Cardinals Announce World Series Roster

Entering tonight’s World Series opener, the St. Louis Cardinals announced two changes to their playoff roster.  Skip Schumaker, who missed the National League Championship Series due to an oblique injury, rejoins the Cardinals, and St. Louis decided to again swap pitchers, replacing Kyle McClellan with Jake Westbrook.

Both Schumaker and Westbrook were with the Cardinals during their first round playoff series against the Phillies.  After straining his oblique during game five of the NLDS, Schumaker was left off of St. Louis’s second round roster.  Westbrook, who didn’t make a first round appearance, was bumped from the Cardinals’ NLCS roster in favor of McClellan.

Now, St. Louis believes Schumaker is healthy enough to contribute enough to justify his roster spot, and the club likes the versatility that Westbrook provides over McClellan.  Andron Chambers is the roster casualty of Schumaker’s addition.

The rest of St. Louis’s roster remains intact.  Infielders include Daniel Descalso, David Freese, Rafael Furcal, Albert Pujols, Nick Punto, Schumaker and Ryan Theriot.  St. Louis will continue to use backstops Gerald Laird and Yadier Molina along with outfielders Lance Berkman, Allen Craig, Matt Holliday and Jon Jay.

St. Louis has set a tentative playoff rotation, as Chris Carpenter is set to pitch game one of the World Series and will likely be followed by Jaime Garcia, Kyle Lohse and Edwin Jackson.  Behind the starters, St. Louis’s pen that’s turned in an impressive postseason performance thus far includes Mitchell Boggs, Octavio Dotel, Lance Lynn, Jason Motte, Arthur Rhodes, Marc Rzepczynski, Fernando Salas and Westbrook.

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