How many more starts would you give Adam Wainwright before pulling him from the Cardinals rotation?
No, that wan’t the lede that I wanted to write on April 20th, But if the average number of starts in a season is 30 and you’re 3 in, that’s 10%. Still many more games to go; not a microscopic sample size. Either way you look at it, the Wain-O has been piss poor in 2012.
The first start? Well that was the first start after a season without one. He’s pressing, I’m sure. Perhaps a little too anxious to show he’s back and healthy.
The second start? Home opener. Shitty day. Delayed start time. Against a rival. He appreciates the extended welcome back and wants to return the favor. The rain and cold don’t help anyone in baseball.
The third start?
Well that’s where I start to really run out of excuses. 4 runs over 5 innings isn’t the worst line a pitcher can have. But watching the game live yesterday was alarming. The fastball struggled to get to 88-89. The breaking balls were consistently high in the zone and not snapping nearly as hard as we know Wainwright was capable of. The B team was in and a good to great start was needed and Wainwright didn’t deliver.
Again… it’s really early.
Back to the question, though… how many starts to you give Wainwright before you send him off to find his stuff? 2 more starts? 4 more? At that point it’s 25% of a pitcher’s starts for a season, is that enough of a sample size?
I know that Cardinal fans are trying not to think about this and hoping that next week this post will seem silly. Wain-O is one of the good guys. He’s easy to pull for and a dominant force when he’s on.
Wainwright ins’t the first, nor the last player to come off major elbow surgery and not round into form as soon as everyone would wish for. But the team wins have kind of masked the fact that Wainwright has not been good. 9.88 ERA. 1.61 WHIP. You can’t live with that in the rotation and expect to cruise to a division title.
Think about what you’d do.
And enjoy some Friday Links…
- Too soon? The best Dick Clark death joke on Twitter. LINK HERE
- Context free patent art. The Tumblr. LINK HERE
- Have you earned all the Awkward Merit Badges? LINK HERE
- Grannies. With. Guns. LINK HERE
- Perfect timing photos. LINK HERE
- Don’t you hate it when this happens? LINK HERE
That’s it. That’s the week. We’re still sad that the Cardinals are no fun and banning that awsome video from being on the internet. Let’s hope it turns up at some point again. Until then, we’ll get our thrills elswhere. Let’s. Go. Blues. Go have a big weekend.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
