Another setback: far-off five tooler Tommy Pham, recently promoted to low-A, has been moved to center field. I realize that things did not look good for him to remain a shortstop going forward, but consider: a certain Colby Rasmus would appear to be the center fielder of the future, just as soon as Jim Edmonds becomes the center fielder of the past. Meanwhile, David Eckstein is the shortstop of the present, and nobody is the shortstop of the immediate future.

Not only that, but the Cardinals already have a young, toolsy center fielder in low-A: Daryl Jones. Sure, the move may be inevitable, but Pham is 19; there’s plenty of time to banish him to center field, should his infield glove never materialize.

Meanwhile, re: last night’s game, I mainly have this to say: MV3! MV3! MV3!

As for Wellemeyer, I think his upside is the non-scuffling version of Jeff Weaver, which isn’t so bad. (In particular the iffy-walk-rate/low-homer-rate version of Weaver, tonight aside.) Holding back Anthony Reyes, though, remains bad. And the kicker: Wellemeyer pitched exactly as Reyes must.

Wellemeyer used his mid-90s fastball everywhere in the zone, and got some swinging strikes up around hitters’ eyes, but the biggest difference was what he did with his off-speed stuff pitch. I can’t rule out that it’s just a matter of differing body language, or the results clouding my observations, but it seemed like he threw his off-speed pitches intending to get them by hitters, instead of around them.

Wellemeyer’s sinking change/slider (or whatever it is) isn’t as impressive as Reyes’s, and he still wastes a lot of fastballs, but I’ll say this: he doesn’t nibble with anything. And given the way most of the rotation has pitched lately, I’ll take that.