If the Birds make Waino the closer this season, then does does he return to the rotation in 2009? It would seem to me that Waino would have to again adjust if he closes. Being a starter and a closer are two totally different roles. The Cards are not maximizing the full potential of Waino, by flip flopping him between roles.

If the Cards pen would have blown only 1/2 of the games that they have we’d be in first. I don’t want to hear that the starters aren’t going deep enough into games, they are relievers, not starters!! Getting the five plus out of them is better than the 1 they had pitched their whole career! That said, let the kid close until he proves he can’t, and if that happens let waino bail him out until next year.

i am still of the possibly unpopular opinion that the cards can’t make it to the postseason this year. even though the brewers irritate me, their schedule is just too ridiculously easy. as a result, i really would like to see this club not rush anyone back. they have a really good shot at going far next year. why gamble on a less than sure thing this year. i think they should let carp and waino take their time in coming back and let perez close for the rest of the year. he’s been alright and it’s the only way we’re really going to know for sure if he’s our closer for next year. we absolutely cannot afford to go through the bullpen nightmares next year that we went through this year. so let’s see what we have in perez and make a decision this winter.

Wainwright has GOT to start. Putting Waino in the Pen with our starters going back to averaging less than 6 innings, assuming they do, will not help this Pen in the long run. Short term it will work, because he won’t be tired, but eventually he will get tired JUST like the rest of the Pen had been.

Placing him in as a Starter gives you a guy that all but guarantees 7 solid innings per appearance. Thus asking your Pen to only take care of 6 more outs……possibly less.

Is it any wonder that our Pen got the job done effectively in this Florida series, considering as Mr. Goold wrote - “that trio pitched 21 2/3 innings this week against the Marlins and allowed two earned runs. All went at least seven innings.”

We can’t expect all of them to continue to do as such, but Wainwright we can certainly expect such a performance as being routine. In the event that Waino goes to the Pen upon his return, I personally see us collapsing and blowing it with only 2 weeks to go. Comes back as a Starter and I see us being MUCH stronger in late innings throughout the remainder of the season.

I thought Adam was coming along quite nicely until the freek finger pop. Personally I would much rather see a starting rotation of Carp???? Wainwright, Loshe, Wellenmeyer & Looper than a starting rotation of Carp????, Loshe, Looper, Wellenmeyer & Pinero. When the starting rotation is clicking the offense seems to sense some innings out of the starter and score some runs. The pen is what it is now and we know that they can get the job done, like last year and the beginning of this year, so why take a proven starter and have him do something he really doesn’t want to do. You know the little bit of closing he did in ‘06 doesn’t really prove anything. It just happened, GOOD for the CARDINALS, but that doesn’t mean that Adam will do it consistantly now. Adam Wainwright is a CARDINAL STARTER. No If’s And’s or But’s to it. By the way, some of the ‘half hearted’ Cardinal fans? that write in here should just sit back and quit complaining so damn much. This is an EXCITING Team to watch play the game of Baseball and if you can’t enjoy these guys, YOU ARE A PATHETIC fan & I use the word fan very loosely to say the least. Midassinger 66

Starter - no ifs, ands, or buts about it!

Let’s be realistic. The Cardinals are not going to make the post season, so let’s get ready for 2009. Let Wainwright start and let Perez close. (He doesn’t have to do it every single time, if that keeps Tony happy).
On another point, it makes sense not playing Ankiel in center until he can sprint, but why left instead of right where his cannon arm would be more useful?

I think Waino should be in the closer role for the end of this season. I still think the Cardinals will be in the race for at least the wild card. So I think a closer like him will be a must to compete.

Right now the team has a glaring need in the bullpen however, Perez actually has done quite well in the role as a pseudo-closer(since TLR wont annoint him closer). It is a quandry. It is disconcerting as well that Carp is having arm troubles. So we may now have as much a need in the starting rotation. The bottom line is because of the futility in the bullpen we are 7 games out. Had we won half of the 27 losses the bullpen has endured we might be in first place and for sure would be in first in the wild card. So in the short run, assuming Carp can come back in some role starting, the greater need is in the bullpen.

Since we really don’t know Wainwright’s ability to go several innings as a starter, I would rather see him in the “Closer” role. We certainly did well with him in that role in 2006. I would like to see us add a bonafide starter through the waiver wire–example–Washburn. That would certainly help the starting rotation.

One thing I absolutely don’t want is to see Izzy closing games–that’s simply a trainwreck and I can find no logic as to why we keep carrying him. He should be cut–plain and simple!! At the rate he is going, it would take him a couple of years to get save 300–why are we sacrificing the team for some unattainable goal for Izzy? Loyalty doesn’t win games. For heaven sakes MO, get some gumption about you and end this misery.