BTW, Kolten Wong is going into his Arizona Fall League start today with a .317 average, one homer, three stolen bases and 10 RBIs in 60 at bats.

Do the Cardinals think he could play shortstop if Furcal can't? That has to be an important question. The Cards didn't go hard for Scutaro last summer. Now they have the same options, plus Carpenter learning the position and Wong moving closer to the big leagues.

Bradford's ability to hit the deep pass this season should quell all that game manager chatter. This offense will expand as it adds weapons, blocking.

I'd expect him to get somewhat stronger as he trains for the MLB jump. Matt Carpenter demonstrated how that can be done.

Good coaching is critical to player development, obviously. A guy like Dennis Martinez was a huge asset during spring training and with the teams in Palm Beach and also Springfield for a year. The Cardinals organization is always on the lookout for next good coaching candidate. The acumen is being tested now.

Nobody expected Scutaro to hit like he did. A lot of GMs missed the boat on him.

Many reports say that Blaise Ilsley is moving up to take that job. We should have final word about it later today.

Many elite hitting coaches were never great major league hitters. Charlie Lau was a .255 career hitter and he helped redefine that profession.

At the big league level, a hitting coach looks to fine tune hitters or correct glitches that occur. Usually the adjustments in physical and/or mental approaches are tiny. Players may make more substantial changes between seasons while working with their personal guru, if they have one.

Gary was very open about his preference to stay to stay in the Big 12. The fact that the Big 12 imploded bothered him greatly. Remember this outburst:
"We thought this thing was over … it's been over like four times. Last year, the whole thing was going to change. I don't know what's going to happen. Next year is it going to start brewing up again? I don't know. It's unbelievable. We've got problems in our league. OK? And we all know what most of them are. But we don't solve them. We've lost three really good members in a year and a half and we think we'd maybe wake up and try and fix the problems so we can have a great league. Because until the problems are fixed, this stuff's going to be happening and it's going to go on and on. And it's not a whole lot of fun to be a part of."

Finding an OF with right-handed power AND CF ability can be somewhat difficult.

BTW, Danny Lozano recently gained Gomes as a client. Lozano moved Albert out of the STL and Beltran in.

Castro has fascinating potential. If the Cubs move him now, that team may be selling low. Not a bad idea to check that out.

Reed was a favorite topic on Cardinals telecasts this year. Can play CF, is right-handed but has no power. But a valuable bench piece? Perhaps, assuming the team also added some power.

The most exciting development is the return of Danny Amendola, which excites the offense. The team would also like to get Saffold and/or Hunter back this week as well. The team used last week's practice time to give the younger guys more reps with the No. 1 offense, so we'll see if Quick or Pead get more snaps.

Ryan's big issue was timing. First Matheny was committed to Descalso playing shortstop. Jackson sat around, gathered rust and went back to Memphis. When it was finally time to try something new, Kozma got a shot and ran with it. But overall it was odd to see the team prepared as the fill-in shortstop to get passed over by the guy who lost that gig with his poor minor league hitting.

Some of that was just incompetence by the previous regime.

Meh.

This year they drafted one third baseman after another. That was a bit odd. One of these years they have to load up on shortstop. But it's easier said than done at that position I suppose.

Running the ball successfully would be a good idea. Not sure their line will be healthy enough to make that happen, however.

Lefty batting utility guy for the Mets.

I believe MLB has standards for announced attendance, yes.