TOWER GROVE — It was only last year, barely more than 13 months ago, that the St. Louis Cardinals were changing Mark Mulder’s arm slot and still waiting to see if Matt Clement could pitch his way to the majors. General manager John Mozeliak called Clement “a lottery ticket”, and really the description applied to Mulder as well.

The Cardinals banked plenty in 2008 on what the scratch of a coin revealed.

This year, as the Cardinals have stormed to a six-game lead in the NL Central, a different kind of coin is in play, a different gamble. As you’ve probably read before, the Cardinals’ executives have meetings this past winter to discuss “worst-case scenarios” for ticket sales. At one point, in December, they decided to dial back the payroll budget in order to brace for an economic chill. The Cardinals wanted to be ready for the posibility that would not only miss the 3-million mark for the first time in the new ballpark, but plunge to 2.8 million in total fans. That would have been a drop of 17.6 percent.

Team president Bill DeWitt III said at the time that the payroll rollback wasn’t permanent — and that if attendance surged past expectations (they budgeted for around 3 million), then there would be midseason flexibility for a move. And that’s what happened.

Before the Cardinals made the deal for Matt Holliday, there was rumblings that the front office had been given the go-ahead to add to the payroll if an agreeable deal was available. Mozeliak has often mentioned the attendance’s role in establishing the payroll, describing it as a symbiotic relationship. One Cardinals executive said that the attendance, when it cleared the 3.2-million mark, “triggered the investments” in new players, really in taking a run during this 2009 season. Manager Tony La Russa talks about a team that has played well enough to earn a move, and this season we have seen a fanbase that merited a move.

But there’s more. So many of the deals the Cardinals have made this season have been on the message-board, blog and sports-radio radar long before they happened. Mark DeRosa had the grassroots rubber stamp a month before he became a Cardinal. Like La Russa, the populace began its longing for Holliday last winter. Even recently, the fanbase’s lobbying for John Smoltz was a mirror of what was going on in the clubhouse as well. In many ways, the 2009 Cardinals are a popular-poll team, a populist team. Think of the change in perception of the front office and the ownership that the above moves and the response to the fans have caused. It’s been a makeover, a complete turn from the perceived penny-pinching ways of just a year ago when the Cardinal wondered if any of their investments would bring a return.

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

1. In some ways in Smoltz, the Cardinals have signed themselves another scratch-off ticket, though one that comes at a considerably smaller price and with considerably more track record (recent and past). Smoltz will make the pro-rated minimum as he takes over the No. 5 spot in the rotation for the near future. As mentioned above, the Cardinals have said the fan support — measured in ticket sales, etc. — has added some payroll flexibility for the season just as the team’s performance has encouraged the front office to fortify the roster. Here is a look at the salaries the Cardinals have added this season, and how much of it the Cardinals are covering:

PLAYER, Pos. … 2009 salary … Cards cover

Mark DeRosa, 3B … $5.5 million … $2.98 million

Julio Lugo, INF … $9 million … $160,000

Matt Holliday, OF … $13.5 million … $5.3 million

John Smoltz, P … $5.5 million* … $98,000

Smoltz’s original contract, with Boston, comes with an asterisk (*) because it was loaded with incentives that paid for his active days on the roster. One thing that stands out about the Cardinals additions is how they were necessitated by absences — absences not too dissimilar to last year’s Waiting for Mulder. Adam Kennedy was released. Troy Glaus has spent the year rehabbing. And Khalil Greene has struggled. That is more than $20 million in salary that the Cardinals have still been able to compensate and paper over with the above moves.

2. On Wednesday, the Cardinals took two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium and lost two of the seven games against the team with the best record in the NL. The Philadelphia Phillies got another gem from their trade-deadline addition, lefty Cliff Lee. And Colorado keeps playing well while San Francisco has the tandem aces that can cause trouble. All of that leads to today’s poll.

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3. Wednesday was the 2,005th game in the longstanding series between the Cardinals and the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. It’s been a remarkably even series. The Cardinals are 133-137 all-time at Dodger Stadium after Wednesday’s win, and more uncanny: The all-time series, which includes 16 ties, now stands at 994-995.

4. Adam Wainwright’s bid to become baseball’s first 15-game winner fell short Wednesday, but he did keep alive a streak of starts that rates him among the Cardinals’ bests. Wainwright has pitched at least six innings in 24 consecutive starts, and that is tied for the sixth-longest streak by a Cardinal since 1954. Bob Tewksbury also had a 24-start streak of at least six innings back in 1992. With help from Baseball-Reference.com’s database, here are the five longest such streaks by a Cardinal in the last 55 years:

• Bob Gibson … 78 starts … 1967-70
• Bob Gibson … 53 starts … 1972-73
• Bob Gibson … 30 starts … 1970-71
• Chris Carpenter … 28 starts … 2005
• Bob Gibson … 27 starts … 1965-66

5. Albert Pujols is one homer shy of his fifth 40+ homer season, and his first since 2006 when hit a career-high 49. But it’s a double that recently put him in elite company. With 30 doubles this season — a total that ranks 10th in the NL — Pujols has his ninth season with at least a .300 average, at least 100 RBI, at least 30 homers and at least 30 doubles. That ties him with Lou Gehrig for the most in baseball. But here’s the thing: Gehrig’s weren’t consecutive.

6. The Florida Marlins had 11 hits Wednesday, extending their run of consecutive games with at least 10 hits to 15. That ties the longest streak by any club since Cleveland set the record at 18 in the 1920s. The last team, however, to string together 15 consecutive games with at least 10 hits was the Rogers Hornsby-led 1937 St. Louis Browns. Hornsby was the manager, for part of the season, for the woeful Browns who finished eighth in the American League that season with a 46-108 record. The Browns’ outfield did have three starters who hit better than .325 that season — Sam West, Beau Bell and Joe Vosmik.

7. Began today’s 10@10 by talking about additions. Time to balance the equation and quickly check in on the subtractions: Chris Perez has found his groove. In 16 appearances for Cleveland, the righthander has a 3.45 ERA. After an initial hiccup in his first few appearances, Perez has settled in with 17 strikeouts against five walks in 15 2/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .170 against him. … Jess Todd has joined him in the Cleveland bullpen. He pitched a scoreless ninth last night for the Indians. The rookie righthander has six appearances and a 6.00. He’s struck out five and walked three as he gets his first extended feel for the majors. … Chris Duncan, traded for Lugo, is hitting .190 for Boston’s Triple-A team, the Pawtucket Red Sox. He has two homers and 10 RBIs in 26 games for the Paw-Sox. He’s had flashes of success, stringing together hits, but Duncan continues to show signs that he’s not back at full strength from the neck surgery he had a year ago. … Brett Wallace thumped his former team, the Class AAA Memphis Redbirds, over the weekend. He’s hitting .311 and slugging .573 for Sacramento, Oakland’s Triple-A team. He has seven home runs and 18 RBIs in 25 games. That’s one more homer than he had in 62 games for Memphis. … Clayton Mortensen stumbled in his first big-league start for Oakland, but he’s steadied himself in a return to Triple-A. He’s 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in four starts for Sacramento. He has allowed 31 baserunners in 21 innings, with 10 walks against 13 strikeouts. … The third player in the Holliday deal, outfielder Shane Peterson, is hitting .310/.384/.448 for Oakland’s Class AA club. Peterson isn’t quite the “hidden gem” that some folks tried to make him out to be when the trade happened — he wasn’t hidden at all — and the attempts to over-sell him as the prize of the trade are unfortunate. Wallace was the prize. But Peterson offers a lot to like as an eventual outfield alternative. The power has to develop before he’s a starter.

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Apologies for the abbreviated 10@10 today. A complete entry will return Friday morning.

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