Hopefully the first thing they'll do is sit him down with Mulder and convince him to have rotator cuff surgery so perhaps he can be a useful pitcher again as early as next year.

Hmm, so now both Esteban Yan and Tomokazu Ohka have been part of the Cardinals organization. Somebody in the front office must be a big Simpsons fan.

Ya'know, this has happened once before to a LaRussa team. After winning the division in somewhat surprising fashion in 1992 the pitching staff collapsed the following year. Stewart and Mike Moore left while Bob Welch and Ron Darling disintegrated into dust. The Oakland pitching staff finished last in the league in ERA and no matter how you sliced it the staff was pretty terrible.

When Bobby Witt is your "ace" you have issues. Kelly Downs made 12 starts if that tells you anything. Anyone who saw Downs pitch will understand.

One of the risks of gathering vets is that the chance always exists that the meter hits "E" on their arms. And should that happen on multiple guys at once...........Well, it ain't pretty.

Jocketty and LaRussa are smart guys. If there is a way they will find it.

Ohka's just 31, though -- so I don't know that his tank is empty (Wells is only 30, though, so maybe they're making tanks smaller nowadays).

Honestly, I think the Cards' issues all go back to Carpenter's ills... If Carpenter is in the rotation, maybe Reyes stays in the rotation and Wells goes to the pen/waiver wire. Without that one rock in the rotation, the pebbles can't really be built into anything useful.

Even as a Cubs fan, I almost feel sorry for the Cards.

Almost.

Ohka's just 31, though -- so I don't know that his tank is empty

Bear in mind he's attempting to pitch with a tear in his rotator cuff.

well ... i'm not going to say we're done until somebody looks like they want to win the division ...

Even as a Cubs fan, I almost feel sorry for the Cards.

Now THAT is a new one. The best part being that the horror show that is the 2007 St. Louis Cardinals is a HALF game back of the Cubs.

Hmmm, it looks like Wells isn't starting tonight according to Yahoo! TLR only told Kip about it an hour or so ago. I'd guess Ohka makes one start in the minors, then is up, with Wells getting the DFA.

Hmmm, it looks like Wells isn't starting tonight according to Yahoo! TLR only told Kip about it an hour or so ago. I'd guess Ohka makes one start in the minors, then is up, with Wells getting the DFA.

What???? I just made a massive bet on the Over in the game tonight. Damn the luck.

One of the risks of gathering vets is that the chance always exists that the meter hits "E" on their arms. And should that happen on multiple guys at once...........Well, it ain't pretty.

The Cardinals have three guys in their rotation with 19 pre-2007 career starts, two of whom were supposed to be pretty good and a third who was supposed to be serviceable. That doesn't include Looper. The problem isn't veterans on "E".

The problem isn't veterans on "E".

Yea- fire Duncan! His sh!t doesn't work in the postseason, err, the regular season... at least the 2007 regular season. and he shouldn't have written that book about his kid.

AP: Pitching-poor Cardinals sign Ohka to minor league contract

"I think it's a smart move to get him into our organization and see what he's got," manager Tony La Russa said. "But there's no guarantees. It depends on how he pitches."
...
"In this case, the expectation is send him to Triple-A and see how he throws," La Russa said. "If he throws better than one of the five guys we have, he's here."

Yay! We signed a pitcher mentioned on The Simpsons!

"I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos Washington Nationals Milwaukee Brewers Toronto Blue Jays St. Louis Cardinals!"

gb:

I suspect, and I could be wrong, that the Cardinals were relying on Carpenter and Wells to help smooth the expected difficulties of the younger/untested starters. And by hitting "E" I don't mean that the players in question (Carpenter/Wells) are "done". Just that relying on pitchers that others perceive as high-risk (due to injury history or what have you) does have its, well, risks.

Because Duncan has made himself a minor legend by resurrecting veteran pitchers like Wells and Looper. Or if not necessarily bringing careers back from the dead at minimum getting more output than others thought possible.

It went kersplat in 1993 as things went awry. I was simply pointing out that these two men know this situation. And if ANYONE can get the train back on track it should be them.

What am I missing here?

Oh, that 93 A's team was painful. Although in my memory, the 1991 team was much worse, a woeful squad, and they were actually 84-78.

The most remarkable thing about that 1993 A's squad was the week when LaRussa decided to disintegrate his starting rotation entirely.

Even as a Cubs fan, I almost feel sorry for the Cards.

What???

Why?

The most remarkable thing about that 1993 A's squad was the week when LaRussa decided to disintegrate his starting rotation entirely.

I don't remember this. What happened?

I don't remember this. What happened?

He divided his 13-man pitching staff into three groups of three pitchers each, plus four relievers. Each of the three triads pitched every third game, with the idea that each pitcher would work three or so innings, depending on success and pitch count. The four relievers, including Eck, would be available for late game and situational matchups.

And here's some detail on how it worked out:

With his team in sixth place on July 19, 1993, La Russa announced his radical new pitching plan, as I outlined above. Todd Van Poppel, Ron Darling and Kelly Downs would be Group A; Mike Mohler, Bobby Witt and John Briscoe Group B; and Bob Welch, Shawn Hillegas and Goose Gossage Group C. Each group would pitch every three games. Edwin Nunez, Joe Boever, Vince Horsman and Eckersley would be the short men.

From the start, things never went according to plan. Kevin Campbell replaced Downs in Group A, but still didn't pitch in the first game as Van Poppel and Darling worked 4 innings each in a 4-2 loss. The second game, a 9-5 loss, Mohler went 1 2/3, Boever 1/3, Campbell 1, Witt 4 and Briscoe 1.

In Game 3, Downs (replacing Hillegas) went 4, Welch 3, Horsman 0+, Gossage 1 and Eck 1 in a 7-2 win.

In Game 4, a 9-7 loss, Van Poppel (on two days' rest) went 2 2/3, Campbell 1 1/3, Darling 3 (also on two days' rest) and Nunez 1.

In Game 5, Mohler went 3, Witt 4, Eck 2 and Gossage 2/3 in a 6-5 loss. Mohler and Witt were working on two days' rest, with Witt throwing four innings each time -- the most radical departure from the conventional use of having pitchers throw long every five days, or short every day or two.

By Game 6, La Russa was stretching out his old starters: Downs went 4 2/3 -- giving him 8 2/3 over two games in the span of about 72 hours -- Horsman 1/3 and Boever 3. The A's lost 5-3

The next night, Welch went 4 1/3, Rick Honeycutt rejoined the team and went 2/3, Campbell 2 and Horsman 1. The A's lost 8-1.

After going 1-6, La Russa ended the experiment, and Darling became the first A's pitcher in a week to qualify for a win, going 6 innings in a 11-4 victory.

Wow. Interesting stuff, thanks for the recap. It kind of seems like a good idea, but you can see why it wouldn't have worked.

He had the right idea for the ego problem, putting the pitchers who were used to being starters in the middle, where they could be awarded the "win." It actually makes quite a bit of sense to have a reliever start the game and pitch the first two or three innings, then bring in the five-to-seven inning guy, with other relievers waiting in the wings. A manager might be able to have some sustained success with a model like that.