TOWER GROVE — If reliever Brad Thompson received a three-game suspension for what the Major League Baseball pitch cops deemed “intentionally throwing a pitch in the head area of David Wright” then is it fair for the St. Louis Cardinals wonder what looms today for Pittsburgh Pirates closer Matt Capps?

What kind of punishment does the precedent demand?

Capps, who gave one of the more entertaining P-DQs earlier this season, smoked Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols in his left side with a 95ish-mph fastball. It is the second time this season that Pujols has been hit with a purpose pitch in that area. It’s the second time this season the Pirates have hit Pujols. And it’s more than the second time that manager Tony La Russa, et. al., have fumed about how Pittsburgh pelts Cardinals hitters. (Eight and counting …) In Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel’s game story this morning, La Russa said:

“I think it was an intentional hit. And there’s no doubt in my mind it came from the bench. I really believe it didn’t come from the manager. Don’t ask me to expound on that. That’s my comment. It was intentional. It came from the bench, it wasn’t the manager who ordered it.”

Probably wouldn’t take long to go CSI on the situation and figure out who La Russa is talking about. Hummel writes in the next graph that pitching coach Joe Kerrigan sometimes calls pitches. You’ll remember form an earlier 10@10 this season (May 14) that pitching coach Dave Duncan went on a local radio show and talked about Kerrigan’s approach. He wants his young pitchers to own the inside edge of the plate. He sents up a cardboard cutout of a player and stands it in the batter’s box so that pitchers can throw inside without fear of hurting a teammate, a coach, a plastic dummy. As Duncan implied in the interview: The Cardinals don’t want to be someone’s cardboard cutout.

The Cardinals don’t want to be part of “learning process,” Duncan said.

Baseball has put itself in a situation where it has to respond because it elbowed into the Thompson-Wright kerfuffle with a ruling, and is now dealing with a team that was hit — not nearly hit, or attempt to be hit, but hit. There’s a bruise to prove it. And the ump’s quick ejection of Capps implies the belief there was intent. Tempers are rising around the majors about HBPs and it seems like a good place to start today’s 10@10 …

1. Prince Fielder attempted to storm the Los Angeles Dodgers clubhouse to confront Guillermo Mota after the latter hit him with a pitch Tuesday night. (The bleep-complete Video shows security officials keeping their cool and teammates like Ryan Braun trying to keep Fielder from the door.) Fielder has been furious at the Cardinals before for what he perceived to be intentional slights, but Mota’s plunk pushed him into a rage. The next day things had calmed, and MLB handed out fines but not suspensions. Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he would welcome a suspension or a fine for his comments alone: He’s going to protect his players. He had three players hit by the Cleveland pitching staff in the same game, and on Sunday, Guillen said: “Around the league, be careful because we’re going to hit people. I don’t care if I get suspended because I need to protect my players.” La Russa has long maintained that above the shoulder is no-man’s land when it comes to HBP and that any throw above the shoulders should be hammered with a severe penalty. That is sort of the message being sent by MLB, writes Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel baseball writer Tom Haudricourt in the wake of the Fielder-Mota brouhaha.

2. So how do you reconcile the suspension handed Thompson for a perceived intent to hit in the “head area” and whatever punishment/fine awaits Capps’ known intent to hit below the shoulders? That’s the question that guided today’s poll:

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3. Concerning the Pirates and their “learning process”: The Pittsburgh pitching staff has hit 35 batters this season, tied for the 10th-most in the National League. Eight of them have been Cardinals. The Cardinals have had, by a considerable amount, the most batters hit by the Pirates of any other division rival:

• Cardinals … 8 in 12 games
• Milwaukee … 5 in 8 games
• Cincinnati … 1 in 5 games
• Chicago … 1 in 6 games

The Cardinals visit PNC Park again in September for a three-game series. Memories last that long.

4. The anticipated return of third baseman Scott Rolen to Busch Stadium may not happen as imagined. And it could be because of another former Cardinal. Rolen continues to experience symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, a result of — say it with me — an HBP from Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Marquis. Rolen is set to be evaluated today and then join his new team, the Cincinnati Reds, for the three-game series at Busch. A Reds official said Rolen is expected to be in attendance tonight. Rolen is 2-for-14 (.143) with three runs scored, two RBIs and a home run in four games since the trade from Toronto to the Reds.

5. So, Pujols had another hit with the bases loaded this past weekend, but he’s re-entering Earth’s orbit — it was, after all, only a bases-clearing double. Pujols is 8-for-10 with the bases loaded this season and he’s driven in 27 runs. That’s rights: 10 times he’s had an AB with the bases loaded, there have been 20 runners in scoring position, and on those eight hits he’s had he’s driven in 26. Pujols is averaging slightly more than a double per at-bat with the bases loaded this season, and that puts him atop the chart when it comes to slugging percentage with the bases loaded since 1969, according to ESPN research (minimum 10 AB):

• Albert Pujols, 2009 … 2.400
• Devon White, 2001 … 1.900
• Travis Hafner, 2006 … 1.857
• Jason Giambi, 2000 … 1.727
• Richie Sexson, 2006 … 1.600
• Carl Yastrzemski, 1969 … 1.600

6. Washington outfielder Adam Dunn hit his 30th home run of the season this past weekend, giving him the third-longest active streak of seasons with at least 30 home runs. Only Alex Rodriguez (11) and Pujols (9) have longer streaks than Dunn’s six. But that wasn’t the only homer hit in Sunday’s Washington-Arizona game that related to Pujols. Mark Reynolds, the Diamondbacks’ big-swinging third baseman, homered for the fourth consecutive game. He’s hit 11 home runs in his previous 13 games and he stormed into a tie with Pujols for the NL/MLB lead in homers.  Reynolds is one homer shy of tying Troy Glaus’ mark of 37 for Arizona, the third-most in franchise history. Pujols’ triple-crown checkup:

BATTING AVERAGE … Pujols’ .326 is 3rd; Hanley Ramirez leads (.348)

RBIs … Pujols’ 100 leads the NL; second is Prince Fielder (98)

HOME RUNS … Pujols’ 36 is tired for lead; Reynolds has 36, Dunn has 30.

7. Interesting article this weekend in the Sunday New York Times about the APBA championship tournament. Two members of the Cardinals played a part in the outcome of the dice-roll game’s national title. One of the favorites to win the title — a two-time champ already — played with the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals and had his run end when Jim Edmonds came up with a chance to win the game and … well read the article to find out. Those of you who have been regular readers here — before the advent of the 10@10, that is — know I was more of an All-Star Baseball kid (see here), but APBA has its devoted base and it’s an entertaining game. An interesting sidebar to the story tells how players in the know know players who are ringers, including one Cardinal: George Puccinelli. The San Francisco native had a remarkable debut as a Cardinal in 1930 with this line:

11 games, 16 AB, 5 r, 9 h, 1 2B, 3 HR, 8 RBI … .563/.563/1.188

His APBA card from that season then gives him the same rate of home runs of, as the article points out, Barry Bonds in 2001. That was the season Bonds hit 73. Puccinelli hit 19 in his career.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: Xavier Scruggs and Ryde Rodriguez each had at least three hits in Low-A Quad Cities’ 11-8 victory. Scruggs went 5-for-6 with a home run and four RBIs. Rodriguez went 3-for-6 with two RBIs. Rodriguez also tripled. … Dave Carpenter, another catcher turned closer, got his eighth save of the season with a scoreless 2/3 innings. … Shane Robinson homered again and drove in three runs for Memphis in a 7-6 victory at Colorado Springs. Allen Craig, starting at left field, had four hits, two doubles and two runs scored. … Adam Ottavino got the victory to improve to 5-10 this season. He struck out four, walked three, allowed three runs and allowed three hits in his five innings. … Alan Ahmady, a third baseman, had two doubles and drove in three runs for Batavia in a 10-3 win. Deryk Hooker pitched five scoreless innings for Batavia, striking out four and walking no one. He scattered five hits in his five innings and dropped his ERA to 4.01. … Edgar Lara hit his sixth home run of the season Sunday. For rookie-level Johnson City, Lara is hitting .255. In his previous 10 games, he has two homers, six hits in 31 at-bats (.194) and 15 strikeouts. … Chris Notti, from Moorpark College, improved to 2-1 with a start in JC’s victory Sunday. Notti, a righthander, pitched five innings and allowed two runs (none earned) on five hits. He struck out five. … In relief, Zach Russell collected seven outs for JC. Six of them were strikeouts. The righty was drafted 1,427th overall in 2007 out of an Arkansas high school.

9. The Cardinals have the third-most pinch-hit at-bats in the NL at 156 and overall have been rather … average … when it comes to pinch-hitting. Skip Schumaker’s home run Sunday was the Cardinals’ third of the season, and it drove in the 18th and 19th RBIs of the season by a Cardinals’ PH. Here are some selected PH stats from the Cardinals this season, starting with the team totals:

TEAM: 156 AB … 13 2B, 3 HR … 19 RBI … .237 (8th)/.311 (10th)/.378 (8th)

Skip Schumaker … 4-for-12, HR, 2B, 2 RBI … .333/.333/.667

Chris Duncan … 4-for-12, 2B, 0 RBI … .333/.429/.417

Nick Stavinoha … 5-for-15, 3 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI … .333/.375/.733

Joe Thurston … 4-for-18, 2B, 2 RBI … .222/.333/.278

Colby Rasmus … 3-for-14, 2B, 1 RBI … .214/.214/.286

Rick Ankiel … 2-for-10, 2B, 0 RBI … .200/.333/.300

Khalil Greene … 2-for-14, 2B, 5 RBI … .143/.176/.214

10. So, the newspaper business is struggling. Time has a story about the collapse of the Ann Arbor, Mich., paper and its attempt to live on as a Web product. My beloved Rocky Mountain News – the newspaper that inspired me to work in newspapers — no longer publishes. Those are the headlines. There are locally and nationally smaller stories that better tell what cities who lose papers or lose reporters are truly losing: Consider Dayton, Ohio. Hal McCoy, the Hall of Fame baseball writer at the Dayton Daily News, recently announced that after 37 years on the beat he is retiring and won’t be covering the Reds next season. You can read his announcement here at The Real McCoy, and that will explain why his paper, doing what a lot of papers are doing, forced the decision. By why stop there?

While McCoy is in town for the Cardinals-Reds series at Busch Stadium, do yourself a favor and read his coverage, read some of his past coverage, read his coverage from the rest of the season, read others write about his coverage. Read about how Aaron Boone gave him a lecture once and how McCoy, though legally blind, continued to cover his beat as well as anyone as ever covered a beat. Read it all now.

Enjoy his coverage while you can.

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