Westbrook, Beltran injured early in win over Marlins

Carlos Beltran and Jake Westbrook exited the game against the Miami Marlins due to injury.
Feb 19, 2013; Jupiter, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals player Oscar Taveras (87) poses for a picture during photo day at Roger Dean Stadium. Image Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Westbrook was hit in the leg when Casey Kotchman smashed a line drive. Beltran was hit by a pitch on his toe in the first inning.

Beltran’s injury led to something disgusting happening on Twitter. People were rooting for him to be seriously injured so that Oscar Taveras could make the Opening Day roster. I’m sorry but Cardinals fans are supposed to be classier than that. I’m rooting for Beltran to be healthy, not injured. That’s why I completely agree with Brian Walton’s comments.

Taveras would hit a grand slam in the first inning, helping the Cardinals to a 6-1 lead at the time. They would go on to win the game 8-2 but that’s beside the point right now.

Rob Rains has a nice feature story on Jake Lemmerman, the shortstop acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the trade for Skip Schumaker. He was one of several Cardinals prospects that got to work with Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith the other day in Spring Training.

Lemmerman told me that Smith “gave us information on how hard you have to work and out time and productive effort into your work. When we did infield drills, he discussed creating better angles towards the base you are getting an out at.”

Lemmerman added that the Wizard told them how to attack the ball and slow down “to be smooth and consistent.”

Derrick Goold writes of how Matt Adams is making his case to make the roster. The case with Adams is an interesting one, as the United Cardinal Bloggers has discussed recently. If he makes the team, it means that he will becoming off the bench to be used as a pinch hitter. Or used as a DH during the more-often-than-we-would-prefer interleague games that will be seen frequently this season, no thanks to the Houston Astros switching to the American League.

"Where it plays is the question that could vex the Cardinals for the month they have before opening day in Arizona. Adams, 23, has been perhaps the second-most productive Cardinals minor-leaguer to Oscar Taveras the past two seasons. He punished the Pacific Coast League with a .329 average, a .624 slugging percentage and 18 homers last season despite having a bone spur and bone chips floating in his right elbow. Mozeliak said this winter Adams has “done all he needs to” at the Class AAA level. That does not mean he has a spot reserved in the majors."

If Adams does not make the roster, he would be starting the season with the Memphis Redbirds and likely to be used as trade bait to acquire a short stop if I had to guess. The downside to that is the former Division 2 Player of the Year would be hitting home runs for another organization.