1 pixel for ascender, 5 pixels x-height, 1 pixel descender, 1 pixel descender shadow would work, i think, right? or is 5 px x-height too small?
i also like the idea of spacing the numbers out a bit, or making them thicker like dragonsbrethren's.
EDIT: also, thanks for bringing up the idea of text figures in the first place... they look really awesome