The Redbirds lost a megastar, but there might just be an MVP waiting in the wings<br> 
By Josh Elliott <br>
March 25, 2002  <br>
<br>
<br>
The Cardinals need a healthy Drew to offset the loss
of you-know-who in the middle of the lineup.  <br>
<br>
Peter Read Miller <br>
ENEMY LINES <br>
<br>
An opposing team's scout sizes up the Cardinals 
"If Rick Ankiel and Garrett Stephenson come back, the
Cardinals will have an excess of quality starters like
no other team in baseball. The team is trying to spin
Ankiel's story positively, but there are lots of
issues there. He's holding on to the ball too long
before releasing it. Plus, a lot of his fastballs are
cutting way in on righthanders. Those are both
tendencies of guys with mental blocks. The sad thing
is, no matter how well he pitches, he'll always be two
wild pitches away from another breakdown. ... Adding
Jason Isringhausen addressed a huge issue for this
team. Dave Veres is a natural setup guy, and he was
exposed as a closer. This spring Veres didn't look
very sharp. He's not hitting the spots like he used
to, and his split doesn't have much bite. ... I love
their catching. When Mike Matheny was a young guy in
Milwaukee, he tried to hit homers all the time. Now he
just tries to put the ball in play, and he does one
hell of a job handling that staff. He keeps guys in
control, and he knows how to stop the bleeding and cut
an inning down. And my team would love to have Eli
Marrero as our starter. He's such a great athlete,
they can play him behind the plate, at first and in
the corner outfield slots. ... Nobody turns the DP as
fast as Fernando Viņa . He's vastly underrated. ...
It'll be interesting to see how Albert Pujols looks
defensively. This spring he wasn't throwing well at
all. His approach at the plate is fantastic, though.
He really sees the ball well, he lets it get into the
zone and then he explodes." <br> 
 <br>
From the audible crack, a nearby coach thought the
outfielder had kicked a sprinkler head, but J.D. Drew
knew better. Three minutes into his first spring
workout of 2002, Drew felt his left ankle pop as he
stepped in a divot and thought, Not again. Each of his
first three seasons had been cut short by injury,
including last year, when a broken right hand,
strained right quadriceps and back pain limited him to
109 games. Considered a slow healer, Drew knew it was
whispered that he couldn't stay healthy for a full
season. Writhing in pain as he grasped at his ankle,
his heart sank. <br>
<br>
"Honestly, I was scared," says Drew. "When I got home,
I would think about it and I'd get the chills. You
don't want to be categorized as injury-prone.
Especially this year, when I know this team's counting
on me." The ankle was just sprained, and Drew returned
to full workouts three days later, He reinjured it in
early March but was back playing a few days later with
a lightweight brace that he plans to wear all season. <br>
<br>
A healthy Drew will go a long way toward compensating
for the off-season retirement of Mark McGwire, whose
Ruthian presence anchored St. Louis's lineup the past
four years. With a dominant pitching staff led by Matt
Morris and a potentially devastating offense featuring
last year's Rookie of the Year, third baseman Albert
Pujols, as well as Jim Edmonds and McGwire's
replacement, former Yankees first baseman Tino
Martinez, the Cardinals will contend for the World
Series if the 26-year-old Drew emerges as the MVP
candidate many expect him to be. "It's about time for
J.D.," Edmonds says. "He's learned enough to be a
force in this league. You just sort of wake up one day
and figure it out." <br>
<br>
Mention this to Drew, and his face lights up. "I know
what he means. My day was last April, at home against
the Mets," Drew recalls. "Things were bad. I was
hitting like .180." After making an out in his first
at bat, Drew flung his batting helmet against the
dugout tunnel, a Vesuvian outburst for the
mild-mannered, deeply religious Drew. "I said to God,
'I treat my parents good, I don't go out and party, I
try to be a good teammate.' And I'm not someone who
goes 4 for 4 and says, 'I'm the best,' then goes 0-fer
and says, 'It was God's will.' <br>
<br>
"After I snapped, I just decided to stop trying so
hard," Drew says. "The next at bat, I hit [a home run]
over the bullpen." Despite his myriad injuries --
including the broken hand, courtesy of an errant David
Wells fastball, which caused him to miss six weeks --
Drew still finished with 27 home runs and 73 RBIs in
just 375 at bats. <br>
<br>
For Drew, however, the success was bittersweet. Since
arriving in the September of McGwire's magical 70-home
run season of 1998 (Drew hit .417 with five home runs
down the stretch, justifying the hype that followed
him from his days as a Florida State All-America), his
durability has been a concern. Determined to show up
at camp in peak shape this year, he eschewed heavy
weight workouts in favor of a plyometrics regimen with
Cardinals catcher and close friend Mike Matheny. <br>
<br>
Drew struggled at times after shifting from center to
right last year -- he had some difficulty picking up
batted balls and occasionally threw to the wrong base
-- but he is now an above-average rightfielder on a
team with few defensive holes. <br>
<br>
"I feel more at peace now than I have in the past,
because I've worked hard and enjoy where I am," says
Drew, who married his longtime girlfriend, Sheigh, in
November. "[Manager Tony La Russa] always says you
shouldn't avoid pressure, that you should make
pressure your friend. I think we're all ready to take
that next step." <br>
<br>