Friday, December 17, 2010

The State Of The Cards - December 2010 - Part One: Pitching

I thought it might be worthwhile to take a quick look at where the Cards' 40-Man roster sits as well move into the last two weeks of 2010.

Pitchers:

Major League Roster Locks/Probables/Possibles

Mitchell Boggs
Chris Carpenter
Ryan Franklin
Jaime Garcia
Kyle Lohse
Kyle McClellan
Trever Miller
Jason Motte
Fernando Salas
Francisco Samuel
Brian Tallet
Adam Wainwright
P.J. Walters
Jake Westbrook

Starting Rotation:

1. Wainwright
2. Carpenter
3. Westbrook
4. Garcia
5. Lohse

It's amazing what the Phillies signing of Lee does to one's perceptions. Not all that long ago I would have looked pretty favorably at this group of starters, particularly since we now know Westbrook had been banged up last year and, so, might improve when healthy. Today, I look at this fivesome and I feel nothing but dread. "What if Carp or Waino goes down? What if Garcia becomes afflicted with a severs case of the sophomores? And, Lohse?? Might we better served by putting a dead cat in the fifth spot?" etc. I'll take a deep breath and say, as constituted, the Cards have the third or fourth best starting staff in the NL.

Closer:

Franklin

*sigh*

Set-up:

Motte

That's fine.

Lefty Specialist:

Miller

Got my fingers crossed. Too often these left handers will throw in a clunker of a season every other year.

Long men/Spot Starters:

Boggs
McClellan


That would leave one spot open for the rest to fight it out over. (2 spots if the Cards decided to go with 11.) Overall, the bullpen is what it is. I've seen better; I've seen worse.

Rest of 40-Man Pitchers:

Bryan Augenstein
Maikel Cleto
Blake King
David Kopp
Adam Reifer
Eduardo Sanchez

Of these only Sanchez it seems would have an outside shot of making the opening day roster, but only if a lot of players in front of him falter. Cleto's appearance on the 40-man is a little odd, but maybe the organization wants him to feel wanted.

I'll go over the position players later this weekend.

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