Musings from an Optimistic Redbird Fan – 2013

The Passing of a Great – Stan “The Man” Musial died this past week. He was 92 years old and considered by many in baseball to be one of the greatest in professional baseball. He’s definitely in my top five baseball players of all time. If you missed it, Fox Sports Midwest will be repeating the airing of a TV special on Musial at 9:30 PM CT on Sunday and again at 9:00 PM CT on the following Tuesday. His funeral will be on Saturday, 1/26/13 and there will be a plethora of coverage around the event. My heartfelt condolences to his family as he will be missed by Cardinal Nation.

Signings – So far, the St. Louis Cardinals have signed three of the five players eligible for arbitration. Jason Motte, Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs have already signed. David Freese and Marc Rzepcynski are the remaining players with offers still on the table.

Spring Training Getting Closer – The Cardinal’s early camp starts Feb. 22 in Jupiter FL. The names of the early camp participants have not been released yet. But, here is the schedule for spring training beyond the early reporting date:

March 4 – Pitchers and catchers report
March 5 – Pitchers and catchers first workout
March 6 – Position players report
March 7 – Full Squad workout
March 13 – First Intrasquad game
March 14 – Game against Florida Marlins

For a complete schedule, go the www.stlcardinals.com

Minor League System – According to Baseball America, the Cardinals have the best minor league system. Their highest ranking previous to this was in 1990 at number five. With players like Oscar Taveras, Kolten Wong, Trevor Rosenthal and Shelby Miller it’s no surprise to me. And when you consider Rosenthal and Miller played the latter part of last year in the majors, it’s really an accomplishment for the Cardinals’ system.

Thanks for reading.