St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Tim Cooney takes off to the mound for his major league debut against the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on April 30, 2015.  Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Tim Cooney takes off to the mound for his major league debut against the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on April 30, 2015. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI

The Cardinals have called up left-handed pitcher Tyler Lyons from Triple-A Memphis and he will make the start tonight against the Cubs.   Lyons pitched against Round Rock in his last start and went eight innings.  He was unavailable last Thursday when Tim Cooney was need to start against the Phillies.  The Cardinals are trying to find an arm to replace Adam Wainwright.  They’re hopeful Lyons can fill the void until perhaps Marco Gonzales is healthy enough to return.

I was fortunate enough to spend last Thursday at Busch Stadium as a spectator of the game and the Phillies were teeing off on Cooney.  His off-speed pitch had a nice break on it, but Cooney was clearly not the best, second or even third choice for the club, and it was easy to see why.

He basically throws an 87 mph fastball with no movement on it.  That won’t work on the big league level.

Lyons has more MLB experience.  He’s 2-8, 4.62 ERA in 23 games (12 games started) with 79 strikeouts in 89.2 IP.