Carpenter disabled

The Cardinals place Chris Carpenter on the disabled list after straining his ribcage in Arizona Wednesday night. He's out at least a month.

Fantasy Impact: Always the danger with Carpenter, injuries seem to be getting the better of him these days. This is his ninth trip to the disabled list. If you drafted him, you new injury risk was a concern. This qualifies as a bad injury, but not quite a devastating one. Here's hoping you took him late, when you already rounded out your staff. Carpenter will remain an injury-risk sleeper for the second half of the season.

Carpenter set to start

Chris Carpenter says everything is normal heading into his first start of the 2009 season.

"Normal spring training. Normal routine. Normal preparation," Carpenter said. "Last year, I was coming back from surgery. ... This year, I'm going out there to do everything I can until they have to take the ball away from me. I go into it thinking I'll be OK."

Carpenter has made one start at Busch Stadium since leaving the mound on April 1, 2007, and that was five innings Aug. 5. After two elbow operations and two years loaded with rehab, a setback-free spring training allows Carpenter to enter today's start the same as his peers — ready, not recovering.

There's nothing normal about this start. All eyes and ears will be on Carpenter's performance to see if the Cardinals ace is back in form.

Fantasy Impact: Best case scenario is he returns to the top of the heap of fantasy pitchers. Worst case scenario leaves him back on the scrap heap. We're expecting to see flashes of the old Carpenter as early as today.

Carpenter goes Saturday

The top pitcher to follow Saturday in a spring training game is Cardinals hurler Chris Carpenter, who attempts to prove he's on the road to making the team's rotation.

The Cardinals concede Carpenter's recovery from nerve transposition and an unrelated season-ending nerve condition is the camp's No. 1 concern. Carpenter would prefer the attention go elsewhere.

"Like I've said all along, everybody else is making a bigger deal out of it — understandably," Carpenter said.

Carpenter will face Washington at Roger Dean Stadium and be limited to 40-45 pitches. Manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan will fixate more on Carpenter's mechanics and recovery than any instant statistical gratification.

"I know with the way that I feel that I'm not too concerned about it," Carpenter said. "I feel good. I feel strong."

He's the Cardinals number one priority in terms of monitoring progress this spring, and he should be a top priority to follow for every fantasy owner. Carpenter's draft position could slide wildly to either end of the spectrum because of a productive or unproductive performances through the end of March. Watch him closely every time out. He's probably capable of returning to his ace status. Then again, with all the injury problems over the past two years, he's also capable of becoming Mark Prior.