St Louis Sports

Bob Gibson was one of the nastiest, most dominant pitchers of his generation. Pedro Martinez was also one of the nastiest, most dominant pitchers of his generation.

The similarities don't stop there.

They're both right handed pitchers. They both were considered head hunters. They also both wore the number 45.

They also, arguably, both can lay claim to the greatest season by a pitcher ever (post-1900, of course). Bob Gibson in 1968. Pedro Martinez in 2000.

The case for Bob Gibson

Bob Gibson's 1968 season by the numbers:

For a spring training game, yesterday's matchup with the Boston Red Sox was a darn good pitching matchup. Josh Beckett went for the visitors and allowed nothing over four innings. The good news for Cardinal fans is that Chris Carpenter did the same.

It's really starting to look like Chris Duncan is healthy.

He had another strong game against the Tigers yesterday, going 2-for-2 with his second home run of the spring, raising his average up to .385. I don't think anyone expects Duncan to be challenging for a batting title this season, but if he can continue to show that he's healthy, he could be a valuable guy for this team.

With all the drama this spring over who will be starting and who is healthy, and all the other mumbo-jumbo going on with the starting rotation, it seems I had forgotten all about the real question: Who's gonna close?

"The process now," said Tony La Russa, "is to give guys appearances, make evaluations, and then sort it out at some point at the end." TLR has told the media he has narrowed his options down to five. That sounds like a lot, but a few months ago there were about a million. I'll break down his options one by one.