Miscellaneous Monday

Happy President's Day! Moze, since I never got that bullpen I wanted for Valentine's, can I have it today?

A bunch of news to report today, so let's get right to it.

• It's official. Pujols will stay at home with the Cards during the WBC this spring. One day after announcing that it was highly unlikely that he would participate in the event, he confirmed to MLB.com that he will for certain be sitting out the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Tough break Team República Dominicana.

• The Cards dodge another bullet and keep their arbitration-less streak alive until at least 2010. One week after signing Ankiel to avoid the hearing with literally minutes to spare, the Cards agree to terms with Ryan Ludwick. The contract is for one year and worth $3.7 million. In Ankiel's contract, the two sides agreed on a dollar amount exactly in the middle of the two sides. The value of Ludwick's contract is $175,000 more than the midpoint between both sides. Ludwick will be worth every cent if he can have another year like 2008.

• Breathe a sigh of relief Cardinal fans. A couple of days after rumors of a possible Izzy/Cardinals reunion, the front office shot down the notion of an Isringhausen coming back. Deep breathe in. Hold it. Now out. The team when questioned about the rumors only reitierated that they already had all possible candidates for the closer role already at camp.

• Skip Schumaker is continuing to take ground balls at second this spring. However, during Tuesday's workouts, Skip will be flanked by another outfielder taking grounders with him. Joe Mather is going to be getting looked at harder for temp job at third. Him and Skip both will be practicing with the infielders until the Grapefruit League's first game on the 25th.

• This past weekend, the Cards had a familiar face helping out at camp. Being short one catcher for a bullpen session, Mike Matheny was happy to lend a helping hand. Matheny was quick to shoot down any possibility of a comeback to the game after retiring after the 2006 season with on-going symptoms associated with post-concussion syndrome. "Physically I know I could catch if I had to, but that's not what I'm here for," Matheny said. "I'm here to help out, hopefully to help out these catchers... they needed an extra body behind the plate and I was probably the closest thing to it."

One final note: I will be helping out with some articles over at RealGM.com. The first one I wrote is a review of the Cards off-season moves non-moves. Make sure to check it out if you have some more time to kill at work. I won't tell your boss. Click the link.

And with that final piece of Monday news, I am calling it a day.