I have been thinking about the made-for-pre-spring camp excitement surrounding the assignment of uniform number 3 to St. Louis Cardinals non-roster invitee Ruben Gotay. There are those convinced the number means the infielder is considered a front-runner to make the opening day roster.

We don’t need to look back very far to find history littered with bodies with pasts that look a lot like Gotay’s – former major leaguer with ample minor league time, especially most recently.

This doesn’t mean I am pounding on Ruben, a Caribbean Series teammate of Yadier Molina with Team Puerto Rico in 2007, the latter who maybe not so coincidentally happens to wear number 4. I am just pointing out a well-established pattern. Recent results indicate former MLB second-base retreads auditioned in Cardinals spring camp just haven’t cut it no matter what number was on their back.

Following are the players tried in similar circumstances over the last five springs. Only one of them ever made it far enough to claim a regular season major league roster spot with the Cardinals at any time, let alone opening day.

That lone survivor was Joe Thurston last year and the only reason he made it was due to opportunity elsewhere in the infield – all the third basemen who managed to eliminate themselves from contention. Once there, Thurston remained, but didn’t produce consistently and wasn’t asked back for 2010.

Of the others, one was cut by the conclusion of camp, while the remaining three toiled in Memphis for at least part of the subsequent season, a most possible 2010 destination for Gotay. Even with him included, the youngest at 27, the group averages the ripe old age of 31.

One common thread is terrible spring training results at the plate, a collective .207 batting average. They weren’t so hot defensively, either. They averaged two errors each, despite the briefest of cameos by Dave Berg in 2006 and Wilton Guerrero the previous March.

In terms of uniform numbers, while none had a number above 28, neither were any of the failed combatants issued 3 like Gotay. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a recent number 3 working at second base in spring camp, however.

The group of NRIs does not include a pair of failed candidates in 2006. Believe it or not, coming into camp that spring, both Junior Spivey (pictured), wearing number 3, and Deivi Cruz, sporting number 35, were on the 40-man roster. That that didn’t last long and like the vast majority of the NRIs noted above, neither Spivey nor Cruz appeared in a regular-season game for St. Louis. Here is how they did in 2006 camp.

Of course as was evident in the Thurston case last spring, opportunity can pop up even when it is not expected. Someone else’s misfortune can open a door that previously looked to be closed.

Still, the future was far from bright for these infielders, even after leaving the Cardinals organization behind. Including Spivey and Cruz, of the earlier six, only two ever appeared in the major leagues again for any club following their brief stop in Cardinals camp. They are Jimenez (Washington, 2007) and Cabrera (Cincinnati, 2008).

Thurston is in the Braves camp this spring at least, though on a minor league deal of course, and Gotay still has his Cardinals bid in front of him. I don’t like the chances of either, though…

Follow me on Twitter.

Glaus out for a long time no matter what you call it

After the big summit meeting this morning that included the Cardinals, doctors and Troy Glaus, the “fresh approach” to treat the slow-to-heal muscle in his right shoulder was set.

Glaus is heading to Arizona to work with a physical therapist. The Cardinals announced the third baseman’s next medical check up would be scheduled around June 1. In case you missed it – that is two months from now.

Even if he would be ready then to pick up a bat and ball, most of June would be lost in rehabbing. Our original estimate of somewhere between June 1 and mid-season for Glaus’ return looks more and more accurate every day.

Glaus had begun to throw as well as hit from a tee but had to cease all baseball-related activities two weeks ago. Yet the Cardinals had recently been playing word games, insisting the recent problem was a “plateau” instead of a setback.

What would you call it when a mid-April return turns into a “sometime after June 1” estimate? How about “disappointing”?

Glaus himself said early in camp that his goal was to play in Florida and be ready to start the season. How about mid-season, Troy?

Knoedler upset

Assigned to Memphis in the first cuts of the spring, catcher Justin Knoedler was upset when he learned of his release Tuesday morning by checking the posted minor league rosters and noticing his name was missing.

The Cardinals must have had a mix-up as I know from personal experience that they do not release names to the media until after players have been contacted. I would imagine that also applies to posting rosters.

It is a shame for Knoedler, but that isn’t business-as-usual for the organization.

“Cardinals Backing Colby Rasmus into a Corner”

It is an interesting title, designed to grab reader attention, I guess. The whole focus of the P-D article is how Colby Rasmus, a centerfielder his entire career, is now being asked to play the corners as well.

I am not sure of the news here, as it has been going on all spring. Surely some of Rasmus’ defensive bumps in Florida have been due to playing left and right, but he needs to be versatile enough to handle all three positions if he wants to be a major leaguer, IMHO.

Redbirds sales lack energy

The Memphis paper appealed to local civic pride in asking residents to come out to games with the Cardinals on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Two years ago, the last time the Cards played there at AutoZone Park, attendance was over 15,000. Current pace is about half that.

Redbirds president Dave Chase implied the low level of activity over the winter by the MLB club is what is behind the slow sales, rather than the economy, as other local sports are still drawing well.

“This year it’s been so quiet. That same energy’s not there,” Chase told the Commercial-Appeal.

My take is that if there is no energy, then someone needs to create it. The Redbirds should have their best team in some time and are coming off a very good 2008 season.

Over on Scout.com this morning, I wrote about the Friday pitching match up of Chris Carpenter and P.J. Walters. If that won’t generate local interest, someone should check their collective pulse.

Update: Carpenter has been scratched from Friday’s start due to a mild and previously-unknown calf injury that does not put his game four start in jeopardy. Interesting. Walters will still start on Friday, but for St. Louis instead, against a bullpen crew for Memphis. Saturday is Joel Pineiro versus Mitchell Boggs.

Spivey’s comeback over

Second baseman Junior Spivey, attempting a comeback after apparently being out of baseball last year, was released by the New York Mets from their minor league camp on Tuesday. He played for Memphis in 2006.

2008 Cardinals left-handed reliever Ron Villone was released by the Mets earlier in the week.

Ludwick an anomaly

I ran across an interesting article in the Palm Beach Post that says only 21 players who hit right-handed and throw left-handed have appeared in MLB over the last 40 years since baseball split into divisions.

Two of them are active today and both are outfielders currently training in Jupiter, Florida – Cody Ross of the Florida Marlins and Ryan Ludwick of the Cardinals.

Yadi hitting second – not an April Fool’s joke

Tony La Russa told MLB.com that he might consider continuing to use Yadier Molina in the number two spot in his batting order during the regular season. Given Molina’s lack of foot speed, it seems a most odd choice to hit him behind leadoff man Skip Schumaker and in front of Albert Pujols.

Batting sixth or seventh much of last season, Molina ground into a team-leading 21 double plays in 2008 and has 68 in a career that began in 2004.

“It’s an issue,” La Russa said to MLB.com. “But everything’s an issue in front of Albert [Pujols]. If he moves him over to second and the base is open, then you need a fourth-place hitter [to protect Pujols].”

I have to admit that I don’t understand La Russa’s logic and hope he forgets the idea quickly.

“Is Motte the man?”

This is the question the Post-Dispatch posed to a group of their writers the other day. Is Jason Motte the one to be the Cardinals closer?

One of the columnists actually said the following. Honest.

“TLR could test him in the “Marmol Role” a few times while seeing if Ryan Franklin is more prepared this season to close. If Franklin gets it done, the veteran could stay there for a stretch.”

Raise your hand if you think Franklin’s preparation is the reason why he failed as closer in 2008.

Not a single one of the writers mentioned what I believe to be the most important factor behind La Russa not naming Motte.

If I was Tony and Dave Duncan, I would want to see how the unproven Motte reacts to the inevitable blown save. How does he handle it on the mound, in the clubhouse and the next day?

There is no stat line or radar gun that measures how a player deals with adversity.

Worrell wounded

San Diego reliever Mark Worrell, unhappy with the Cardinals over a lack of opportunity, received his with the Padres this spring. The sidearmer had pitched well enough that he was expected to make the team.

That was before elbow soreness hit. Now he is shut down with this ominous comment from manager Bud Black, after talking with team doctors.

Black said, “It doesn’t look great.”

No news yet on the second player to head to the Padres in the Khalil Greene trade, but whoever it is, I still like the Cardinals side of the deal.

Perdomo still fighting among Giants

Taken in the December Rule 5 Draft, Luis Perdomo is one of nine relievers vying for two spots in the San Francisco Giants bullpen. It he doesn’t make the team, he will passed through waivers and if unclaimed, will return to the Cardinals minor leagues.

Izzy’s first outing with Rays

Nobody is getting too excited in Tampa Bay yet, but Jason Isringhausen made his first spring appearance the other day. Not dominating, nor should it have been expected with Izzy coming off elbow surgery.

Still, there is hope that Izzy can be part of the pen mix and given closer Troy Percival’s age and health risk, this could be a good place for the exiled Cards all-time saves leader to get his career back on track.

Julian brutally honest

After turning down an earlier offer from Washington, former Cardinals reliever Julian Tavarez accepted this time – a non-guaranteed minor league deal with a spring camp invite.

Since leaving the Cardinals after the 2005 season, the 34-year-old right-hander has pitched (and departed from) Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. If he makes the cut, Washington will become his 11^th MLB club.

Never known for taking things very seriously, here is what Tavarez said about joining the Nationals:

“Why did I sign with the Nationals?” Tavarez told a group of reporters. “When you go to a club at [4 a.m.], and you’re just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J. Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It’s [4 a.m.]. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me.”

“I would like to be a starter, but it’s like my father said: ‘You want Jennifer Lopez, but does she want you? No.’ You just take whatever she is giving to you. So I just take whatever they give to me … They give to me as a long man, I take it as a long man. Set up man, I take it. Starter, I take it. I can do whatever.”

The Kipper is back!

I had recently been dogging the Toronto Blue Jays as the destination for old Cardinals to die. Perhaps that is now the Washington Nationals. Ray “Burger” King passed through there on his way out of the game and Ronnie Belliard and now Tavarez are there today.

There is another recent addition – former Cardinals starter Kip Wells. The Nats’ brass are tantalized by his 90-93 mph fastball and movement on his slider. Right.

Since leaving St. Louis, where he was an awful 7-17 in 2007, Wells couldn’t stick with Colorado or Kansas City, either. He hasn’t had a winning season since 2003. Wells can earn $500,000 if he makes the team.

Good luck with that.

Maroth to minors, Clement doing ok

Speaking of Toronto, left-handed pitcher Mike Maroth was sent down to the minors by the Jays. No surprise there. He surrendered five runs, four earned, and seven hits in 2 2/3 innings in his first start on Saturday.

One of the players that beat him out was another former Cardinal, Matt Clement. He’s still in camp, having allowed three runs in six innings. For the Jays, that is good, I guess.

Haerther hits the field as Rolen sidelined

In his first action of the spring, outfielder Cody Haerther went 2-for-2 and drove in two runs for the Jays on Wednesday. If the former Cardinal minor leaguer can ever put the injuries behind, he has a chance to eventually make it as a reserve outfielder.

In response to a reader question, though he was taken in the Rule 5 Draft last December, Haerther does not have to be returned to the Cardinals when he is sent down. That is because he was on the Springfield roster and was taken in the minor league phase of Rule 5.

Former Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen has been eased into spring action with just 13 at-bats so far. He had to leave Wednesday’s game due to a sore back that is not supposed to be serious.

There were rumors that the Jays were hoping for a hot spring from Rolen to attract trade interest. With him being owed $22 million for this season and next, there aren’t going to be any takers.

Sir Sid’s groundhog day

The Kansas City Royals signed pitcher Sidney Ponson to a minor league contract, with an invitation to spring training.

They want to see if he “has anything left in the tank”. If that means ample food and drink, the answer is “yes”. If they mean the ability to pitch consistently well, the answer is “no way”.

Though I didn’t peg the team, the first part of my earlier prediction has come true. I figured Sir Sidney would pitch well enough in the World Baseball Classic for the Netherlands (Dutch Aruba, remember?) that he would be signed somewhere.

Step two will be to pitch well in a game or two. Step three is to revert to being himself. Step four is to be waived. Step five is to be re-signed by the Yankees, before a repeat of steps two through four.

By the way, Ponson finally settled with the Orioles on his grievance based on being released in 2005 with a $10 million deal for 2006 in place. There were those alcohol-related problems…

Rico to China

Last year’s Joe Thurston-come-from-nowhere to make the team feel-good story was career minor leaguer Rico Washington. He made the 2008 opening day roster due to Brendan Ryan starting on the disabled list and lasted less than a month in the bigs, but he did make it after a dozen years of trying.

Rico is on a different career trajectory now, having signed with defending champion Uni-President Lions in the Chinese Professional Baseball League for 2009.

Pomeranz back on the mound

The White Sox signed former Cardinals right-hander pitcher Stuart Pomeranz. It was a minor league deal, of course.

The 24-year-old was the Cards’ second-round pick in 2003 and at one point, was a top-ten prospect in the organization. He never made Triple-A, though he did pitch in the Arizona Fall League in 2006.

Pomeranz’ shoulder was injured for most of 2007 and after being released last spring, he didn’t play the rest of the season as far as I can tell. I assumed he had retired.

Spivey-man sighting

Now, here is one that floored me. The Mets signed second baseman Junior Spivey to a minor league contract.

I don’t know what was more surprising – that Spivey is still playing or the fact that he was given a professional contract. After spending 2005 with the Nationals, he came to Cardinals camp in 2006 hoping to win the second base job, but spent the entire season in Memphis. That is a good thing. After all, I don't think I could have survived a whole season of Mike Shannon calling him "Spivey-man".

Junior played in indy ball in 2007 and also had a short Triple-A look-see with the Red Sox that season. Where he was last year, I have no idea. Maybe hanging out with the "Simo-man".

Preston is limping back

Speaking of indy ball and retired guys I thought I would never see again, Preston Wilson signed with Newark Bears in the Atlantic League. (What the heck? They also signed Pete Rose Jr. and have Carl Everett on the team, too.)

Wilson’s chronic knee problems must have improved enough to hobble out there. He last played in 2007 and managed just 64 at-bats for the Cardinals.

(A tip of the cap to Cardinals Best News Links for the Rico and Wilson news.)

Since I was working on a similar piece but was beat to the punch by Derrick, I am going to take an alternate angle on the subject. My focus is second basemen tried in spring training during the last half-dozen years who crashed and burned instead of making the major league club.

I believe this is most topical, given the large quantity and unproven quality of the players competing for the newly-opened second base job.

The public contenders include Brendan Ryan, Brian Barden, Joe Thurston, Jarrett Hoffpauir and Tyler Greene, not to mention the guy getting all the ink, outfielder Skip Schumaker, who will be the most-watched player in camp as he attempts to play second base for the very first time. As if there wasn’t enough pressure on Skip before, the Monday release of Adam Kennedy just turned up the burners substantially.

I bring up the past here in an attempt to at least give pause to those who advocate the Cardinals bringing in a tired, out-of-work second baseman to compete with the younger players for the job. Recent results indicate over-30 retreads auditioned just haven’t cut it.

Following are six players tried over the last four springs, none of whom ever made it far enough to claim a spot on Goold’s long list of regular-season second basemen. Most all of these players were primarily second sackers, though all could call the position home.

One was cut by the conclusion of camp, while most toiled in Memphis for at least part of the subsequent season. Again, their common thread other than terrible spring training results (collective .169 batting average) was that none of the 2005 through 2008 players listed below reached St. Louis during the regular season.

Spring	Player	Roster	Age	Errors	BA	ABs	Team ABs	Disposition
2008	D’Angelo Jimenez	NRI	30	3	0.237	38	38	Memphis
2007	Jolbert Cabrera	NRI	34	4	0.151	53	53	Memphis
2006	Junior Spivey	40-man	31	5	0.147	68	109	Memphis
	Deivi Cruz	40-man	33	0	0.146	41		Released
2005	Mike Bell	NRI	30	0	0.000	8	16	Memphis
	Wilton Guerrero	NRI	30	0	0.125	8		Memphis
2004	Bo Hart	40-man	27	3	0.206	68	68	Memphis
Average			31		0.169		57

In addition, I listed a seventh player, 2004 flameout Bodhi Hart. I will blame that on Goold. As he noted in one of those terrible flashbacks, that spring was a time when Hart was being encouraged to switch-hit. It was a last-straw attempt to recapture the 2003 Bo-Mania that had long since worn off.

The reality had set in that Bo wasn’t able to handle the off-speed pitch and as such, wasn’t really major league material. Still, Cardinals fans used to rooting for scrappy, underdog second basemen (Stubby Clapp, anyone?) had snapped up number 31 jerseys like hotcakes during the magical summer (for Hart, at least) of 2003.

Though it was his best chance in 2004, Hart not only did not make the club that spring, in fact he actually never made an opening day Cardinals roster in his short career. That season, he was recalled from Memphis on April 11, but by the end of the month was optioned out, never to be seen again in the majors.

Because of that, I will point out that technically, Hart should not be on this list due to his MLB swan song, those final 13 major-league at-bats in April, 2004 before he drifted off into baseball obscurity.

Still, Hart’s mention here makes sense to me in the context of observing the wasting of spring at-bats on players heading nowhere. Over the last five years, the Cardinals have burned up on the average 57 at-bats per spring on this bunch.

Here in 2009 with the especially large number of unproven players in the competition needing as many looks as possible, I hope we don’t witness the likes of another Junior Spivey (pictured) on the fields of Jupiter anytime soon. I also hope real prospects can see the bulk of the 2009 regular-season action in Memphis instead of more members of the over-30 gang soaking up time and space.

If the spring second base experiments all fail, there will still be time and opportunity at the end of camp to take corrective action if necessary. Unless a true proven MLB second baseman is brought in to St. Louis in the interim, which seems unlikely at this point based on GM John Mozeliak’s current remarks, I say, “Let the kids play”.