TOWER GROVE — When the Milwaukee Brewers held their meetings to discuss the St. Louis Cardinals’ hitters for this series at Busch Stadium, they invited a pitcher who wasn’t originally scheduled to throw in this series. But, the coaches figured, Braden Looper might have something to offer about his former teammates.

Now they’ll see what he has to offer against his former teammates.

Friday’s rainout forced both teams to reset their rotations. The Cardinals recalled Friday’s starter, Kyle Lohse, for tonight’s start — calling Friday’s abbreviated appearance and two scoreless innings something like a glorified bullpen session. (How many times does a starter get to throw his  bullpen against his next opponent?) The Brewers sided with their schedule, and they will be starting Looper on regular rest. It means Milwaukee will throw two former Cardinals — two members of the 2006 World Series team — against the Cardinals in this three-game series.

Manager Tony La Russa made a subtle, though pointed, remark after Jeff Suppan’s 1-0 victory against the Cardinals on Saturday that clearly Suppan learned more from watching the Cardinals hitters than the Cardinals hitters did from watching their teammate. Hard to say, Looper said afterward. When they were going through the Cardinals’ hitters in their pre-game meeting, Looper discovered “there aren’t too many guys over there who Suppan played with — Albert, Yadi … Chris Duncan?” Looper is only one offseason removed from being a Cardinal, so his knowledged runs a little, well, updated.  Will it help?

Suppan sure has had some success against the Cardinals in the past three seasons.

Former Cardinals pitchers recently revisiting their team seems like a place to start the 10@10:

1. Suppan is unbeaten by the Cardinals since he moved to Milwaukee and his ERA against his former team in that time is 1.62. It’s 5.31 against the rest of the league. Helps that he got a quick start on that record in 2007. In his first season after leaving the Cardinals (2007), Suppan went 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts. That was going around: Jason Marquis, in his first season after leaving the Cardinals (2007), went 3-1 with a 3.60 ERA against them.  In 2006, Matt Morris went 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA against the Cardinals after he left for San Francisco. And in 2005, Woody Williams went 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA in his only start against the Cardinals after signing with Houston. Looper’s turn.

2. This weekend series against Milwaukee — spilling over, as it is, into Monday — means the Cardinals have not faced every team in the division. They won some. They’ve lost one less than they’ve won, entering tonight’s game against the Brewers 12-11 so far against the NL Central. That invites the question:

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3. The first-place Milwaukee Brewers have won 19 of their past 24 games, and they’ve done it with a blend of runs scored (nearly six runs per game) and runs not scored (the pitching staff has held opponents to an average of less than four runs a game). Oh, and the winning surge was sweetened by the latest in a line of 18 consecutive wins against the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Good pitching and good hitting,” lefty Manny Parra said when asked about playing 14 games better than .500. “Everything seems to be going together. We’re pitching well and when we haven’t been the offense is there to pick us up.”

4. Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene went 0-for-4 Sunday against the Cardinals, plunging his batting average down to .204 this season, and sudden and inexplicable drop for one of the Cardinals better hitters in spring training. He’s clearly searching for himself, manager Tony La Russa has said, and along the lines of the manager’s men/machines assertion it’s impossible to think Greene isn’t feeling the the weight of another season of frustration. He hit .213 last season, and its’ most heinous stretch led to him punching a travel chest and ending his season with a hand injury. But is this slow start something he’s had before? Is there a trend? When the weather warms is there any evidence that Greene warms, too? A look at his month splits:

MONTH … 2009 BA/OBP … 2008 … CAREER

April … .219/.333 … .214/.274 … .241/.315

May … ..176/.189 … .196/.228 … .220/.271

June … —/— … .274/.327 … .256/.310

July … —/— … .150/.190 … .250/.305

August … —/— … injured … .283/.338

Sept. … —/— … injured … .249/.300

From June through August, in his career, Greene has also consistently slugged better than .400, topping out at .467 in August. Still, what makes this start so profoundly slow for the shortstop. Well, he there’s been a drastic shift in his approach at the plate. In his career, Greene has averaged a strikeout for every 4.7 at-bats. This season, that number has almost doubled to a strikeout every 7.8 at-bats. He’s also dropped his SO/BB ratio down to 1.20 from 4.00 in 2007 and 4.55 in 2008.  It would seem to be a positive trend, but what’s the tradeoff?

5. Hot times at the Hot Corner. ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian writes that we’re watching a “renaissance” at third base, the least-represented position in the Hall of Fame. These are good times if you enjoy the demands of that position. A quick check of how the Cardinals’ tandem, off to that solid April start, is now faring compared the other NL team’s production at third base: BA .260 (12th). OBP .338 (12th). And, SLG .382 (10th).

6. American League RBI leader Evan Longoria was supposed to bat third for Tampa Bay on Sunday — and eventually he did. But not before a rare paperwork gaffe by a big-league manager. Out La Russa-ing even La Russa, manager Joe Maddon started the game against Cleveland with his pitcher, Andy Sonnanstine, batting third. Sonnanstine went 1-for-3 with an RBI in the spot, but it’s hardly the thump in the primo spot of the order that Maddon intended. How’d it happen? On the lineup card Maddon submitted to the umpires, he had both Longoria, the DH, and Ben Zobrist listed as “5″, the position number for third base. Because of the typo, the Rays forfeited their right to a DH — and the pitcher had to hit, in that spot. The Rays won, 7-5, and Longoria got a pinch-hit at-bat later in the game. Said Maddon of his lineup slip-up: “My immediate thought was, take your card out of your back pocket, and I did. And it said two 5s … and I said, ‘Oh no.’ … Pretty much rallied around the situation. Everyone was very supportive, almost to the point where it was getting syrupy and disgusting.”

LHP Evan MacLane, who the Cardinals picked up for the Triple-A Memphis rotation earlier this season. He's 2-1 with a 0.95 ERA since.

7. FARMNIK REPORT: The headline event of the weekend was first-round pick Brett Wallace making his Triple-A debut roughly 11 1/2 months after the Cardinals drafted him. Wallace has a knack for debuts. He hit two homers in the season opener at Springfield, and he went 3-for-4 in his first game with Memphis on Saturday. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts on Sunday. He started at third base both days. There will be more on Wallace in this blog later today. … Interesting to note that Wallace batted No. 3 for Memphis. … Jarrett Hoffpauir, batting No. 2, went 2-for-4 in the 1-0 loss to Reno. … Josh Kinney continues to improve — and impress — as he pitched a scoreless 1 1/3 innings Sunday. He struck out three. … Lefty Evan MacLane doesn’t put a whole lot on the ball, but he finesses and finagles his soft stuff for outs. He struck out three and allowed one run on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. …  Right fielder Shane Peterson went 2-for-4 and drove in two runs as High-A Palm Beach took a 3-0 lead into the ninth inning against Sarasota on Sunday. It was setup to be Scott Gorgen’s first win of the season after he pitched six scoreless innings and allowed four hits against four strikeouts and a couple walks. But, it wasn’t a win. The PB-Cards blew it in the ninth. Adam Reifer allowed four runs on four hits and he only collected one out before blowing his second save of the season. Reifer faced six batters. Four scored. … Designated hitter Jarred Bogany drove in the only run for Low-A Quad Cities on an RBI single in the 3-1 loss to Kane County. … Righthander Andres Rosales took the loss but in his four innings of work he struck out six. … Milwaukee left fielder Ryan Braun spoke highly of his former college teammate Jon Jay, who he said he speaks regularly with. He said Jay is searching for it a bit this season, looking for the same comfort at the plate he had during spring training. Jay has a .254 average for Triple-A Memphis, but he’s quickening his pace — batting .300 over his previous 10 games only three strikeouts in 40 at-bats. (He had 16 strikeouts in his first 94.)

8. Three days after his alma mater clinched the Missouri Valley regular-season championship, its first since 2003, Ross Detwiler, one of Missouri State’s finest, will make his first major-league start tonight. Detwiler, 23, was recalled from Class AA to start tonight for the Washington Nationals. In a September 2007 callup, he pitched a scoreless inning. Detwiler, the Nats’ first pick in 2007, is 0-3 with a 2.96 ERA in six starts this season for Washington’s Double-A affiliate. Only once in six starts has the lefty allowed more than two earned runs. More on Missouri State’s title can be found at the school’s site.

9. The baseball draft is rapidly approaching — June 9 — and the first round could be rich with righthanders who have local ties. Aaron Crow, the former Missouri ace, and Kyle Gibson, the current Missouri ace (who is likely to be a reliever as a pro … UPDATE … to some; heard from a few folks in the know today that Gibson is a starter for some clubs), are expected to be taken in the first round. For Crow, it will be the second time, as he did not sign with Washington after the Nationals took him ninth overall last year. He has been pitching in an independent league this season. A third righthander, one from our backyard, could go as high as No. 2 overall — Jacob Turner, the Westminster Christian Academy phenom who is scheduled to pitch tonight in district play. To explain his meteoric rise, I quote from a recent Keith Law chat on ESPN.com:

Keith Law: Jacob Turner wasn’t top 15 three weeks ago, and now he could go 2 and doesn’t get out of the top 10 unless his price tag is outrageous.

One conglomerate of blogs is having individual fan blogs from each team do a mock draft, and Turner goes second overall in that draft. Gibson goes to the Reds. Some think Turner will go to the Reds — GM Walt Jocketty did attend one of his games — and others wonder if Turner could go the way of another Scott Boras advisee: to Detroit.  Baseball America’s draft Jim Callis came out last week with his first mock draft. He has Gibson going fourth overall to Pittsburgh, Crow going eighth to the Reds (a Cincy-Crow match was a buzzed-about one a year ago), and Turner going, yep, nice to Detroit.

10. Callis has the Cardinals taking … a lefty. With the 19th pick overall, Callis thinks the Cardinals could take a look at prep center fielders Everett Williams and Mike Trout, but he has them following their nose, following their habits and following their need. All that leads to a college lefthanded starter: Rex Brothers.

Here is Brothers’ draft profile at MLB.com. There will be other players linked to the Cardinals.

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