St. Louis Cardinals' Call to Arms: Pitching Key to 2012 Success

The St. Louis Cardinals' amazing postseason run in 2011 was full of all kinds of tense, memorable moments.  

The anchor of those moments was brought about mainly by timely, quality pitching.  Chris Carpenter pitched a game for the ages in Game 5 of the NLDS.  The bullpen bailed out short, ineffective starts on multiple occasions.

The bottom line is that for the Cardinals to repeat as World Champions, their pitching will need to lead the way.  Getting ace Adam Wainwright back to go along with Chris Carpenter and up-and-coming Jaime Garcia, the Cards are poised to be one of the toughest rotations in the NL. 

Add to that a young-armed, but fairly seasoned bullpen, and pitching will be key to the Cards' success in 2012.

Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter cemented his place in Cardinals lore forever with his Game 5 performance in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies and his pal, Roy Halladay.

The Carp of old showed up in the second half of 2011 after a miserable 1-7 start through mid-June.  Granted, not all of those losses were his fault as the bats seemed to go missing in his starts more than any other Cardinal starter's in 2011.

Carpenter will turn 37 in the first month of the season.  Keeping healthy has always been a challenge for Carp, but he proved his durability in 2011 with 273.1 innings pitched including the postseason. 

Hopefully for the Cards' sake, Carpenter will take the ball every fifth day and the form of latter 2011 will show up.  If that is the case, don't be surprised to see 16-plus wins and 200-plus innings from the rugged,  battle-tested ace.

Adam Wainwright

No one is more excited to get back on the bump than Adam Wainwright. 

After missing the entire 2011 season with a torn elbow ligament, Wainwright is poised to bolster the Cardinals' 2012 staff and provide arguably one of the best one-two punches in the game with mate Chris Carpenter.

Wainwright is a workhorse when healthy.  In 2009-2010, Wainwright averaged 232 innings, 19.5 wins, 212 Ks and finished in the top three in Cy Young voting both of those years.

For the Cardinals to make a deep October run, Wainwright will need to show signs of his pre-Tommy John surgery form, buckling knees with his curveball and keeping hitters off-balance.

Jaime Garcia

With Jaime Garcia signing a guaranteed four-year, $27 million contract with two option years during the offseason, the Cardinals showed the faith they have in Garcia's ability. 

Now it will be time for Jaime to step up and continue to progress beyond a five-inning pitcher.  Garcia has great stuff and will be expected to pitch a bit deeper into games this season. 

He is a great third stater in a rotation that boasts two legitimate aces in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.  Garcia has the potential to win 15-17 games a year with his stuff and plow through 200-plus innings. 

Hopefully for Cardinal nation, Jaime will continue to progress to his potential in 2012.

Kyle Lohse

Looking at the names on this list, you wouldn't think that Kyle Lohse led the 2011 World Champion Cardinals in wins with 14.  But everything about the 2011 Cardinal team seemed unconventional, so maybe it is not a surprise.

Lohse is entering the last year of a four-year, $41 million deal, and will find himself again pitching for a contract. 

The last time Lohse found himself in this situation, he delivered a 15-6 season in 2008.  Lohse was up-and-down toward the end of 2011.  With a new contract in the wings, Lohse will bring his best stuff in 2012.

If Lohse can add a solid curveball to the repertoire that he has been developing in the offseason, he could be a very solid No. 4 starter. 

Jake Westbrook

Jake Westbrook has been a disappointment since donning the STL on his cap.  While his record is slightly over .500 since coming over from Cleveland, Westbrook hasn't been what the Cardinals were hoping for.

Westbrook has dropped some weight and is beaming with confidence coming into the 2012 season.  Westbrook is not a hard thrower and his sinkerball has got to be on for him to be effective. 

As the last man in the rotation, Westbrook can add some real value to a repeat run at the title if he can produce 12-14 wins in 2012.

Kyle McClellan

Kyle McClellan got his wish to start the 2011 season the in Cardinals rotation and got off to a fast start, going 6-1.  But McClellan quickly wore down and was shuffled back to the bullpen in July. 

McClellan will most likely be a long reliever for the Cardinals this season.  He has decent stuff and can be a solid anchor for a young Cardinal bullpen.  That said, he could be the first one out of town as the Cards bullpen is a crowded house right now.

Mitchell Boggs

Mitchell Boggs throws heat.  Now the key is just to polish up the location and Boggs could be a legit closer at the major league level. 

Boggs will most likely fill a middle-relief role for the Cardinals this season and possibly situational setup duties. Boggs had a brief stint as the closer last year, but was unable to hold on to the job.

Lance Lynn

Lance Lynn is another one of the young flame-throwers in Mike Matheny's bullpen for 2012. Lynn had his ups and downs during the postseason in 2011, but had a solid finish to the regular season. 

Lynn finished 2011 with a 3.12 ERA and 10.4 Ks per nine innings.  Those are the kind of numbers you need to have at the back end of your bullpen when a strikeout is desperately needed. 

The Cards will most likely use Lynn's services in the sixth, seventh or eighth innings this season.

JC Romero

JC Romero will be the 2012 version of Arthur Rhodes for the Cardinals.  Romero will most likely be used as a lefty specialist. 

Romero is starting to age as he enters the season at 35 years old, but brings a wealth of experience to a young Redbird bullpen.  He will be a welcome addition and provide the Cardinals another left-hander in the bullpen in addition to Mark Rzepczynski.

Mark Rzepczynski

Mark Rzepczynski, or Scrabble as he is known, was a key cog in the Cardinals bullpen during the 2011 postseason. 

Taking away his first appearance in Game 1 of the NLDS, where he gave up three runs and couldn't complete an inning, Rzepczynski gave up one earned run the rest of the postseason in 8.1 innings, a 1.08 ERA.

He will be another left-hander in the bullpen for the 2012 Cardinals.  Unlike Romero, don't be surprised to see Rzepczynski pitch an entire inning or in extreme cases, two.  He is young and has a lot of baseball ahead of him.

Fernando Salas

Fernando Salas also took a turn as the closer for the Cardinals last year.  Frankly, he did a pretty good job, finishing with 24 saves and a 2.28 ERA.  But as the postseason drew near, Salas lost his job to Jason Motte. 

Salas has proven he is a capable closer at the major league level, and will be a fantastic setup man to Jason Motte and can step in if occasion calls to close a game out.

As he enters his third year in the big leagues, Salas will continue to develop into a top-flight setup man and/or closer.

Jason Motte

Jason Motte also threw his hat in the ring as a closer for the Cardinals in 2011.  He assumed the closer role for the Cardinals at the end of the 2011 season. 

As a ploy to help him not put too much pressure on himself, Tony LaRussa never officially named Motte the closer.

Whether a gimmick or not, it seemed to have worked.  Motte earned his spot as the closer by not allowing an earned run in all of July and August, with 22 innings worked during that time span. 

Hopefully Motte has developed another pitch to go along with his heater.  If that is the case, he can be a dominant closer that could rack up 35-plus saves and bring fear to hitters in the ninth inning.

Now if he'll just shave that angry badger growing on his face...

Eduardo Sanchez

Eduardo Sanchez could very well be the odd-man out.  He had a great rookie campaign in 2011, posting a 1.80 ERA in 26 appearances, but his season had a hole chewed in it by a shoulder injury in June. 

Sanchez also got a turn on the merry-go-round of closers last season for the Cardinals.  It will be interesting to see how new skipper Mike Matheny uses Sanchez this season.