TOWER GROVE — The weekday 10@10 appear below in this spot, a tad late (for that I apologize), but together nonetheless. Scroll down for the daily list. A poll posted earlier as a place-holder continues.

Even though the St. Louis Cardinals were the only area team to score Sunday, a couple runs weren’t enough to soften the uncertainty that comes with a series sweep by Atlanta. The sweep was the first of the Cardinals since their…

SOUTH GRAND — There were few, if any, members of the St. Louis Cardinals’ traveling party thrilled to be at Shea Stadium for a one-day, barnstorming trip in the final week of a disappointing 2007. But, as one Cardinal said in the clubhouse after the win: At least it was a fruitful trip for a teammate.

Joel Pineiro cashed in on that visit.

The frustration the Cardinals had for their late-season, one-game stop at Shea went beyond…

ST. LOUIS — Farm director and vice president/player procurement Jeff Luhnow was on hand to greet all three of the St. Louis Cardinals prospects competing in Sunday’s Futures Game and he told each the same thing: He’s happy to see them here, and he’s eager to them here again shortly.

Luhnow had two of his draft picks and one of his international signings featured in the annual showcase of the minor league’s top prospects. On the…

DOWNTOWN — Comfortable with the depth and swift-moving current of players in their system, the St. Louis Cardinals appear to be using the 2009 draft as a chance to take some risky picks with perceived upside.

The Cardinals concluded Day 1 of the first-year player draft with two picks that don’t fit the profile the club has carved out in recent years for most of their picks — sturdy, college-seasoned, solid statistics players. With the 67th…

DOWNTOWN — The St. Louis Cardinals broke with one tradition when they took a high school pitcher with their first pick in the draft, and now they must be willing to break with another to get their pick into the system.

Shelby Miller, a strapping righthander with a Texas-oil-burning fastball, has committed to Texas A&M and VP/farm director Jeff Luhnow acknowledges that it will not be easy or quick to finalize an agreement with the Brownwood,…

DOWNTOWN — The St. Louis Cardinals had a couple college players come to Busch Stadium this morning for a private workout with some coaches and many scouts watching. On the eve of the 2009 Draft — the first 111 picks will be made in primetime Tuesday night — the Cardinals have made their lists, have checked and national cross-checked them at least twice and ready to take …

Well, it’s anybody’s guess. Even theirs.

As VP/farm director…

DOWNTOWN — The throng of scouts that gathered on the track outside of the St. Louis Cardinals dugout this morning told you as much about the two players on the field as their baseball bags. Draft season is motoring toward its conclusion — three days of drafting begin Tuesday — and the Cardinals had another couple draft prospects in this morning to take batting practice at Busch Stadium.

This time it was a couple college hitters.

Indiana…

TOWER GROVE — Once among the highly regarded young pitchers in the St. Louis Cardinals system, righthander Tyler Herron, a first-round pick in the 2005 draft, has been released by the club, farm director/vice president Jeff Luhnow confirmed this afternoon.

Herron had been a member of the Class AA Springfield rotation, where he was 2-4 with a 4.34 ERA. In 45 2/3 innings this season the righthander had walked 22 and struck out 37. He is…

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — During his daily morning briefing with the media today, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said he was reading a copy of Branch Rickey’s book last year and realized that before Rickey, Rogers Hornsby and Sam Breadon came along the Cardinals weren’t much. And, yet, Maddon went on to say the Cardinals now standout as one of the most successful franchises of the past century.

“It’s very complimentary” that people now talk…

JUPITER, Fla. — A staple of spring training coverage here in Bird Land since 2006, the Vuch Report is a detailed look at the performances on the backfields of the St. Louis Cardinals facility here at Roger Dean Stadium. The major leagues get all of the ink, but there are some bytes left over around here to cover the minor-league games that begin, in earnest, on Thursday.

Cardinals director of minor-league operations John Vuch compiles the…

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Pity Pete Kozma. Through no fault of his own he’s spent the first few years of his professional career doing exactly what was expected. Good glove. Consistently improving bat. Agility in the field that portends of a major-league shortstop with the potential for a reliable, average-oriented bat. That’s why the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him with their first pick in 2007.

The trouble is … He’s not Rick Porcello.

The story has now lapsed…

JUPITER, Fla. — Two of the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor-leaguers took the international stage Tuesday night in the World Baseball Classic — one in a flickering but starring role and the other doing what was needed.

Former first-round pick Adam Ottavino pitched three superb innings for Team Italia against Venezuela in Toronto, throwing three shutout and striking out three against one walk. Ottavino whiffed Magglio Ordonez on a breaking ball. The only hit he gave up…