More info was released today in the Post-Dispatch regarding the ongoing circus that is the handling of Adam Wainwright upon his return from the finger injury that has kept him sidelined since early June. 

According to the article by Joe Strauss, the ultimate plan for the Cardinals two best pitchers (when healthy anyway) depends on whether Chris Carpenter is able to rejoin the rotation.  If he does, all signs still point to Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan using Wainwright out of the bullpen.

Should Carpenter experience a pain-free session today, the club probably will activate Wainwright for duty in the major-league bullpen.  Any complication, however, supports giving Wainwright a fourth rehab outing to condition him further for the starting slot vacated by Carpenter.

"If Carp feels good, it allows us to do something different with Wainwright," Mozeliak said.

Okay, when is this charade going to end?  They can't honestly be thinking of putting Wainwright in the bullpen just because we have another good starter who might be ready to help the team too, can they?  They know that the CBA allows them to have more than one really good starter, right? 

If they truly are going to continue the "Wainwright or Carpenter in the rotation, but not both" stance I'd like to hope that there is some logical reasoning behind it.  I've looked at it from different angles and can come up with only four scenarios: 

Scenario 1 - They are posturing to keep pressure off Perez
I firmly believe that this was their strategy when Perez was called back up and Tony vehemently denied that he was the closer despite being handed the ball in the ninth inning.  They didn't want to heap "savior" status on the rookie and risk him buckling under the pressure.  It was sort of an audition for Perez to see if he could hold the job and if he couldn't, Wainwright takes it over.  Pyschologically, the kid never had to look further ahead than the day he was on the mound.

But now, albeit with only four saves, Perez has shown that he may have the stuff to firmly entrench himself as the closer.  And the bullpen improvement isn't limited to just him, as McClellan and Springer have stepped into the roles of late inning set up with McClellan able to handle both lefties and righties.  They aren't the Nasty Boys, but they're serviceable. 

So are Tony and Dunc still not convinced or are they just holding that line until the last possible second?  Wainwright has switched his rehab to a starters program so it may just be another LaRussa mind game to keep the media and fans guessing while the newly reformed bullpen establishes their footing. 

Scenario 2 - They honestly believe having Wainer in the bullpen as a middle reliever gives them the best chance to win
From the latest comments in Strauss' article, there may even be some consideration to using Wainwright in a non-closer role out of the bullpen:

"Different" doesn't necessarily mean Wainwright would return immediately as the Cardinals' closer. Rookie Chris Perez's positive showing since inheriting the closer's role from Jason Isringhausen means Wainwright could be activated to work in long relief.

Since this didn't come directly from anyone's mouth other than Strauss, I'll hold off on criticizing too much.  Had LaRussa or Duncan said it, I probably would have said something about how, short of using Wainwright as a backup second basemen, using him in long relief would be the stupidest possible way to maximize his value.  Long relief typically means a team is getting blown out.  If Wainwright was to go to the bullpen and not be slotted into the most high leverage situations, it's a complete waste of arguably their best arm. 

Scenario 3 - They're concerned enough about Wainwright's health that they prefer to keep him in the bullpen
Assuming they truly are planning on using Wainwright in the pen as opposed to as a starter, this is about the only explanation that would make sense in my book.  If for some reason they're being told that a heavy workload - i.e. 100+ pitches an outing - will greatly increase the chances of him re-injuring his finger, then it would be completely justified to drop him into the pen so that he could provide some support to the staff without risking long term damage.

With the Cardinals history of honestly when it comes to player injuries, there's a solid chance that we would never get the real story if this was indeed the case.

Scenario 4 - They don't want to demote one of the other pitchers - most likely Looper or Pineiro - to the pen.
Sadly, this scenario may be the one that seems most reasonable should a healthy Wainwright join the bullpen while a healthy Carpenter goes to the rotation.  It would mean that Tony sees only one open spot in the rotation, even though it would theoretically be his two best starters vying for it. 

LaRussa and Duncan aren't dumb, but they are fiercely loyal to certain veterans.  They were the last in Cardinal Nation to accept that Jason Isringhausen could no longer hold the closer job in 2006 and again in 2008 and all but admitted that a part of it was out of respect to the player.  There's something honorable in that, but it can also be very costly. 

The thought of putting a guy who has a 2.78 ERA since the 2007 All Star Break as a starter into the bullpen because you don't want to hurt the feelings or damage the confidence of someone like Joel Pineiro is not only stupid, it's a disservice to the fans and the rest of the team. 

I'd like to think that LaRussa values winning over player loyalty in performance based situations like these, but we've seen it work against him before.

Personally, I'm praying for Scenario 1, because any of the others means that Wainer is in the pen and fans are left shaking their heads as to why.  Of course there's probably a better chance of Scenario 5 happening - Carpenter doesn't pitch again this year and all of this is moot. 

I guess in this case we should all hope we have something to argue about.