Carpenter As Closer?

You can tell it's spring.  Even LaRussa is loose.  Witness this exchange in Derrick Goold's dispatch from this afternoon:

With Carpenter at his locker and La Russa addressing a handful of media types, the manager explained that trainers had told him that Carpenter wouldn’t be ready for 100-110 pitches until the middle of the season. But 30 … now, 30 pitches he would be “ready to throw on opening day,” La Russa said. So, he decided that Jason Isringhausen will shift to setup and Carpenter will be the featured closer, throwing no more than 30 pitches and pulling a Joba — working his way into the starting rotation from the very back of the bullpen.

“I was going to anoint (Carpenter) the closer and Izzy would be his setup man,” La Russa said. ”The reason I was going to do that is that he had two tickets to Led Zeppelin that he game to Marty and Mrs. Mason instead of Tony and Mrs. La Russa. And I was on my way out of the office to do that before Dunc hurt me.”

Just imagine how much debate and discussion would have run through Cardinal Nation if TLR had let that stay out there overnight.  There's just enough logic to it to make it believable, isn't there?  Especially coming from Tony?  You better believe Izzy would be giving up his tickets from now on if that had happened!

All the pitchers are in camp.  A lot of the hitters are already there as well.  Sounds like it's going to be a pretty young gathering down in Jupiter, which should make for some great competition and a lot to talk about the coming weeks.

And you have to enjoy seeing these pictures.  It makes it all real, doesn't it?

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