TOWER GROVE — There are many things that St. Louis Cardinals recent third baseman Mark DeRosa brings to the table, not the least of which is his classification as a free agent.

He’s a Type B and loving it.

Each fall, on the eve of free agency, the Elias Sports Bureau releases a ranking of players that help classify free agents as either Type A or Type B players. The rankings are based on the previous two…

TOWER GROVE — While the St. Louis Cardinals have plenty to busy themselves with in the final five games of the regular season — see today’s game story for, oh, a few things to be spruced-up — and no reason to look beyond October, there are traces of 2010 in many of the comments coming from the club.

The front office and chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. have talked about the importance of re-signing outfielder Matt Holliday, sure, but…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals starter John Smoltz returns to the rotation tonight a few days earlier than expected and into a situation that isn’t entirely surprising, he explained the other day. A veteran of these September marches to the postseason, Smoltz admitted he would “stoked” to pitch in the game that cinched a postseason berth.

But slumps happen, he said. And instead of being a clincher tonight, the Cardinals need him to be a stopper.

The…

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…

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 — What Hall of Fame baseball writer Rick Hummel wrote earlier this week about the National League Central being a logjam in the standings is even more true to today.

A win last night at Miller Park against the St. Louis Cardinals put those pitching-poor Milwaukee Brewers — OK, so those were “deputy” GM Ryan Braun’s exact words — within a game of the division leaders. This afternoon the top teams in the NL…

TOWER GROVE — On this past New Year’s Eve, the Chicago Cubs made a deal that surprised the industry and may have tripped one of the early dominos in their struggles to play up to their clear talent this season.

The Cubs dealt infielder/outfielder Mark DeRosa to Cleveland for three minor-league pitchers.

DeRosa, a fan- and clubhouse-favorite in Chicago known in the nickname currency of the day as “D-Ro”,  had been an essential member of back-to-back playoff…

TOWER GROVE — Bruised and humbled by the surging Milwaukee Brewers, the St. Louis Cardinals welcome in their rivals comforted by what’s on the horizon. Reinforcements are coming.

During this three-game series against the Chicago Cubs, the Cardinals plan to welcome back starter Chris Carpenter from the disabled list — he’ll start Wednesday — and outfielder Rick Ankiel from the DL. Ankiel spent the weekend playing in extended spring training games in Jupiter, Fla. With the…

TOWER GROVE — A bark will do it. But not any old bark. It’s got to be a good, hearty robust, UGA-worthy bark that gets Adam Wainwright’s attention.

The past couple years, before each spring training the paper dispatches me to write a travel story about St. Louis Cardinals spring training in Jupiter, Fla. And an annual part of the story is getting hints and suggestions on how to land a player’s autograph. Most subscribe to the…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is fond of saying that outfielder Chris Duncan had a heckuva season split into two half seasons. When he’s healthy, he’s always hit, La Russa says of the Cardinals quick-starting leftfielder.

For proof, La Russa fuses Duncan’s second half of the 2006 season and the 2007 season into a statistical alloy — a numerical show of what he believes Duncan could do given a full season…

TEMPE, Ariz. — The St. Louis Cardinals have three saves so far this season and they are by three different players — and not one save is from the guy who broke spring training ostensibly as the club’s closer.

Manager Tony La Russa’s take on the ninth-inning jumble can be summarized: Get used to it.

After giving young gun Jason Motte two save opportunities and see him struggle in both, the Cardinals have elected to slide him out…

DOWNTOWN — St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright spent much of his early major-league career studying and mimicking the ace of the Cardinals staff, Chris Carpenter. Beyond just watching how he pitched and what he did to bedevil hitters, Wainwright even wanted to borrow Carpenter’s mannerisms.

It’s no wonder he remembers vividly the last time he saw Carpenter start. It was at Wrigley Field, against the Chicago Cubs, and Carpenter wasn’t feeling right. Something was…

TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals sudden and curious move to release Adam Kennedy on the eve of spring training leaves them with a hole at second base and an open casting call for the job.

So, it’s business at usual down in Jupiter.

With all due respect to the St. Louis Blues, whose revolving door in goal was chronicled and counted in this morning’s paper by Dan O’Neill (ah, where have you gone Tom Barrasso?), the real…

TOWER GROVE — The arbitration wallop the St. Louis Cardinals have been bracing for this winter came into view Tuesday with the exchange of salary figures around baseball. The Cardinals two unsigned and eligible players, outfielders Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick, each are guaranteed to receive significant raises. The salaries that an arbitrator will choose between — if the two sides do indeed get to a hearing, that is — are there for everyone to…

TOWER GROVE — In a few days, newly-minted Chicago Cubs infielder Aaron Miles will have a reunion of sorts at a charity event with the manager that made him a millionaire. He expects the worst.

“I just talked to him, and Tony said,” Miles said, pausing for effect, “that he’s really going to give it to me.”

Miles, fresh from signing a two-year, $4.9-million deal with the Cubs, will attend an Animal Rescue Foundation benefit in California…