FanHouse Nick Stavinoha

Over the last few months, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has been involved in a complicated legal matter with social networking site Twitter over the unauthorized use of his name and person for a parody, kinda-sorta identity thieving Tony La Russa Twitter page. Now that the matter has been settled, it is safe for us to write about without Tom Nieto (or whoever) rushing to his legal team to protest the idea that he once dropped a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the ground outside of a Radio Shack.

This afternoon's Dugout is @ the jump.

Mark DeRosa helped the Chicago Cubs to two consecutive division championships in his only two seasons on the North Side of Chicago. During that time, he became popular with the fans for his good nature in winning and accountability in losing -- in addition to good offensive production and ability to play solid defense nearly anywhere on the field. He became even more popular, to almost mythical proportions, this season when the Cubs struggled in his absence. He himself even proclaimed if he ever became a Cub again he'd be a disappointment, due to the fans' excessive adulation.

Thus, when he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals just over a week ago, it seemed to be a slap in the face of Cubbie nation. Fortunately, the Baseball Gods have intervened. DeRosa started 0-for-9 from the plate and fell injured. He's now been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a wrist injury.

After a nearly seamless start to the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are all-of-a-sudden reeling. Tuesday night, they lost 7-1 to the hapless Pirates, but that likely wasn't the worst occurrence. A single game in a season of 162 isn't a really huge deal, after all. Losing your power-hitting protection for Albert Pujols, however, is.

Ryan Ludwick gave chase to a ball off the bat of Nyjer Morgan early in the game and came up lame with a strained right hamstring. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tony LaRussa anticipates the Cardinals will have to put Ludwick on the disabled list -- where he'd join fellow starting outfielder Rick Ankiel.