Looper sharp, Johnson to have MRI

The Cards lost 3-2 to the Nationals yesterday, and the box score can be found here. Things to note:

Kennedy went 0-3 with a K in the lead off spot

Pujols went 0-3

Glaus was 2-3

Ludwick went 1-4 with a run and 2 Ks

Looper threw 3 innings, letting up 1 earned on 3 hits

Looper threw his sinker about 80% of the time, as evident by 7 of his 9 outs coming from groundballs. He threw 24 strikes and 36 balls, so it looks like he could be a solid #2 again this year.

Tyler Johnson had an MRI on his left shoulder yesterday.

The Cardinals supposedly have a sign to hit people, and Ray King also supposedly told Brewers manager Ned Yost that it was used before the Cardinals hit Prince Fielder back in September. However, King and LaRussa talks and LaRussa believes he had nothing to do with it.

The Purple Iguana

Cardinals rotation, '07 vs '08

I recently did a comparison of the Cardinals lineups in ’07 and ’08, which can be found here, as well as a defensive comparison, that can be found here. Now I’m going to look in depth at the Cardinals rotation, and see if we can improve any on a sub par ’07.
The first person to look at is the ace for both years, Adam Wainwright. There’s no reason to expect him to not improve off of his first year as a starter in the bigs, especially since he improved his ERA from 4.66 before the All Star break to 2.71 afterwards. You can expect Wainwright to be a legit ace for the whole year.
The number 2 last year was Braden Looper, and I guess he’ll be the #2 this year as well. Looper was also in his first year as a starter in the bigs, but unlike Wainwright, I expect his numbers to drop, which won’t be good. He had been a reliever the first 8 years of his career, never pitching over 87 innings before last year, and then throwing 175. That can’t be good, as was obvious by his 6.35 ERA in September.
I have no clue who to say was the Cardinals 3rd starter in ’07, but I guess you could say Todd Wellemeyer???? He came over from the Royals and made 11 starts for the Cardinals in 20 appearances, and had a 3.11 ERA. But he did only have 11 starts for the Red Birds. Joel Pineiro projects to be the third starter, but he’s a very high volatile pitcher-he could be a very solid 3 or even 2 pitcher, but he also could pitch like Kip Wells.
The #4 from last year would have to be the before mentioned Kip Wells. Whenever you have to say that someone with a 5.70 ERA, 26 starts, and a 7 and 17 record was your NUMBER 4, you know your rotation sucked. Depending on his health, it looks like Matt Clement will be the #4 for the majority of the year. If he’s healthy, he could help out the back end of the rotation a lot. If not, he can throw with his left hand and still be better than Wells.
Last year, the #5 pitcher was a revolving door, with Anthony Reyes getting the majority of the starts. With a (hopefully) improved Reyes and possibly Mark Mulder getting some starts, it’ll be hard not to improve on the 6.04 ERA Reyes put up in ’07.
Overall, the back end of the rotation looks a lot more solid. Wainwright should continue to improve, as well as Reyes. The effectiveness of the rotation, however, will most likely come down to the health of Mulder, Clement, and Chris Carpenter, who’s out until at least June, and probably longer. If the Cardinals can stay in contention until Carpenter comes back, and he can be effective, it’ll be like trading for an ace. But don’t count on it.
I'll get a Bullpen comparison up soon.....