Is it bad that for most of February/March I was hoping that the Cards would sign ole Jeff?

I’d rather have Mulder than Weaver.

of course Mulder has a higher upside, he was a fantastic pitcher before he had the shoulder troubles, and his first year with the cards was phenomenal, he should of won 20 games if the bullpen didn’t lose about 4 of his games.

Weaver isn’t coming off of surgery, but it’s obvious that he’s not as good of a pitcher as mulder, he was decent in the half season he pitched for the cards (still an ERA over 5) and was great when he needed to be in the post season. Then he went back to the AL West (where the angels dumped him because of how terrible he was) and low and behold, he had 27 starts and a ERA over 6 battling a few injuries in the beginning of the season (if you can call them injuries, it might of been the mariners needed to put him on the DL because of how utterly crappy he was in his first few starts)

He’s insurance if Sheets goes down and the brew crew don’t feel like narveson would be better than Weaver in the big leagues or if any of the lower arms in the rotation start to fuzz out. If Weaver does get called up, i imagine him to be just decent with a high ERA.

When mulder returns, completely healthy unlike 2007, he’ll pitch way better than Weaver will and will probably be a good #2, #3 starter for the rest of the season and 09. (seriously, carpenter, wainwright, mulder as a 1-2-3 punch is going to be great in 09 with piniero probably being a #4 starter, and who knows about #5—i’d actually prefer signing lohse to a 1,2 year deal if he continues to do well and ends up having an ERA under 4 for the season.)

Clement? I’ve already forgotten about him.

Always need an X-Files allusion.
;=8)

Anycow, as this cow sees it the possibility that we get any meaningful cowtributions from Mulder and Pinero and Clement are probably not good. I think Mulder will come back, but not at the premier level he once was. We might be able to get 12-13 wins out of him, maybe. Same with Pinero, but I have to say I am alarmed at his first outing. Getting anything useful out of Clement is probably the biggest longshot of all, but we cud conceivably manage to get 8-10 wins out of him IF we can get him of the DL. If Anthony Reyes continues to put up solid numbers I think he earns his way back into the starting rotation. At least the guy is healthy and can give us quality starts. I don’t think signing Weaver would have been a very good idea: right now I think Wellemeyer is a better option than Weaver.

Right now I think our strongest rotation is Wainwright/Lohse/Reyes/Wellemeyer/and the best candidate between Mulder, Pinero, and Clement. And let’s not forget Looper, who also gives us quality starts.

My feeling is that Mulder is the one who returns to the rotation, Looper and Pinero stay in the pen or get traded, Clement ends up on the DL for good, Wellemeyer sticks as the 5th guy in the rotation, and the bulk of the year’s starts go to Wainwright/Lohse/Mulder/Reyes/Wellemeyer, with the occasional start from Pinero and/or Looper.

This is, of course, pure speculation, and is based on Reyes re-establishing himself as a quality starter, which I believe will happen. If he gets traded, then it falls to Looper or Pinero, whichever one isn’t getting clobbered. but think about cow things would have been WITHOUT Lohse. The fact is we are relying on too many swing men/5th starters and/or pitchers with a history of injury. If Lohse pans out we may need to seriously cowsider signing him semi-long term (2-3 years), if we can. That would mean getting him early, especially if he goes on to win 15 games, and wants to start looking at 5 years +. I’d venture to say we’ll have a pretty good idea about Lohse by the All-Star break. if he’s doing well, let’s give him 3 years and enjoy the luxury of not relying on a damaged arm for the long term.

:(