Knock On Wood

[love_that_reefer]

Chris Carpenter blanked the Red Sox for four innings Thursday to maintain his perfect spring ERA.
The Cardinals have to be awfully pleased with how their pitching is coming along this spring. Carpenter has given up four hits over eight scoreless innings in his return from elbow surgery.

So far so good. If the Cards want to be even close to being a contender, Carp is going to have to make 25+ starts. I like what I'm hearing!!

[missionhockey21]

If anyone would know how to rehab successfully back from major surgery, it would be Carpenter. The innings are limited so I don't know what to make of them yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if Carpenter is better than most anticipate.

[catman]

Carpenter should be OK this season. LaRussa will have to watch his pitch-count early in the season, but he should be able to pitch 175 innings or so.

[love_that_reefer]

Chris Carpenter cruised through six scoreless innings Wednesday as a Cardinals split-squad beat an Orioles split-squad 3-2.
It was supposed to be one of two split-squad games between the two teams, but the one at Baltimore's home park was rained out. Carpenter got 15 outs on the ground today, with two of the remaining three coming via the strikouts. He faced just two batters over the minimum in another very impressive outing. He's yet to allow a run this spring.

Keep it going man!! Fantastic news!

[love_that_reefer]

19 IP, 0 ER Cy Carpenter looks to be back!!

[browntown653]

That's certainly an encouraging sign, but I have to take spring training statistics with a grain of salt. The most important thing to me is that he's healthy.

[love_that_reefer]

Carpenter is facing ML hitters and coming off an injury so you have to take them more seriously. The guy has shown zero rust.

[browntown653]

I understand that but spring training stats mean nothing to me. Jaret Wright had a 0.86 ERA in 21 innings in 2005 spring training.

[love_that_reefer]

Jaret Wright also wasn't coming off an injury or had the career Carpenter has. This more or less shows his progress coming from injury.

[browntown653]

I realize that. My point is just that there is basically no correlation between spring training stats and regular season ones. I am encouraged to see Carpenter doing well and healthy but ST stats mean just about nothing.

[CrazyEights]

I realize that. My point is just that there is basically no correlation between spring training stats and regular season ones.

I agree 100%. Although, Carpenter's problem has never been that he pitched bad. If you have a pitcher that has a history of pitching bad, and he has a great spring, then he will probably still be a bad pitcher once the season starts. When Carpenter is healthy then he pitches well. It doesn't matter if it is in the spring or in the regular season. If Carpenter can stay healthy this season, then he will be tough to beat.