When Lohse returns, who is the #5 Starter? The two candidates, Brad Thompson and Todd Wellemeyer, have been pretty aware that they are fighting for this rotation spot in their last couple starts. They’ve both been working with Dave Duncan, and appear to be approaching each start the same way: Warm up, pitch poorly, repeat.

The Cardinals former ace and 2005 Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter enjoyed an offseason that could almost be called “normal”.  Cardinal fans were hoping for a strong return from the pitcher this year, but most were playing the safe bet that his health would keep him from taking the ball every fifth day.
After a very solid month of Grapefruit League play, Carpenter started to sway our opinions. What if he could continue his spring pace in the regular season?  How good would the Cardinal rotation be?
On April 9, against Pittsburgh, Carp threw a one-hit gem through seven innings, striking [...]

After my trip to St. Louis for another exciting (but dissappointing) Opening Day, and being on an airplane during last night’s game, I was pretty excited to watch my first Cardinal telecast tonight. More on my trip in a minute.
The Cards were hoping to get a solid performance from tonight’s starter Todd Wellemeyer en route to a win over Pittsburgh, and at least, an opening series tie.  Instead, the Colonel was roughed up for 5 runs on 12 hits.  He also walked a pair, and needed 93 pitches to get through 5 innings.
Even though he didn’t particularly have a good [...]

Ask and you shall receive.  Just yesterday I was pondering who might take the final seat in the right-handed section of the Cardinal bullpen.  Today, I get my answer.
Looking to go with someone capable of pitching multiple innings, the brain trust decided to take swingman Brad Thompson to St. Louis over the young Chris Perez, who was optioned to AAA Memphis today.  Perez didn’t have a bad spring, but the time he missed with shoulder discomfort didn’t help his case.  He’ll be closing out games for the Redbirds for the time being, although I think we’ll see him in Cardinal [...]

First and foremost, welcome to the new site.  And don’t worry about missing out on any of the over opinionated content that you’re used to reading at Mike on the Cards.  Aptly named Redbird Rants will give you all that and more.  I’ve teamed up with another blogger, David Frissell, to help give more ranting and raving about the Cardinals than you can probably stand.  We hope you enjoy the new digs, and visit and comment often.
Now on to baseball.  With just one week of Spring Training remaining, the Cardinals still have several questions concerning the makeup of their 25-man [...]