Braden Looper: Mr. Cy Young

OK -- given what pitchers like Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson did last night, even that may be a stretch.

But Braden Looper belongs in the discussion. The guy has been that good.

The numbers below point out just how effective Looper has been this season. Consider these statistics from Pitcher A and Pitcher B.

Cardinals' fans may recognize Pitcher A's numbers as those belonging to Chris Carpenter from his 2005 Cy Young-winning performance.

Pitcher B is Braden Looper in 2007. Looper's numbers this season are better than Carpenter's in every category but strikeouts. When both his groundball-flyball ratio and strikeouts-to-walks ratio exceed 2-1, good things happen.

I never thought the Looper experiment would survive spring training. But the righthander, with a big boost from pitching coach Dave Duncan, has proven a lot of people wrong.

St. Louis is now 4-1 when Looper takes the mound; 5-10 when someone other than Braden starts the game.

Left-handed hitters, long a trouble spot for Looper, are only hitting .184 against him. Looper is 5 for 5 when it comes to quality starts.

It's early, but impressive.