Cardinals begin full-team workouts

JUPITER, Fla. -- Under not-so-sunny skies and a persistent drizzle, the Cardinals held their first full-squad workout of Spring Training on Friday.

Manager Mike Matheny, who was forced to limit his players to indoor or batting cage work Thursday because of rain, was relieved that his players could at least get outside for some work Friday. The schedule was altered to compensate for soggy field conditions. Though pitchers were able to throw off the mound and position players could participate in on-field defensive work, batting practice was held in the cages.

"I was ready to roll," Matheny said as the players took the field. "It's a little different spring and we've got some more time, so you can rationalize that if we only get a few things done that we're ahead of pace. We try to take advantage of every day we can."

The workouts, which wrapped up around 12:30 p.m. ET, were preceded by a team meeting, which Matheny led. Owner Bill DeWitt Jr. and general manager John Mozeliak were also in the room for the gathering. Matheny said he used several of his observations from 2012 as a means to stress improvement.

"There's not some canned message," Matheny said. "It's reactionary. What have we seen? What challenges are new this year that we didn't have last year? What do we have in front of us that we need to talk about? That's what we addressed. I'll never forget [former manager] Tony [La Russa] telling me he started, as soon as the previous season ended, he started preparing it. He felt it was that important."