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 — A few seasons ago, the St. Louis Cardinals veteran relievers Russ Springer, Ryan Franklin and Jason Isringhausen presented what one of them called a save-your-bullets approach to spring training. The theory, as Springer explained, was their high-mileage arms had only so many throws left, why waste those precious “bullets” on live batting practice or exhibition baseball when there was a whole season ahead of them?

The fewer throws they made in March, the…

TOWER GROVE — The premeditated celebration began the moment Bill Hall’s 10th-inning single landed Monday and winning run Casey McGehee crossed home plate. Immediately the Milwaukee Brewers bolted for their clubhouse, turning, as Tom Haudricourt wrote at the Journal-Sentinel, a walk-off into a run-off and again stoking the discussion about those brash and bold Brewers and their post-win ways.

Untucking. Posing. Behind closed doors. Or otherwise.

A rivalry that has its roots in Milwaukee’s public compliments and…

JUPITER, Fla. — St. Louis Cardinals reliever Chris Perez had a lot of down time during the week he couldn’t pitch because of soreness in his shoulder, so he found other ways to busy himself. One was by listening in on some of his teammates answer The P-DQ list. He said he loved quizzes and puzzles and other time-passers of that ilk, and he wanted to give it a try.

And then he realized it was…

LAKELAND, Fla. — With each passing transaction this winter, St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin’s rank within a rebooted Cardinals bullpen moved another year or two away from the average age. Gone is Russ Springer. Gone is Jason Isringhausen. Still relatively new to this whole relieving thing himself, Franklin enters this season as mentor, sage and the longest-tenured consistent member of the Cardinals bullpen.

That role he was ready for.

But there’s another role the Cardinals may ask…

JUPITER, Fla. — The St. Louis Cardinals all-time leader in saves has yet to throw a pitch in a game for his new club, the Tampa Bay Rays, but manager Joe Maddon said Jason Isringhausen already feels like a fit for his bullpen.

“I’ve known him for about two weeks now, and you feel like you’ve know this guy for 10 years,” the Rays manager said this morning at Roger Dean Stadium before the Rays played…

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…

DOWNTOWN — Brad Thompson said he was too nervous at his wedding to think twice about the unorthodox choice he and his wife-to-be had made when choosing someone to preside over their nuptuals.  He had other things on his mind and no time for smirking as he stood there, beside his bride and exchanged vows under the guidance of the “reverend” Randy Flores.

He was however concerned about Jason Isringhausen.

“Izzy was the only one I couldn’t look…

TOWER GROVE — The community ranking of the St. Louis Cardinals’ Top 30 prospects takes up a lot of time and many entries during its run, leaving so many things unanswered or unexplored. With the end of the Bird Land Community Top 30 coming last week, the blog is freed up for that sprint toward Valentine’s Day and the moment pitchers/catchers report.

But before Jupiter — a mere month away — there are some loose ends…

TOWER GROVE — Earlier this week, St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan did the radio rounds and spoke about the closer role, closer candidates, the rotation and how so much hinges on the shoulder of Chris Carpenter. He also had a telling comment about his retooled bullpen. Asked in an interview on 101 ESPN if he was confident with the new-look left side of his bullpen, Duncan answered plainly, realistically.

He said he does not…

DOWNTOWN — What started as St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s standard stumping for Chris Duncan as an “impact” member of the still-crowded 2009 outfielder suddenly became a second nomination in as many months for rookie Colby Rasmus as a key figure in the coming season.

On Monday, La Russa was in town to promote his annual ARF Fundraiser (bring on Lewis Black!) and he spent part of the afternoon with a handful of scribes at Busch Stadium….

TOWER GROVE — The closer market gained sudden speed in Las Vegas at the Baseball Winter Meetings with the New York Mets landing Francisco Rodriguez to close and then elbowing aside contenders like the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit to trade for Seattle closer J.J. Putz, adding him as a setup reliever. At the same time, the Cleveland Indians pounced on Kerry Wood to handle their ninth innings and then …

Nothing. Silence. Impatience. Little more than whispers,…

TOWER GROVE — The big baseball headlines this morning on the West Coast cast a shadow here in St. Louis as that Orange County baseball club — the Angels of Anaheim — have officially withdrawn from the courtship of first baseman Mark Teixeira, the best ballplayer remaining on the free-agent market.

Numerous reports, including this one from Yahoo! Sports, say that the Angels have removed their eight-year offer to the first baseman. Boston reached a similar…

TOWER GROVE — The list of players offered arbitration is in, with 24 free agents getting the notice from their former teams and not one St. Louis Cardinal. While the deadline revealed more about who won’t be a Cardinal in 2009 than who will be, the list of players not offered arbitration will expand the Cardinals’ shopping list.

Houston opted not to give Randy Wolf an arbitration offer and the Astros, with Mike Hampton on the way,…

TOWER GROVE — This evening at the stroke of midnight on the East Coast the prices for many of the best free agents in baseball will be set by teams deciding whether or not to offer arbitration. Some players are sure to be offered arbitration because of the bounty of draft picks their signings will bring (A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia, for example). Others certainly won’t be, like shortstop Edgar Renteria (the Detroit Tigers made it…