Rodriguez joined Larry Bigbie and Rick Ankiel as injured St. Louis outfielders. This means the Cardinals could bring one of the demoted outfielders back up. If he misses any time, it looks as if Skip Schumaker has a spot on the team.

On offense, Scott Spiezio, Aaron Miles, Hector Luna, Skip Schumaker and John Rodriguez are playing for four spots.

Here's a quick look at how they fared on Thursday:

Spiezio: 0-1
Luna: 0-0, BB, Error
Miles: 0-1
Schumaker: 0-2
Rodriguez: 1-3, BB, run

Pitching;
Falkenborg: 1 1/3 innings, 1 hit allowed, no runs and escapd a bases-loaded jam.

There's a lot of debate in the press box as to which outfielders will make the team. Chris Duncan throws a wrench into everything. If Duncan makes the team, the Cardinals might not be able to keep John Rodriguez because they would need a better defensive outfielder off the bench, assuming So Taguchi gets the starting gig. Skip Schumaker and John Gall would then be the other outfielder. Rick Ankiel is another wild card, but the Cardinals might try to sneak him through waivers before he gets any more at-bats.

If you look at the Cardinals' lineup, it doesn't look nearly as ferocious as it did last season. Scott Rolen is still getting back to being a power player. They don't have much offensively at second base, and even though Juan Encarnacion is solid, he's not Reggie Sanders. It will be interesting to see how many runs this Cardinals' club scores.

"Where do you want the fireworks to go?" the staff member asked. "He's here with his truck."

Not expecting a fireworks truck to arrive, the workers at the stadium frantically called one another to figure out what was going on with the truck and what they would do in case someone forgot about a potential gig.

A while later, the public relations person called back to ease the minds of the people. There was no truck in the first place.

On a side note, the Cardinals got a good start out of Jeff Suppan, who has struggled more than most this spring. He might end up being one of the big reasons why early spring training starts could be deemed meaningless in terms of statistics.

Adam Wainwright the other contender for the fifth spot pitched well in his first true relief stint. His success there could force the Cardinals to make a trade because Wainwright has been light's out this spring. The Cardinals have six starting pitchers right now, though the team still has questions at second base where no one has taken the position by storm. This could be something that develops later in the season, or the Cardinals could keep all six in case of injury.

Mark Mulder sparkled in an outing against Triple-A hitters, though he didn't take too much from dazzling the opposing hitters.

Carmen Cali's numbers on Monday look really bad, but the left-hander could have easily gotten out of the inning with a little help from his defense.

Suppan is one of the better guys to talk with in baseball, though sometimes he can be difficult to quote. That said, he does not have a problem giving reporters time. He also showed reporters a shoe insert that he wears in order to keep his toe from either jamming up or blistering. The insert has a little indent at the ball of his foot to make sure he can perform his mechanics without irritation.

This seems eerily similar to what the Cincinnati Reds did with outfielder Wily Mo Pena. Pena needed more at-bats, but the Reds had to keep him on the 25-man roster in 2004 or else risk losing him. Pena then had a hamstring injury, and the Reds kept him in Triple-A for as long as he was allowed during a "rehabilitation assignment". That might happen here with Ankiel, who probably needs a few more swings before coming to the majors.

Mark Mulder did nothing to hurt his already-
impressive spring stats in a Wednesday start against
the Marlins. The lefty threw four innings, gave up
four hits and only one run. He went into the game with
an ERA of 1.35. He also struck out two in the process
without giving up a walk.