MEMPHIS — This season, the Memphis Redbirds are offering a tour of their history measured in bobbleheads. On Tuesday night, with Round Rock in town, the Redbirds gave fans a John Gall bobbleheader. Early bobbleheads have included “Nostalgia Man”, the Memphis logo, and all-time Memphis star Stubby Clapp, whose No. 10 is retired in these parts.

Coming up on the calendar are bobbleheads for former Redbirds Adam Wainwright, Jason Motte, and for coach Dyar Miller, who was in town last night as part of his tour of Cardinals’ affiliates. One of the last bobblehead giveaways of the season at AutoZone Park is for a Cardinals rookie — narrows it down doesn’t it? — whose most frustrating year in the minors came here in Memphis: outfielder Colby Rasmus.

He was the topic in many corners of the ballpark last night.

The question asked of me and others several times last night, even before Rasmus ripped his 11th home run of the season and his third in less than a week, was if the center fielder was making a Rookie of the Year bid. The answer is obvious. He leads rookies all National League rookies with 11 home runs. He leads all rookies with 34 RBIs. He leads all rookies with 41 runs. He’s one of two rookies with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. And Rookie of the Year awards are not won on walks alone. Seems like a good place to start today’s 10@10:

1. The qualifications to be eligible for the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year award can be tricky. Simply: A player must not have had more than 130 at-bats in the previous season, pitch more than 50 innings or have spent more than 45 days on the major-league active roster. The “more than” is key because back in 1996 third baseman Scott Rolen had 130 at-bats for Philadelphia, yet he won the Rookie of the Year in 1997. The eligibility rules mean a guy like San Francisco bat Pablo Sandoval isn’t a candidate because of his 145 at-bats last season. Rasmus has had the most playing time of what some view as a thin crop of NL rookies, but that doesn’t challengers aren’t popping up or on the horizon for the second-half …

2. That includes Milwaukee’s sudden power from rookie Casey McGehee. At 26, McGehee was actually released this past winter by the Chicago Cubs, the team that drafted him back in 2003. In June, McGehee arrived as another of the Brew Crew Bats, hitting .368 with eight doubles, five home runs and 18 RBIs. He finished as a also-receiving votes for the Rookie of the Month award that went to Atlanta starter Tommy Hanson. Either presents another candidate for ROY, and that’s today’s poll:

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3. Talked for awhile with Gall during his team’s batting practice Tuesday, and he marveled at how long it really has been since he was in the Cardinals’ system. Since then, he’s played overseas, he’s been a two-time Florida Marlin and now a farmhand in the Houston system. He’s got a 1 1/2-year-old son and he’s looking at life after baseball — certain to get some offers to stay in baseball. It was while talking to him that it struck me how his timing was awful. The Cardinals have called on 15 rookies this season and they had 11 players make their major-league debuts last season. Leaning on the young players like they are this year is a far different approach then when Gall was around and the two-time organizational player of the year couldn’t get a sniff. On the day Gall hit cleanup for Round Rock, a 31-year-old Triple-A first baseman, Nick Stavinoha was back in the majors, promoted that morning by the Cardinals. That could have been Gall, he was just years too early.

4. With his 8 1/3 innings and nine strikeouts against Milwaukee on Tuesday, Adam Wainwright did what many Cardinals starters have done and put himself in position to do what only a handful have. Wainwright has 21 strikeouts in his previous 17 1/3 innings. His start before Tuesday’s was a career-high 12 strikeouts, and he followed with a nine-K game that matched his previous career best. Since 1954, only four different pitchers have had three consecutive starts of at least eight innings and eight strikeouts. Bob Gibson has the franchise record in that span with six consecutive 8/8 starts. The four Cardinals’ pitchers who have had at least three consecutive 8/8 games, and how many times they have done so:

• Bob Gibson … 10 times (longest: 6)
• Steve Carlton … 2 times (longest: 4)
• Ray Washburn … 1 time (longest: 4)
• Chris Carpenter … 1 time (longest: 3)

5. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols may have set a record as the highest vote-getter in National League history since the start of fan voting for the All-Star Game, but there was a ballot where he was out-polled — and actually finished third. On the player ballot, Pujols was not the leading “point-getter”. Raul Ibanez scored a 670 from his peers — a measure of how highly ranked he was on how many ballots — and Hanley Ramirez scored a 664. Pujols was 650, trouncing second-place on the player ballot Adrian Gonzalez and his 356.

6. In 2001, Pujols received 136,809 votes for the All-Star Game. This season he received nearly 5.4 million votes, or more than his previous two seasons combined. In nine years on the ballot, Pujols has received a total of 21,762,389 votes. He’s not even halfway to the record, which is Ken Griffey Jr.’s updated total of 48,973,914 votes.

7. The Cardinals’ top 10 prospect list has had a shakeup this season, what with Rasmus likely graduating to major-leaguer, Chris Perez being traded, Bryan Anderson set for shoulder surgery and a $3-million international signing set to elbow his way into the mix. What an updated Cardinals Top 10 would look like today was the question presented to Baseball America writer Jim Callis this week. Callis reworks the top 10 that I help write for every year’s Prospect Handbook, and his complete list can be found here. He assumes that top pick Shelby Miller will be signed when he offers up this top five:

• Brett Wallace, 3B
• Shelby Miller, RHP
• Daryl Jones, OF
• Wagner Mateo, OF
• Jess Todd, RHP

8. FARMNIK REPORT: Looks like the Cardinals will get a third rep at the Futures Game as Class AA closer Francisco Samuel has been selected to join Jose Oquendo’s World Team. … Jon Jay went 0-for-3 in the leadoff spot Tuesday night for Class AAA Memphis. He also struck out twice. Jay is batting .251 and has struggled to connect his spring-training success with his Triple-A season. He’s also changing his swing a bit. Back when he was drafted, some scouts dismissed Jay for his timing mechanism, which was a little bobbing and loop of his hands as he prepared to hit. He called them his “helicopter hands” and yesterday he said he’s doing away with them. He’s trying to break himself of that habit. … Jess Todd, Memphis’ lone All-Star, worked a scoreless ninth for his 19th save of the season. Lefty Royce Ring got his 11th hold with a one-out appearance. … Kyle Lohse had arguably the best rehab start ever in Memphis, leading them with six scoreless innings of two-hit ball and a series sweep of Round Rock. Much better than the shellings Adam Wainwright and Mark Mulder, for example, took for the Redbirds. … Steven Hill hit his 12th home run in Springfield’s 8-3 victory. … Joe Kelly gained at least one fan in his pro debut the other day. The recently drafted power reliever struck out one in his scoreless inning, and he left coaches impressed.

9. Roy Halladay, arguably the most dominant righthanded pitcher in the game, is being shopped, and the Cardinals are among the teams being linked to the Toronto ace/Chris Carpenter buddy. This is not the first time that such a deal has been explored — on both sides. New York Post baseball columnist Joel Sherman writes a few moments ago that the Philadelphia Phillies are viewed as the favorite for the righthander, and he paints the Cardinals a darkhorse, writing:

And one AL executive added this: “Halladay is the kind of player the Cardinals have acquired over the years, who fell in love with the baseball passion of the city and decided to sign long term at reasonable dollars.”

Multi-media magnate, the Big Brother of St. Louis Sports (he sees everything), Bernie Miklasz has a look at Halladay’s availability posted in his blog, Bernie’s Extra-Pointed 5 Minutes.

10. A few weeks ago, there was a poll about what Cardinals team that did not win the World Series was the best team. The poll, if I remember correctly, sided with the 105-win 2004 team that won the pennant but were steamrolled by Boston. Good call. In the latest Seamheads Simulation League, the 2004 Cardinals, which I’ve attempted to manage virtually through a tournament of the best near-miss teams in the Near Miss League, have a six-game lead in their division. They are 74-53, the third-best record in the game, and they have a nice lead on the 1996 Atlanta Braves. You can see how the redo roster is doing overall by clicking here.

Albert Pujols leads the Near Miss League with 34 home runs and 107 RBIs.

No joke.

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