TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals pickoff combination of catcher Yadier Molina and first baseman Albert Pujols continued its monopoly of one of baseball’s fast-rising awards for defensive play. The Fielding Bible is in its fourth year of handing out awards for the best defensive play at each position in an attempt to do what the Gold Glove sometimes fails to do with its annual leanings toward incumbency and offense.

Four years of Fielding Bible…

TOWER GROVE — A couple summers ago, a young shortstop was available in the June draft that fit so many of the “buckets” that the St. Louis Cardinals look for in a high pick. He played a premium position. He played a position of some need for the team. He had strong, reliable numbers in a major NCAA conference, and his stats projected well through the metrics the Cardinals use help identify future performance. He…

DENVER — St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, as he is often apt to do as a Dugout Socrates, answered a question with a question.

“Let me ask it to you in this way,” he said the other day in Houston. “If we were to face Roy Oswalt at his best today and then face him again next week, is facing him today an advantage for us?”

The answer-and-question was in response to an inquiry about the pluses and minuses…

TOWER GROVE — One look at the between-the-legs, behind-the-back fielding tricks that St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan does during practice and it’s easy to see the influence of his beloved Los Angeles Lakers and the reflection of their Showtime ways.

Or, so it would seem.

Sure some of the inspiration for Ryan’s acrobatics comes from the basketball court and his older brother’s suggestion that he should enjoy his game the way Magic Johnson enjoyed his game,…

TOWER GROVE — John Smoltz, the St. Louis Cardinals’ recent booster shot for their rotation, freely admits that he’s had a lot of time to think about things in his highly decorated major-league career, and one day he decided to figure out his personal odometer.

For every year of his big-league career but this one, Smoltz had the same route to the ballpark. It was a 70-mile round trip from his house to the parking lot…

DOWNTOWN — The difference this season between Houston Astros switch-hitter Lance Berkman batting from the right side of the plate and batting from the left side of the plate is 100 points in his batting average.

The difference Wednesday for the Cardinals was having a pitcher to trust when turning him around.

Book-ended last night by Joel Pineiro’s seventh consecutive winning decision and Ryan Franklin’s third save in as many games was a brief one-out appearance from…

TOWER GROVE — For the moment, St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright pulled ahead in wins. On Tuesday night, he set a new career high with his 15th victory of the season, and he’s the first National League pitcher and the second pitcher in the majors to reach 15. But, as he said after the game, he’ll have to keep his “sprinting shoes on” if he plans to stay ahead.

Chris Carpenter is coming.

“I like the push,”…

TOWER GROVE — Five thousand at-bats into his career, baseball great Babe Ruth had already shattered home run records and set the gobsmacking standard with his 60 homers in 1927. He had also been a two-time 20-game winner as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Five thousand at-bats into his career, the Splendid Splinter Ted Williams had his .406-average season and two Triple Crowns. Five thousand at-bats into their careers, Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg…

TOWER GROVE — Having already added an All-Star elite bat, a grinder third baseman and a second-chance middle infielder to his executive-of-the-year bid, St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak is poised this afternoon to add a future Hall of Famer to the club’s pitching staff. Righthander John Smoltz is expected to finalize a deal with the Cardinals if he clears waivers by noon today, Post-Dispatch baseball scribe Joe Strauss was the first to report last…

TOWER GROVE — There was a time when Blake Hawksworth, as a young, big-bonus pitching prospect, was so changeup-happy that people cautioned him that if he didn’t use his fastball he would lose his fastball.

It took him some time to realize how right they were.

Hawksworth, emerging now as potential relief for the St. Louis Cardinals and their bullpen, doesn’t throw with the same velocity that he once did, but he’s learned that maybe he doesn’t…

TOWER GROVE — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, whose easy manner and prominence has made him an unfortunate veteran of these steroid revelation press scrums, said Thursday that it is important to him that he continue trusting players, trusting his players, trusting what he’s seen, and trusting the game. He added that it’s important the game “get the trust back” of its fanbase.

How baseball does that with the slow-drip feed of steroid news is…

TOWER GROVE — Ignore the throwing error. Errors are going to happen. And Adam Wainwright pitched around it anyway as the Cardinals shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night. Ignore the throwing error and Brendan Ryan is putting on a defensive clinic at shortstop this week.

On one sharply hit groundball Tuesday night, Ryan sprinted to his left, snared the ball on the run past second base, went at least a stride — maybe…

TOWER GROVE — The player that inspired the St. Louis Cardinals’ biggest and costliest move yet into the international free-agent market came to Busch Stadium on Monday, taking a few souvenirs from the big leaguers and leaving an impression.

Outfielder Wagner Mateo, the Dominican Republic teen phenom that merited a record $3.1-million contract from the Cardinals, took batting practice at Busch and did hit a home run — an opposite field shot into the left-field bullpen….

HOUSTON — St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Mark DeRosa didn’t see his first hit for his new team as a relief. He described it as progress.

In DeRosa’s first at-bat Monday night at Minute Maid Park, he stung a single to left field and a couple at-bats later he had his second hit of the game and his second hit as a Redbird. Like the first one, DeRosa’s hit went to the left side of the…

DOWNTOWN — The locker next to St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brendan Ryan’s in the clubhouse is starting to look like a sports memorabilia shop — or a dry cleaner. There are jerseys from all corners of the major leagues hanging there, waiting for Ryan to find out a way to get them signed.

For someone who has signed a few autographs, he’s still working out how to ask for them.

The etiquette of the act is what…