The Idea That Won't Die

Depending on how Chris Carpenter feels today, Adam Wainwright could still be bullpen bound.

Pretty much everyone in the blogosphere has weighed in on this one.  Rockin' the Red, VEB, and Cards 'N Stuff, among others, strenuously argue that Wainwright's place is in the starting rotation.  That's a Winner said bullpen, though that was much earlier in the month.  If you've been reading here, you know that I'm definitely in the starter camp.

It's interesting to note that Wainwright no longer is ticketed for the ninth inning, however.  Apparently Chris Perez has made enough of an impact to keep that role.  I'd guess that Kyle McClellan will stay in the eighth.  So Wainwright gets the seventh?  How often can he pitch, twice a week?  Do you run him out there on back to back days?  Do you only use him when you need multiple innings?

It really seems to me that, being he's a starting pitcher and he's coming back from injury, the best and less stressful place to put him is in the rotation, even if you don't consider the fact that he could throw six innings in a start and none for the next four days or three innings over five days.  When you factor in that you are basically on a four-man rotation for a bit, why wouldn't you want half that rotation to be Carpenter and Wainwright?  It just seems so logical.

All this is assuming that Carpenter is healthy.  If there's even the slightest chance he's not, they probably should think about shutting him down and making sure he's ready for 2009.  It'll be interesting to hear tonight how the throwing session went.

The Cardinals take on the Pirates again tonight.  This will be the last time we see the Pirates in Busch, while the Cards still have three games in PNC later in the year.  Braden Looper goes for the Redbirds.  For the fact that St. Louis has played Pittsburgh so much this year, Looper's only thrown just under six innings against them.  Historically, though, he's been tough on these guys, so maybe that will continue.

Pittsburgh, as they seem to always do when these two teams get together, is throwing Ian Snell.  For the most part, the Cards have been able to jump early on Snell this year, but haven't been able to finish him off.  He's posted a 9.00 ERA in 19 innings over 4 starts, but has only one loss to show for it.  Every time he pitches, Pujols's numbers against him are brought up, but before this season, he had a .563 average with 4 HR against Snell and now the average is down to .444.  He's only 3 for 11 against Snell this season with no extra-base hits and with that elbow reportedly barking, that may not change tonight.  Of course, AP isn't the only one that's been able to hit Snell, either.  (With a 5.91 season ERA, there's fewer people that haven't hit him.)

Cards really need to sweep this series if at all possible.  A good outing from Looper tonight and they will be on their way.


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