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.