St. Louis Cardinals Tickets - Cardinals’ Acer Plans to Get Back In the Game

It’s the biggest question on the minds of the Cardinals for the 2009 season; Chris Carpenter’s condition. It certainly was a question that came up again and again recently when Carpenter addressed a group. Carpenter came back with the same answer time and again too; which was that he feels normal.

Heading to Spring Training in a few weeks, Carpenter doesn’t think he’s in rehabilitation but that he’s making preparation not just for Spring Training but for an appearance in the rotation in the season’s first week. “I’m feeling good,” he said. “The doctor cleared me to throw a few weeks ago and I started playing catch. My elbow feels great and my shoulder is getting stronger each time I go out and throw. It feels like a normal January.”

Carpenter is speaking from the experience of dealing with two different issues with his pitching arm. A nerve injury in his right shoulder forced Carpenter to pull out of the 2008 season in September. He subsequently underwent nerve transposition surgery on his right elbow in November.

January and February tend to be the time for bold proclamations but Carpenter isn’t the type to offer unfounded optimism or offer idle boasts. “I think when he says he feels that way, that’s how he feels,” said Tony LaRussa, manager. “And he’s a veteran of feeling good and not feeling good. We’re optimistic and that’s exciting.”

With Carpenter at the top of his game, it means the Cardinals are a force to be reckoned with. To give an indication of the impact of Carpenter’s feel good or feel bad scenario, the Cardinals are waiting to gauge Carpenter’s progress before they determine the next building block of the 2009 roster.

Although there are no guarantees that the roster will stand still in the interim, general manager John Mozeliak indicated recently that the outcome of Carpenter’s scenario will most likely dictation some subsequent decisions. “We want to see where Carpenter is in the equation. I can’t rule out a few other things that may happen. But I would hate for anybody to capture it as if this was an end-all. That wouldn’t be necessarily fair.”

Carpenter, LaRussa and Mozeliak know it’s not an end all but all three also know there’s nothing bigger on the Cardinals’ plate right now. Carpenter believes that taking it one game at a time, like he’s done in the past, is an important part of preparing himself to get out and pitch.

"I feel like it’s a regular winter", he said. "It might be different in a month from now when I get off the mound. But right now I feel like it’s a normal off season." Carpenter added that his should feels good and that he has no issues with it.

The overall sentiment is that a healed Carpenter that’s pitching is what everyone wants, including Carpenter himself. "I’m preparing myself like I’m going to pitch."