The Rick Ankiel soap opera was renewed for another season. If ESPN's proposed Barry Bonds-centric reality show falls through, then maybe they should consider turning to Ankiel. I root for him as much as anybody and I wouldn't put it past him to be an above-average major league outfielder one day. But it just isn't going to work out with him and the Cardinals, is it?

In other news, as I've gotten older, I've become less passionate about who mans the 24th and 25th roster spots. Yeah, sure, it could matter, but when I start crunching runs created/runs saved and Pythagoreans, then I find the difference between 100 at-bats from Brian Daubach and 20 innings from Tyler Johnson isn't all that significant. The Kremlinologist in me however still likes trying to figure out who will make the roster. If the lineup in yesterday's exhibition against Florida Atlantic, as reported by Derrick Goold, is any indication, then it doesn't look good for Aaron Miles and John Gall. As Emil Brown can tell you, getting the start against FAU seems to be the kiss of death.

Goold's also reported that So Taguchi is the last unsigned Cardinal. You can see some baseball fans' jaws clench as they spit out the words "the Union" in disgust. One good thing about the Union though is baseball's lack of holdouts among major leaguers; the pre-arbitration guys take their pittance with hardly a complaint. Taguchi isn't exactly your typical pre-arb case though. He turns 37 in July, so there won't be any big paydays in his future. However, there were some big paydays in his past, so like Sammy Sosa, he could take his ball and go home. Taguchi will probably sign, but I'd say it would be a good idea to keep the Schupp folks and their creative solutions away from this one.