Butterfingers Izworthless Making An Impact in STL...

Living in Missouri, I get swamped with Cardinals coverage and it's rare that one of these stories brings such a smile to my face, but Sunday's (3/9) St Louis Post-Dispatch sports section contained a cover story titled "Cards' infield defense is plagued by miscues"

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/B63CE72CBF45B7568625740700121700 ?OpenDocument

The print story includes a photo essay which lists the Cards infield error leaders and who is at the top of the list?  Our old buddy Ceszr Izturis with 4 errors (twice as many as the rookie and 2nd year man behind him) following a two-error game on Saturday.

From the article (I couldn't figure out how to get one of those cool quote boxes, so this cut and paste will have to suffice):
Saturday's not-so-good news: Izturis, the Cardinals' projected everyday shortstop after receiving part-time duty from three teams the last two seasons, again absorbed an error after staying back on a ball, this time a soft line drive that short-hopped him. Izturis received a second error when he failed to glove an on-target throw from Ludwick.

La Russa acknowledged some of Izturis' errors "were on balls he should have played," but quickly added, "I'm not too concerned about his defense."

"I watch Izturis move. I see hands. I see arm. I see a good defensive player," the manager said.

Third base and infield coach Jose Oquendo concedes Izturis needs to play more aggressively. However, Oquendo also believes time will change what so far has been Izturis' ill-at-ease look.

"We're still pretty good defensively. You look behind the plate (at catcher Yadier Molina) or at first base (with Albert Pujols) and Izturis has been a Gold Glove winner before. He just hasn't played for the last two years. It's taking him a little time to get ready to play every day."

Izturis, guilty of more than 11 errors in only one of five major-league seasons in which he has appeared in at least 106 games, has been charged with four of the team's 14 miscues in 11 games this spring.

"It's still early," Izturis said. "This is the time of year when that's going to happen. You just want to leave that back in Florida. ... It's just a matter of me doing more of the work I have to do to get going." (end article quote)

Obviously not a tremendous impact on us yet, but I hope LaRussa remains so optimistic about Cesar so our batters can hit wicked hop after wicked hop at him ... elsewhere in the article, the errors were blamed on the rough field....it certainly made me chuckle on a Sunday morning.