Even 250 wins is a rare accomplishment at this point. Your email address will not be published. The baseball player is married to Jenny Curry, his starsign is Virgo and he is now 41 years of age. St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright may have ended a solid career. Eleven of the sixty-five are below Wainwright in terms of Hybrid JAWS. FASTBALLS JET ACROSS the baseball atmosphere in this era, booming into catchers' mitts at 100 mph or faster, and amid that sound of speed, there is Adam Wainwright's curveball. Adam Wainwright Future Hall of Fame Candidates: N.L. He has similar numbers (albeit slightly worse) than Roy Halladay. Still, his 2.60 ERA is his lowest since 2017, and his strikeout rate is a solid 29.8%. Build your customFanSided Daily email newsletter with news and analysis onSt. Louis Cardinals and all your favorite sports teams, TV shows, and more. The Cardinals trailed 5-0 on a pair of home runs by Tyrone Taylor, but St. Louis rallied to win its 12th straight, 8-5. But theres a rhythm to the ritual. Not an injury issue? They cited various ailments that impacted Wainos performance. It's a career that includes 10 All-Star Games, nine Gold Gloves, four Platinum Gloves, two World Series titles and plenty of adulation from the St. Louis area and beyond. To be clear, Adam Wainwright will certainly make it onto the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, and based on the ease with which even seemingly fringe candidates are able to garner them, will probably get some votes. Sabathia has largely been a disappointment since signing a nine-figure extension with the team, and he likely wont be retained when his contract expires after this season. When it comes down to it, Sabathia may find himself in a logjam of other similar pitchers, and if he does get in, it may take him some time. 230-143, 3.70 ERA, 2,788 strikeouts, 117 adjusted ERA. Among the sixty-five (again, the number of Hall of Fame starting pitchers) greatest starting pitchers in history, five are either currently active or retired but not yet Hall eligibleJustin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, and CC Sabathia. . And I finally reached the point where I just ignored the spin and started to interpret the lack of candor as a possible warning sign. How much more does Wainwright need to do to make the Hall of Fame in your eyes? He founded the Futility Infielder website (2001), was a columnist for Baseball Prospectus (2005-2012) and a contributing writer for Sports Illustrated (2012-2018). Listen to the Seeing Red podcast on the Cardinals, featuring Will Leitch and Miklasz. That may be what landed him on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation this year. In his final inning, Wainwright didnt touch higher than 85 mph. pre-2008 adjustment) | 39.5 Peak fWAR | 48.8 fJAWS, +0.3 fJAWS). St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright joins Scott Braun, Erik Kratz, Todd Frazier, and AJ Pierzynski to talk about his final season and the legacy he's left behind. It happens a lot. With 273 homers, Goldschmidt could reach 300 by the end of next season, though with 1,539 hits, the 2,000 milestone and real clarity on his fate is probably three seasons away. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Rolen, a member of the Cardinals Hall of Fame, was welcomed to the 'family' of Hall of Famers during an event and press conference Feb. 28, 2023 in Cooperstown, N.Y. If this is the end, Wainwright is leaving behind a solid career. His 2011 season, in which he went 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA and led the league in a slew of categories wins, ERA, games started, innings pitched, strikeouts, WHIP, adjusted ERA, and hits allowed per nine innings earned him a distinction that hadnt been accomplished since Roger Clemens in 1986. Halladay and Martinez combined to win five Cy Youngs had more dominant peaks than Wainwright, but their status as first-ballot Hall of Famers serve as evidence the electorate is already modifying its standards for Hall-worthy starting pitchers. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated and analytical sports-talk show on 590 The Fan, KFNS-AM. Bernie has hosted radio shows in St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore and Washington D.C. Bernie, his wife Kirsten and their cats reside in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis. He was the MVP of the 2014 World Series after two dominant starts and then five scoreless innings off the bench in Game 7, and hes been a key contributor to three championship teams. For a five-year span from 2007-2011, CC Sabathia was regarded as one of the elite pitchers in the game, and he took three different teams to the postseason, winning a ring with the 2009 Yankees. His draft stock suggests he has the ability to be a top-tier pitcher, but as of now, hes not on a Cooperstown track. Hell need more to get his name in the HOF conversation, namely multiple Cy Young award victories and a pivotal role in a Boston World Series championship. Bumgarner has thrown 36 career innings in the World Series and allowed one earned run. On 30-8-1981 Adam Wainwright (nickname: Adam) was born in Brunswick, Georgia, United States. But if youd told me four years ago when his career looked absolutely left for dead that I would even half-heartedly entertain the notion, I would have doubted that even more. This isnt your fathers Hall of Fame. Injury? Dont hold your breath. While he has never won a Cy Young Award, he was in the top 3 on four occasions. Follow him on Twitter @jay_jaffe and Mastodon @jay_jaffe. Upon losing in the Wild Card round, the franchise's attention shifted to the offseason and what will happen to some of their aging players. We always prefer to go the surgery route as the last possible resort. While Pujols and Molina are guaranteed to enter the Hall of Fame, Wainwright's case is a tricky one to say the least. Still, just one top-10 Cy Young award finish wont get him in the Hall of Fame. As a result, Ive chosen not to include him on this article. Even though three different physical problems were cited to explain Wainwrights plummeting velocity and ineffective pitching? As his 136 OPS+ and 26 homers attest, he can still rake even at age 40, but with 443 career dingers, hes two seasons away from reaching 500 (42% odds, via ZiPS). 100-70, 2.99 ERA, 1,409 strikeouts, 123 adjusted ERA. Sabathia has a chance to become the 17th pitcher in history to record 3,000 strikeouts, which would give his candidacy a boost. Leg and glute stiffness that limited his leg drive, the aftereffect of recent back spasms, and a torn finger blister. What a career Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina have shared together! 163-103, 3.40 ERA, 2,125 strikeouts, 122 adjusted ERA. Privacy Policy The 40-year-old right-hander became the ninth active pitcher with 2,000. Hes endured shoulder miseries and a strained oblique. 5th stage: 60-day IL. Adam Wainwright has a big decision to make this offseason. Hall of Very Good. The hot air balloon . He threw two no-hitters in the same season and tied the major league record with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game. Its an unfortunate injury that was sustained to of all places his throwing shoulder. MILWAUKEE Adam Wainwright joins Hall of Famer Bob Gibson as the only St. Louis Cardinals pitchers with 2,000 strikeouts, fanning Milwaukees Luis Urias in the fourth inning. Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright are back together, and they will start Opening Day together for the first time since 2009 on Thursday. It is not as though a 6.4 WAR season alone would do the trickwhile this would put Wainwright over 50 bWAR and at 56.4 fWAR (assuming he hit 6.4 on both metrics), the impact on Wainwrights peak would be much smaller, since he was reasonably good in his seventh best season under both metrics (3.0 bWAR, 3.9 fWAR). Hes undergone Tommy John surgery, and his career total of 76 wins is underwhelming. (approx 1 - 2 per week). Drew. This is a veteran, and he knows what he needs to do. It's an ex-Chip's Worldand we're just picking up the pieces. Josh Donaldson, third base (43.8 career | 41.2 Peak | 42.5 JAWS, +1.5 JAWS). The starting pitcher, who will enter his 19th season with the Cards, was drafted by the Atlanta Braves. Guerrero had an RBI single during the first inning in his lone at-bat. Wainwright is absolutely not going to make it to Cooperstown, and the numbers say he shouldn't, but you can squint and you can cherry-pick statistics to make an argument for Wainwright if you enter with an agenda. Throughout his career, Wainwright has won a World Series and has been selected to the All-Star game three times. Sale went two years and a day between major league outings due to elbow inflammation, a flexor tendon strain, and Tommy John surgery, but hes made a solid return so far, with a 2.53 ERA and 27.9% strikeout rate through four starts. In fairness, the Cardinals are correct in their initial thinking. But compared to Molina or especially Pujols, Adam Wainwright is an underdog. Wainwright was between 38 and 40 years old in this stretch. It hasnt moved him very far in the JAWS rankings, but hes nonetheless seventh among active pitchers behind Greinke, the injured Justin Verlander (60.8), Kershaw, Scherzer, and two other pitchers whove effectively taken zeroes in 2020 and 21, Cole Hamels (48.4) and Flix Hernndez (44.3). Yadier Molina is arguably one of the best defensive catchers in the history of baseball. His cutter was next, dropping from his 2022 average of 84.3 mph to 80.8 mph, and his curveball decreased from 72.9 mph to 70.2 mph.. 82-53, 2.99 ERA, 1,380 strikeouts, 138 adjusted ERA. Perhaps a new metric will be devised that paints Wainwright in an extraordinary new lightI cant really imagine what said metric would be, but Yadier Molinas career FanGraphs WAR shot up 18.4 wins in one day on which meaningful baseball games werent even played, so I am not going to dismiss the possibility hastily. While Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are already committed to retirement, what becomes of star pitcher Adam Wainwright remains a question for St. Louis fans. Please logout and login again. We use cookies to improve your experience. Wainos going to do that whether hes here or not, and thats a trust thing that Im not concerned with.. This year he was so good that he accrued 5.1 WAR (including 0.6 on the offensive side) in his 15 starts before going down, his fourth-highest total. This is the first time since 2010 that all three are in . St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) sits in the dugout during the second inning of a baseball game between the Cardinals and the Pirates on Thursday, April, 7, 2022, at. I like that its a round number, but I assure you that this is merely a coincidence. For this exercise, Im focused mainly on mid- or late-career players rather than early-career ones. Before going down, he made solid progress towards the 200-win and 3,000 strikeout milestones; hes at 184 and 2,653, respectively, the latter thanks to a 30.1% strikeout rate, his best since 2016. However, the future Cardinals Hall of Famer is coming off a 2022 season in which he lost velocity, suffered a decline in swing-and-miss stuff and faded to a 17.8 percent strikeout rate. The greatest lineups ever? The 2022 campaign was supposed to be the last for Adam Wainwright as well, although he has left the door slightly open for a return next year. Actually, it's two starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright. He entered Thursday 16-7 on. Even if he does that, hes well short of the JAWS standard or even the 55.7 career WAR of David Ortiz, plus he has the stigma of his 2013 PED suspension to overcome. Gibson, who died last October, finished with 3,117. All Wins Above Replacement and Wins Above Average data comes . Ill assume that FanGraphss weirdly defensive stance against Wainwrights pursuit of bulletin board material has subsided by then. 2020 has given us many. Carlos Correa, Shortstop(32.7 Career WAR | 32.7 7-Year Peak WAR | 32.7 JAWS, +6.7 JAWS) Between some favorable changes to his DRS totals and an AL-leading 5.9 WAR (surpassed by Ohtani's two-way total of 7.7), the 26-year-old Correa has boosted his JAWS more than any position player. By what Ill provisionally call R(eliever)-JAWS, hes climbed from 22nd all-time to 15th, which is still well below the standard for the eight enshrined relievers (29.7). 2000-2023 Rogers Media. Adam's parents had a rocky marriage, and they split up when he was around seven years old. Now his current difficulties are being downplayed because the leg/glute tightness, the back spasms, the finger. His velocity has dropped again, though Wainwright did push it up a little in his second start. Hes actually been tougher to hit than in any season since 2016, but his 14% walk rate has created more traffic than ever, and hes blown five of 35 save chances, though three of those were in consecutive outings in mid-July, accounting for seven of the 16 earned runs hes allowed. This will undoubtedly hurt Wainwright's bid for the Hall of Fame. You may have created an account with another Rogers Media account that can be used to sign in here. Are there baseball seasons good enough to get Adam Wainwright past Dwight Gooden? But the Cardinals and the pitcher Cardinals changed the schedule for his first start; Flaherty threw on the backfields instead. Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter (@cbswartz5). Once Molina has been. Im going to disregard them for now, though all five should (and all but Sabathia probably will) make it eventually. Max Scherzer, already on the Cooperstown fast track before he was traded by the Nationals to the Dodgers at the trade deadline, continued his march towards inner-circle status by authoring a dominant post-acquisition stretch for his new team (7-0 with a 1.98 in 11 starts for the Dodgers, who won each of his outings) on par with Doyle Alexander in 1987, Randy Johnson in 1998 and CC Sabathia in 2008. Wainwright is a Hall of Fame person, and a very good pitcher. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. The just-turned-40-year-old is currently in the midst of a late-career renaissance (2.97 ERA, 3.1 WAR), leaving many to wonder what might have been if not for the injuries that effectively cost him three seasons from ages 29 to 36. Mike Trout, center field (76.2 career | 65.1 Peak | 70.6 JAWS, +0.5 JAWS). Heres a report on Wainwrights Thursday start against the Astros from The Athletics Katie Woo: The velocity on all five of the pitches in his mix averaged between 3-4 mph slower than their average readings in 2022. Please contact us. Your existing password has not been changed. At least hes in better shape than 31-year-old Freddie Freeman (41.8/32.1/37.0, +1.5 JAWS), who only recently surpassed last years 3.3 WAR. Enter your email below and we'll send you another email. When he calls it a career, Wainwright won't be a serious contender for baseball's Hall of Fame, unlike Molina. Guerrero was seen walking toward the clubhouse with an athletic trainer in the second inning and was replaced defensively by Rainer Nunez to start the third. I want to confine my results to the integration era, as, while this whole exercise is based on some level of silliness, I dont think asking Adam Wainwright to win 40 games and pitch 400 innings is particularly fair. MLB starting pitcher who won a World Series Championship with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and was a member of the Cardinals .