Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Ripples from Wainwright
Posted by Harry PavlidisThe St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting some bad news for Cardinal fans, and fans of pitching in general—Adam Wainwright appears to have injured his right elbow.
General manager John Mozeliak said he believes it is a "significant injury" and the early word is "not encouraging."
This isn't the first time Wainwright has had elbow problems, this story has threads reaching back to 2004. Still, this is a shocking piece of bad news for a club that had a shot at contending against the Reds and Brewers.
The impacts are numerous, including:
- Wainwright's 2010 Cy Young votes earned him a vesting option ... almost. He has to be off the DL at the end of 2011 for the 2012 option to kick-in.
- Does this mean the Cardinals have additional payroll flexibility that could be leveraged for Albert Pujols?
- The Cardinals just lost a pitcher who is generally projected to post a WAR around 5, those are some expensive wins for a team hoping to contend.
- Kevin Millwood may suddenly find himself employed.
- Chris Carpenter's fragile right-arm is now carrying a lot of weight
Shelving one of the best pitchers in baseball doesn't just hurt St. Louis, but all us who enjoy watching quality pitching. And epic curveballs.
Harry Pavlidis admits he has a baseball problem. He is the founder of Pitch Info LLC, His pitch classifications power the player cards at Brooksbaseball.net. Feedback, questions and comments are appreciated - Email harrypav@gmail.com and Twitter @harrypav
And this is why you don’t throw a curveball every third pitch