albert Pujols, who is on the stage right now signing, and a parade of other headline Cardinals, many of whom will be receiving an award at tonight’s Baseball Writers’ Dinner. The news was this morning’s signings of Todd Wellemeyer and Chris Duncan, but the comments from St. Louis Cardinals players today address a wider spectrum of topics.

There’s…

DOWNTOWN — Infielder Adam Kennedy guesstimated that a healthy Chris Carpenter is worth an additional 15 or 20 wins in a season, and while that is certainly a generous theory it is laced with truth: A healthy ace Carpenter has always meant one thing for the Cardinals.

October.

As detailed in this morning’s paper by colleague Joe Strauss (”Carpenter gives upbeat report”), Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals are optimistic about how he’s recovering from his nerve issue….

TOWER GROVE — With less than one month to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, there are more than 150 free agents still on the market, including, amazingly, the National League’s starting pitcher from this past year’s All-Star Game, Ben Sheets. From the pool of free agents still out there, It is possible to put together an imposing lineup, with an All-Star at each position, and outfit a pretty compelling rotation.

Not to…

TOWER GROVE — Earlier this week, St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan did the radio rounds and spoke about the closer role, closer candidates, the rotation and how so much hinges on the shoulder of Chris Carpenter. He also had a telling comment about his retooled bullpen. Asked in an interview on 101 ESPN if he was confident with the new-look left side of his bullpen, Duncan answered plainly, realistically.

He said he does not…

DOWNTOWN — What started as St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s standard stumping for Chris Duncan as an “impact” member of the still-crowded 2009 outfielder suddenly became a second nomination in as many months for rookie Colby Rasmus as a key figure in the coming season.

On Monday, La Russa was in town to promote his annual ARF Fundraiser (bring on Lewis Black!) and he spent part of the afternoon with a handful of scribes at Busch Stadium….

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…