TOWER GROVE — When the St. Louis Cardinals left Cleveland having lost a three-game series to the momentarily resurgent Indians, manager Tony La Russa dialed up general manager John Mozeliak and left him a short, succinct voice mail. The exact words have been forgotten in the weeks since. But the message was clear:

If we can get him, get him.

Him was Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Mark DeRosa. On Sunday night of that series, DeRosa homered off Chris Carpenter to provide two of the three runs Cleveland scored in a 3-0 victory that backed Cliff Lee’s gem. The Cardinals had toyed with the deal for DeRosa a few weeks before, and he had been high on their list — snug next to Matt Holliday — or much of the past month. The details of the trade that eventually got him have been well-covered in the paper over this weekend. And now that La Russa has got him, he plans to have fun deploying him.

True to his Swiss Army Knife reputation, DeRosa will play all over, starting in left field on Sunday and likely starting at third base tonight against San Francisco. The 34-year-old will bat cleanup one day and bat No. 2 another day. He’ll move all over the field and all over the lineup, and he’ll send off familiar vibes for a franchise that coined the term to describe a player like this. Meet the Secret Weapon, 2.0.

“Plays a different position, and he’s the same player,” La Russa said Sunday. “Hits in a different spot in the lineup, same player. He’s a very competitive player no matter where he is. He comes to play.”

And where he comes to play is a good place to start to the 10@10 …

1. In his new locker in the Cardinals clubhouse, right nextdoor to Khalil Greene’s place and two doors down from Albert Pujols, DeRosa had a nest of baseball gloves at the bottom. He had five, and he usually carries three out to the field. He’s got one to play outfield, one to play third base and another for second base. To help understand the different sizes of the gloves consider that the second base one fits inside of the third base one and both rest comfortable in the pocket of the outfield one. He also has a first base glove, though, as he said, “I don’t think I’ll need that one here.” For three consecutive seasons, DeRosa has appeared at six different positions on the field for Texas (2006) and the Chicago Cubs (2007, 2008). It’s not quite the nine positions that coach and Original Secret Weapon (TM) Jose Oquendo played in 1988 for the Cardinals, though Oquendo didn’t have a run of three years nor the innings of experience in the outfield that DeRosa has. In his career, DeRosa has logged at least 100 innings at six different positions, not including those 13 appearances at something called “DH”. The breakdown of his appearances around the diamond:

• 1B … 20 games/10 starts … 109 2/3 innings … .225 BA
• 2B … 302 games/261 starts … 2,234 2/3 innings … .303 BA
• 3B … 248 games/208 starts … 1,889 2/3 innings … .258 BA
• SS … 139 games/79 starts … 829 2/3 innings … .274 BA
• OF … 210 games/180 starts … 1,596 1/3 innings

LF … 58 games/46 starts … .290 BA

RF … 159 games/134 starts … .279 BA

Should be noted, quickly here, that all of DeRosa’s outfield appearances are in LF or RF, according to Yahoo! splits and Baseball-Reference.com. There are several starts in there that just aren’t designated which corner outfield he appeared in, thus explaining the difference in the sums.

2. Even now that they are on different teams, the comparisons are certain to last between Chris Perez, now a member of Cleveland’s bullpen and Jason Motte, the converted catcher who was Perez’s young gun twin for the past couple years in the Cardinals’ system. And anywhere there are comparisons, there will be debate. Did Cleveland see Perez as the higher-ceiling reliever? Did the Cardinals resist dealing Motte because he’s more refined? Is Perez, loaded with pedigree, the more likely to close, or is Motte going to turn success as a setup reliever into a closing job? Both are apprentices now (Perez to Kerry Wood, for now, and Motte to Ryan Franklin), and that’s the inspiration behind today’s poll.

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3. The Cardinals’ Karma is clearly testy. After a string of series where they avoided the opponents’ ace — Zack Greinke twice, both Brandon Webb and Dan Haren once, Zambrano once, and so on and so on — the Cardinals get whip-lashed by fortune this week. San Francisco comes to St. Louis with a 3.66 ERA, the second-best in the National League, and the Giants have their rotation set, accordingly. Starting tonight, the Cardinals face two of the top three ERAs in the league with Tim Lincecum (3rd at 2.5714) and then Matt Cain (2nd at 2.567) on Wednesday. Sandwiched in between is 300-game winner Randy Johnson and following him is Barry Zito, who is lefthanded and paid well. Four Giants pitchers who the Cardinals will face this week have a combined seven Cy Young awards.

4. The latest Cy Young Award-winner of that group, of course, is tonight’s start, righthander Lincecum. He trampled on the Cardinals on his way to the award last season, going 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA. But when you look at how the Cardinals fare against the lithe righthander, at least it’s easy to see who will bat leadoff:

• Skip Schumaker … 5-for-8, HR, BB, K
• Khalil Greene … 1-for-10, 2 BB, 5 K
• Mark DeRosa … 2-for-9, 2 BB, 2 K
• Yadier Molina … 2-for-9
• Chris Duncan … 3-for-9, 0 BB, 3 K
• Albert Pujols … 2-for-5, BB, 2 K
• Ryan Ludwick … 1-for-4, 2 K

5. Eleven of Albert Pujols’ home runs this month have supplied the Cardinals with the lead, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His 32 RBIs tie for the second-most of any month in his career, surpassed only by May 2006 when he had 33. (And there are a few games to go here …) According to the Cardinals media relations staff and Elias, only one other player in the past two decades had all three of the feats Pujols has this month: 12 homers, 32 RBIs and 11 go-ahead RBIs in the same calendar month. Jeff Bagwell (12-34-11) did it in August 2000.

6. We now go to the Chicago desk for what could be a regular feature here in the 10@10 … “CUBS IN CHAOS”. As if the soap opera surrounding outfielder Milton Bradley and his “piece of (shingle)” confrontation with manager Lou Piniella wasn’t enough, today Phil Rogers, baseball columnist for the Chicago Tribune, suggests something that would be unheard of during the glowing good times of 2007 and 2008: Release Carlos Zambrano. Writes Rogers:

Get Carlos Zambrano out of here, even if the Cubs have to give him away. He’s not the guy you want as the ace of a curse-busting team, and at this point, it’s wishful thinking that he’ll ever mature into that guy.

Pity that Gatorade machine.

7. FARMNIK REPORT: Mark Hamilton, freshly promoted to Class AAA Memphis, went 4-for-5 on Sunday in the Redbirds’ 10-9 win against New Orleans. Jon Jay homered and drove in two runs in the victory. Brett Wallace went 1-for-5 and committed a fielding error at third base. The Redbirds went 7-for-10 with runners in scoring position. … Mitchell Boggs went only three innings and allowed four runs on three hits with one strikeout. Charlie Manning followed with four runs on seven hits in two innings. … But here’s the name that stands out: Mike Parisi. Stands out as a typo. Not ParisI, but ParisE. Fell for a bad link and box score typo. My fault. PETE PARISE got the win in his EIGHTH appearance at Class AAA with two strong innings in relief. He allowed one run on four hits and struck out four. … Jess Todd claimed his 16th save with two scoreless innings. … Tyler Henley had three of Springfield’s six hits. … Leadoff hitter Paul Cruz went 3-for-4 with a couple RBIs in Quad Cities 10-2 victory in Game 1 of a split doubleheader with Kane County. Hector Cardenas allowed four hits and three walks but pitched his way to a win with four strikeouts and only two runs allowed (one earned). Arquimedes Nieto slipped to 1-6 when he allowed five runs on five hits in three innings during Game 2. Nieto walked three and did not strike out a batter. … Edgar Lara went 2-for-4 with a couple doubles in Johnson City’s 4-0 victory. Three pitchers combined for the shutout, starting with Reynier Gonzalez’s five scoreless innings (he struck out four), continuing with Andrew Moss’ two innings and four strikeouts, and ending with Dave Kington and his perfect ninth.

8. The Cardinals finished interleague play 9-6. Their overall record against the American League in the regular season is 100-90, which remains the second-best winning percentage among National League teams. But what is overall? Throw in the 17 World Series the Cardinals have played in and their record against the AL moves to 152-143 (.515). The Florida Marlins lead the NL with a .550 winning percentage in interleague play (120-98). Toss in their World Series record and it creeps to 128-103 (.554).

9. Two closers with some old-school stains on their stats this season will be featured in this week’s series against the San Francisco Giants. Ryan Franklin, who almost certainly will have his team option for 2010 picked up, has 18 saves this season, and four of them have been in the retro style of more than three outs. (We saw over the weekend as Minnesota waited to put in Joe Nathan until there was a “save situation” as opposed just a four-run lead to protect in the ninth inning.) He and Giants closer Brian Wilson are the only closers in the majors with as many as four inning-plus saves. Wilson, the hard-chucking righthander, has five.

10. Will be back later this afternoon with a Mark DeRosa PD-Q. And expect more of those as the All-Star Game approaches. There are, well, a dozen or so just waiting in drydock.

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