The St. Louis Cardinals' rotation has held up surprisingly well, despite having suffered major injuries to Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia and watched Adam Wainwright come back slowly (in every way but peripherally) from his own, so Carpenter injury updates have drawn less heat than you might expect as the right-hander returns from nerve problems.

Until now: After people had more than a month to get used to the idea that Carpenter wouldn't be back in 2012, Rick Hunmmel let fly The Significantly Heard Round Twitter, At Least, and people began to wonder, again, if Carpenter could be a reliever in the stretch run. Here's the thing: Now the Cardinals' slate of weird relief pitchers is itself crowded.

In addition to Carpenter the Cardinals already have Eduardo Sanchez, floundering in AAA; Lance Lynn, recently demoted from the rotation; and Shelby Miller, suddenly hearing call-up chatter, looking to make his major league debut this September.

Of course, Jake Westbrook, Reliever played a major role in the Cardinals' World Series victory last year, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about this turn of events.