I Don't Care if it's Exhibition, Let's Just Play Some Ball

Is everyone ready? Pineapple Grapefruit League play officially begins for the Cardinals at 12:05 (St. Louis time) Wednesday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium. The Florida Marlins will be the Redbirds' opponent.

I know I'm ready for some baseball. Feels like this winter has just dragged along. That is probably a result of no off-season acquisitions to get excited about and no Rams to watch. Well, they were there, but I'd rather save myself the stress and just watch bowling tournaments from 1984 or trick-shot billiards on ESPN.

Tony La Russa has already decided on the starting line-up for tomorrow. He told the media who would be at each position on the field, but would not yet tell how he was going to arrange the batting order. Hopefully La Russa does not have any big surprises.

• P, Blake Hawksworth
• C, Jason LaRue
• 1B, Albert Pujols
• 2B, Skip Schumaker
• 3B, Joe Mather
• SS, Khalil Greene
• LF, Colby Rasmus
• CF, Rick Ankiel
• RF, Ryan Ludwick
• DH, Chris Duncan
  
  

A couple of interesting notes about this pretend-opening-day lineup.

First off notice all the outfielders on the infield. I noted yesterday that with Brendan Ryan having wrist problems that the second base job was gift wrapped for Schumaker. But some may be surprised to see Mather at third. Mather has been slowly pulling away from the pack for the spot at third. He will be wearing Adam Kennedy's old number 7 tomorrow. He traded in the old number 62 and called dibs on the number after Kennedy was sent packing. No longer will Mather be confused for a skinny nose tackle.

Odds are La Russa will try to test out his 'Colby hits ninth' experiment tomorrow as he will be starting. Hopefully Colby will Jack out a homer or two tomorrow so he can move one step closer to securing a spot on the opening day roster.

The Cards lone big league player in the WBC, Yadier Molina, is out of lineup and his spot will be kept warm by the Cards' resident facial hair specialist, FuManchu-LaRue.

Starting pitcher Blake Hawksworth is not taking his starting duties lightly. "I'm very excited for the opportunity to start a game," said Hawksworth. "I'm thrilled. I think last year if he would have told me that, I probably would have been a little nervous, scared, unsure. This year, I was giddy, calling everyone. I'm very excited."

Hawksworth was once ranked the team's number one prospect (back in the day, before Swiss Rasmus), but has battling injury after injury since 2004. He was finally able to put everything back together to close out 2008 very strong. And since arriving in Jupiter, he has shown the coaches improvement in every aspect of his pitching. From control and velocity, to his overall attitude. Pitching coach Dave Duncan noted that Blake had "Better presence on the mound. Better velocity. Better command of his pitches. More aggressive, more confident."

Hawksworth said, "I came into camp healthy. I think it's just as much mental health as physical. It's been a rough couple of years in Triple-A. I lost a lot of my steam. But I've got a good sense of peace coming into this camp. I don't feel as much anxiety, pressure. It's been very relaxing. It's just been positive. And it's been going well so far."

Would it be wrong to hope a bigger crab comes after Pineiro and Hawksworth takes Pineiro's place in the rotation? I'm kidding of course. Or am I? I'll leave you to chomp on that.