[This is the inaugural post in what's going to be an ongoing feature here at VEB. Matt Lemmon (aka "itsalemmon") will be filing periodic reports from Springfield about the Double A farm team. He found out some cool stuff during the big-league team's visit to Springfield this past weekend ---- see especially his inquiries about "classic mechanics" and the very frank comments from Adam Ottavino about his first season and a half in the St. Louis system. ---- LB]

My name is Matt, and I’ve been hitting this site on pretty much a thrice-daily basis for the better part of three years. I don’t comment often, but I read every day. Over the winter I approached Larry about being a regular Springfield Cardinals correspondent, and he took me up on the offer. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to keep VEB Nation up to speed on the AA Cardinals.

For this initial post, I get to write about not only the AA Cards but also the big-league Cardinals, who wrapped up their exhibition season with two games in Springfield. It was the big-league club’s first visit here since 2005, a very big deal. The stadium holds 9,000-something people, but I’ll bet they were pushing 10,000 in attendance, at least for the cold-but-dry Friday night game.

Before that first game, I managed to chat briefly with players from both teams. A few of those exchanges are below ---- but first let me tell you how I happened to get down onto the field.

I’m the editor of an alt entertainment/news tab here in SpringMO --- GO Magazine. I pretty much singlehandedly keep GO’s daily blog going, as well as much of the magazine. It’s a labor of love, but I’m proud of it. Give it a click. Here’s a story previewing the 2008 Springfield Cardinals for the layperson. And here’s an essay I wrote for our sister mag, 417 Magazine (for which I serve as web editor), about why Springfield is so crazy about the Birds on the Bat.

Note: I am not a stathead. You won’t find me talking VORP or PECOTA or anything like that. Larry and the gang do a great job of that. I would just butcher the numbers, though I will try to link out to applicable stathead pages when it’s appropriate. What I do know how to do is put together an interesting interview and, on a fan level, evaluate players’ performances. This is what I, my media pass, and my grandfather’s bequeathed half-season tickets will try to provide for you.

Now on to the stuff you really want --- the interviews. (Access and time with players was limited --- I promise the length of the interviews will increase in subsequent posts.) I happened to be part of Tony LaRussa’s press roundtable. Our local media is pretty solid, but these Cardinals visits are, mainly, a time to lob softball questions at the big-leaguers, especially for the TV types. Here’s a very brief sampling of LaRussa’s PR-approved answers:

Then I asked Tony about "classic mechanics," an initiative of new minor-league pitching coordinator Dyar Miller and his assistant, Brent Strom. (Miller and Strom ran a special camp on classic mechanics early in spring training.) The answer was a classic LaRussa mix of sarcasm and ambiguity:

The next big-leaguer I tracked down was Izzy, who was actually recruited to Missouri State University (then Southwest Missouri State University) to play college ball in the late 1980s but instead signed with the Mets.

Next up: Dave Duncan, doing a second round of interviews with just a few reporters.

It’s interesting that you could --- and many on this side would say, should --- substitute Duncan’s quotes for McClellan as quotes about Reyes. But Reyes isn’t going to get that chance any more, it appears.

OK, now for my chats with the Springfield Cardinals. A lot of the players were here last year, but there are some key additions --- guys I’ve never met before. When the media was allowed in, the AA boys were taking BP and warming up, and I only got access to them through the frantic, hard-working efforts of PR guy Mike Lindskog. I was able to catch a few of them in the locker room afterward.

The most interesting conversation I had was with Adam Ottavino, the 2006 first-rounder who’s starting his first stint at Double A. Last year Larry had a fairly lengthy talk with Ottavino about the much-discussed organizational (read: LaDunca) hype for "pitching to contact." I thought I’d catch back up with him on that:

I also managed to grab short conversations with a number of other Springfield players. The short bites:

• Tyler Greene says he’s healthy, though the former first-round pick appears to be blocked on the Springfield infield by Allen Craig, Jose Martinez (who it a ton against St. Louis pitching), and Dan Nelson, who has also looked good this spring. Greene did start at short (Martinez at 2nd) in both games, making a run-allowing throwing error in Friday’s game and not hitting very much. We’ll see what they do with him before opening day.
• John Jay also looks healthy and could very well be a solid leadoff/CF guy at AA this year. Dude is ripped. I’m definitely keeping my wife away from the center field area this season.
• Cody Haerther (who calls himself the "the mayor of the team" because he’s spent parts of three years in Springfield) on his 48 hours as a Blue Jay this off-season: "That was tough. It was kinda like they called and told me my dog died the first day. I was upset and loved being a Cardinal. But then I looked at the situation, and it was a good fit for me and the organization. But things happen; [Toronto] made a roster move and I had to go through waivers again, and I was fortunate enough that the Cardinals took me back. That they took me a back means they must have some plans for me."

Finally, here are a few observations from Friday night’s game. (I was supposed to go Saturday, as well, but my 85-year-old grandfather just couldn’t be out in the very cold, extremely wet weather, so we followed much of the game on TV and radio.)

• A newspaper buddy of mine noticed that Ankiel is the ringleader of the team, keeping guys loose during warmups and in the dugout. He’s a player, but has one of those grins that just tell you he’s up to no good. If he were a Cub, we’d hate the guy’s guts. On the field, he looks much more comfortable in centerfield than he looked in right last season, imo. And, not that I’m reading a lot into where guys’ lockers are on the road, but Ankiel and Reyes’s lockers were next to one another, which is interesting.
• Jamie Garcia, who started Friday night’s game, looked good, but had some trouble locating his breaking stuff.
• Troy Glaus is BIG. A bit skinnier than Rolen, but just as tall.
• Albert still cares, and can still hit.
• P.J. Walters gave the big club fits on Saturday. Expect more problems with soft-tossing Jeff Francis today.
• Jose Martinez is ripping the cover off the ball. Right now he might just be the best middle infielder in the system --- and I’m including St. Louis players in that statement.