Snell and Carpenter

I'm really curious to get a look at Snell in the big leagues when he knows he's a starter and doesn't have to worry about impressing from the pen to earn a start. He's actually a rare commodity in our current preponderance of lefties, a powerful righty. He's had two starts this year for us and the line on both is pretty bad, but I think it's at least a bit misleading. The first start came in a DH against the Astros when we were getting blown out night after night in the week+ following the All-Star break. His 5 runs in 5 innings was actually one of the better starts by someone not named Duke during that stretch. His second start against LA (which I missed while on vacation) fetched quite an ugly line, but I was told that he threw consistently in the upper 90s (not mid-90s, but upper 90s, as in 95+) and LA couldn't get a solid hit off of him, but everything they did hit either had eyes or was misplayed by us, leading to his 6 earned in 2 innings line from that day. The fact is, if he can pitch well down the stretch he'd certainly be a great addition in the rotation to mix things up with guys like Maholm and Duke.

Of course tonight he's going up against quite the opposition. I don't care what Jayson Stark says, Carpenter has been absolutely dominating this year and should be the run away Cy Young winner. He's owned us this year and hasn't lost to anyone since June 8th. Hell, he hasn't even had a no decision since August 19th. Since the Cardinals threw us their dummy lineup last night, I'd look for the big bats to greet Snell tonight. Hopefully management has already planned to give him another start no matter what happens tonight, because tonight might not be pretty.