Happy Friday to everyone and I wish you a great weekend…

1. Things I’m Looking Forward To Watching as the Cardinals Resume Play: (A) Watching Colby Rasmus continue to develop; (B) seeing if Albert Pujols is gassed from the All-Star Experience and if so, how much; (C) seeing if Todd Wellemeyer can get his head together; (D) how long manager Tony La Russa will run Rick Ankiel or Chris Duncan out to LF without receiving production; (E) whether it possible for Joel Pineiro to keep pitching in a way that saw him walk only 12 and give up 3 HRs in the first half; (F) if Brendan Ryan can stay in the lineup and also become more of an RBI threat; (G) wondering if the latest round of optimism over Mark DeRosa’s return is based on reality or hope.

2. Speaking of DeRosa: If there is any doubt at all, do not rush him back. Do not increase the risk that he’ll reaggravate the wrist injury and possibly reinjure it in a way that will keep him out of the lineup for a long time.

3. I’m Ready for Rams Training Camp: Just to change the mix, and give us something else to talk about. I still wish the team had done more to improve the depth at WR. I wish they had done more to find a reliable No. 2 RB. I wish the Rams had made more of an effort to beef up the defensive line. That said, I think they had a positive offseason, simply because of the regime change at Rams Park, and the installation of new leadership in the form of GM Billy Devaney and heach coach Steve Spagnuolo. And from a roster standpoint, I appreciated the effort to improve the offensive line.  I think Spagnuolo is a good man, and I know he was an excellent defensive coordinator. But you never really know what you have in a first-time head coach until the real games begin, the bullets start flying and adversity hits.

4. Welcome Home, Max Scherzer: The Arizona pitcher won’t pitch this weekend, so we won’t get to see the hometown son who graduated from Parkway Central HS and Missouri. But Scherzer is having a fine season for the D-Backs, having gone 5-6 with a 3.64 ERA. That won/loss record is misleading; Scherzer’s run-support average of 4.20 is nothing great. But like most power arms who enter the majors, Scherzer is going through the natural process of working to become more efficient. And that’s an area where he’ll need to improve. Compared to rookie (2008) season, Scherzer is throwing more pitches per inning (but the increase is slight, from 16.6 to 18.1). His walk rate is up a bit. His BR/9 rate is slightly up. But Scherzer  has maintained a healthy strikeout rate and only six NL starting pitchers have gotten a higher percentage of swings and misses from the hitters. Getting more ground-ball outs will help. Scherzer still throws fastballs around 73 percent of the time, but he’s working hard to develop a slider, and he’s used it more often against lefthanded hitters. One more note about Scherzer: because of his work-in-progress ground-ball rate, hitters are able to elevate the ball on him. And in that regard, he pays a price for pitching in Arizona’s home ballpark, which favors hitters. In his MLB career, Max’s ERA at home is 4.18, and on the road it’s 2.69. The slugging percentage against him is 40 points lower on the road. Also: in recent starts, Scherzer hasn’t gotten much help from his defense, which has committed multiple errors behind him. All in all, the Diamondbacks have every reason to be thrilled with Scherzer. He’s a formidable talent. He’s refining his pitching.

5. Bernie Bytes: According to STATS LLC, Rasmus is one of only five rookie outfieldets since 2000 to have 40+ runs and 30+ extra-base hits at the All-Star Break. The others were Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, Rocco Baldelli and David Murphy… when the Cardinals homer in a game, they’re 37-18 (4th best in the majors in that category). When they don’t homer, they’re 12-24… thanks to my friend Dave G for his tip on the band Great Lake Swimmers and their relatively new release “Lost Channels.” It’s outstanding … I’m waiting for the new Wilco to really grab me but it hasn’t happened yet… when Springsteen comes to Scottrade Center on Oct. 25, it’s in the middle of a hectic football weekend; Texas is at Missouri on the 24th, and the Rams host Indianapolis on the 25th. And of course, the Cardinals will be in the World Series, NLCS, right? Right? … so from what I can tell, the Cardinals will use Troy Glaus the way they used a limping (knee) Mark McGwire in the 2000 MLB postseason: a deluxe pinch hitter to be saved for a very important late-inning AB…. Congrats to Mizzou football icon Roger Wehrli; the Charlotte Touchdown Club announced today that Wehrli has been named recipient of the 2009  Bronko Nagurski Legends Award, which recognizes the “best of the best” of college defensive football players from the past 40 years.

Thanks for reading…

-Bernie