JUPITER, Fla. -- Before the Cardinals' pitchers and catchers took the field for their first official workout today, manager Tony La Russa conducted a brief clubhouse meeting outlining what he expected from this club during spring.

"I was always taught the importance of spring training," La Russa said. "If it doesn't get done here, a lot of times it doesn't get done.

"You try to tweak some of the drills and some of the ways you instruct, but most of it is 100 years old."

As generally is the case, La Russa said, "We'll spend more time on pitching and defense than we do on offense. It's always more important to stop the other guys first."

After alluding to the issue the day before, La Russa said there would be a greater emphasis this spring on baserunning skills.

"I thought we made some baserunning mistakes (last year)," said La Russa. "I thought we defended the bunt better than we ever have. That's fundamental.  Our running game defense (holding down basestealers). . . there wasn't anything wrong with that.

"We did some things as well or better than we've ever done them but we had some breakdowns. Defensively, there were days we were not as sharp."

La Russa said that the most important team to him in the National  League Central Division was the Cardinals, but that he had noticed the several moves that his club's competition had made since last year.

"It's been a very active off-season for the clubs in our division and everybody's better," said La Russa. "I think we're better, so the game's on."

This was La Russa's 16th spring training camp opening day with the Cardinals and he said, jokingly, "I asked (the players) to guess how many Valentine's Day cards, candy, flowers I got. They all guessed 'zero' and they were correct. There goes that 'players' manager' label." 

The only absentee from the group of pitchers and catchers slated to be on hand was lefthnded reliever Raul Valdes, a Cuban, who is trying to gain his visa in the Dominican Republic.

La Russa, reiterating his concern of Sunday, suggested strongly that outfielder Jim Edmonds, who has had an Achilles' problem _ would not be on hand _or at least not be ready _  when full-squad workouts begin on Saturday.

"I don't think he's reallly close," said La Russa. "I think Mark (hitting coach Mark McGwire) had seen him recently and he still was not walking around very briskly."