The four promotions represent the smallest September call up total for the Cardinals in recent years and not coincidentally, it was Memphis’ first championship since 2000. With just ten games remaining in the 2009 MLB regular season by that point, there seemed little reason to add a boatload of extra players at the first city of the three-stop final road trip.

The four added are infielders Tyler Greene and David Freese (pictured), right-handed reliever Josh Kinney and catcher Matt Pagnozzi. The former three had been with the major league club during the season while Pagnozzi was first required to be placed onto the organization’s 40-man roster.

Other Memphis contributors sent home included infielder/outfielder Allen Craig, second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir, left-handers Jaime Garcia and Royce Ring and right-hander P.J. Walters. All except Craig have MLB experience. Of them, there seemed to be the greatest fan uproar over Craig, Memphis’ top hitter for most of the season, but a player without a clear home defensively.

Given all the gnashing of teeth of these moves and non-moves, I thought it would be illustrative to look back to see how much action the four call ups actually received in their ten big league games in late September and early October.

	G	GS	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Pagnozzi	6	0	5	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.000	0.250	0.000	0.250
Greene	7	1	4	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.333	0.500	0.333	0.833
Freese	6	1	12	12	1	7	0	0	1	5	0	0	0	4	0.583	0.583	0.833	1.417
	G	IP	ERA	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	R	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Kinney	2	3	0.00	12	11	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0.182	0.250	0.273	0.523

As you can see, there really isn’t much to talk about. The three position players were given a total of just two starts and 21 plate appearances, 18 official at-bats.

Pagnozzi went hitless in three at-bats, though he did coax a walk and scored. Greene went 1-for-3 while Freese saw the majority of the time. The third baseman experienced feast or famine with seven hits in 12 at-bats, including a home run, five RBI, but also fanned four times.

Kinney tossed three scoreless innings, a major improvement over his 10.95 ERA coming into the call up, which had been accrued over 15 earlier outings.

With the limited amount of playing time available to these players once Memphis’ season was over, there isn’t much more to say except that Freese looked good – other than perhaps during his first professional appearance behind the plate, that is.

At this early point of the off-season, Freese is the on-paper leader to start at third base next season, while Greene and Pagnozzi could compete for reserve roles. Ditto for Kinney in the bullpen, though none of the latter three are locks to make the major league squad in the spring.

One footnote is that it was rumored that the Cardinals would have liked to find a way for Freese to join their NLDS roster, a move I had earlier predicted. However, with no injured players heading into post-season action, the club had no eligible players to be replaced by the third baseman.

The St. Louis Cardinals reinstated Khalil Greene (pictured) from a rehabilitation assignment and activated the infielder from the 15-day disabled list today.  In addition, the club has also recalled RHP Josh Kinney from Triple-A Memphis.  To make room on the roster the team optioned outfielder Nick Stavinoha and RHP P.J. Walters to Triple-A.

Greene has been on the disabled list since May 29 and has missed 19 games.  He played in four games at Memphis during his rehab and went 6-for-15 (.400) with two doubles.  Josh Kinney began the season with St. Louis and was optioned to Triple-A on April 17.  He has made 21 appearances for Memphis and was 1-1 with a 3.12 ERA in 26.0 IP, collecting 30 strikeouts.

The difference is in the bottom line as neither of the other clubs have a winning record. The second-place Angels came into Saturday at .500 in the American League West, while the woeful Padres, coming off a 99-loss season, are four games under .500 in the National League West.

Seven of the ten rookies are currently still with the Cardinals and five of the ten made their Major League debuts this season. Six rookies were on the Opening Day roster for the club.

Rookie position players Brian Barden, Colby Rasmus (pictured) and Joe Thurston along with pitcher Jason Motte opened the 2009 season with the club and remain there.

They were later joined by pitcher Mitchell Boggs, infielder Tyler Greene and outfielder Shane Robinson.

The three rookies now in Triple-A are third baseman David Freese and reliever Josh Kinney, both of whom were on the Opening Day roster, and starting pitcher P.J. Walters, who was called up and later returned to Memphis.

The five who made their first Major League appearance this year have been Freese, Greene, Rasmus, Robinson and Walters.

Rookies have taken 1/4 of all the at-bats for St. Louis this season at 26% (265 of 1034 ABs) and are hitting a combined .242 (64-for-265). Rookie pitchers have made four starts and thrown 43 2/3 IP.

That makes 16 Cardinals first-timers to have arrived on the scene over the last season plus one month, as 11 Cardinals rookies made their MLB debuts in 2008. They are Kyle McClellan, Brian Barton, Rico Washington, Mike Parisi, Chris Perez, Joe Mather, Boggs, Nick Stavinoha, Jaime Garcia, Mark Worrell and Motte.

That was the largest number of first-timers to don the Cardinals uniform in any single season since the second year of the Tony La Russa era, which began in St. Louis in 1996. 12 players debuted in 1997.

2009 offers a decent chance to exceed the 2008 mark as at this point last year, only four of the 11 had been called up – McClellan, Barton, Washington and Parisi.

The timing is certainly not random. As most Cards fans know, starter/ace Chris Carpenter had to leave Tuesday’s game against Arizona after three innings with a ribcage injury. That left 18 outs or six innings for the bullpen to secure, or as it turned out with the game going into the tenth inning, the revised goal became to get 21 outs.

Unfortunately, out number 21 was never made as the tenth batter facing Brad Thompson, Eric Byrnes, stroked the winning hit into the left-field corner to end a very disappointing 7-6 loss.

The most damaging blow prior was a three-run home run served up by Josh Kinney with two outs in the eighth. The right-hander walked the opposing catcher, Miguel Montero and hit Justin Upton with a full-count offering before pinch-hitter Conor Jackson slammed a long ball to left (pictured). That turned a one-run lead into a two-run deficit and became the first blown save of the year for Kinney and the third for the Cardinals against three saves.

As a group, the 2009 Cardinals bullpen was expected to be a younger, more improved relief corps compared to their inconsistent and disappointing 2008 predecessors. As the data below shows, through nine games, the anticipated improvement is not there.

In just about every measurement, the 2009 relievers have started more poorly than the 2008 group, whether you consider won-loss record, save conversion rate or ERA. In the latter case, the 2009 pen is three-quarters of a run per nine innings worse than last season. The only area of improvement shown here is strikeout-to-walk ratio.

I also listed the National League bullpen averages as a secondary point of comparison. Not surprisingly, the 2008 Cardinals pen was worse than the NL average in every one of these categories. Only a low walk rate keeps the same statement from being made about the current crew.

Though the 2009 totals are small, note that the members of the Cardinals pen have thrown more innings than the NL average this season. That is a contrast to their level from last year, a period during which some considered the relievers had become overworked.

2008 relievers	W	L	W %	Sv	BS	Sv %	ERA	IP	BB	K	K:BB
Cardinals	22	31	0.415	42	31	0.575	4.20	499	230	381	1.66
NL average	26	27	0.493	38	23	0.623	4.09	514	219	432	1.97
2009 relievers	W	L	W %	Sv	BS	Sv %	ERA	IP	BB	K	K:BB
Cardinals	0	2	0.000	3	3	0.500	5.06	26.2	8	19	2.38
NL average	1	1	0.481	2	1	0.667	4.45	24	12	20	1.63

Following are the current stats from the seven individuals that make up the 2009 Cardinals bullpen. Note at the lower right that the relievers’ ERA is over three runs per nine innings worse than the starters.

2009	W/L	Sv Opps	Sv %	Inh Rnrs Score	IRS %	1st Btr Ret	1BR %	ERA	WHIP	OBA	OBP
Franklin	0-0	1/1	100	1/0	0	2/2	100	0.00	0.38	0.111	0.111
Kinney	0-0	0/1	0	4/1	25	3/2	66	13.50	2.25	0.200	0.467
McClellan	0-0	1/1	100	3/0	0	3/3	100	2.25	1.00	0.188	0.235
Miller	0-0	0/1	0	3/2	66	3/2	66	0.00	1.00	0.231	0.231
Motte	0-1	0/1	0	0/0	NA	4/1	25	11.25	2.25	0.320	0.455
Reyes	0-0	1/1	100	2/1	50	4/3	75	0.00	0.27	0.083	0.083
Thompson	0-1	0/0	NA	0/0	NA	4/3	75	6.75	1.80	0.345	0.375
Relievers	0-2	3/6	50	13/4	31	23/16	70	5.06
Starters								1.96
Team								2.98

Won/loss: Thompson and Jason Motte have the only bullpen decisions – a pair of ugly bookends. Motte earned the defeat on opening day and Thompson took it on the chin in the most recent contest on Tuesday night.

Save opportunities: On Tuesday, Kinney joined Motte and Trever Miller in the negative category. The three conversions were by Ryan Franklin, Dennys Reyes and Kyle McClellan.

Inherited runners scoring: Miller has the poorest early record here, as two of the three runners on base when he entered the game came around to score. Reyes allowed his first inherited runner to cross the plate on Tuesday night. McClellan has been the best here so far.

First batter retired: Generally, this looks ok with one exception. Tuesday night marked the first time in his four outings this season that Motte kept his initial batter off the bases. His troubles have been of his own making. Each time, Motte has been allowed to come in with the bases empty.

ERA/WHIP: There is no in-between. Kinney, Motte and Thompson aren’t getting the job done in the early going. Way too many baserunners with too many of them crossing the plate. (As a reference point, a WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) of 1.40 or slightly under is league average.)

Opponent batting average/on-base percentage: Kinney’s lack of control is killing him, Thompson’s problem has been hits while Motte is struggling in both areas.

What to do?

I seriously wondered if Chris Perez was only the eighth-best reliever on the Cardinals this spring and am continuing to ask myself the same question.

Sent to Memphis to open the season, Perez has pitched four innings over three games. He has a win and two saves on no hits and three walks. Perez has fanned four Triple-A batters.

If the Cardinals need to call up a pitcher from Memphis to backfill Carpenter, it may be someone who can start, such as P.J. Walters, but the shaky bullpen appears that it could use a shot of life, too.

Sure, the middle infield is muddled and there is a scrum (or perhaps there will be) over who takes over temporarily for Troy Glaus at third base. Colby Rasmus’ immediate major league future may depend as much on Skip Schumaker’s successful conversion to second base as it does him pulling out of a mini slump to start camp.

The rotation is set. The catching is set. The infield and outfield are getting lined up. Until Thursday, the bullpen seemed aligned, too. Yet the concern remained about the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the contenders for the second left-handed spot behind Trever Miller.

That concern was addressed with Thursday’s announcement of the signing of Dennys Reyes to a two-year contract. While that is yesterday’s news now, several of the aftershocks attracted my attention.

One is that Miller is going to be tried in the ninth inning, according to an idea of pitching coach Dave Duncan, as shared with the Post-Dispatch. It would not be to displace the winner of the competition between hard-throwing right-handers Jason Motte and Chris Perez, but instead to offer a different look from the other side.

The 35-year-old Miller is a veteran of over 500 MLB games and has accrued a total of ten saves, with three the most gained in any season, at least until now. Miller’s first shot in the ninth was during Friday’s tie game. He yielded the winning run on a pair of hits and a walk.

The presence of Reyes also raised another question as to the identities of the seven members of the bullpen or the 12^th pitcher as camp breaks.

Here is what Tony La Russa said to MLB.com on Friday. You may have to read it a second or third time, however…

”… we have that [last] spot. It could go to a third left-hander, or it could go to a right-hander. If somebody wants a gift of a spot on the roster, that’s not the kind of guy you want on the club. You have to earn it. It just goes from two spots open — one spot open and one maybe — to one maybe.”

While La Russa did not identify the six spots taken, let’s take a run through the candidates to see what the manager and pitching coach may be thinking.

First, we have the relievers whose spots seem very secure. They include:

1. Ryan Franklin

2. Miller (L)

3. Reyes (L)

Then we have two returnees whose jobs seem pretty safe:

4. Kyle McClellan

5. Josh Kinney

I believe that McClellan will be on the team, but there remains a small chance he could be needed to start. As of today, his official status is as a starter, though that is expected to change at some point when all five members of the rotation seem fully healthy and ready to begin the season. If Mitchell Boggs can continue to build upon his solid spring debut, he may also ease the McClellan shift back to relief.

Kinney has been struggling with his command and location, but that is likely an early spring issue that will be worked out. Though the righty missed most of the last two seasons following dual elbow surgeries, he returned for an impressive, though short, re-audition last September.

Next we have the closer. It seems things continue to line up such that there will be room for one of the two of Perez and Motte on the opening roster, but not both. Let’s assume that for now.

6. Motte/Perez

Are these the manager’s six filled positions?

In a traditional La Russa/Duncan pen, the final spot is a long reliever-spot starter. I don’t want to read anything into early spring performances, but I did note with interest Franklin’s three-inning outing the other day.

Having spent most of his career as a starter prior to arriving in St. Louis, the 36-year-old wanted to compete for a rotation spot when he was signed two years ago. Perhaps it is nothing, but coupling this with the idea of using Miller in the ninth inning might free up Franklin for a longer role in 2009.

Coming into camp, Franklin was most often mentioned as the fallback for a Perez-Motte dual failure. Franklin did not shine as the closer last season, however.

7. To be determined

I see at least three paths here, labeled Options A, B and C. They involve four pitchers in a fight for one job – Brad Thompson, Royce Ring, Charlie Manning and one of Perez and Motte.

Option A: The long man

That Franklin-Miller scenario would put incumbent long-reliever/spot starter Brad Thompson on the hot seat and potentially open up Option B or C below.

Thompson seems to be a guy never able to lock down a role, yet offers a manager a lot of flexibility. For whatever reason, when Thompson starts, the club wins. Since coming up in 2005, the right-hander has started 24 games, during which the Cardinals went 17-7.

Option B: The third lefty

I have noted in the past that the Cardinals have not broken camp with three left-handers in the pen since the short-lived and ill-fated Bill Pulsipher experiment in 2005. That lasted five games for Pulse. The previous case was 2001, a time when another non-roster invitee, Jeff Tabaka, made the team. That lefty remained longer, but it wasn’t an entirely satisfactory result.

The third season in La Russa’s 13 in St. Louis in which the team came north with three left-handed relievers was 1999. That year, in an oddity, the club began the season with three lefties starting (Kent Mercker, Donovan Osborne and Darren Oliver) and three more in the pen (Mike Mohler, Lance Painter and Scott Radinsky).

Back to the here and now, so far in camp, neither lefties Charlie Manning nor Royce Ring have pitched themselves off the team. Both are on the 40-man roster and either could nail down that final spot, a point to which La Russa alluded in his quote above. Maybe the competition is real and maybe it is designed to head off any potential post-Reyes letdown by the pair.

Option C: The second closer

It would be unfair to Motte and Perez to not acknowledge that if each impresses all month long, the club could decide to keep them both.

Speaking of options, let’s discuss options as they relate to the club’s ability to ship these players to the minors. All of the players in question except Ring have an option remaining, which include Motte, Perez, Manning, and even Thompson, though the latter would have to pass through revocable waivers first. This is likely a formality that should not inhibit the decision-making process. Even McClellan and Kinney have options in the unlikely event it gets to that.

All in all, this gives La Russa and Duncan maximum flexibility to shape their pen and decide who to name as that seventh man.

Instead, I hereby re-apply the moniker to the 2009 St. Louis Cardinals bullpen, headlined by veteran Ryan Franklin, aka Frankie. The nine-year veteran is the leader of the band with over 1000 career innings in the majors.

The group behind Franklin when the club breaks camp from Jupiter, Florida at the end of March could include six far less-experienced relievers. While veteran left-hander Trever Miller and righty Brad Thompson have accrued over 700 big-league innings of work between them, the other four are greener than the infield grass that surrounds Busch Stadium’s mound.

While not true teenagers anymore, the quartet is certainly made up of baseball teenagers, with a total of just under 130 career MLB innings among them. They are lefty Charlie Manning and right-handers Josh Kinney, Jason Motte and Chris Perez. The fresh-faced Thompson could also fit right in with the Cards’ budding kiddie corps.

2009	Career IP	subtotal
Ryan Franklin	1047.7
Trever Miller	422.3
Brad Thompson	305.7
subtotal		1775.7
Charlie Manning	42
Chris Perez	41.7
Josh Kinney	32
Jason Motte	11
subtotal		126.7
total		1902.3

Noticeably absent from this initial group is Kyle McClellan. The club’s Rookie of the Year last season when working out of the bullpen is fully preparing for spring as a starter. Yet the right-hander has just 75 2/3 career MLB innings himself. So the 2009 picture wouldn’t change if he was inserted instead of one of the others.

Lefty Royce Ring could also be considered instead of Manning. He has managed to stay up only long enough to have pitched 65 2/3 big-league innings over his four-year career. That is not much difference from Manning’s 42.

Since 1900 total pen innings are tough to put into perspective standing alone, I looked the Cardinals’ top seven relievers last season in terms of innings pitched and their total MLB experience coming into 2008.

2008	Then-career IP
Ron Villone	1069.3
Ryan Franklin	968.7
Jason Isringhausen	864.7
Russ Springer	747.3
Brad Thompson	241
Randy Flores	182.3
Kyle McClellan	0
	4073.3

As you can see, last year’s group in aggregate came into the season with over double the number of MLB mound innings than the projected 2009 gang. Of the four pitchers with over 700 career innings, three are gone for this coming season.

Not only are the experience levels dramatically different from season to season, Franklin and Thompson are the only carryovers from the top seven 2008 pen workload leaders.

To make sure that 2008-2009 wasn’t a fluke, I extended my analysis back each season in the La Russa years, again looking at the aggregate experience coming into that year by the seven that would become the busiest relievers.

“Leaders of the band” denote the team’s most experienced reliever while “Roadie” designate the one of the seven with the fewest career innings pitched coming into that season.

Bullpen	Career IP	YTY	Leader of the band	IP	Roadie	IP
2009	1902.3	-2171	Ryan Franklin	1047.7	Jason Motte	11
2008	4073.3	1427	Ron Villone	1069.3	Kyle McClellan	0
2007	2646.3	1139.3	Ryan Franklin	888.7	Kelvin Jimenez	0
2006	1507	-2127.7	Jason Isringhausen	741	Adam Wainwright	2
2005	3634.7	9.7	Cal Eldred	1331	Brad Thompson	0
2004	3625	-855	Cal Eldred	1264	Kiko Calero	38.3
2003	4480	2209.3	Jeff Fassero	1738	Kiko Calero	0
2002	2270.7	527	Mike Timlin	698.7	Mike Crudale	0
2001	1743.7	-732.7	Mike Timlin	626	Mike Matthews	9.3
2000	2476.3	678	Heathcliff Slocumb	562.3	Gene Stechschulte	0
1999	1798.3	-108	Heathcliff Slocumb	500.3	Rich Croushore	54.3
1998	1906.3	-2044	Jeff Brantley	723.7	Rich Croushore	0
1997	3950.3	-2475.3	Dennis Eckersley	3193	Rigo Beltran	0
					Brady Raggio	0
1996	6425.7		Dennis Eckersley	3133	Cory Bailey	23.7

There’s a lot to consume here, but what jumps out at me first is the experience drain of 2171 innings from last year to this. That represents the pen’s biggest year-to-year decrease since 1997, Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan’s second season in St. Louis.

Surprisingly, “Frankie and the Teenagers”, aka the projected 2009 pen, isn’t the least experienced combo in recent Cardinals seasons, though.

That mark belongs to the group of 2006 relievers, ironically during what became the World Championship regular season. That year, beyond Jason Isringhausen and Braden Looper, the other five relievers each had fewer than 100 career innings on the big mound. The man who would become the post-season star, interim closer Adam Wainwright, had collected just six major league outs coming into the year.

That reminds us there is much more to the end game than just innings pitched.

It remains to be seen whether this summer Cardinals fans will be crying, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” about this 2009 version of “Frankie and the Teenagers” or whether they’ll be filling the aisles while touting them for a different Hall of Fame.

(As always, special thanks to Lee Sinins’ “Complete Baseball Encyclopedia”, a fast and efficient way to look at players’ partial careers and to answer a million other “what if?” questions, too!)