Congrats to Mo! It was a travesty the he wasn't on the team to begin with. 4 Astros on the team now. Hopefully they'll have a better showing than in recent All-Star games.
Even if it did, Oswalt and Willis are also having clearly better seasons than Carpenter. It's a total homer pick, but he earned the right to do it when the Cards made the World Series so I have no complaints.
Before geting shelled his last start, Willis should have been easily awarded the starting spot. Now I think it was a tossup between either of the three and Clemens. Clemens has pitched the best in the league this year but his W/L hurt him too much. It sucks that so much empasis is put on W/L but it did help Roger get a Cy Young last season. The remaining three all three have very similar numbers and the numbers with Oswalt and Willis are extremely similar. Oswalt and Willis have a .12 ERA lower but Carpenter has 33 more strikeouts. Though by a very small amount, Carpenter has a lower WHIP and BAA.
Keep in mind that the Cardinals EXPECT to go to the World Series this year. Frankly, anything less in their minds would be a FAILURE of a season. Thus, they want to control their own fate in everything... especially in a game that will determine home-field advantage. If Carpenter gets rolling... I wouldn't be suprised to see Tony leave him in there for more than the token 1-2 innings. I say more power to them... they definitely earned the right to be calling the shots as the defending NL champs and the team with the best record in the NL.
Since the game is important, I say **** it, if Clemens has a no hitter you leave his ass in all 9. In the nba you play all season to get homefield. And it means something. This is one game, for home field, so you go for it. I don't like it, but Mlb was dumb enuogh to want this, so I say you play to win. It's a big deal.
Even though I know the Cardinals want the home field (and thus, I condoned them starting Carpenter)... Boston having the home-field last year was NOT the reason they lost. The Red Sox were going to win that series no matter what... and the fact that they made the Cards look silly in games 3 and 4 in STL leads more credence to that.
