Current St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter was just starting up his career in Toronto in 1997 just as the former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Cris Carpenter was finishing out his career for Milwaukee in 1996. That leaves me with one question...is this the same dude? The answer is an obvious NO, but the correlation is astounding. Each pitched for the Red Birds and have nearly identical names and one came to be as the other disappeared. I think the original Cris the relief pitcher went on the juice during the '96 offseason and reinvented himself as the starting pitcher Chris in '97.
For those of you wondering the 1st/"old" Cris Carpenter lasted 8 seasons pitching mostly in relief, ending with 291 games pitched and a 3.91 ERA. The 2nd/"new" Chris Carpenter his a top-tier starting pitcher that has 1 Cy Young award possibly adding another soon. Still the similarities are enough to make a case for same dude.