Today, February 27, 2010, the St. Louis Cardinals signed infielder/outfielder Felipe Lopez to one-year deal apparently worth about $2 million. Lopez will wear number 8 in 2010, and he says he is happy to be back with the Cardinals.

On Thursday, January 28, 2010, Jim Edmonds, eight time gold glove and one time silver slugger, signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. Edmonds played seven years with the California/Anaheim Angels, and eight years with the St. Louis Cardinals. Edmonds was a fan favorite, along with Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen at the time. Edmonds was a 2006 World Series champion with the Cardinals. Jim was going to play for league minimum in 2009 to back-up the outfield for the Cardinals, due to his eagerness to play baseball again after missing the 2009 season. Edmonds also announced that he wants to retire with the Cardinals.

So far, this can't be done.

Edmonds signed a contract for around $800,000 to play in the minors, however he will report to Spring Training and fight for a spot on the bench.

Edmonds just wanted that last year with the Cardinals, but he still might get it. If 39-year old Edmonds does good enough in 2010, he could sign with the Cards in 2011, if he is not too age-fatigued.

Albert Pujols wanted to play with his old teammate again, but so far the chances are not looking too good. With Albert's last year as a Cardinal coming in 2010, and Edmonds playing for the Brewers in 2010, they probably will not end up together again. But if they both re-sign with the Cards in 2011, it could be possible.

If Edmonds does make it to the majors, he will make another return to play in Busch Stadium. Like they did when he returned as a Cub, Jim will probably recieve a major standing ovation from the Cardinal fans in St. Louis. Either that, or a sea of boos.

But knowing Cardinal Nation, the latter probably won't happen.

Who knows. Maybe everything will work out great: Pujols re-signs for seven years, and Edmonds will get traded over from Milwaukee. Hopefully.

On Sunday during intermission at Tony LaRussa's benefit concert for the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF), Jim Edmonds was backstage talking with former teammates, including new hitting coach Mark McGwire. When he was asked if he would be visiting spring training this year, Edmonds responded with, "I hear number 15 is available."

This is no joke.

Jim Edmonds, former gold glove and silver slugging center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals who played from 2000-2007, wants to wear his old number fifteen again. Edmonds was traded to the San Diego Padres in December of 2007 for prospect David Freese. Edmonds had a year that could be barfed at in 2008, sharing time with the Padres and with the arch-rival Cubs. Edmonds missed the 2009 season, but never officially retired.

It began with Jim sending a few text messages between him and manager Tony LaRussa. At first, LaRussa took it as a joke. Edmonds, who was at the ARF event, asked if he could come on stage with Tony. "I thought he was just going to say how much he enjoyed the show, said LaRussa on Monday. "He's serious. I said, 'If you're serious, we'll give you a serious discussion out of respect.' "Beyond that, I don't know."

Edmonds is not in shape, and with spring training within two months, Edmonds will have to work fast. His tryout, if the Cardinals do give him one, will be during spring training. However, it might be difficult to tell Edmonds he can't play.

The Cardinals outfield is already set: Holliday in left, Rasmus in center, and Ludwick in right. However, with the club lacking a back-up, Edmonds may be a good fit.

Originally, Edmonds said he would play for free. This changed quickly. Later he said he would play for the league minimum for just one more season with the Cardinals. Edmonds wants to retire as a Cardinal, and not as an arch-rival Cub.

"That would be great having him back, but I don't make these decisions," Pujols commented on Edmonds. "If he's in good spirit to come back and in good shape, I think we can definitely use his help in our lineup."

Every true Cardinal fan misses Edmonds out there in center field diving twenty feet into the warning track to catch a meaningless fly ball or Edmonds at the plate pulling homer after homer over the left field walls in old and new Busch Stadium. Two of Edmonds' great seasons are as follows:

2000: 42 HRs, 108 RBIs, .295 BA, GG, AS, 4th Place MVP

2004: 42 HRs, 111 RBIs, .301 BA, GG, SS, AS, 5th Place MVP

Both of those seasons were him as a Cardinal, and 2000 was his first year. Jimmy Ballgame is turning 40 soon, and he says he wants to imitate Brett Favre in the 40-year-old sports player thing. Let's all hope that the Cardinals let Edmonds re-join the team. 

John Mozeliak, St. Louis Cardinals general manager, stated that even if the club had known of Mark McGwire's steroid use, he still would have been hired as the hitting coach. The Cards are very confident McGwire will do a good job, and Mozeliak also said that absolutely nothing involving performance enhancing drugs (PED) would've changed their minds of hiring McGwire.

At the Winter Warm-Up today, many players were questioned about how they feel about McGwire's admittance. Brendan Ryan received a slew of these questions. Ryan has been hitting with McGwire for much of the winter. Ryan said that he will not discount McGwire's playing accomplishments from his drug use.

Much talk has been brought up about McGwire's hall of fame chances also; there is still a chance. There is no rule that any player who has been involved with PEDs may not be eligible to enter the Cooperstown HOF. Many people do not vote for steroid users; i cannot agree or disagree to this. McGwire did break an MLB rule AND a law, but he was truthful when he said that he had good and bad seasons while on the roids. He also sounded truthful when he said he took them for injury. In fact, on ESPN the other day I heard that many of the sportscasters will be voting for Big Mac in this upcoming vote.

 To sum it up, even though McGwire broke a rule, he was still an amazing ball player and should be recognized for this. I believe McGwire should be elected into Cooperstown.

Today, Monday, January 11, 2010, Mark McGwire admitted to his strongly speculated usage of steroids. McGwire admitted that he used them for much of a decade, and even in 1998, when he broke the home run record. This was strongly speculated by former and current Cardinal fans, and when he did not speak in court, even more speculations were created. McGwire spoke in a statement, and will talk more about it tonight at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network, an exclusive interview. McGwire's entire statement is follows:

"Now that I have become the hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, I have the chance to do something that I wish I was able to do five years ago.

"I never knew when, but I always knew this day would come. It's time for me to talk about the past and to confirm what people have suspected. I used steroids during my playing career, and I apologize. I remember trying steroids very briefly in the 1989/1990 off season and then after I was injured in 1993, I used steroids again. I used them on occasion throughout the nineties, including during the 1998 season.

"I wish I had never touched steroids. It was foolish and it was a mistake. I truly apologize. Looking back, I wish I had never played during the steroid era.

"During the mid-90s, I went on the DL seven times and missed 228 games over five years. I experienced a lot of injuries, including a rib cage strain, a torn left heel muscle, a stress fracture of the left heel, and a torn right heel muscle. It was definitely a miserable bunch of years and I told myself that steroids could help me recover faster. I thought they would help me heal and prevent injuries too.

"I'm sure people will wonder if I could have hit all those home runs had I never taken steroids. I had good years when I didn't take any and I had bad years when I didn't take any. I had good years when I took steroids and I had bad years when I took steroids. But no matter what, I shouldn't have done it and for that I'm truly sorry.

"Baseball is really different now -- it's been cleaned up. The Commissioner and the Players Association implemented testing and they cracked down, and I'm glad they did.

"I'm grateful to the Cardinals for bringing me back to baseball. I want to say thank you to Cardinals owner Mr. DeWitt, to my GM, John Mozeliak, and to my manager, Tony La Russa. I can't wait to put the uniform on again and to be back on the field in front of the great fans in St. Louis. I've always appreciated their support and I intend to earn it again, this time as hitting coach. I'm going to pour myself into this job and do everything I can to help the Cardinals hitters become the best players for years to come.

"After all this time, I want to come clean. I was not in a position to do that five years ago in my Congressional testimony, but now I feel an obligation to discuss this and to answer questions about it. I'll do that, and then I just want to help my team."

Well that statement has to make people wondering if McGwire would be a good hitting coach feel better. He appears to really want this job, and sounds like he WILL do a good job coaching all the Cardinals' hitters. Let's hope he does!

Now, we all know that Holliday re-signed with the Cardinals for a monstrous amount of money, or at least monstrous for the Cardinals. If the Yankees gave him this contract, he would not be respected in New York. However, every true Cardinal fan knows that Jim Edmonds, famous retired center fielder for the Cardinals, wore number 15. Holliday changed his number from 15 to 7 to show respect as a Cardinal. Some people even criticized Holliday for his number choice in 2009, so changing his uniform is good all-around. Of course, Holliday won't now and never will wear number 5. "I offered Albert a watch. Apparently he has one already," Holliday joked about this. "I know Jim Edmonds was a big deal here and he wore number 15. So I was kind of hoping to have my own number. Mickey Mantle wore number 7. He's from Oklahoma (too). I like single digits," announced Holliday.

Now this leads to our next topic. What about DeRosa? Wasn't he wearing number 7? Yes, but not anymore. DeRosa signed a 2 year, $12 million contract with the Giants, probably to play third base. Oh well. 

Matt Holliday announced today, Tuesday, January 5, 2009, that he will be staying in St. Louis for seven more years. Yes!! It took three and a half months and two contract bumps, but it finally payed off. Holliday’s contract was signed at $17 million a year for seven years, $119 million total. This is the biggest contract in club history; $19 million more than Albert Pujols’ $100 million seven year contract. Pujols is earning $14 million a year. Holliday’s contract also includes a $17 million vesting option for 2017, which will kick if he finishes in the top 10 in NL MVP voting in the 2016 season. Of course if Pujols decides to re-sign with the Cardinals before 2012, it will most likely be a bigger contract than Matt’s. Next year may be Albert’s last official year as a Cardinal not including the club option, but we will have Holliday to fill that number 3 spot if Pujols decides to go elsewhere.

We know that Holliday's stay here in St. Louis may be shortened by opposing teams wanting the 3-time All-Star as well. The Baltimore Orioles, who have finished last for the past twelve years, want Holliday as well.The Orioles did sign former teammate to Holliday, the third baseman Garrett Atkins from the Rockies. The Orioles say that they do have the money to sign the slugger, but we'll see. Supposivey the Cardinal's offer to Matt Holliday was an eight year deal for $16 a year. This would be the highest yearly salary on the team; two million dollars above Albert Pujols and three million dollars above Chris Carpenter. If Pujols resigns with the Cards, this will likely change. The St, Louis Post Dispatch reported that Holliday prefers to stay with St. Louis. Good.

There are three months left until spring training in March, so the Cardinals have a lot of time to make a deal with someone to fill that hole in the depth chart in left field. Of course, the Cardinals are eagerly awaiting Holliday's response to their offer. The Cards apparently upped that offer as of late. Will this increase Holliday's chances to say? We all hope so. However, management is very aware of the fact that Jason Bay declined his offer to stay with the Red Sox. This puts a major hole in the Sox's depth chart. If Holliday does decline the offer, that leaves Bay left. Bay is probably the team's second priority. The Red Sox have not shown interest in Holliday, which is good, because they can bid higher. There has been talk, however, about the Yankees. The Yankees recently added Curtis Granderson to their outfield, but will they add Holliday? Possibly. I am sure the Yanks will jump after Matt if he happens to decline. Next year, though, the Red Sox and Cardinals may end up simply switching their left fielders, and if that does happen, we will still have a silver slugger in left field. Bays average is a problem, however, batting .267 in 2009. I prefer Holliday, and if you agree, please comment. If you don't, go ahead and comment also. I would like to see your argument.

This weekend, David Freese, rookie third baseman for the Cards, was arrested with Driving While Intoxicated charges this past weekend. He was arrested after failing the breath test in Maryland Heights, Missouri. Freese also failed to drive in a single lane. “We are still working to obtain all of the details, we are extremely disappointed with David, and he will have to take full responsibility for his actions,” said the Cardinals in a statement. “Our employee assistance team has already been in contact with David to begin that process.” Freese is still in the running for the third base starter spot next year said the club, but he will have to work harder for it.

Unfortunately for the Cards, this is the fourth drug or alcohol situation in the past two years. There was John Hancock’s death, Tony LaRussa’s DUI during spring training, the Scott Spiezio incident, and now this. The Cardinals will have to bounce back from all this and have a kick-butt 2010 season!