Brian Dowdy has been a Cardinal fan all of his life. Born and raised in Dexter, Brian attended his first game in 1982 and was hooked. He has seen the Cardinals play too many times to count and watched the Cardinals play in Miami, Chicago, Houston, Cleveland and Kansas City and the list is growing.

Another rookie pitcher shines

Posted Wednesday, May 15, 2013, at 12:24 PM

I don't know if you watched the game on Tuesday when our newest rookie pitcher made his major league debut, John Gast. Who, if you are wondering, was born when I was a freshman in high school.

The Cardinals have the best farm system of all MLB teams this year according to Baseball America. Tuesday night was another prime example of how strong our minor league system is. John Gast cruised through the first 5 innings then allowed 4 runs after a botched run down play in the 6th inning. A pitcher is only as good as the defense behind him, especially a rookie trying to build confidence. Gast did get his first major league win thanks to plenty of run support.

After Gast was removed our next rookie Seth Maness comes in and pitches a perfect inning. Then another rookie Carlos Martinez struck out the side in his inning. Are you seeing a trend here? The future of Cardinal pitching is looking strong. That isn't even talking about our other rookies Shelby Miller and Trevor Rosenthal who are having a solid start to the season as well as Joe Kelly.

As the season goes along the young pitching will play a big role in either our success or our downfall. We have some talented coaches, a successful manager and the best catcher in the game to help them along. I think we are in good hands for years to come.