Brian34Cook

Hold the fort or lead the charge?
03/30/2008


The Cardinals hope their starting rotation can keep team afloat until injured pitchers return, but opening-day starter Adam Wainwright (above) wants more than that.

JUPITER, FLA. — The way it had been presented several times by Cardinals management was that all the starting rotation had to do was hold on, keep the club buoyed in the standings and wait for reinforcements.

Adam Wainwright saw it differently.

"That's selling ourselves way short," said Wainwright, the stand-in ace on a staff rich with inexperience. "I don't think the goal should be to 'hold on' until they get here. What does that say about ourselves if that's the case? The goal should be for us to dominate."

The Cardinals entered spring training with a rotation in flux, leave Florida with a rotation in flux and likely will play the first half of the season with a rotation in flux. Blame injuries. Four members of the team's possible starting staff will start the year on the disabled list, and they will begin slowly trickling back a couple of weeks into April. Chris Carpenter (elbow surgery) is expected to be the last to join, sometime in July.

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