TOWER GROVE — The wealth of information available on Baseball-Reference.com offered an intriguing kernel yesterday when I was digging around the numbers for today’s article on St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick. The goal was to find a snapshot of his consistency in 2008 vs. what he called a “real hot-cold season” in 2009 (check that .200 average in June). Not too far away from those stats, I found this:

Ludwick in wins 2008: BA .373…

DENVER — St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, as he is often apt to do as a Dugout Socrates, answered a question with a question.

“Let me ask it to you in this way,” he said the other day in Houston. “If we were to face Roy Oswalt at his best today and then face him again next week, is facing him today an advantage for us?”

The answer-and-question was in response to an inquiry about the pluses and minuses…

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…

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 — The way Todd Wellemeyer describes it, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals at a vulnerable time in his career. He could not figure out why good stuff was getting bad results. He had just been hammered by the Detroit Tigers in consecutive games against them, and he was about to face the Tigers for a third time in four appearances after being a Cardinals’ waiver claim out of Kansas City’s pitching staff.

He…

ST. LOUIS — Told this afternoon that while he’s been out on the road defending the St. Louis Cardinals’ lead in the NL Central, someone went and fixed the light bulbs that made the “I” on “BIG MAC LAND” glow, the mayor of this year’s All-Star Game, Albert Pujols, had one response:

“Best thing you can do is knock it down again,” he said.

Pujols joined the seven other Home Run Derby contestants in a press conference…

DOWNTOWN — One of the kaleidoscope of statistics kept throughout the year in baseball are “Park Factors”, a comparative way to judge how hitter-friendly or pitcher-supportive a ballpark is from year to year. The stat is based on comparing how different the hitting, the slugging and the pitching is for teams at said ballpark compared to how those teams fair on the road.

The ratio reveals the ballpark’s characteristics.

Busch Stadium III, while not the national park…

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…

MANHATTAN — Back when he actually was a rookie and looked every bit like a rookie, St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brendan Ryan hopped in a taxi outside the team hotel room here in Manhattan and told the cabbie to take him to “the stadium.”

With the clock ticking toward when he was supposed to be present, dressed and ready in the Cardinals’ clubhouse, the cabbie pulled up at the destination and said something like: “Here ya…

TOWER GROVE — What the St. Louis Cardinals have needed for at least several weeks was articulated as what the club wants in the coming weeks Monday when general manager John Mozeliak said he’s shopping for a bat, and that he’s checking the trade blocks for a third baseman who can spur the offense.

He all but wrote the opening lines of a want ad in his comments to the gathered media Monday:

HELP WANTED: BAT. Preferably…

SOUTH GRAND — St. Louis Cardinals infielder Brian Barden, a superb glove with the journeyman flecks of gray in his hair, was validated as a 28-years-old rookie this week by winning the league’s rookie of the month award. He crossed paths with manager Tony La Russa outside the team’s clubhouse Monday and got what passes for congratulations in May.

“Rookie of the month!” La Russa said.

“Thanks, skipper,” Barden said.

“But,” La Russa said walking into the clubhouse, “that…

TOWER GROVE — Catcher Jason LaRue, racing from the bullpen to the left-center field wall, was one of the first St. Louis Cardinals to reach Rick Ankiel as he lay on the warning track Monday night.  He had a view of the catch, the stumble, the crash and then he was part of the dash of teammates to Ankiel’s side.

“The most significant part of what we all I saw, I think, is that it shows…

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 — 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,…

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…