TOWER GROVE — A year ago at this time, Mannywood was sweeping the nation as the Los Angeles Dodgers and their flamboyant outfielder were surging toward a playoff berth. Manny Ramirez, acquired in a stunning deadline deal with the Boston Red Sox (with an assist from Pittsburgh), had 43 RBIs and 14 home runs in his first 42 games as a Dodger. He had propelled the team to a 24-18 record since his arrival and put them safely in the hunt for a postseason berth.

For his backstretch push, Ramirez was awarded with enough MVP votes to finish fourth for the league that he spent less than half the season playing in.

So here comes another outfielder, another hitter swinging a National League team toward October after being traded into the league, and — well, there’s precedent for Matt Holliday to at least get an MVP nod and a smattering of votes on the writers’ 10-spot ballot.

The St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest July acquisition in a decade — or more? — had the game-winning home run Tuesday night with his first ever home run off all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman. The home run gave him 12 homers and 41 RBIs in 42 games with the Cardinals. Those totals are just shy of Ramirez’s totals over the same stretch, but get this: The Cardinals are 31-11 in those 42 games with Holliday. Since arrival, the Cardinals — powered, sure, by pitching — have pulled away in the race for a playoff invite. For context, here’s how Ramirez’s first 42 compares to Holliday’s first 42:

PLAYER … TEAM REC … AB … R … HR … xb … RBI … BA/OBP/SLG/OPS

MR … 24-18 … 152 … 29 … 14 … 25 … 43 … .395/.478/.743/1.222

MH … 31-11 … 161 … 33 … 12 … 26 … 41 … .379/.437/.702/1.139

Holliday’s homer was the first game-winning RBI on this road trip provided by somebody other than Albert Pujols, the universally regarded favorite for said NL MVP award. As colleague Joe Strauss wrote in Sunday’s Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals are in play for a variety of trophies as a result of this season. It’s difficult to find one an award that they don’t have a candidate, from Gold Glove at shortstop to Silver Sluggers at a few positions. Holliday may not win one for himself, but he could cinch one for the front office. His surge as a Cardinal starts today’s 10@10, but the poll focuses on the award season ahead …

1. With his 12th home run as a Cardinal last night, Holliday now has more in 42 games with his new team than he had in 93 games his previous team. Holliday’s streak actually began shortly before the Cardinals landed him in the late-July trade, but it hasn’t slowed. How Holliday’s turn with the Oakland Athletics to start the season compares with the upswing he’s been on since the Cardinals brought him into a pennant race:

w/ OAK … 93 games, 346 AB, 52 R, 54 RBI, 11 HR, 35 xb … .286/.378/.454

w/STL … 42 games, 161 AB, 33 R, 41 RBI, 12 HR, 26 xb … .379/.437/.702

2. The Cardinals’ run at potential awards inspires today’s poll, which asks you to suggest how many shelf spots in the Trophy Room should be cleared for the spoils of the 2009 season:

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3. This afternoon, Adam Wainwright gets his retort. With the Cy Young discussion having shifted Monday with Chris Carpenter’s shutout of the Milwaukee Brewers, Wainwright — the league-leader in wins — gets his first start since then, and his first start since his dud (but a win) in Pittsburgh. San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum took his momentary leave from the podium with back spasms, skipping his scheduled start Tuesday. (Mark Purdy sounds the alarm, or at least sends up a few flares, in this morning’s San Jose Mercury News.) Comes against a good team for the Cardinals’ ace. Wainwright is 4-3 with a 2.28 ERA and a .202 batting average against in 16 games (nine starts) against the Brewers. The last time he faced Milwaukee he came two outs shy of his first career shutout — the first of his professional career. In three starts this season against the Brewers, Wainwright is 2-1 with a 0.77 ERA (in 23 1/3 innings) and a .167 batting average against (25 strikeouts vs. 14 hits allowed).

4. KTRS/550 AM anchor and baseball reporter John Marecek, the author of Busch Basement, did the research that offered some illumination on the Cy Young debate. He dug through the numbers for all of the Cy Young winners in the National League since 1980 and discovered that only twice has a starting pitcher won the award with fewer than 200 innings pitched. Los Angeles Dodgers sensation Fernando Valenzuela did it in 1981 when the season was shortened by a strike. He still pitched 192 1/3 innings. And, in 1984 Rick Sutcliffe won the NL Cy Young despite starting the season in the AL. In 20 starts for the Chicago Cubs, after a trade, Sutcliffe went 16-1 with a 2.69 ERA in 150 1/3 innings. The obvious implication here is that history tells us that Carpenter has to close the gap on innings pitched to cinch his Cy Young candidacy — or go on a Sutcliffe-like run. Well, none other than Sutcliffe writes this morning that Carpenter is doing just that.

5. The road has been far kinder to Pujols this trip. After going west for two road series in Los Angeles and San Diego, Pujols returned in an extended funk that caused a lot of hand-wringing. What a different a few weeks make. Pujols is surging, having used PNC Park like he usually does — as a launchpad. Compare Pujols’ production from his trip to California vs. this tour current tour of the NL Central, which ends this afternoon in Milwaukee:

LA/SD … 7 G … 24 AB, 5 R, 4 H, 2 RBI … 2HR, 2 xb … .167/.355/.417

PIT/MIL … 5 G … 17 AB, 8 R, 10 H, 8 RBI … 3 HR, 5 xb … .588/.667/1.235

6. Post-Dispatch columnist and BMOC Bernie Miklasz tweeted this last night on his Twitter feed (@Miklasz): Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is nearing the franchise record for double plays hit into in a season. Molina’s GIDP last night was his league-leading 26th. Only three players in the NL have more groundouts than Molina’s 190 — Orlando Hudson (203), Miguel Tejada (199) and Rafael Furcal (193). That’s a show of how often Molina puts the ball in play (and didn’t Tejada used to hit homers?). What it doesn’t show is how Molina may have improved from last year’s .304 average, despite hitting .284 this season. Molina has set a personal best for walks in a season (48 and counting) and his .362 on-base percentage is also a career high. Molina is 11 RBIs shy of tying a career high set last season.

7. Speaking of double plays: The Gold (Glove) standard for DPs in this current era of Cardinals is the 2005 team that had 196 double plays to lead the majors. That infield featured Pujols (175 DPs), Mark Grudzielanek (108), David Eckstein (123), and third basemen Scott Rolen (17) and Abe Nunez (19). This year’s team is nearing the NL lead in DPs again. They are currently second in the NL with 143, trailing Pittsburgh’s 144. The Pirates lead is based on their tandem of Jack Wilson-Freddy Sanchez, which has been scattered to the Pacific Time Zone by trade. Here is the breakdown of the current infield, starting with Pujols, who leads the majors in double-play involvement:

1B Albert Pujols … 130 (1st NL)

2B Skip Schumaker … 65 (9th NL)

3B Joe Thurston … 10 (15th NL)

SS Brendan Ryan … 63 (10th NL)

It should be noted that Thurston still has more innings at third base than Mark DeRosa, and that is why he’s listed above and not DeRosa.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: Second baseman Daniel Descalso, who is in the conversation for the Cardinals’ minor-league player of the year, will join Team USA today for the start of the World Cup competition. He was given his leave from the Class AAA team to participate. … Memphis’ best hitter, left fielder Allen Craig, plans to be ready when the Redbirds open the best-of-five playoff series vs. Albuquerque tonight, according to Marlon W. Morgan in this morning’s Commercial Appeal. … Rolling off the disabled list, lefty Jaime Garcia will start for Memphis in Game 1. … Trey Hearne (12-3, 2.82 ERA) gets the start for Springfield in the start of its playoff series against the NW Arkansas Naturals. … Joe Mather, whose season was essentially lost to injury, purchased championship T-shirts for the Class AA Springfield team, according to this report by Erin Bolen in The Springfield News-Leader.

9. Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria hit his 30th home run of the season yesterday at Yankee Stadium, becoming the only player besides Pujols in the previous 70 years to pull off a rare triple of stats this early in his career. According to ESPN research, Longoria is only the fifth player to have 30+ homers, 40+ doubles and 100+ RBIs in one of his first two seasons in the majors. Pujols remains the only player to hit that trio twice. The group:

Evan Longoria, TB … 2009

Albert Pujols, STL … 2001, 2002

Ted Williams, BOS … 1939

Hal Trosky, CLE … 1934

Chuck Klein, PHI … 1929

10. An excellent idea this morning from MLB.com and all of its member sites. They call it “9/9/9″ and it’s one of those, shoot, shoulda-thought-of-that concepts that could easily inspire another entry later today. The concept is simple: Today, Sept. 9, 2009 — or 09/09/09 — is the day that MLB.com has unleashed ballots for all 30 teams that allow fans to vote for a “Starting 9″. (Get it?) The Cardinals’ ballot can be found here. The ballot is based on the best hitting seasons by position, not the best player by position (hmmmm).

Check out the explanation of the cool online venture here.

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