HOUSTON — With 2009 speeding to a close, discussions about the decade behind us are already popping up. Some baseball writers, like Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci’s have picked their Team of the Aughts, others have just explored who might be the Player of the Decade. Here we’ve been convicted of over-stating the Decade Triple Crown notion (scroll down).

Time to look at the bigger picture.

In the past week or 10 days, the St. Louis Cardinals have clinched the…

TOWER GROVE — There are many examples of a player storming toward his leagues Most Valuable Player award with a strong September that, in most cases, elevates his team to a postseason berth.

See: Ryan Howard.

Enter Tim Lincecum.

The San Francisco Giants righthander Lincecum struck out 11 and muscled his team to a pivotal victory Monday night against the Wild Card-leading Colorado Rockies. Lincecum skipped his previous start because of back trouble and returned to throw the…

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 — The St. Louis Cardinals have developed their own way of celebrating a walk-off home run, too. When the hero for the moment steps foot on home — sometimes taking a cannonball-like leap onto the plate — the Cardinals overwhelm their teammate and attempt to land some kidney shots with playful uppercut blows. There’s punching. There’s some grabbing.

You get the sense that it’s not unlike the bottom of a dog pile in the…

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 — 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 St. Louis Cardinals have trailed their opponent 49 times this season entering the ninth inning. And 46 times whoever the Cardinals are facing goes on to win the game. Earlier this season the conclusions were often as quick as they were inevitable.

Three times — three times in 49 — the Cardinals have rallied to win.

All three have been since Matt Holliday arrived.

The Cardinals concluded a lengthy and wet day at the…

TOWER GROVE — There was a time when Blake Hawksworth, as a young, big-bonus pitching prospect, was so changeup-happy that people cautioned him that if he didn’t use his fastball he would lose his fastball.

It took him some time to realize how right they were.

Hawksworth, emerging now as potential relief for the St. Louis Cardinals and their bullpen, doesn’t throw with the same velocity that he once did, but he’s learned that maybe he doesn’t…

TOWER GROVE — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, whose easy manner and prominence has made him an unfortunate veteran of these steroid revelation press scrums, said Thursday that it is important to him that he continue trusting players, trusting his players, trusting what he’s seen, and trusting the game. He added that it’s important the game “get the trust back” of its fanbase.

How baseball does that with the slow-drip feed of steroid news is…

HOUSTON — St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Mark DeRosa didn’t see his first hit for his new team as a relief. He described it as progress.

In DeRosa’s first at-bat Monday night at Minute Maid Park, he stung a single to left field and a couple at-bats later he had his second hit of the game and his second hit as a Redbird. Like the first one, DeRosa’s hit went to the left side of the…

DOWNTOWN — Whenever Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre has had a reason to return to St. Louis — which was oh so rarely when he skippered the New York Yankees — he makes a point to visit Stan Musial, the St. Louis Cardinals great and St. Louis icon. He also keeps every message he gets from Musial.

Every one.

Torre, meeting with the media Monday during the All-Star workout day interviews in downtown St. Louis, said…

MANHATTAN — With the ninth grand slam of his career and the third of this season, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols did more than send manager Tony La Russa to his 2,500th career win, did more than give the Cardinals a series sweep in Kansas City, and did more than assert his place atop the league leaders in home runs and RBIs.

He tied Stan Musial.

According to the stats kept at Baseball Almanac by home…

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 — His second MVP trophy and upfront comments about the drug cloud over baseball put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated as the baseball star who can be trusted. His April surge made him the National League Player of the Month and the topic of local watercooler chatter: Could he be the one to win a Triple Crown? And now St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols finds himself on another cover…

TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and reigning league MVP Albert Pujols is only 1/10 of the way into the season and already he’s a spokesman and emblem for the city’s celebration of the 2009 All-Star Game. He’s got a commercial running in loops on ESPN. Three different film crews followed him around on the same day this past week for three different commercial ventures. He leads the league in RBIs and runs…