Cardinals! Cardinals!

Spring Training officially started Monday! Here's whats going on:
*The 2006 World Series Champions, the St. Louis Cardinals will recieve their World Series rings on April 3rd, before their second game with the Mets. Fans in attendance will recieve replica rings to comemerate this momentous event. Tickets for this game are available through the Pujols 5 pack.
*Albert Pujols is an American citizen (old news, I know), so congrats to him. He was interviewed by News Channel 5 which featured his adorable son A.J. Wherever Pujols goes, A.J. goes.
*Yadier Molina played winter ball in Puerto Rico this winter so his family could see him play. Molina is very confident in his hitting abilities for the upcoming season. He told reporters that he is going to be a 300 hitter this year. After his amazing post season, it would be nice to see that he can keep the momentum going.
*John Rodriguez has also changed things up over the winter. According to News Channel 5 he started running(why run? who is chasing you?), and gave up pizza (the horror! Pizza is an essential American food, plus its yummy!) J-Rod claims that giving up pizza was the toughest part of his offseason. Rodriguez is also blogging again. Hopefully he will keep up with it all season.
*Jason Isringhausen is recovering nicely from his postseason hip surgery. He is being cautious but he is confident in his return to the reliever role.
*Jim Edmonds is recovering from toe and shoulder surgery, so he hasn't started workouts with the team yet. He is going to be held back another two/three weeks. Edmonds is not feeling any effects of the post-concussion sydrome that plagued him at the end of the season. Edmonds has a known aversion to Spring Training, so well known that it is a running joke in the Cardinals clubhouse.
*Scott Rolen's shoulder is feeling fine, and Rolen says he is in a better position than he was last Spring Training.
*Chris Carpenter is looking to add to his already impressive arsenal. Carpenter wants a better handle on his change up and his curveball. Batters that have faced him have made little contact with the balls Carp has thrown. Carp is also the undisputed leader Cards corps. He is the only starter still on the team from the fantastic 2004 season.
*Chris Duncan is hitting the batting cages hard and is constantly working on his outfielding.
*Edmonds and Juan Encarnacion are the only definate outfielders, so left field is up for grabs. Both J-Rod and Duncan are going to give it everything they got to win that position.
As always everything read here can be read in more detail on the cardinals website: www.stlcardinals.com
I am super excited about the upcoming season which can not come soon enough. Meanwhile, I am reading everything available on the Cards website and in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Football season is over, so I am going through sports withdrawl. I want my baseball! Opening day is April 1st, I will not be one of the lucky people in attendance, but you can bet that I will be watching every minute of it. If I can't watch it (Heavan forbid) I will be either listening to it or "watching" it via the amazing feature on the Cardinals website that allows viewers to see the location of the pitches, and keep you up informed of whats going on when you don't have access to the radio or the tv.
*Por Siempre, Let's Go Cardinals!! :)