PASADENA — When the National League Cy Young Award ballots — which were due yesterday — are tabulated, St. Louis Cardinals budding ace Adam Wainwright may win his first, cementing his arrival as one of the game’s elite starting starting pitchers.

LA’s Clayton Kershaw won’t be far behind.

If this National League Division Series is a stage for young players to burst onto the October scene — Matt Kemp? Skip Schumaker? anyone? — no two figure to…

TOWER GROVE — A fascinating vote is underway today at MLB.com and around its 30 official sites, as the numerologists there have some fun with today’s date — Sept. 9, 2009 — and the statistically rich number of spots in a batting order. Mentioned this in today’s 10@10, but it’s too cool of a project not to take a look at deeper.

Especially, when you consider some of the seasons up for a vote.

Inspired by the…

TOWER GROVE — Even by his own admission, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols believes the year he didn’t win the National League MVP may have been his best year, by the numbers, so far. In 2006, Pujols said recently, he didn’t have that prolonged lull. He missed games by being on the DL, but when he was able to hit, he always hit.

All the way to the tune of career highs.

Pujols finished second…

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…

JUPITER, Fla. — What with its keystone combination of Rogers Hornsby and Ozzie Smith leading the way — batting .346 and .325, respectively — and center fielder Jim Edmonds topping the team with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs, the St. Louis Cardinals would appear to be a virtual juggernaut in the virtual world of Seamheads.com’s (simulated) Historical League.

And, yet, the ‘Birds are struggling. Could be that injury to Stan Musial.

Hall of Famer Rick Hummel is at…

TOWER GROVE — When it comes to the St. Louis Cardinals, the question “Who’s on first?” is rhetorical. You might as well ask who is hitting eighth. What’s going on at second was discussed in this morning’s Post-Dispatch with Joe Strauss’ latest dispatch from Jupiter, Fla. But when it comes to wondering which player will be at third base on Opening Day …

Don’t know.

Just yet.

The 11th-hour news that incumbent third baseman Troy Glaus required a January surgery…

TOWER GROVE — With less than one month to go before pitchers and catchers report to spring training, there are more than 150 free agents still on the market, including, amazingly, the National League’s starting pitcher from this past year’s All-Star Game, Ben Sheets. From the pool of free agents still out there, It is possible to put together an imposing lineup, with an All-Star at each position, and outfit a pretty compelling rotation.

Not to…

DOWNTOWN — Former Cardinals first baseman and slugger Mark McGwire wakes up this morning not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as expected, but still clinging to a primo spot in career home run list, firmly in the top 10. That too could be fleeting.

McGwire’s 583 home runs rank eighth all-time, nestled between Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (586) and Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew (573). When next the tenured members of the Baseball Writers Association…

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…

SOUTH GRAND — One of the assets that the St. Louis Cardinals planned to have in their bullpen last season was a sinister slider thrown from the left side that could confound and muzzle the best lefthanded sluggers in the game. It was a real, surefire strikeout pitch against lefties. The Cardinals had a guy who could throw it. The Cardinals certainly had reason to need it.

Then Tyler Johnson started feeling some discomfort in his left…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick, fresh from the official announcement that he had won a Silver Slugger to punctuate his breakout season, was headed to the gym. The spoils of this season are swell, but he has no interest in being a one-hit wonder.

He even used this past week of rumors, reports and headlines to explain why.

“I think it’s an honor just to be named in the same place as Matt…

TOWER GROVE — Gentlemen, start your transactions.

General managers from around baseball are converging at AIG’s favorite hangout in Dana Point, Calif., today and all week for the first round of window-shopping and swap-talking. Unlike last year when the pitching market was headlined by Carlos Silva and trades were the currency of winter, this offseason has the high-watt free agents (CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez) and the superstar trade chips (Jake Peavy and Matt Holliday). There…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis native David Freese, the Cardinals’ third base prospect on the doorstep of the majors, ripped a grand slam Wednesday night down in Venezuela, where he’s playing winter ball. The homer, a fourth-inning shot off Houston pitcher Kyle Middleton, was his second of the winter season and it drove Caribes de Anzoategui to a 11-4 victory.

Freese has had a few other wins already this winter.

The 25-year-old infielder had a breakout year…

TOWER GROVE — Six members of the 2008 St. Louis Cardinals were among the 65 players who filed for free agency on the first day they could, according to a release from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Filing is a formality that all players, even those pondering retirement or weighing an offer from their previous team, usually do just to be sure the appropriate paperwork is filed if necessary.

The six Cardinals who filed Thursday…

TOWER GROVE — As if the first major-league team ever to call the Mountain Time Zone home wasn’t enough in April 1993, the Colorado Rockies decided to pick up a gift for the baseball-starved region on their way back from spring training: Dale Murphy.

For those of us who grew up opening wax packs — when some still had bubble gum, buddy — or thumbing the red off the controller while playing RBI Baseball, Murphy was…