TOWER GROVE — Of all the statistical bubblegum that is packed into Bill James’ annual Handbooks, among the best to chew over and stretch to the point of popping is the predictions for the coming season.

ACTA Sports recently emailed me the 2010 predictions for several members of the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals — predictions that are featured in Bill James Handbook 2010 — and while it doesn’t take a “statistical oracle” (as The Wall Street Journal…

TOWER GROVE — It would be tempting to begin any look at the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen and its search for additional power sources with the fact that the Cardinals relievers had the fewest strikeouts of any bullpen in the National League. Their 340 were the least in the majors by 21 behind Tampa Bay.

While that stat is telling, it’s not entirely revealing.

The Cardinals’ relievers also had to pitch the fewest innings of any bullpen….

HOUSTON — The National League continues to march toward what feels like a foregone conclusion, with even Wild Card-leading Colorado having opened a sturdy lead this past weekend. With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, very little is left to be decided. The division leaders appear set. The best-record derby holds some appeal, but doesn’t carry the juice of a bona fide pennant duel. The grope for shock-value candidates shows how academic…

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,…

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 — 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 — It used to be a pitch that St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin would reserve for playing catch with fellow reliever Russ Springer. Franklin would try to time it just right, right when Springer would least expect it and then — whiffle! — he’d get the knuckleball. It became tradition, Springer said, for Franklin to throw two or three before he call it a day.

“He’s superstitious,” Springer explained.

Franklin had fooled around with…

FROM THE FANFEST — Through his years in the majors and through all his roles in the majors, St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin has collected pitches like some collect jerseys or others collect service time.

A few spring trainings ago, Post-Dispatch photographer Chris Lee and myself worked on a photo essay of Franklin’s handful of grips. He has a variety of fastballs, a slider, a curve and the pitch he dusted-off at Wrigley Field in a…

CINCINNATI — In three years with the St. Louis Cardinals, righthander Ryan Franklin has had at least three different jobs. In spring training 2007, he came to the club as insurance, an option for the fifth starting spot or long relief, whichever role seemed to suit him best by the end of March. He wanted to start, felt he was best used as a starter and … quickly became Jason Isringhausen’s setup man.

That’s how he went…

TOWER GROVE — The St. Louis Cardinals will play their final home game before the All-Star break tonight and they will leave town having played exactly half of their regular-season schedule. They’ve made a trade that should impact their lineup. They just got the best start from Adam Wainwright of the season. They continue to be a vapor-locked offense. They are rife with questions, especially for a contender.

But quietly, as July 2 and the halfway…

TOWER GROVE — When the St. Louis Cardinals left Cleveland having lost a three-game series to the momentarily resurgent Indians, manager Tony La Russa dialed up general manager John Mozeliak and left him a short, succinct voice mail. The exact words have been forgotten in the weeks since. But the message was clear:

If we can get him, get him.

Him was Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Mark DeRosa. On Sunday night of that series, DeRosa homered off…

TOWER GROVE — One of the bedrock rules of October is pitching wins, and it’s the pitching that the St. Louis Cardinals have received recently — and the pitching only — that supports a bouquet thrown their way this week in the current issue of Sports Illustrated.

It seems some baseball players think the Cardinals have got the goods to win it all.

At least more of think the Cardinals do than, say, the defending champs or…

SOUTH GRAND — The St. Louis Cardinals bullpen inherited four innings of work and a one-run lead Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs and turned it into a victory. It was a large-scale example of what the bullpen has been doing remarkably well within individual innings all season.

Say this about the Cardinals’ relievers: They are stingy with their inheritance.

When the Cardinals and general manager John Mozeliak set out to rebuild the bullpen, one of the…

TOWER GROVE — Veteran reliever Russ Springer had to be on his toes when warming up with teammate Ryan Franklin because he didn’t know what pitch Franklin would fire next. Could be the splitter. Could be the knuckler. Could just be that everyday forkball that Franklin would uncork every so often.

By his count, Franklin had as many of eight pitches (maybe nine) he could throw, and several of them he threw well enough and were…