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 — 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…

TOWER GROVE — As I waded through various research projects this offseason, a fluke of clutter provided a jolt of inspiration. There, nosed up against one another in the flotsam of loose and scattered legal pads and books, was my scorecard from Opening Day 2001 at Coors Field and a Cardinals encyclopedia-of-sorts opened to Rogers Hornsby’s page.

As a sidebar jockey for The Rocky Mountain News in 2001, I was at Coors Field to cover Mike Hampton’s brilliant debut…

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 — Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer has said a few times this offseason that his goal for 2009 — if really pressed to come clean about it — is to pitch in a certain July game at Busch Stadium.

“I’d like to be in that midsummer classic,” Wellemeyer said. “It’s here. That would be neat. An All-Star.”

First thing’s first. Now, at least, he has a contract for 2009 finalized.

Wellemeyer and outfielder Chris Duncan agreed to terms Monday…

DOWNTOWN — The St. Louis Cardinals top prospect Colby Rasmus resisted the team’s request that he go play winter ball, make up for the at-bats he lost to injury last season and regain some momentum for the 2009 spring training. He said he needed a break.

On Sunday, he showed what he did with that time away.

A significantly bulked-up Rasmus arrived at the 13th annual Winter Warm-up on Sunday, explaining his winter was spent with the weights,…

DOWNTOWN — The first wave of St. Louis Cardinals players have had their moments behind the media room podium here Sunday in Day 2 of the Winter Warm-up, and the Twitter feed (dgoold) has been the quickest way to get out the comments and the news (such as it is). But many are worth repeating here, like a shotgun look at what’s been said and who’s saying it here:

Snippets from the feed — the Warm-up in…

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….

DOWNTOWN — Chris Duncan, the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder who is another season and one back surgery removed from his breakout power display, hasn’t tried taking his new titanium disc through a metal detector but he’s had no trouble putting it through baseball rigors.

“I’m not worried about,” Duncan said Saturday, the first day of the Cardinals’ 13th annual Winter Warm-up. “Seems like everything should be fine. I guess when I start running into some things,…

DOWNTOWN — The interviews and comments have come fast and semi-furious here on the first day of the St. Louis Cardinals 13th annual Winter Warm-up. Been trying to keep the Twitter feed (dgoold) updated and will be back here with more news in the blog shortly. But for the moment, here’s a copy/paste of some of the things, ahem, “tweeted” from this morning’s pressers with Chris Carpenter, Chris Duncan, Adam Kennedy (a few seconds ago) and several…

TOWER GROVE — For the third consecutive year the blog will be coming live this weekend from the Winter Warm-up in downtown St. Louis. Throughout the three days of the event, I’ll update the blog with comments from players, quotes from prospects (10 or so will be in attendance), tidbits from executives, the scene at the fest and, of course, news (i.e., pre-arbitration signings).

A wrinkle to the coverage this year will be the Twitter feed….

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…

DOWNTOWN — A year ago, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa popped into the media room at the Winter Warm-up and leveled what essentially was a verbal reprimand and a challenge to Adam Kennedy. Irked that Kennedy didn’t show up for the fanfest La Russa said the second baseman was dealing with very little slack entering the season.

He said missing the Warm-up was his first and “hopefully only” misstep.

“He’s made a mistake by not being…

DOWNTOWN — The rising closer prospect in the organization and a once-idling slugger getting closer to reclaiming his reputation as a prospect were part of the younger flavor at this year’s Winter Warm-Up.

(Them and Anthony Reyes’ red-dyed swathe of spiked hair.)

Chris Perez, a 2005 draft pick out the University of Miami, is earmarked to be Triple-A’s closer this summer, coming off a year that ended with an invite to join Team USA in the Olympic preview…