HOUSTON — With 2009 speeding to a close, discussions about the decade behind us are already popping up. Some baseball writers, like Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci’s have picked their Team of the Aughts, others have just explored who might be the Player of the Decade. Here we’ve been convicted of over-stating the Decade Triple Crown notion (scroll down).

Time to look at the bigger picture.

In the past week or 10 days, the St. Louis Cardinals have clinched the best record in the National League for the 20Aughts. If you accept the actual definition of decade as any 10-year period and adopt the accepted notion of the ’20s, ’60s, ’80s, etc., as being “a decade”, then the Cardinals are 911-698 from 2000 till today. That puts them ahead of the Altanta Braves, who are 887-720 from 2000 through today.

The Cardinals’ media relations points out that the Aught Cards are only the second Cardinals’ era to win more than 900 games in a decade, joining the Cardinals of the 1940s who went 960-580. This decade has been the Cardinals third best by winning percentage, trailing the Gas House Gang of the 1930s (.56649) and the Swifties of the ’40s (.623).

What that means is clearly the Aught Cards need a nickname.

(Now taking suggestions. The new ballpark inspires the Brick House Gang. Too soon? Not original? And, yes, El Birdos is taken.)

Inspired by several emails I’ve received recently from readers either pointing the records out or asking about them, I pulled out the calculator and did some yellow legal-pad doodling yesterday, digging through the decade records of some American League teams and most NL teams. Not that you got to see that. A catastrophic coffee incident disrupted the 10@10 yesterday and put my laptop in jeopardy of collapse. I apologize for missing yesterday, the first 10@10 weekday whiff of the season. So, I’ve attempted to redo some of the research (numbers are entering Tuesday’s games) so that we can further illustrate the Team of the Decade notion.

That’s where today’s 10@10, coffee permitting, begins …

1. The New York Yankees, the first team to earn a berth in the 2009 postseason, lead the way with a MLB-best record of 957-648 (.596) and this is the ninth time that the Yankees will be in the playoffs. But Boston has more World Series titles than any team. The Red Sox are aiming for a sixth playoff berth in the decade, and they have gone 914-692 (.569). The Los Angeles Angels are nearing a sixth berth, too, boasting a record of 893-716 (.555) after Tuesday’s game. The Cardinals, with two pennants and one World Series title this decade, slide in right behind Boston and just ahead of Atlanta. Here are the National League Central standings for Aughts (through Monday’s games), including the Cubs race for .500:

Cardinals … 910-698 … .566

Houston … 828-779 … .515

Chicago … 801-805 … .499

Cincinnati … 742-866 … .461

Milwaukee … 735-872 … .457

Pittsburgh … 675-929 … .420

2. Simple question then for today’s poll, and please try to come at this with a clinical, unbiased click:

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3. Joel Pineiro’s victory Tuesday put him one shy of tying his career high, which he set back in 2003 as a member of Seattle’s rotation. It also gave the Cardinals at least three 15-game winners for the fourth time since 2000. This year’s Cardinals are the fourth team in the National League since 2000 to have at least three 15-game winners, and the only rotation to do so that wasn’t a Cardinals rotation was the 2002 Atlanta Braves. Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter has been a part of three of the five trios. The five trios — and one foursome — that had at least 15 wins each:

2000 Pat Hentgen (15), Darryl Kile (20) and Garrett Stephenson (16)

2002 Tom Glavine (18), Greg Maddux (16), Kevin Millwood (18)

2004 Jason Marquis (15), Chris Carpenter (15), Matt Morris (15), Jeff Suppan (16)

2005 Chris Carpenter (21), Jeff Suppan (16), Mark Mulder (16)

2009 Adam Wainwright (18), Chris Carpenter (16), Joel Pineiro (15)

Carpenter is in bold above because of the 16 player-seasons mentioned above, Carpenter’s 2005 is the only one to win a Cy Young Award. In 2002, the Braves had the balanced staff, and Randy Johnson won the highest award a pitcher can receive.

4. Mark DeRosa added his fifth and sixth RBIs of the series on Tuesday, and so far this season, the Cardinals’ third baseman has six homers and 12 RBIs against Houston. He’s hitting 15-for-41 (.367) against the Astros. Not that he’s always hit against the Astros. Six of DeRosa’s 11 career homers vs. Houston have come this season, and he’s a career .269/.308/.491 hitter in games against the Astros. That changes at Minute Maid Park, where he’s hit .329/.364/.659 in 26 games here. Thirteen of his 27 hits at Houston’s downtown ballpark have gone for extra bases. His two-homer game Monday was the fourth of his career, and — no surprise here — two have them have come this season, at Houston. He has yet to have a two-homer game for a home crowd:

Sept. 21, 2009 … with Cardinals at Houston … 2 HR, 4 RBI

July 21, 2009 … with Cardinals at Houston … 2 HR, 2 RBI

June 30, 2008 … with Cubs at San Francisco … 2 HR, 6 RBI

Aug. 9, 2006 … with Rangers at Oakland … 2 HR, 6 RBI

5. Albert Pujols spun his wrist and said it was fine last night when asked if he did anything more than jam during a tag off first base last night. “It’s nothing,” he said. La Russa said Pujols told him he was fine and could have completed the game if needed. There will be a re-check, of course, tonight. Pujols pulled ahead of “Sunny” Jim Bottomley and is now alone in third on the Cardinals’ all-time leader list with 1,106 RBIs. Only Stan Musial (1,951) and Enos Slaughter (1,148) have more. Pujols ranks in the top five in all of the following categories, having surged into the higher echelons of the franchise totals this season:

• Batting Average … 4th … started season 4th
• Total bases … 4th … started season 6th
• RBI .. 3rd … started season 6th
• Doubles … 3rd … started season 8th
• Walks … 4th … started season 5th
• Runs … 5th … started season 8th
• Home runs … 2nd … started season 2nd
• Grand slams … 1st … started season 5th

One category where Pujols does not rank in the top 10 is total games played as a Cardinal. With 1,389 games, Pujols is more than a season away from joining the top 10.

6. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who moved into the NL lead over the weekend for innings played behind the plate (1,138), also stole his ninth base of the season. Every one has come against a team/pitcher that isn’t paying attention, and Molina strikes. The nine steals this season are more than double his career total coming into this season, and the nine tie him with three other catchers for the Cardinals’ single-season record. Previous catchers to steal nine bases in a season were Tim McCarver (1966), Eli Marrero (1999) and Tom Pagnozzi (1991).

7. Colby Rasmus hit his 16th home run and drove in his 51st RBI in Tuesday’s rout. Two of his hits, including the homer, came off lefthanded pitchers. “He stayed hungry,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He’s going to get his hits against lefties.” The 16 homers are the second-most in the majors by a rookie, trailing Pittsburgh’s Garrett Jones (20). The 16 are also the most homers hit by a Cardinals rookie since Chris Duncan hit 22 in 2006. But here’s a twist: Rasmus’ 51 RBIs are the most by a Cardinals rookie since 2001, when Albert Pujols set a franchise record with 130 RBIs.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: In the 11th inning, the Durham Bulls had runners at the corners and forced Triple-A Memphis to make some defensive rearrangements. With the Triple-A unification title on the line, Redbirds manager Chris Maloney brought in an extra infielder, sliding an outfielder up to help cover the holes. On the next pitch, reliever Oneli Perez misfired, and the wild pitch allowed the winning run to score in a 5-4 loss to the Bulls. … The Cardinals’ Class AAA affiliate rallied from an 0-4 deficit. Home runs by Jon Jay and Allen Craig started the Redbirds’ rally, and Jay scored on a sacrifice fly by David Freese to tie the game, 4-4, and pave the way to extra innings. … Check out the Commercial Appeal’s coverage by Redbirds beat writer Marlon W. Morgan. … More on this later today, but four players are expected to join the Cardinals in Houston today, according to a club official: Freese, Josh Kinney, Matt Pagnozzi and Tyler Greene.

9. The bottom of the Cardinals order went 8-for-12 in Monday night’s victory, with both Mark DeRosa and Skip Schumaker collecting three hits against Houston. Schumaker was thrust into a start at center field last night because Colby Rasmus and Rick Ankiel were a combined 0-for-15 against Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez. Schumaker complied with a 3-for-4 day. Before his 1-for-5 Tuesday, the Cardinals’ second baseman has seven multi-hit games in his previous seven starts, going 17-for-29 (.586) in those games. Schumaker’s 15 three-hit games lead the club.

10. In a time-honored tradition, the New York Yankees rookies dressed up this week as characters from the Adam West-era Batman television show. (Seriously, why couldn’t Cesar Romero be bothered to shave that mustache?) In past years, Yankee rookies have dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum would have guffawed at the irony) — Joba Chamberlain as the Cowardly Lion — and other thematic hazing costumes. And who can forget Kyle Denney? The Cleveland Indians rookie was dressed as a USC cheerleader as part of a hazing ritual several years ago, and it’s believed that the high white boots that went with his costume saved his leg from more significant damage when it was struck by a stray bullet. The Cardinals don’t do costumes. Not with manager Tony La Russa around. He’s against it and he frowns on rookie hazing of any kind other than mobile coolers, pink bicycle helmets or Powder Puff Girl backpacks. So you’ll never see a pic like this that includes Cardinals:

New York Yankees rookies, dressed as heroes and villains from the Batman TV series, huddle with manager Joe Girardi. (Source: Huffington Post)

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Lagniappe question: What Cardinal was at a Houston-area mall here for the midnight release of the latest edition of the Halo video game? He was happy to find a Halo tournament going on when he arrived.

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Derrick Goold’s 10@10 on Bird Land appears every weekday there is a St. Louis Cardinals game. It races the clock each morning, appearing each day by 10:59 a.m. St. Louis time, but usually it’s up before a third cup of coffee at 10:30 — unless that second cup happens to, oh, spill all over the keyboard.

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