Miller: 5 things to know | 
Miller's report
JUPITER, Fla. -- Oh, to be 25 and have a signature strikeout on your resume like Adam Wainwright.
You remember. National League Championship Series. Game 7, ninth inning, bases loaded, two strikes, mean-as-a-bear Carlos Beltran at the plate, Shea Stadium snarling and the Cardinals leading 3-1.
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| Adam Wainwright is making the switch from bullpen to the starting rotation. (AP) |
Except ...
"It's fun to do that, but I think if I keep speaking about it, I run the risk of disrespecting Beltran and the whole Mets team," Wainwright says. "It's over with now."
Oh, to be 25, have a line on one of the open spots in the Cardinals rotation and own a maturity level on par with that unparalleled curveball.
"Good kid, great family," says St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen, whose hip surgery last Sept. 21 was the whole reason why Wainwright was on that Shea Stadium mound in the ninth inning in the first place. "He's a kid that's pretty hard to root against.
"Everybody thinks I should be this angry guy about what happened to me last year. But I almost feel like my kids are out there pitching."
Yes, the sky appears to be the limit for Wainwright as the defending world champions re-arrange their rotation and the young right-hander makes the finishing touches toward moving from the bullpen to the rotation. So far, so good this spring for Wainwright, who Monday made his second solid start of the spring.
Starting isn't exactly a new experience for Wainwright. Rising through the ranks, he started in 135 of his 137 minor-league appearances. It was only last season he was assigned to the 'pen upon breaking spring camp with the Cards in what everybody knew was a temporary situation.
Turned out, the unexpected detour might have been the best thing to happen for both sides. Wainwright was thrilled with the chance to stick in the majors, in whatever role he could, and the hands-on education he received during his apprentice year was Ph.D.-level. The Cardinals were buoyed by his late-season move into the closer's role when Isringhausen's hip went out.
A few months later, after the St. Louis rotation was devastated by winter defections -- Jeff Suppan to Milwaukee, Jeff Weaver to Seattle, Jason Marquis to the Cubs -- here comes Wainwright, Anthony Reyes and veteran reliever Braden Looper to join one-time Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter and free agent Kip Wells.
The parallels between what both Wainwright and Boston's Jonathan Papelbon are doing this spring is striking, though outside of a rookie moving from the bullpen into the rotation, the stories are more different than similar.
