Carpe Diem–King Duncan!

Looking for a place to sound-off on the latest KFNS catastrophe. How many years have we listened to Slaten berate players, coaches, and sports institutions for not having the “spine” to fire individuals that “lied”, “cheated”, and “broke the rules”? How about the self-anointed king of hypocrisy now? Caught on air lying to Duncan and a bonafide rule breaker. Reaping what he has sown–KFNS grew a spine and fired him!

Go Duncan–Go Cards!…and we hope Slaten just Goes Away!

Seriously,,,, Springer it’s time to go to AA ball or the Cubs… I cannot deal with this lack of effeciancy. It’s not acceptable. Does he have photos of someone to keep his job? How can this be tollerated????????????? Every time he is called from the pen I turn off my computer!. This is almost as bad as watching Jerry Springer, any relation?

What happens if, as all the rehabbing pitchers start to be able to return, the current rotation is performing decently and the club is in the lead in the central division? Get rid of the relief men and let the starters split games? How about a crash course in playing the outfield for all the pitchers, then we can have games where a lefty and a righty are both in the lineup at the same time.

Seriously, how do you set someone down who is doing well? And, give the job to someone who might have to go back on the DL after a few starts?

#2 - Springer was pretty good last season - 2.18 ERA, 60 baserunners allowed in 66 innings (wow!), a perfect 1-to-1 K per Inning ratio, and he even vultured 8 wins. Let\’s not leap to conclusions less than a week into the season.

#3 - I\’m pretty sure Mozeilak would like to have that problem. Assuming (and it\’s a big assumption) that Mulder, Clement, and Piniero come back - leaving out Carp \’cause he won\’t be back, even best case, until late season - my guess is that the rotation goes Wainwright, Mulder, Clement, Lohse, Piniero (maybe not in that order), with Looper goes back to the bullpen for the 8th inning, Reyes gets traded for… I dunno, whatever need crops up between now and then, McClellan goes back to Memphis, and one of Wellemeyer/Thompson (likely whoever is doing better/could bring better value) also gets traded.

But like I said, that\’s best case. More likely, only one of Piniero/Mulder/Clement will come back effectively, and we\’ll see much less upheaval of roles in the pen.

John, it’s obvious this is your first season watching Cardinals baseball. Springer was an important piece of the bullpen last year and simply had a rough start this year.

In other words, you’re an idiot.

R.C. that might be a bit harsh, but Springer was certainly excellent in his first appearance. I’m more worried about this “elbow tightness” that he had apparently in camp. I never heard word one about that, and that’s always a concern for a guy that age.

Still, Springer knows how to rehab (lord knows he’s done it often enough) so it’s not time to panic yet.

The real question is how short the leash on Kelvin is. He came up last year and was decent for a while and then absolutely dreadful. In keeping with the youth movement, I’d almost rather see Perez or Motte get the call, although I understand that the org probably wants them to get some AAA innings under their belt.

Springer was terrific last year and has been sighted as an important guy to help the younger pitchers along.

DG, the first couple of times I penciled out a rotation it looked a lot like yours. But I didn’t have the benefit of contract length, salary and years before arbit. eligibility in front of me. If you were to factor in those variables, and made the very large assumption that the current starters continue the pitch well above expectations, would the guys that you trade still be the same? We might get a lot for a Mulder, although I would still love to see him at his best.

Also, how about the job our manager has been doing. He has been getting all the new guys a shot. He has been working the ‘pen. He has been hiding our faults and getting people opportunities to succeed. I am really beginning to believe it when he says he prefers to manage a group with a lot of younger players. It fits his style - he likes to pull a lot of levers and push a lot of buttons. Older guys don’t do real well with that.

My mistake. It wasn’t your line-up Derrick, is was a line-up from #4.

Question is the same.

It’s early, but know this: Looper doesn’t plan on yielding his spot in the rotation without a fight. He said as much the other day, telling us that he “will be one of those starters”, and he means after the parade of arms return. Same thing with McClellan: The rookie could pitch his way into a role that makes him too important to option back to Triple-A.

Right, taking into consideration current performance, expected performance, health and their best roles for the team, here’s a rough guess as to the full-house rotation:

1. Carpenter
2. Wainwright
3. Mulder
4. Lohse
5. Looper

That wild card in that is Pineiro, who we’ll know more about in the coming weeks. Either he or Looper could pitch their way into the rotation or onto another team (this is the last year of Looper’s contract). All these comments and speculations however assume one big thing: Health. That’s hardly a sure thing. The Cardinals may have a spoil of depth when it comes to pitching. They also may find themselves in a situation where they need it …

dg
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