Nothing surprises me with those moves. It seems like they are setting up their spring roster to more accurately reflect the projected big league roster so they can get more time for the regulars without hurting the prospects.

I'd guess Izturis' spot is safe for now b/c Tony doesn't like his other options. Ryan is definitely a better fit for the org by any accounting, but Tony doesn't trust the guy to start every day. Miles, well, he's a back-up. I can't imagine Izturis will get more than a month-long grace period to improve on this type of performance, though. Something will have to give.

is not more worried about Izturis than he lets the media know, then I am worried about TLR.

There's got to be a part of him that sees that sub.200 avg. and multiple errors as a sign of bad things to come. If not, something is seriously wrong. But this is okay, we'll give him another month or so to prove himself, and if he still can't get it above the mendoza line, then Ryan is right there waiting for his turn!

No need to rush these guys they will be up soon enough. Also this gives us nice depth and protection against injuries. Not to mention this could set us up for a mid to late season trade if we are in the mix or if we are out of the mix.

one out of three, for me, I guess. Happy to see that Ryan will make the club. But I was hoping against the odds that we'd do something impressive and radical and go ahead and install Rasmus in CF.
I was against the Izturis signing a month ago...even more frustrated by it now.

my buddy whose a cubs fan sent me a mocking text message when he found out we picked up izturis. at the time, i thought it was a shrewd move by the org to shore up the ss position, but if he continues on this pace, i think my buddy may prove right with his mocking tone. And yes, thats what i get for having a friend who is a cubs fan.

I'm glad Ryan makes the club. I too don't understand the longer leash with Izturis vs Spivey. Hopefully Ryan will get the job sometime after the first month or so.

The last bullpen job is still up in the air. Not sure who I like for it, but I'm thinking McClellan, while Perez closes for Memphis.

He's not a defensive standout but he's a servicable fielder at the corner positions (3B being the weakest option). Perhaps the most desirable quality he possesses at this point is power from the right hand side. There is no bench player that offers significant right-handed power and can play the infield outside of Mather.

We find that Brendan Ryan, Cesar Izturis, Aaron Miles and Adam Kennedy all remain. Apparently, four light-hitting middle infielders are going to be critical to our success this season. Let's set aside Kennedy who still has two contract years -- I can understand the Cardinals wanting to recoup something from that investment even if he wasn't the best option (although his bat seems to have come back from the dead to the semi-living). It's apparent that the team thinks Aaron Miles can play shortstop -- even though that's a fallacy -- so my question is why the team feels the necessity of having not one but two SS backups on the team? Not one of the three players are an attractive backup at third given the lack of power.

From Birdland linked above:

"You can tell by the number of at-bats they got the kind of impression they made," manager Tony La Russa said of Rasmus and Mather [...] "You don’t get at-bats like that if you’re not impressing someone."

So after impressing and playing better than his competition, Mather is shipped off. Actions speak louder than words and Mather's reassignment says to me that TLR still isn't ready to take the best players regardless of age/experience.

If there's an argument to be made against Mather, it's his line from Memphis last season. In 288 ABs he hit .241/.329/.443. While his peripherals are in line, meaning he wasn't particularly lucky or unlucky, he maintained a nice ISO of .202 by hitting 13 HRs during Memphis. Looking over the last 3 years of his statistics, only in Springfield was he truly above average as an offensive player. I'd contend that he's an equally good offensive projection, however, as Ryan, Izturis and/or Miles while having a different offensive skillset -- one that isn't well represented on the team. Despite that, he's cut before other players who are, at best, stop-gaps. So much for the spring "competition".

now the biggest question mark is who leads off? Any ideas? Shumaker against righties? (blank) against lefties?

Spivey was "only" signed to a 1.2 million contract. Izturis was signed to a $2.85 million (plus incentives) deal.

That's why it was possible to cut ties with Spivey. Izutris is a little harder to write off.

(I like Mo for the most part, but giving that much money to Izturis was just downright bizzare, given how unproductive he has been the last two years and that no one else wanted him)

we will be able to have this same conversation about Kelvin Jimenez when he beats out better pitchers like Castellanos and McClellan. Apparently we didn't learn our lesson during the 42 innings he pitched last season.

that w/ Motte being sent down, Chris Perez truly has an opportunity to begin the year w/ the team. I hope this isn't another Chad Hutchinson or Jimmy Journell situation -- where Tony's afraid to put him in a game. If he's up w/ the team, he needs to pitch. God knows our starting pitchers will give our relievers plenty of opportunities.