MLB Player Profile: Chris Carpenter
Christopher John Carpenter, commonly known as Chris Carpenter is a right-handed starting pitcher who currently plays for the St. Louis Cardinals. He has 13 years of experience under his belt and is currently in his 14th year at Major League Baseball.
Born on April 27, 1975, Carpenter stands tall at 6ft 6in and possesses the entire arsenal to crush any batting line-up on his day. His 13 complete-game shutouts are a thorough evidence of his brilliance and ability at the mound.
Carpenter started his career with the Toronto Blue Jays on May 12, 1997 and it took him five losses to register his first Majors’ win. After that, he has been an unstoppable force and to date, at the age of 36, continues to haunt the batters when on the
mound.
In his debut season, he started 13 games for the Blue Jays. His win-loss record remained on the lower side at 3-7 and his ERA at 5.09 did not impress either. One thing which did impress, however, was his complete-game shutout effort early in his career which
not only boosted his confidence but also sent a strong statement to his opponents.
In 1998, Carpenter played 33 games for the Blue Jays but started only 24 and replicated his complete-game shutout effort from 1997. After 55 strike-outs in his rookie season, Carpenter bagged 136 strike-outs in 1998 with an impressive win-loss record of
12-7. This record could have been much better if Toronto had not moved him to the bull-pen for to cut short his number of starts in the season.
Carpenter continued his impressive form at the mound, regularly bagging more than 100 strike-outs in each season with the Blue Jays barring 2002 where shoulder injury took the better of the lanky starter.
In 2002, Carpenter started in the opening game of the season but was scratched from the game after just 2.1 innings of lacklustre pitching citing a serious shoulder injury which moved the pitcher to the disabled list. Carpenter could manage only 13 starts
in the season and leaked runs at an average of 5.28. The Blue Jays offered him a Minor League incentive after the season but this did not come good with Carpenter and he opted to become a free agent.
The St. Louis Cardinals struck a deal with the lanky pitcher to add him on their roster for the 2003 season. Their management was positive on Carpenter’s recovery but the rehabilitation process forced him to spend the entire 2003 season on the bench. Cardinals
kept hope in the pitcher and were rightly rewarded for their patience when he made a stunning comeback in the 2004 season. Chris bagged 152 strike-outs in 28 starts with a with a win-loss record of 15-5. His ERA improved dramatically, coming down to 3.46.
Carpenter reached the summit of his career in 2005 when he started 33 games for the Red birds. In this stretch, he recorded his career-best win-loss record of 21-5 with seven complete-games include four shutouts. This was the only season when he registered
200-plus strike-outs which came at an ERA of 2.83. His achievements earned him his first ever All-Star call-up that year.
He repeated his laurels from the mound in the following season and went a step ahead when he finished the season as the World Series champion in 2006. Carpenter represented the All-Star team for the second consecutive year and made his third appearance in
the star-studded game in 2010.
Carpenter is going strong this season too with 128 strike-outs in 24 starts. His win-loss record is decent thus far but is expected to increase as the season goes deep into the second half.
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