TOWER GROVE — The player that inspired the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest and costliest move yet into the international free-agent market came to Busch Stadium on Monday, taking a few souvenirs from the big leaguers and leaving an impression.

Outfielder Wagner Mateo, the Dominican Republic teen phenom that merited a record $3.1-million contract from the Cardinals, took batting practice at Busch and did hit a home run — an opposite field shot into the left-field bullpen. Only 16, Mateo is in town to meet with team officials and undergo a battery of tests from team physicians. This visit, especially the meeting with team docs, finalizes his deal with the Cardinals that was first announced on July 2.

His first visit to Busch came at an interesting time.

Not only was it Matt Holliday’s first appearance as a Cardinal in front of The Faithful, it also was the Cardinals’ first home game since stripping the organization of four of his its six top prospects. As mentioned in yesterday’s 10@10, there is going to be some heavy editing when it comes to writing the 2010 Top 30 — heck, Top 10 — for Baseball America. (Received the format for the 2010 Handbook this morning.) Mateo will get some run as a candidate for a position in the top five. The timetable he offered for his return to Busch, through farm director/acting translater Jeff Luhnow, certainly would put him there.

“Yes, it was very eventful for him to come to Busch Stadium,” Luhnow said after Mateo answered a question about his day. “He hopes to be back within in two or three years.”

Mateo will start his turn with the Cardinals’ minor-league affiliates next spring when he comes to spring training with the other minor-leaguers. He’ll have the chance to compete for a job in Quad Cities, Luhnow said, but not the expectation that he’ll actually debut there. He’s most likely bound for extended spring.

Mateo got some pointers from Albert Pujols — “Don’t move around so much,” he said the first baseman told him — and some bats from a few of the Cardinals. Pujols gave him two, and Julio Lugo gave him two as well. Mateo admitted to being nervous stepping into the cage, but eventually he looked like a talented teenager taking BP in a big-league ballpark, as one observer told me.

Though young, Mateo represents how the Cardinals will go about replenishing their minor-league system after this season’s trades. One knock on the system that the Cardinals’ cannot reject is the lack of high-end, elite talent (the Kyle Drabek, Mat Gamel type). They may have contributors ready in the minors — complementary players — but they don’t have several difference-making prospects, on the level of, say, Colby Rasmus. One of them, Brett Wallace, was traded. Another, Daryl Jones, has been slowed by knee troubles this season and opinions on the impact he’ll have in the majors vary. This is a topic that has been covered in here many times.

The trades have left the Cardinals without that bona fide No. 1 prospect to hang a system on — at least not an obvious one in the system today. Said Luhnow: “It means our scouts have got to get back to work.”

And that’s where today’s 10@10 begins …

1. If you accept that Wallace was a singular bat, unlike anything else the Cardinals had in their system then you can also see how the recent trades were palatable because of the Cardinals’ internal view of their depth. With one exception. The Cardinals could deal Clayton Mortensen because Lance Lynn is closing the gap on that role on the depth chart. The Cardinals could deal Chris Perez (read: Closer of The Future) because Jason Motte has emerged as a power-arm righthanded reliever. Shane Peterson? The Cardinals have a handful of lefthanded hitting outfielders ahead of him on the depth chart, with names like Jon Jay, Jones, and somewhere in there is Adron Chambers … etc. (Chambers has a .799 OPS in High-A; Peterson had a .795 before his promotion.) They could deal Jess Todd because … well, OK, there’s no obvious replacement. Todd’s command and steadiness as much as the role he had this season is not one that the Cardinals have an immediate replacement. Francisco Samuel doesn’t have the command. Eduardo Sanchez is arguably the team’s top righthanded reliever prospect now, but he doesn’t have the seasoning of Todd. Luhnow said a sign of the minors’ depth is how they recovered from the trades and didn’t have “to struggle to find replacements.” It will take a year or two to see if that’s truly the case. Luhnow called the deals “bittersweet”.

2. Simple question without an obvious answer for today’s poll.

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3. Chris Carpenter’s seven innings Monday night gave him enough innings to crack the National League leaders in ERA. He vaulted all the way to second in the league, with his 2.19 ranking just behind Dan Haren’s 2.14. To qualify for the league leaders, a pitcher must have at least one inning for every team game. Cardinals have played 102 games; Carpenter needed 102 innings. Carpenter, who missed time with that oblique strain, debuts in the leaders just ahead of the San Francisco Giants starters, Matt Cain (2.27) and Tim Lincecum (2.30).

4. Low ERAs are going around. Adam Wainwright starts tonight with a 1.41 ERA this month, and that is only the sixth-lowest in the NL for July. Do a quick search of the top nine ERAs in the NL this month for any pitcher who has at least 20 innings pitched, and its actually a list of Cardinals, former Cardinals or pitchers who have faced/will be facing the Cardinals this month:

1. Wandy Rodriguez, HOU … 0.75 … (just defeated Cardinals)
2. Clayton Kershaw, LAD … 0.90 … (starting Wed. vs. Cardinals)
3. Joe Blanton, PHI … 1.21 … (just defeated Cardinals)
4. Matt Cain, SF … 1.23 … (defeated Cardinals on July 1)
5. Joel Pineiro, STL … 1.24
6. Adam Wainwright, STL … 1.41
7. Jason Marquis, COL … 1.64 … (former Cardinal)
8. Chris Carpenter, STL … 1.75
9. Dan Haren, AZ … 1.93 … (former Cardinal, defeated Cardinals on July 18)

5. Another wow nugget from the uber-resourceful Elias Sports Bureau: Matt Holliday has already made history in his first week as a Cardinal. According to Elias Says this morning, Holliday is the first player to drive in at least one run in each of his first four games as a Cardinal since 1920? Why 1920? Well, according to Elias, that is when baseball began keeping track of RBIs.

6. For the second time in less than a week, the Cardinals’ starting shortstop had a four-hit game. There have been 94 four-hit games by a Cardinals’ shortstop since 1954, and two of them have come from Julio Lugo and Brendan Ryan in the span of three days. Of the eight hits Lugo and Ryan had combined, three went for extra bases. And really that’s what the Cardinals have been searching for this season from that position — additional pop. Last year, the Cardinals’ shortstop position produced a higher on-base percentage than it did a slugging percentage. That led the team to trade for Khalil Greene thinking he’d bounce back and add some thump to the No. 6 position. Here is how the shortstop position compares, last season vs. this season, so far:

2008 — .268 BA … .319 OBP … .316 SLG … .635 OBP … 23 XB hits

2009 — .268 BA … .322 OBP … .381 SLG … .704 OBP … 28 XB hits

7. FARMNIK REPORT: Shortstop Khalil Greene had four hits, including a home run, as Memphis outlasted the New Orleans (nee Denver) Zephyrs, 12-9 on Monday. Greene started at third base. Tyler Greene, prospect No. 16 in last year’s Handbook, started at shortstop and had three hits, a home run and two RBIs. Allen Craig continued his scorching July with another home run and two more hits. His average is .441 over his previous 10 games. There’s your September righthanded bat off the bench, right? … First baseman Mark Hamilton went 4-for-5 with two home runs for Memphis. He also drove in four runs. … All that offense helped Memphis deal with a bullpen game and nine walks allowed, including five by spot starter Kat Maekawa. … Shortstop Jose Garcia had three hits and scored three runs in Quad Cities victory. … Luis De La Cruz, a top-30 prospect in 2008’s Handbook, had both of Batavia’s RBIs in a 2-0 victory. Justin Edwards pitched six shutout innings for the Muckdogs. He struck out two, walked two and allowed four hits. … Robert Stock, the second-round pick this past draft, had three hits and improved his average to .333 during Johnson City’s 5-2 victory. Yunier Castillo, a shortstop that has been mentioned in these parts before, hit his first home run of the season in that win. … Baton Rouge native Jesse Simpson, a righthander, got the win, and he pitched the final four innings of the game. He did allow a run and he struck out six without walking a batter.

8. Washington outfielder Josh Willingham, a name that has made a few blips on the trade radar, hit two grand slams in Monday’s game against Milwaukee and tied a franchise record with eight RBIs. He is the13th player in history to have two grand slams in the same game, the third National Leaguer to do so, and the first since Fernando Tatis had two grannies for the Cardinals — in the same inning. The10th anniversary of Tatis’ grand night in Los Angeles recently passed, but the current New York Mets outfielder couldn’t let Willingham have the spotlight on his own Monday. Tatis hit his second grand slam of the season for the Mets — who have their own mess going with their GM’s juvenile, straw-grasping and unprofessional antics.

9. St. Charles native and Chicago White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle will make his first start tonight since his perfect game. But before he does that, check out his delivery last night on the Late Show with David Letterman:

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10. On Monday, the Cardinals placed their first order with the manufacturer for red “Holliday 15″ t-shirts, which will be sold, of course, all over Busch Stadium and at the Cardinals Clubhouse stores.

Let the Holliday Fund begin.

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