1. Treachery! Tony La Russa will apparently be unofficially assisting Jim Leyland for part of Spring Training in Detroit, proving that La Russa's apparent connection to every living 1980s coaching star works in both directions.

2. Wainwright, some more! Adam Wainwright threw to live hitters again, and the other starters are already in camp. No word yet as to what Roy Oswalt did, though if it's anything like what I do when I'm underemployed he probably sat in Chipotle by himself, reading a magazine and hoping against hope that the lady who swipes his Discover card twice a week didn't recognize him as the Magazine Guy.

3. One more potential Matt Adams skeptic! One of these threads about minor league first basemen over the last few days reminded me rather abruptly of Mark Hamilton, who comes into this season 27 years old, still option-able, and about to get run over by an actual first base prospect after three Memphis half-seasons in which he's hit .319/.406/.530 and scuffled in patchy St. Louis assignments. I'm told he's less than convinced about Adams's ability to maintain a workable OBP in the Major Leagues, and more convinced that Adams should retire, or become a pitcher, or just go away or something.

Hamilton doesn't project especially well thanks to his inability to stay on the field, his age, and his weird hitting profile—last year he hit .345/.439/.472, which is probably not a real thing—but I've always been curious to see what he could do given the chance for some other team; if he ends up back in Memphis, unfortunately, he'll be forced to stomp around the outfield some more.

(While we're on the subject, 2006 might be the ultimate representative Mozeliak/Luhnow-era Cardinals draft. Some disappointing front-line picks—Hamilton and Adam Ottavino—some additional replacement-level guys who get call-ups—Shane Robinson, P.J. Walters—and two not-entirely heralded starters in Allen Craig and Jon Jay, not to mention Chris Perez, David Carpenter, and Luke Gregerson.)

While we're still on the subject, Joe Strauss did his only-realist-in-the-world thing on Twitter the other day, responding with #NoSixYearFAs and #SelfFulfilling to a factoid to the effect that the Cardinals had drafted and graduated 24 players between 2005 and 2007.

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In the last two years 10 first basemen have managed a bWAR between two and three—in the "above-average but not spectacular" range. Ryan Howard did it twice, but he hit 30 home runs and drove in 100 RBI and struck out 329 times, and if you do the first two things baseball purists don't care about the last one, apparently, so let's assume he's way better than these other guys.

Actually, that's the most striking thing about these guys—three of them are franchise players ostensibly in their primes. Aside from Howard there's Mark Teixeira last year and Prince Fielder the year before that. But I'll get back to that.

I brought up this list—here it is—because I've been thinking about Matt Adams, who came up a few times in the red baron's Spring Surprises post. All last year I was skeptical of Adams's ability to be a star first baseman, and I still am, but with Albert Pujols gone and the Cardinals no longer structured around an outstanding first baseman—or any one outstanding player—it's time to imagine him as a possible average contributor, one of the cheap cogs on a team that will ideally be filled with them.

So if 2 WAR is an average first baseman, and 3 WAR is a nice first baseman, here are some pictures of average-ish first basemen.

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I was planning on doing a chat thread this morning, sort of pre-Pitchers and Catchers Report Day celebration type thing, but unfortunately I find myself a bit more pressed for time today than I had anticipated. Thus, the two hour or so window I usually try to set aside for chats just isn't going to be feasible.

So I was thinking of what I could do instead, and I considered another batch of scouting reports. Since I hadn't actually put together a group for this week ahead of time, though, that would actually be more time-consuming than a chat, not less. So a draft preview post be out.

It was then I suddenly realised I had failed as of yet to do one of my annual tradition posts. I speak, of course, of the Spring Surprise Game.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Spring Surprise Game, the rules are as follows: I want one (1) pitcher and one (1) position player who you think is going to make a big impression in camp this year. It can be a major leaguer or minor leaguer, but let's face it: we're mostly talking either prospects or guys on the margins here. The players in question do not have to make the team out of spring training to qualify as a Spring Surprise; I just want to know who you think we'll all be excitedly discussing come the second week of March.

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Over the past few days, the inevitable Albert Pujols-centric advertising campaign for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was rolled out. The opening advertisements are billboards around Orange County featuring a photograph of Pujols from the back in that near-perfect follow-through. One of the billboards reads "Big A" and another reads "Now Playing." With the Angels' haloed "A" in each, they are nothing more than your standard professional sports franchise billboards. However, there is a third billboard that reads "El Hombre" that has caused Cardinals fans to stand up and take notice.

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It's not quite Brendan Ryan and Joe Mather—alas, what could be?—but I have to say that I'm enjoying the entire Cardinals squad's ongoing faux-celebration of World Series MVP David Freese, immortalized today in the Post-Dispatch and seen earlier in Matt Holliday's Freese shirt and Jon Jay's Freese bobblehead, and what better time to say so than Valentine's Day? (This is like grade school Valentine's Day, when you have to give an X-Men valentine to everybody, even the people you hate. Only the valentines all have David Freese's picture on them, and he probably hates it.)

This is one of those nuances I sometimes have to spell out for people who enjoy baseball differently than I do—who don't care about the numbers, who see them, even, as the symbol of some ongoing dehumanizing of sports. I don't think team chemistry has a lot to do with a baseball team's success, and I think most winning teams have good chemistry specifically because they're winning, not the other way around.

But of course I want the players on my favorite team to like each other. Of course it's easier to root for David Freese than Pete Rose, and to get involved in the 162-game story of human beings who play squash in the offseason and tweet like I would, if I were into Creed or had millions of dollars, than it is to cheer on the blind backs of baseball cards. They're playing baseball for a living, to resurrect an ancient crotchety-sportswriter trope; they don't have to have a good time in the course of it, but to people who don't play baseball for a living, who don't spend half the year traveling across the country with their teammates, it's pretty to think so.

Conclusion: Maybe I'd feel worse for Yadier Molina about the Cardinals not resigning Albert Pujols if they had pulled weird pranks on each other via Twitter.

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In the NLDS, David Freese hit .278/.278/.556/.833 with 5 RBI. Freese smacked a double and home run off veteran Roy Oswalt in the do-or-die Game 4 at Busch Stadium. In the NLCS, Freese picked up where he left off, posting the high-popping line of .545/.600/1.091/1.691 with 3 homers, 3 doubles, and 9 RBI. The Iceman cooled off so to speak in the World Series with a somewhat more human line of .348/.464/.696/1.160.

Understandably, Freese was the MVP of both the NLCS and World Series. His good postseason fortunes have made him a national figure, appearing on late-night talk shows, awards shows, and an ill-fated sitcom. Despite his dynamic postseason play, should St. Louis Cardinals fans expect production on the field in 2012 on par with his stature off it?

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There are plenty of reasons to be excited for the 2012 season. The Cardinals' Front Office led by John Mozeliak has assembled an interesting set of players despite the void left by Albert Pujols. Veterans Lance Berkman and Carlos Beltran will become key focal points in a revamped offense along with World Series MVP David Freese and the Cardinals will look to work Allen Craig's bat into the lineup upon his return from rehabbing knee surgery. The rotation is bolstered by a newly ligamented Adam Wainwright a deep veteran core of Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook and the sole lefty Jaime Garcia.

I visited this topic early last year but it seems worthwhile to come back to it again. There is really one player who the Cardinals will depend on to fill the significant void left by the departure of #5. That would be #7, Matt Holliday. Despite appearing in approximately 75% of last year's games, Matt Holliday still managed to put up a 5.0 fWAR year. That was due in large part to what was, arguably, his best offensive season of his career factoring in league and park effects. Matt Holliday was simply terrific.

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the trucks have hit the road. ninety gazillion baseballs are bound for jupiter (not that jupiter).

meanwhile, the club keeps making small moves to improve depth, while it quietly plays a last-hand-on-the-car waiting game with roy oswalt. earlier, the club signed a minor league contract with alex cora, hopefully to be the eleventh-string guy called up rather than making kyle lohse play second base on his off-days.

maybe a more interesting signing was yesterday's minor league signing of scott linebrink. hopefully, he won't cut in line ahead of the more deserving young relievers. but, as relief depth that can be stowed in the minors at little to no cost, he seems like an excellent value. he's older (35), and he had a down year last year. he may be in a decline phase. on the other hand, he's been a pretty decent reliever in the past. bgh showed us yesterday how well he compared to kyle mcclellan in 2011. if anything, calling linebrink a mcclellan clone is selling him short. zips thinks linebrink will turn out more like mitch boggs - both have a projection for a 99 era+. mcclellan on the other hand projects to have only an 88 era+. a reliever who projects to be a hair below average is a good thing to get on a minor league deal, however you slice it.

the other most recent signing was a little younger and a little further from the majors. the cardinals signed andres serrano, a 17-year-old hurler from the dominican. for $750,000, getting a young pitcher with a fastball reportedly sitting in the low-90's, reaching up to 95 mph, with a nice curveball to complement his fastball. don't expect him to show up in jupiter next saturday.

but the gang has already started assembling. yadier molina and tony cruz have been catching pitches from adam wainwright, who apparently is in . . . wait for it . . . the best shape of his life. tyler greene and - bizarrely - rick ankiel have been standing in to take pitches against waino. it's great to see him obviously raring to go. i'm not sure that he would have told us that he felt terrible, but ordinary optimism wouldn't require the kind of hyperbolic commentary we've heard from him so far, as well as from the catchers and hitters sitting in with him.

not in the best shape of his life is allen craig, who isn't running and isn't taking swings. he is still rehabbing the muscles in his leg, following knee surgery a few weeks after the world series. it's hard to know how much time he'll need to get back into playing shape once his rehab is done.

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