I told Mets fan not to worry about Santana. Unfortunately for St. Louis fans, I’m not sure I can say the same thing here. It’s probably time to worry.

I’ve been worrying about The Colonel’s ineffectiveness since early May. (Last night didn’t do much to assuage my concerns.) However, I’m going to wait to sound the alarm until the St. Louis summer really gets cooking. If, in mid-July heat and humidity, Wellemeyer isn’t averaging between 92 and 93 mph on his fastball and touching 94 mph, then I’m going to be alarmed. (Hopefully, by that time we have acquired Brad Penny. Kidding…kind of.)

I was also glad to see the increase in velocity last night. Wellemeyer said a couple of days ago on FSN (I think) that he thought he was throwing too much between starts and perhaps that was contributing to his problems. So I’m hoping he cut back and then had much better performance.

I also noticed he didn’t have his personal catcher and Schmacher was playing second base behind him. I don’t think that has happened yet this season. He made noise early on about not being happy about the positional shifts in the infield. Since Schu was not playing when Welly was pitching that meant Welly was always up against a LHP for the other side. What a depressing thought for any Cardinal pitcher.

My immediate thought at the beginning of the game was "I wonder if someone told him – ""Yup Yadi ,Yup Shu—Now put on yer big boy pants and get out their and pitch"" (he seems to whine a lot).

Anyway, last night he managed, even with Schu at second, to get a win. I hope there is no lurking injury for his sake as well as the Cards.

2005: 32
2006: 78
2007: 79
2008: 191
2009: 80 (so far)

I think this might be the problem. Also, he just isn’t that great a pitcher. He was lucky last year. Although he looks more hittable this year, I think it’s closer to his real Skill-set; his FIP is about the same as last year (although his tRA and K/BB are notably worse). Also, as chuck noted earlier in the season, he’s REALLY bad vs left-handed hitters – I think part of his ineffectiveness is that he’s faced a lot of lefty-heavy lineups (possibly intentionally, as managers picked up on his poor stats against them) so maybe that’s had an effect.

He’s lost less than 2mph, I think that’s significant, but it could just be early season issues and fatigue on his arm. Time will tell. I’m actually not too worried about Welly – what Welly hath taken, Pineiro hath given (or something) – they’ve just swapped round their roles as the #4 and #5 pitcher on the staff, and, truth be told, Welly’s 4.70-odd FIP is pretty reasonable for a #5. As long as we don’t expect much more than that, I guess that’s OK…