JUPITER, Fla. — There was a time when Mike Parisi was so smitten with his curve that he’d chuck it up there every chance he had. Early in the count. Late in the count. When he wanted to put a hitter down for the count.

He could throw three different curves and “tried to make it 15 different pitches.”

“I used it as a crutch,” he said. “Used it too much.”

On Wednesday, as the New York native righthander made the first Grapefruit League start of his pro ccareer, Parisi showed there much more to this New York native than how can bend a baseball. His fastball has a natural and late sink to it. His changeup is a progressing pitch, though one of his former coaches believes it has been good enough before and will be good enough again. And there is still the hook. His teammates told him to spin curves by Washington outfielder Elijah Dukes, and when Parisi finally listened …

Well, let’s not get too far ahead of the story.

Throughout last season the Cardinals were hard-pressed to identify their first arm up — the starter who could pop out of Triple-A and make a spot start or ease into the rotation for a few cameo appearances. That began the Great Starter Hunt of ‘07, a meandering campaign that took the Cardinals the farthest reaches of the waiver wire and Detroit. This spring, Parisi, Kyle McClellan and a few others on the fringe, have staked their place as the pitcher in the Redbirds’ rotation who is always a start away from the big promotion.

Pitching coach Dave Duncan said he sees “several guys that I envision pitching in the big leagues in the near future.” He said the team wouldn’t “get embarrassed” by bringing one of these starters up.

Parisi, 24, has steadily worked his way through the organization, wearing the prospect tag the whole way but never really toting the prospect hype. In four pro seasons and six levels, he’s had a winning record at just two stops. His first pro season was his only season that he’s allowed fewer hits than innings pitched, and his ERA has been lower than 4.60 at any level higher than Double-A.

Yet, here he is. On … The Cusp.

Has to be more than the curve.

“He goes out there to beat you,” Duncan said. “He don’t go out there to pitch and have fun. He goes out there to beat you.”

Parisi had to get five outs in his first inning as a Grapefruit League starter. The first batter of the game dribbled an infield hit that was a bang-bang play at first base. The second grounded to shortstop Brendan Ryan, but a wild throw put two runners on base. After getting a fly out, Dukes roped a hanging breaking ball for a two-run triple. Instead of the flyball ending the inning, the Nationals had a 3-0 lead before Parisi got a inning-ending double play.

He retired six of the next seven batters he faced.

Catcher Yadier Molina told him in the bullpen that his curve was good, his location was bad. And as he worked through the game it was clear he got a better feel and better break on his curve. It was loopy and hanging or low and out of the strike early. It was biting toward the end. Duncan has heard about how it can be a put-away pitch for the righthander. Just hasn’t seen repeatedly this spring.

Parisi has worked to make sure it’s not the only thing hitters see anymore.

In 2006, Parisi felt he hit some minor-league quicksand, spinning his wheels in Double-A and not moving up. He had never had an entire season at the same level and wondered why Double-A confounded him. So, he started writing down the reasons. Those reasons became a journal and that journal became a scouting report on himself and the hitters in the league. He kept it studiously.

By the time he got to Triple-A, he continued keeping track. This hitter wilted against the curve. This curve landed somewhere on Beale Street. And so on. He struggled with the command of his fastball, and pitching coach Dyar Miller suggested he raise his hands over his head a bit more on the delivery. Into the journal it went. It helped, too.

“Any start is a good start,” Parisi said. “Just learn, learn, learn.”

Parisi, a ninth-round pick in 2004 out of Manhattan College, knows he’s here to leave an impression, not make the major-league team. He has consistency on his side, as in all his pro seasons he’s made 95 of 95 scheduled starts and he had at least 27 in each of the past three seasons. He has the aforementioned competitiveness. Challenged by the errors Wednesday he doubled-back and got the outs needed to keep the damage to the first inning and no more on his watch. He threw three innings, allowed the four hits, got dinged with two earned runs that really weren’t and didn’t walk a batter.

Duncan told him afterward that as far as the pitching coach was concerned it went into the books as three scoreless inning.

And that’s where Dukes re-enters the story.

To end it, Parisi faced Dukes for a second time.

In the dugout teammate Mark Worrell gave him a scouting report on Dukes, one repeated not that long before by Miller. Use the breaking ball. Use it again. Bend it, Mike. It’s Parisi’s best pitch. He can throw it three different ways, including a tight biter and a bigger, loopier, slower curve. If he didn’t hang it like the last one, he could get Dukes with a series of curves. He did. A filthy one, too. One that fit what Duncan had been told — that the curve is a “strikeout breaking ball.”

That’s what it did to Dukes.

That’s how it will be recorded in Parisi’s journal.

“I don’t need to throw it all the time,” Parisi said. “I can use it as my out pitch, instead of always for-a-strike pitch.”

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