The Musial Lost Homer Project

User's Guide to Pujols' Elbow

Analyzing the "Crazy 8" Lineup

Time to Play the Arbitration Offer Home Game
TOWER GROVE — Long about time the Thanksgiving double whammy of football and tryptophan wear off from this weekend, the next key date in baseball’s free agency will be on the horizon. Next Tuesday is the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their free agents. As much as the non-tender date — which comes later in December — has served to offer a secondary market of free agents, the arbitration deadline serves to help define this...

Rasmus Cannot Crack Annual All-Rookie Team
TOWER GROVE — There was a time about midway through the 2009 season when St. Louis Cardinals rookie Colby Rasmus was the National League leader in homers, RBIs and a few other telling stats among first-year players. It didn’t last long. An injury. The wear of the long season and significant weight loss. Tag-team playing time. The arrival of a fresh wave of rookies. All of that combined to erode Rasmus’ spot atop his class. At the...

Comm Top 21: A Fitting Finish (Runoff for 19 & 20)
TOWER GROVE — On the eve of Thanksgiving, we can say this about the monthlong process of putting together the Bird Land Community Top 21: We know who the first 20 players are. We just don’t know the final order. In a prospect poll loaded with close votes, recurring debates and a bunch of a new names and new looks, it is fitting that it would finish with a runoff. Especially a runoff pitting these two...

Alphabet Soup: Pujols’ MVP by OPS & VORP, FYI, ASAP
TOWER GROVE — In a recent conversation, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa politely declined to discuss anything about Albert Pujols and the MVP award until Albert Pujols had actually, officially won the MVP award. La Russa explained that the Cy Young Award voting had taught him a lesson. He wondered, “What number will they come up with this time?” Bruised by what they felt was a surefire cinch that either Chris Carpenter or Adam Wainwright would...

Comm Top 21: A Repeat Ranking? (Vote No. 19)
TOWER GROVE — A year has passed but the conversation remains strikingly similar. About 12 months ago, the Bird Land Community Top 30 reached No. 19 in its poll, and the discussion hinged around two righthanded starters: the recently drafted Lance Lynn and the rising changeup artist P.J. Walters. Lynn edged Walters in the voting for No. 18, and Walters then claimed a win at No. 19. Scroll forward to today and Lynn has surged to...