The Gas House Gang

Matthew Leach, who covers the St. Louis Cardinals for MLB.com, recently answered questions in his mailbag column.  One reader asks about how the Cardinals will handle the fact that, with Anthony Reyes in the mix, the Cards have six starters.  While on the face of things I questioned the signing of Sidney Ponson, the guy can chew up some innings.  In 2003 he had a career year which looks like an anamoly, but he’s never had the Cardinals’ offense behind him. 

Anthony Reyes, who’s hopefully the future ace of the team, might do well to spend a year coming out of the pen.  Earl Weaver always tried to get his young pitchers work out of the pen before they were put into the rotation, and that would allow us to see what Ponson may or may not have, while getting Reyes some quality major league innings.

One writer piped in about going to a six man rotation, but I don’t see that happening.  Then again, Tony LaRussa was the guy who wanted to try using three pitchers for three innings each, basically turning all of his pitchers into relievers, when he was in Oakland, so who knows.