St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols did not make the cross-state trip for Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox because of discomfort in his lower back.

The three-time National League MVP did not play Sunday against the Florida Marlins — a scheduled day off — and is not expected to play against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, a game also being played in Fort Myers.

“We’ll definitely give him tomorrow,” said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. “Even if we were home, I don’t think he’d play. We’ll see how he feels on Wednesday.”

Pujols first experienced discomfort in his back on Sunday. Joe Mather will take his place at first base against the Red Sox.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig admitted at baseball’s quarterly meetings that he agonized over the statement he put out in reference to Mark McGwire’s admission that he took steroids during a good portion of his career.


Selig was unwilling to take his commissioner hat off and give his reaction to McGwire’s statement as a baseball fan.

“Look, I am the commissioner,” Selig said. “My public statement, which I wrote over and over and over, says exactly how I feel on the matter. I just don’t want to add to that. I painstakingly went over it. I went over and over it while I watched the Packers game Sunday night. They gave up so many points and scored so many that I had about five hours to re-write it about 100 times.”

Selig said he found out McGwire was going to speak up about his steroid use before the public did.

“I knew beforehand, but not much,” he said. “I’ve talked a lot about it to [St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa] and [Cardinals owner] Bill DeWitt. We’ve talked about it since they made him their hitting coach.”

Click here to read the full article – By Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago.com

The Cardinals see left fielder Matt Holliday as a unique talent within this year’s free agent pool, and they apparently do not envision themselves as bidders for the market’s presumptive second choice should Holliday defect.


General manager John Mozeliak confirmed Tuesday that the Cardinals’ priority signing would shift away from offense if Holliday proves too pricey for the club to retain.

“We’ll see how the market develops,” Mozeliak said. “Is (Jason Bay) a possibility? Sure. But right now it’s fair to say he’s not one of our top priorities.”

The Cardinals have yet to submit a formal bid to Holliday’s agent, Scott Boras, and are unlikely to do so until free agents can begin accepting bids from all clubs on Saturday. The Cardinals continue to view Holliday as their offseason priority but have also constructed alternatives with starting pitching, not hitting, as a centerpiece.

Click here to read the full article – By Joe Strauss of ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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OK, EVERYBODY. TAKE a deep breath. Count to three. Find your happy place. And quit worrying, if only for a minute, about the St. Louis Cardinals’ slip-and-slide slouch toward this postseason. Sure, the Cards were 4-9 the last two weeks of the regular season, giving us pause as they jetted off for their playoff visit to Los Angeles tonight.


Guess what? In 2006, when the Cards were about to win a World Series, their record the last two weeks of the regular season was … wait for it … 4-10. Think about that: 4-9 on the eve of the playoffs this year, 4-10 on the eve of a Series win three years ago.

The last month of this season, the Cards went 14-16. The last month three years ago, the eventual Series champs went 12-17.

And then they went 11-5 in the ‘06 postseason, winning the division series in four games with San Diego, the NLCS in seven games against the New York Mets, and the Series in five games with Detroit.


Click here to read the full article – By of bnd.com

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Last winter, the Brewers tweaked the roster. This time, they face the prospect of wholesale changes.

“There are a lot of question marks,” manager Ken Macha told reporters late in the season. “I think you’ll have a lot to write about.”

Macha himself was among those question marks before general manager Doug Melvin declared that Macha would be back in 2010. The coaching staff will see some changes — including the key pitching coach position — and the roster figures to see plenty.

It’s nothing new for Macha.

“When I managed in Oakland, we had free agents going left and right,” he said. “It was guys like [Jason] Giambi, [Miguel] Tejada, and all four years I was there I had a different closer. There was always movement there.


Click here to read the full article – By Adam McCalvy of MLB.com

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Troy Glaus rejoined the Cardinals on Tuesday and pronounced himself ready to play, but exactly how much he’ll get to play is in question.


Glaus, who has dealt with one injury after another this year, was most recently sidelined with pain in his left oblique. He was not with the team on the first two stops of its current three-city road trip, instead staying in St. Louis to get treatment. He made improvement, though, so he caught up with his teammates at Great American Ball Park.

“I’ve been hitting for six days,” he said. “Taking grounders, throwing, doing everything.”


Click here to read the full article – By Matthew Leach of MLB.com

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Say, wait a minute. Maybe having the Detroit Tigers for the 2010 Opening Day opponent is a good idea for the Royals after all. The Tigers have become tame tabbies for the Royals.


Alberto Callaspo, David DeJesus and Miguel Olivo each belted a three-run homer as the Royals stomped the Tigers, 11-1, in front of 20,442 fans on Tuesday night at Comerica Park. It was Kansas City’s seventh victory in the past eight games — and four of them have come over the guys wearing the old English “D.”

Royals right-hander Robinson Tejeda went five innings for his second consecutive win over the Tigers and got four scoreless innings of backing from the bullpen.


Click here to read the full article – By Dick Kaegel of MLB.com

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Right-hander Gil Meche’s season seems to be over and righty Brian Bannister’s status is still uncertain, Royals manager Trey Hillman said on Thursday. Hillman said Meche has inflammation in his right shoulder. He hasn’t pitched since Aug. 29 at Seattle.


“Likely, he won’t pitch in a ballgame the rest of the season,” Hillman said.

Bannister, also out with right shoulder fatigue, will seek a second opinion.

“Banny is going to New York tomorrow — they’ve made a diagnosis here and, just as many athletes do, he just wants to get a second opinion,” Hillman said.

He declined to elaborate on the diagnosis on Bannister, who last pitched at Oakland on Sept. 2, when he left the game in the second inning.


Click here to read the full article – By Dick Kaegel of MLB.com

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Casey McGehee entered Spring Training with only an outside chance to make the Brewers’ Opening Day roster. He entered September with a chance to win the third-base job for next season.

McGehee, a third baseman who has also seen time at second, won that Opening Day roster spot by hitting .328 in Spring Training and he hasn’t cooled yet. That’s despite playing most of the regular season with a right knee injury that requires treatment after every game.

McGehee hit a go-ahead home run in Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Cards to help the Brewers avoid getting swept by St. Louis, part of a three-RBI afternoon and a fabulous series. McGehee drove in nine of the Brewers’ 13 runs against the Cardinals.

Click here to read the full article – By Adam McCalvy of MLB.com

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With the Cardinals 10 1/2 games up in the NL Central with 27 games left to play, it’s all but certain that they will be returning to the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2006.

But despite the big lead, the Cardinals are deadlocked in a tight battle down the stretch. The Cardinals, Phillies and Dodgers are all within a game of each other for the best record in the National League and the winner, of course, gets home-field advantage all the way until the World Series.

With the division race all but over, you would think the race for the best record in the league would be a positive motivating tool for manager Tony La Russa and his club. Nope.


Click here to read the full article – By B.J. Rains of MLB.com

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