TOWER GROVE — Veteran reliever Russ Springer had to be on his toes when warming up with teammate Ryan Franklin because he didn’t know what pitch Franklin would fire next. Could be the splitter. Could be the knuckler. Could just be that everyday forkball that Franklin would uncork every so often.

By his count, Franklin had as many of eight pitches (maybe nine) he could throw, and several of them he threw well enough and were different enough that he would tutor others. (Jason Isringhausen, for example, came to Franklin to learn the “spread-finger” fastball the righthander throws.)

This past week, I asked him what pitch he doesn’t have that he wants.

“Johan Santana’s changeup, Adam Wainwright’s curveball,” Franklin began listing. “Mariano Rivera’s cutter. I’d take any of those. But I’m pretty happy just working with what God gave me.”

As part of his move to the ninth inning this season for the Cardinals, Franklin has limited the variety of pitches he uses in games. He hasn’t flipped up a knuckleball, for example. But he’s also not getting into counts that make the slider necessary, or facing five or six batters in a couple innings that would allow him to setup pitches. He’s going into one inning with the intent of getting out of that one inning with as few pitches, and as few drama as possible. That means a lot of sinkers, a lot of biting cutters.

And so far a lot of outs. He takes a 0.00 ERA on the road to go with nine saves.

In consecutive games against the Pittsburgh Pirates this season, Franklin got the save with a peerless ninth inning. To get six outs from six batters in those two games, he used just 21 pitches, 16 of which were strikes.

“Going 1-2-3 in the ninth, that’s the hardest job in baseball,” manager Tony La Russa said. “We need to try to keep him fresh. When he’s fresh, he’s got it all working.”

What Franklin has to work with is where today’s 10@10 starts …

1. Cannot sneak a fastball by any of the readers here. That’s right an Eephus is the pitch in that list yesterday that Franklin does not have. (Though, we wouldn’t put it past him.) Here are the pitches he does have, with some comments that ran a year ago in the paper.

• Four-seam fastball — His brother taught him the pitch back in high school.
• Two-seam fastball — His sinker because of its natural downward movement.
• Changeup — His is the circle-change. He wants an 8- to 10-mph difference between it and his fastball.
• Splitters — Franklin throws two split-finger fastballs. One is the standard split, forking the fingers on the seams. The other is what he calls a “spread-finger fastball.”
• Cutter — As a swap for working on the splitter with Isringhausen, the former Cardinals closer talked cut fastball with Franklin. In 2007, former Cardinal Cal Eldred showed him the pitch and it became a key part of Franklin’s repertoire.
• Curveball
• Slider — Has a more lateral break than the curve.
• Knuckleball — For the most part, it’s a trick pitch for Franklin, who entertains his teammates with how he is able to roll and spin a baseball around his right hand like a magician does with a coin. (”Lots of time to kill with a ball in my hand,” he said.)

2. OK, so the best player of his generation, the best slugger of his generation, the best pitcher of his generation and now one of the most feared hitters in the game have all had their reputations and performances imploded by drug-use allegations. It’s going to turn Cooperstown into one sleepy little place in a few years, as George Vecsey wrote in this morning’s New York Times. But should it be? That’s the question posed in today’s poll?

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3. For those who are interested, here are the many links of Manny: Bernie Miklasz writes that these revelations are no longer a surprise. … LA Times columnist T.J. Simer’s says it’s time for Manny to come clean. … Apparently Jose Canseco called it. Again. … Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jim Salisbury’s offer some welome levity. Maybe Manny wanted a little Manny. … Or, maybe Manny didn’t know, writes The Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan. … ESPN’s Buster Olney has a take on baseball’s zero tolerance (or the public’s zero tolerance, really), and his article comes with a handy, suitable for printing list of the suspended players. So you can collect ‘em all.

4. The Cardinals were hit by seven pitches during the four-game homestand, and that cannot be just a Pennsylvania thing. It was obvious enough that manager Tony La Russa growled (pleasantly, but still a growl) at a question about it, saying: “It’s none of your business.” His message wasn’t that it shouldn’t be asked — but that the answer shouldn’t be public. A few players, including Albert Pujols, said pitching inside is clearly part of the scouting report that is making the rounds. But that inside? That’s the impression. More on that subject in yesterday’s Cardinal Beat entry and over at MLB.com, where the game story focused on it.

5. The play that never works has already worked twice for the Cardinals this season. This week, Adam Wainwright pulled off the fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff against Philadelphia. Wainwright said he didn’t believe that play would work until he became a Cardinal, and then he saw it work three or four times in a couple months. Brad Thompson, for one, has pulled it off several times in the past three seasons. They’ve done it twice this season. “I guarantee it works,” La Russa said. “I believe it works. I would say six times a year. It’s already worked twice this year for us. … You don’t have to pull it off for it still to work for you. Maybe you keep the (runner) closer and get a double play. It’s one of those plays that doesn’t have to work. The threat of it slows them down.”

6. Back on Tuesday night, the Cardinals scored at least a run in five consecutive innings against the Philadelphia Phillies and still couldn’t erase the Phillies lead. The Cardinals’ media relations staff researched that event and discovered that “it was the Cardinals’ first loss in a home game in which they scored in five consecutive innings since 1917.” The Cardinals have won 57 games and tied once in such games since 1917.

7. FARM REPORT: The affiliates went 0-4 on Thursday. … Nick Stavinoha went 2-for-5 with an RBI as the Cardinals’ Class AAA affiliate defeated Omaha and its ace Luke Hochevar, 3-2. … Mark Shorey had three hits, and so did Brandon Yarbrough. Folks were wondering if Daryl Jones might get the Triple-A call with Shane Robinson in the majors. Not yet. Shorey will be one of the first to benefit. There are enough outfielders in Memphis for the playing time that Robinson was getting to be spread around to other bats, like Shorey. … Evan MacLane had a second strong start for Memphis. He pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowed two runs on seven hits and he struck out five. … Brett Wallace went 3-for-5 to raise his average to .283, and Tony Cruz went 2-for-4 with a couple doubles. Jones was hitless but he drove in his 17th RBI. … Tyler Herron (1-2) got the hard-luck loss. He pitched 7 1/3 innings, struck out eight, allowed only three hits — but one of them was a home run. … Shane Peterson went 2-for-4 with a couple runs scored for High-A Palm Beach, and center fielder Tommy Pham had three hits. … Brian Broderick, however, got cuffed around by Charlotte. The Stone Crabs got eight runs (six earned) off 11 hits allowed by Broderick. … Miguel Tapia allowed four runs on four hits, including a home run, during his 3 1/3 innings for Low-A Quad Cities. … Jon Edwards drove in the River Bandits only run.

8. Is Johnny Cueto this year’s Edinson Volquez? Cueto, the Reds’ second-year starter and the starter against the Cardinals this evening, is 2-1 with a 1.65 ERA. He’s struck out 29 and allowed 25 hits in 32 2/3 innings. In his past three games, the righthander has allowed one run on 15 hits. He came one strikeout shy of tying a career high with eight in his previous start. It’s the kind of early season that Volquez had last year as he stormed the National League and finished 17-6 with 206 Ks and a 3.21 ERA. Cueto mixes a wily fastball with a sharp slider, throwing that fastball 93 percent of the time this season, according to Fangraphs. All of the missed aces catch up with the Cardinals this weekend. They get Volquez, too.

9. Rob Rains, former Cardinals beat writer and now an author, will be signing copes of his book, “Tony La Russa: Man on a Mission”, this weekend. Fittingly, the KU grad will be appearing at Piece of Mind Books in Edwardsville, Ill., on, get this, Kansas St. The biography on La Russa is a compelling unauthorized take on the Cardinals manager. The book starts with young Tony wanting to wear his baseball uniform to school for picture day and ends with him talking about what would make him walk away from the game, plus all the wins and friction and injuries and Bonus Baby and Cubs’ poems in between.

10. Read the comments, opened the emails and we will restart PostCards next week, and see how it goes. Is there enough room in the Q & A universe for the tsunami and this blog’s minor riptide? I’ve cleared the inbox and now will be taking questions at PostCards@post-dispatch.com.

Throw me a question, mistuh, this weekend, and there should be enough to start Monday …

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