St. Louis farm director Bruce Manno said Monday that he and the player development staff seriously considered adding right-hander Chris Lambert to the Springfield roster before instead deciding on Pomeranz, a 20-year-old right-hander ranked by Baseball America magazine as the organization's fifth-best prospect.

"There was a lot of discussion but, at the end of the day, we felt Pomeranz was a little more consistent in his outings in terms of throwing strikes," Manno said. "I don't know if, one way or the other, it really mattered. I think the (direction) we take with this step, the better we see how (Pomeranz) makes progress as the season goes along."

Taken in the first round last June out and 19th overall, the 22-year-old Lambert is 7-1 with 3.02 ERA at Palm Beach and, although he and 42 strikeouts against 15 walks, he also has thrown six wild pitches, hit four batters and has been called for a balk. He was signed out of Boston College to a reported $1.525 million contract, and Baseball America rated him as the Cardinals fourth-best prospect this season.

That does not mean Lambert will remain in Palm Beach all season. There's a good chance he will receive a promotion to Springfield at some point.

Said Manno, "He's very close right now."

Meanwhile, it's certainly an intriguing arrival to the Texas League for Pomeranz, the Cardinals' second-round pick of the June 2003 draft out of Houston High School of suburban Memphis, Tenn.

His debut against the Midland RockHounds at 6:30 tonight in Midland, Texas, comes two years after he signed a reported $570,000 bonus and only eight weeks after the organization's player development staff backtracked on a plan that would have skipped him over High-A.

Midland, an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics, leads the Texas League West and entered Monday night's series-opener not only sporting the league's best record of 28-15 but also sporting the second-best record in both Double-A and Triple-A.

Only West Tenn, an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the Southern League, had a better record at 31-12 entering Monday, and Midland has quite a hitting arsenal. It sports a league-best .288 batting average led by Andre Either, the league's leading hitter at .365.

At Palm Beach, Pomeranz posted a 3.35 ERA, struck out 29, issued 10 walks and worked 48* innings.

However, Pomeranz, a 12-game winner last season for the organization's affiliate in the Low-A Midwest League, was only 2-5 in eight starts at Palm Beach.

"He pitched better than that," Manno said.

Pomeranz could be a much-needed confidence boost for the Cardinals, who opened a seven-game road trip Monday night after losing seven of their previous 11 games.

The starting rotation lost left-hander Buddy Blair last Thursday when he was re-assigned to Palm Beach after he fell to 1-6 and his ERA ballooned to 8.50.