It’s in the Cards to repeat
bc-GNS-BBN-STLOUIS 3-21 Cardinals staff doing well on the fly Editors:@ Edited by USA TODAY. One in a series of daily spring training profiles, in alphabetical order. Note breakout material at end.
By PAUL WHITE USA TODAY JUPITER, Fla. – Jason Isringhausen walked into the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse and catcher Yadier Molina asked, “How’d it go?” “Very good, very good,” Isringhausen said.
“About time,” Molina said, laughing.
Isringhausen was smiling, too, almost giddy about the results of pitching batting practice, results that are “very good, very good” for the Cardinals’ hopes of repeating as World Series champions. He has since made two scoreless appearances in Grapefruit League games, putting him on schedule to be ready opening day.
They need their closer. Isringhausen has saved 181 regular-season and playoff games for St. Louis over the past five seasons. The Cardinals did win the World Series last year without Isringhausen pitching in October. The pain caused by an arthritic-hip condition that had been bothering him for two years became too much in early September, and he had surgery.
But developments since the celebrations ended make Isringhausen more important than ever.
The Cardinals lost free-agent starting pitchers Jeff Weaver, Jeff Suppan and Jason Marquis. Mark Mulder will miss at least the first half of this season after rotator-cuff surgery. To plug the holes, Adam Wainwright and Braden Looper are going from the bullpen to the rotation. But Wainwright emerged as the replacement closer in last year’s playoffs, and Looper was one of the team’s key setup men.
“If you look ahead to our season, with what we’re taking from the bullpen,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says, “who’s more important to our club than Izzy? He’s tied for first with anyone you want to name, (No. 1 starter Chris) Carpenter, (third baseman Scott) Rolen, (first baseman Albert) Pujols.” That’s why fans gathered at the back fields at the Cardinals spring complex and cheered when Isringhausen pitched to teammates as a prelude to being used in games. He almost seemed embarrassed by the ovations.
“Better than getting booed,” he says.
Isringhausen says the change in his hip is remarkable.
“I don’t want to hurt when I throw,” he says. “The last two years, I was always thinking about landing correctly so it didn’t hurt. I don’t have to think. I just throw the ball and my mechanics fall into place.” He wonders if those smoother, pain-free mechanics could help his control. Isringhausen walked 2.9 batters per nine innings his first three years in St. Louis, 4.1 in 2005 and a career-worst 5.9 last year.
Even as Isringhausen was building his strength and boosting his team’s confidence, the starting pitching portion of the equation was rapidly reaching a point of no return. It’s not that Looper and/or Wainwright couldn’t be moved back to the bullpen, at least temporarily. But they were part of a stretch of 26 consecutive scoreless innings in exhibition games by the five members of the rotation.
“Hopefully, we’re building in the right direction,” says Carpenter, the 2005 NL Cy Young Award winner and a 15-game winner last year. “We’re throwing strike one, getting ahead of hitters, pounding the bottom of the strike zone. I’m excited. It’s a good group of guys, and they’re excited to prove a lot of people wrong, that they can go out there every five days and be consistent and win games.” Looper, whose 572 major league appearances have been as a reliever, attracted the most skeptics. But he has added a cut fastball to keep hitters from focusing on his sinker, his most effective pitch, and allowed just one run in his first 11 spring innings before Atlanta got him for four runs in three innings.
“For the first time in a long, long time, I’m pitching in the true sense of the word,” Looper says about adapting to pitching more than an inning or two at a time. “I haven’t done a lot of that in my career. I’m enjoying it.” (BREAKOUT MATERIAL) Inside the Cardinals – Last season: 83-78, first in NL Central.
– Manager: Tony La Russa, 12th year.
– General manager: Walt Jocketty, 13th year.
– Projected lineup: C Yadier Molina, 1B Albert Pujols, 2B Adam Kennedy, SS David Eckstein, 3B Scott Rolen, LF Chris Duncan, CF Jim Edmonds, RF Juan Encarnacion.
– Projected rotation: RHP Chris Carpenter, RHP Kip Wells, RHP Adam Wainwright, RHP Anthony Reyes, RHP Braden Looper.
– Closer: RHP Jason Isringhausen.
– Roster question: Can the Cardinals move two of last season’s relievers – Wainwright and Looper – into the rotation and succeed? With Josh Kinney out for the season after elbow surgery, more than 35 percent of last year’s relief innings must be replaced.
AP-NY-03-20-07 2152EDT