I do tend to write my posts a little late at night, so often the message gets garbled when I think I’m being exceedingly clever. A few e-mails later about yesterday’s missive–thanks to a Deadspin link–here’s what I meant when I said this:

Were they to open the pursestrings for a big name pitcher, there’s an outside chance the Cardinals would end up with three top-notch pitchers by the end of 2007. And that would be pretty cool.

My ideal rotation looks something like this:

1. Chris Carpenter
2. Big Name Free-Agent Pitcher A
3. Anthony Reyes
4. Adam Wainwright
5. Mark Mulder

The three top-notch pitchers in such a rotation would be Carp, BNFAPA, and Mulder; Reyes and Wainwright, meanwhile, could get their adjustments in without being relied upon as much as Reyes is now. Should Mulder’s arm need additional rest or prove to be unsound in 2007, the Cardinals have Chris Narveson and Blake Hawksworth idling in the upper levels of the minors.

Narveson, by the way, continues to confound me. He doesn’t seem to be fit to relieve; his fastball started off in the low-to-mid 80s before hitting 88 and 89 at the end of his outing. He hit some good spots with it, and it seems to have a lot of movement; he registered some impressive-looking strikeouts on the inside part of the plate. On the other hand, his curveball was average at best, and occasionally hung up so enticingly that a slow-pitch softball DH could have turned around on it.

Only a year removed from some significant arm surgery, he could improve significantly on his 2006 stuff; he looks like an ideal Leo Mazzone pitcher, more than anything else, but if he adds a solid curveball he could start in the majors right now.

Because if he just has a good fastball–well, he probably saw what happens to pitchers like that who start.

Wait, that was him? I thought they were trying out Mulder’s good arm. If nothing else, be glad that they shut Swamp Gas down when they did; Reyes needs some time to work things out, and to prove that he’s a better bet for the rotation than Marquis.

Meanwhile: September call-ups, O how I love thee. Had this game taken place in July I would have switched over to one of the many Law and Order reruns circa the third inning, but as things were I had Nelson/Narveson sightings to look forward to.

John Nelson takes a big, big swing and he’s an infielder; it’s good to see in terms of variety, but given the AAA results–.219/.291/.411–he’s not going to be the shining example to inspire La Jocketty to invest in infielders with isolated powers over .100.

Narveson looked like a basic lefty back-of-the-rotation type; he threw strikes, he kept his fastball from 88-92, and his curveball was, variously, a sterling strikeout pitch and somewhere in the left-field bleachers. Just from looks, his upside is Mark Mulder 2005, which is definitely not a bad thing. With Mark Mulder 2007 looking ever-more-likely to be a St. Louis bargain by default, it would be the best case scenario if another, more reliable free-agent signing squeezed him out of the rotation. But if it didn’t, God forbid, or if Wainwright ends up shoehorned permanently into the pen, he’s a more interesting option than Pondre the Giant.

And then there was that Japanese second baseman they trotted out; he showed good range around the bag and a solid pivot, but I don’t know if his bat is strong enough to keep him in the bigs. Seriously, is second base a legitimate possibility for The Gooch? He certainly looked competent out there. And if he can play it in the same way Spiezio can, or the way that John Mabry stood at third, he might have one remaining advantage over future fourth outfielder/Real American Hero Skip Schumaker.

Today we get Marquis/Webb, a matchup which Dan McLaughlin described charitably as a battle between two sinkerballers. For those of you keeping score, Marquis Marq’s G/F ratio is now 1.16, about where it was during his days in Atlanta. Of course, he struck batters out in Atlanta; does it surprise anybody else that he once whiffed seven batters per nine innings? Does it surprise anybody that he once whiffed seven batters?

It may be the time of year in the big leagues to watch Harold Reynolds sign his name “Mr. Harold Ortiz!!!” a hundred times in his Lisa Frank notebook, but the minor leagues have already gotten their all-star breaks out of the way and are back to the real baseball. There’ve been some interesting developments down on the farm this month. Among them:

In low-A Quad Cities Mark McCormick, the flamethrowing right-handed pitcher selected in the first round of the 2005 draft, made his first start since June 1 on Monday. On a strict 60-pitch limit, he allowed two earned runs in four innings, striking out four and–most intriguingly–walking nobody. His stuff isn’t in question; his fastball has reached 100 mph at times, and he throws a curveball that occasionally serves as his out pitch. The problem is his control; to be specific, he doesn’t have any. Prior to yesterday’s start, he’d struck out 114 and walked 69 in his 97 innings, which comes out to 10.58 and 6.40 per nine, respectively.

The game proved to be mixed news for fans of Trey Hearne, sleeper prospect. Hearne found his way into the starting rotation at Quad Cities only after McCormick went down, and proceeded to rattle off a series of solid starts. But after McCormick’s four innings were up, Hearne came in in relief. He was his usual self: five innings, one run, five strikeouts, one walk. But one has to wonder what the Swing–and by extension, the Cardinals–think about him. Has anybody actually seen him pitch? I’d love a report.

The game, which went into extra innings, was closed out by Chris Perez, who struck out a man in his one scoreless inning of work. As a high-drafted college reliever, his estimated time of arrival has been increasingly speculated-upon. He probably won’t manage the trick of appearing in the major leagues the same year he was selected, because he started in A-ball, but if he continues to move through the low minors with no resistance he could appear in the bullpen by this time next year. Big “if”, of course.

In Palm Beach, Colby Rasmus managed his second hit in as many days. Of course, it was the center fielder’s third hit in his six games since being promoted to high-A. He started slowly last year in Johnson City, and this year in the Quad Cities, where he led off the year 2-28; no need to be worried about the One True Prospect for a while yet.

He’s not the only recently-promoted prospect to’ve struggled of late. Blake Hawksworth, number-one-prospect-turned-injured-afterthought-turned-prospect, got the start for AA Springfield on Monday and allowed three earned runs in five innings, striking out five and walking three.

I get the feeling he might realize he’s a little less dominant in the high minors. Having already destroyed the low minors prior to being injured, his return to Palm Beach might have been an opportunity to throw less than 100%; his control was outstanding, and he didn’t allow any home runs, but his strikeout rate was uncharacteristically low. He’s struck out thirteen batters in his fifteen innings in AA, but he’s walked nine and allowed two home runs already. Having been ticketed as a possible ace prior to getting hurt, he’s certainly got the stuff to adjust; hopefully he does it this year, which would put him in the outside picture for the major league rotation sometime in 2007.

Another once-and-future Cardinals prospect, Chris Narveson, has also thrown himself into the mix, on the back of his 90-92 mph fastball and an above-average curveball. The 24-year-old lefty was a second rounder out of high school in 2000; he dominated the low minors out of the gate, striking out a batter an inning with walk rates under two per nine in 2000, 2001, and 2002. His strikeout rate degenerated in his first exposure to high A and AA in 2003, but he continued to post low ERAs thanks to a low home run rate. In 2004 his strikeout rate perked back up, but his control fell off. In August of that year he was the big name in the Larry Walker salary dump trade.

Just before opening day in 2005, Narveson was involved in another trade, to the Red Sox as part of the Byung-Hyun Kim deal. In AAA Pawtucket, however, he showed nothing; no strikeouts, lousy control. He was waived in August, and the Cardinals reclaimed him. He made two starts in Memphis and got shelled before going down with a labrum injury.

After three rehab starts in June, 2006, Narveson arrived back in Memphis; there his strikeout rate has yet to perk up, but his control has returned and the Cardinals like him enough to keep him on the 40-man roster.

Finally, in the rookie Appalachian League, one of the Cardinals’ toolsiest prospects has made his 2006 debut. Daryl Jones, a third rounder in 2005, has a ton of speed and raw power, but he had little to show for it in his debut season, where he hit .209/.311/.286. The 19-year-old center fielder spent the first half of 2006 in extended spring training, and was ticketed for a return-trip to Johnson City; a hamstring issue, however, caused him to miss the first few weeks. Since then, he’s hit .292/.320/.625 in seven games, with two home runs in his first 24 at-bats–as many as he had all last season. He’s a long way off, and there’s no guarantee he’s even improved, but it’s good to see.