FROM THE FANFEST — Writing through the din of the FanFest here in downtown St. Louis, just a few feet away from former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andy Benes and his furiously signing right hand, today’s 10@10 will be done in live-blog fashion.

C’mon on by. Suggest a topic for any of the open numbers below.

In the spirit of the FanFest, this has been an interactive 10@10.

The Cardinals are playing the Cubs this afternoon in the first game of a four-game series at Wrigley Field, and I’m eager to see what the traffic is like here at America’s Center when the game is on. Right now the line for autographs is long, Bryan Burwell is loud (doing his radio show here) and there is young kid in the batting cage cranking out homers like Bobby Abreu c. 2005 Detroit.

But it’s yesterday at Miller Park that starts the 10@10 and something Joel Pineiro has done this season that hasn’t been done since … well another Cardinal did it several years ago.

1. Pineiro has found a way to assure a victory: Pitch a complete a game. The Cardinals’ righthander, and latest sinker devotee, moved into a tie with two All-Star pitchers from San Francisco — Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum – with three complete games to lead the National League this season. Pineiro faced 28 batters in his win at Milwaukee, and it was the third time he’s pitched a complete game while facing fewer than 30 batters.  Against on the New York Mets he faced 29 on June 23, and on May 19 he faced 28 Chicago Cubs in a complete-game victory. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, in the past two decades only one other pitcher has had three complete games in a season during which he faced fewer than 30 batters in each game. That pitcher? Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter in 2005.

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3. The Post-Dispatch’s Hummel Intern, Luke Thompson, offered a guided tour of the FanFest earlier this week in the paper. (Comes complete with a map.) Thompson can also be found on Twitter throughout the FanFest at the Twitter address @stlluke. … And B.J. Rains, the MLB.com associate reporter for the summer, offers pictures and anecdotes from his walk through FanFest earlier this week at his blog, “When It Rains It Pours”.

4. Spent some time with the Cardinals’ top prospect Brett Wallace — hey, Colby Rasmus has long since graduated from prospect to rookie and vacated the title — for an article that will run over the weekend as a preview of Sunday’s Futures Game. Wallace talked about how he’s altered his diet, how he’s improving his swing and he’s working his keister off at third base. He’s improving. Not yet ready for the majors at the position, as many observers say, but feeling more comfortable at the corner. He also had a revealing take on the pitching he’s seen since the promotion to Class AAA Memphis. Said Wallace:

“The biggest thing is these guys here know how to get you to get yourself out. Whereas, in lower levels, they will attack you, and if you can beat them you can beat them. This year, the guys who have gone up and come back down, they faced all of the (major-league) guys. They understand, ‘I can’t just throw you a fastball early and see if you can hit it. We’re going to take everyone’s word that you can hit it.’ So what they’re going to do is use their game plan. Curveball away. Changeup away. My biggest thing was to slow it down. I got up here and I wanted to show everyone that I could play up here. I have to make them come after you and then the game gets back to you.”

5. Albert Pujols is due. Sure, he’ll reach the All-Star break leading or the near the lead in the National League in all three Triple Crown categories, but he’s yet to strafe Wrigley Field this season. In the Cardinals previous visit to Wrigley this season, Pujols went 1-for-9 with four walks and two strikeouts. He drove in one run in the previous series. Wrigley hasn’t been the friendliest of confines for Pujols in recent years — or in his career as a .282 hitter there in 67 games — but that .111 average is due for a correction, if he gets pitches. Pujols’ performances at Wrigley in recent years:

2008 … 21 AB … 5 R … 5 H … 4 RBI … 1 HR … .238/.346/.429

2007 … 25 AB … 7 R … 11 H … 6 RBI … 4 HR … .440/.533/.960

2006 … 37 AB … 6 R … 8 H … 7 RBI … 1 HR … .216/.286/.324

TOTALS … 252 AB … 44 R … 71 H … 48 RBI … 19 HR … .282/.369/.563

6. Pete Rose, a guest on the Parris & Burwell Show on 101ESPN here at the FanFest, just told a story about the first time he met Stan Musial. It was back at Sportsman’s Park, and Rose was a rookie for the Cincinnati Reds, playing in the last game of the season. Rose had three hits in that game, the punctuation on his Rookie of the Year season. Musial had two in that 14-inning game, including an RBI single in the sixth inning past a diving Rose. That was the 3,630th and last hit of his career. After the game, Rose told Burwell and co-host Brian Stull, he had a ball signed by Musial, and the Cardinal Hall of Famer signed it by saying “here’s to many more hits” for the rookie. Many more is right. Rose went on to break Musial’s NL record for hits.

7. It’s official: The biggest snub of the All-Star Game is former Mizzou star Ian Kinsler. But fate keeps hurling Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia together, and there could yet be a route for Kinsler to play in the All-Star Game. Years ago, at Arizona State, Pedroia won the starting job and sent Kinsler looking for another program — Tim Jamieson’s at the University of Missouri. This year, Kinsler led the fan voting, led the fan voting, led the fan voting, untile a late charge by Red Sox Nation pushed Pedroia into the starting role. That dropped Kinsler into the “Final Vote”, which he lost to the Detroit-Philly Axis that pushed Brandon Inge to victory. Word out of Boston this morning, however, is that Pedroia may miss the All-Star Game so he can be with his wife and the birth of their child. Pedroia could again open the door for Kinsler to go to Missouri.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: Mitchell Boggs struck out seven and allowed four hits and one run in eight innings to snag the victory for Class AAA Memphis on Thursday. The run was not earned. … Jess Todd allowed a run but came away with his 20th save of the season in the 4-2 victory. … Brett Wallace continued his spike, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Both of the hits were singles. … Palm Beach was routed, 16- 3, by St. Lucie. Outfielder Aaron Luna went 2-for-3 with two walks and two doubles. Starter Jorge Rondon didn’t survive through the second inning, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on five hits and four walks. Reliever Casey Mulligan came in to close out the debacle and three of his four outs were strikeouts. … Springfield, too, lost a rout — 10-4, over and out, to Frisco. Shane Peterson went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in his sixth game since a promotion to Class AA. He’s hitting .348 at the new level, and .302 overall this season. … Quad Cities swept a doubleheader, both games of which went extra innings. At DH, Osvaldo Morales at two hits in the first game and drove in his 56th run of the season. Morales also drove in the winning run in the 11th-inning of the second game. He had a sacrifice fly to win it. That helped sweeten a three-strikeout night cap for Morales. … Arquimedes Nieto struck out seven in the start for the second game. Jon Edwards went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a home run in the second game. Lefty Hector Cardenas pitched well in the first game, throwing six innings and allowing one run (it was not earned) and he struck out five against three hits.

9. A few years ago Bird Land discussed what one Cardinals’ quantitative official called a “Radar Gun for Curveballs”. The front page of this morning’s New York Times shows the next generation of baseball metrics: A radar gun for base running. Explains exceptional baseball writer Alan Schwarz this morning:

A new camera and software system in its final testing phases will record the exact speed and location of the ball and every player on the field, allowing the most digitized of sports to be overrun anew by hundreds of innovative statistics that will rate players more accurately, almost certainly affect their compensation and perhaps alter how the game itself is played.

Schwarz goes on to write that the technology will “probably become the largest single advance in baseball science since the development of the box score.” Think of it as a GPS for every player on every play of every game. A way to map not only which second basemen cover the most ground on hard-hit balls up the middle, but how many baserunners are able to go first-to-third on singles to center field. And then the center fielders who close the distance down to throw some of those runners out at third. Arbitration just got more interesting.

10. In addition to the FanFest, the former site of the National Bowling Hall of Fame will be turned into an autograph bonanza this weekend. Starting Saturday and running through the weekend, all of the living Cardinals’ Hall of Famers are scheduled to appear for signings: Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Bruce Sutter and Red Schoendienst. Other stars who are scheduled to hold signings at the place that used to house the Cardinals Museum include: Tony Gwynn, Ted Simmons, Reggie Jackson, Mike Matheny, Brooks Robinson, Tim McCarver, Willie McGee and Johnny Bench. The event was organized locally and more information can be found at www.stlsportscollectors.com.

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