TOWER GROVE — A quick-hit sampler of things I’ve read, reported or researched recently:

***

More from the latest Bill James Handbook below, but on the day the Cardinals potentially add a righthanded bat to their bench, how’s this for a surprise number: 405. That would be the average length, in feet,  of Ryan Ludwick’s home runs this past season, tied for sixth-longest in the National League with … Jim Edmonds. On the next page of the handbook, James lists the longest homers hit in the NL last season,a and the third-longest is …

1. Ryan Howard, 505
2. Prince Fielder, 480
3. Eric Byrnes, 473
4. Ryan Ludwick, 473
5. Miguel Cabrera, 471 … vs. Washington
6. Adam Dunn, 471
7. Chipper Jones, 470
8. Miguel Cabrera, 467 … vs. Washington, hmm
9. Dan Uggla, 466 … apparently on the same day as Cabrera’s 467.
10. Prince Fielder, 462

***

Bonus points, in true PCQ style, to whoever can figure out what all of the hitters besides Ludwick share  on their resume. I mean besides the generous measurements of the Miami area and the frequent-flyer-friendly pitching of the Nationals.

***

There’s been a lot of talk this offseason about the depth of the Cardinals’ minor-league system and how it’s improving, but how slow the process has been. Over at Baseball America, the front-page story by writer Chris Kline is on a few Cardinals’ relievers — Jason Motte, Mark Worrell  and Kyle McClellan. (Warning: Subscribers can access the story.) Kline takes the point that all three have an odd background: Motte as a catcher, Worrell with his funkified delivery and McClellan with the stuff of a starter but the surgically repaired elbow that makes him a reliever.

The article spurred me to look up the best example of an organization that has restocked its minor-league talent pool with an eye on improving the big-league roster.

Detroit.

In the past 14 months, the Tigers have made three big-ticket deals  and  used a host of prospects to complete them.  Detroit traded a total of 11  minor-leaguers to  add Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Using BA’s Prospect Handbook as our guide, we can really see how dynamic the Tigers’ system  was — and had to be — to put off deals like that.  Of the 11 prospects traded, six ranked in Detroit’s top 16 in the 2006 handbook. Of the 11,  10  had a top-30 ranking in the 2007 handbook. Consider the prospects and their ‘07 rankings:

To get Sheffield: Anthony Claggett (NR), Humberto Sanchez (3*), Kevin Whelan (9*).

To get Renteria: Gorkys Hernandez (7), Jair Jurrjens (4).

To get Cabrera/Willis: Burke Badenhop (22), Dallas Trahern (8), Eulogio de la Cruz (6), Andrew Miller (2), Cameron Maybin (1), Mike Rabelo (18).

Both Sanchez and Whelan had been traded to the Yankees by the time the handbook printed, so their rankings were within the Yankees’ system. But are applicable, nonetheless. Detroit added four All-Stars to the major-league roster by trading 10 of its, say, top 25 prospects. Almost half. And yet, they still have some to brag on.

***

Speaking of prospects, the Cardinals recently ran an interesting exercise at the front office. Jeff Luhnow had his staff in for meetings and conducted a mock draft — some seven months and one full season before the draft will take place. He said he was pleased at the amount of information the scouts already had on key draftees.

***

At the Springfield News-Leader, Kary Booher has the scoop on a non-roster invitee to the Cardinals’ major-league spring training: lefty Jaime Garcia. Considered by some as the top starter prospect in the Cardinals’ system, Garcia is coming off a season truncated by elbow soreness.

***

The blogs at the Post-Dispatch will be undergoing have a facelift on Sunday. That means all blogs — like Bird Land, here — will be available to read, but not available for comments. And there will be no new blogs on Sunday.

But when the system returns Monday, it will be all new.

Blogs will be outfitted with their own tag cloud. There will be a blogroll. (Lobby now for inclusion!) There will probably even be a mug shot of yours truly in the upper right hand corner. Avert ye eyes.

***

The conclusion of the Cards Talk Community Top 30 is coming shortly (think: tomorrow … or, maybe Monday with the new blog debut). I’ve enlisted help from other Web sites that ran similar exercises so we can see how they compare.

***

In the article on the Cardinals front office that ran today, I mentioned how the Cardinals have hired with plans to increase their information and their interest in the Asian baseball leagues. When the LA Dodgers signed RHP Hiroki Kurado to a four-year, $35-million  deal, a colleague asked me why a team starving for pitching (read: the Cardinals) wasn’t  really in the bidding for a free-agent pitcher like that. The short answer: Not enough info. The Cardinals didn’t feel that they had enough information on how an imported pitcher would  fare in the majors, and that’s alot of cheddar to  spend  without an answer.

So how did the Dodgers feel confident enough to make that deal?

The Dodgers have full-time scouts in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. And, the club sends its chief  scouts over three times a year with specific players to evaluate.

***

The Lineup: Cool  Numbers

Or, I just bought the  new edition of The Bill James Handbook, and I’m going to shamelessly lift some nourishing statistics from its pages for your pleasure.

1. 2 — As in the Cardinals  who led the National League in close-and-late (or, egad, clutch!) batting average. David Eckstein was tops at .442; Albert Pujols was second with .403. No other National Leaguers hit better than .390.
2. minus-18 – The Cardinals baserunning rating, which ranked fourth worst in baseball. Though, it was anchored by a putrid minus-10 base-stealing ranking. Contrast that with the Mets’ baseball-best plus-111, which was augmented by a plus-108 stolen-base rating.
3. +11 — The highest base-running rating of a Cardinal in the following lineup: SS Eckstein; RF Rick Ankiel; 1B Pujols, CF Jim Edmonds; 3B Scott Rolen; LF Chris Duncan; C Yadier Molina; P Mister X; 2B Aaron Miles. Can you guess which of those players had that plus-11 rating? Answer at the bottom.
4. 7 — Number of ballots, out of 10,  for the annual Fielding Bible Awards that had Pujols listed as the best defensive first baseman in the majors.
5. 3 — Number of Milwaukee Brewers’ infielders, out of four possible, that have ghastly plus-minus ratings for fielding: Prince Fielder (minus-33, worst total among first basemen from 2005-07); Rickie Weeks (minus-41, worst total among second basemen from 2005-07); and Ryan Braun (minus-41, worst total in 2007 among third basemen).
6. 1,550 – Number of pitches thrown at less than 80 mph by the NL leader in pitches thrown  at less than 80  mph. That pitcher? Matt Morris. It should be noted that Morris also  topped the NL in highest percentage of curveballs thrown, at 28.1 percent.
7. 2 — Number of Cardinal relievers  who rank in the top seven of opponent OPS vs. the slider. No surprise here. Tyler Johnson’s slider held opponents to a .448 OPS, third-best behind Manny Corpas and Carlos Marmol. Ryan Franklin ranked seventh, at .509.
8. 1 — Rank of Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen in the NL in the Hold Adjusted Save Percentage stat, which combines Holds and Saves and divides the total by Hold/Save opportunities. Izzy’s NL-best rate was 94.1.
9. 111 — The Cardinals’ “Run Efficiency”, a stat that James uses to reveal a teams ability to overcome its statistical profile and win more games that expected. The Cardinals, by virtue of a minus-104 run differential and other stats, were pegged for 70 wins  by James’  calculations. They finished with 78, or a 111  ”efficiency”. That’s the highest efficiency in baseball, tied with  Seattle.

The answer to the above question. The Cardinal with a plus-11 base running score is Duncan. Thirteen times he was on second when a single was hit and 10 times he scored.

-30-