No known way to tie these all together, except to categorize them as the 2006 malaise:

• Someone might want to tell Jim Edmonds that if he wants to play against lefties, then he can't give away at-bats like he did against Zach Duke. Someone also might want to tell Edmonds that sometimes honesty isn't the best policy.

• Mark Mulder's rehab start didn't go well, as you probably know by now. However Mulder could give some lessons to Edmonds on how to answer probing interview questions:

Whatever happens, happens. There are bigger things than just worrying about next season. ... I want to get back and help the team win some games.

OK, he does yield more insight than the Crash Davis quote implies. Mulder thinks it's just a matter of getting his muscle memory right, establishing consistency with his delivery.

• So Taguchi isn't the primary reason or secondary or tertiary or... for the Cardinals' mediocre performance to date. He is a decent example of why the Cardinals aren't doing as well in 2006 as they were in 2005 though. Last night he played a routine deep flyout into a double and the day before that he forgot how many outs there were, allowing a runner to move up a base. His defense has looked so terrible in 2006 that it's hard to believe he'll be back in 2007. Yes, I remember Taguchi forgetting the number of outs in a game in 2005, but of course he threw that runner out. That's the way 2005 went. The Cardinals haven't had those little things go their way in 2006, and the lesson I'm taking from that is not to draw conclusions about the team's character or LaRussa's genius from "little things."

• So let's look at the big things. Even after yesterday's flailing against the dreaded soft-tossing lefty, the Cardinals remain on pace to score 800 runs, a mere 5 runs below their 2005 total. It doesn't feel that way, does it? Even bigger than that, Baseball Prospectus has introduced a new Playoff Odds report based on Elo. Sagarin has been using Elo for his college basketball ratings for years. Anyway, BPro's Elo report has the Cardinals at an 85% probability of making the playoffs. Doesn't feel that way either, does it? The same report says the Astros have caught the Reds.