St. Louis Cardinal’s won’t overcome Adam Wainwright’s injury like they did in 2011
By Josh Sippie
The St. Louis Cardinals are currently rocking the best record in Major League baseball and given their postseason relevance over the past decade (and then some) it may be human nature to crown them favorites of just about everything.
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But with Adam Wainwright done for the year, the Cardinals superb start to the 2015 season is masking the fact that they are an incredibly fragile team. Their winning ways have come from some shoddy opposition and while they are still near the tops in every statistical category in the majors, it’s only a matter of time before Adam Wainwright‘s injury becomes impossible to overcome.
Adam Wainwright is pretty much the patron saint of St. Louis. He’s been the ace of the staff for the majority of their recent success. He’s an innings eater, putting up over 200 IP per season like it’s nothing. 9 innings has become the norm for his starts as he can always be relied upon to give a young bullpen some needed rest.
But this season they’ll be without their ace. Many may recall the last time the Cardinals were without their ace (2011) and hearken back to the success they found in the wake of a season ending injury there, but this season is going to be different. There won’t be an improbable World Series run for the Cardinals like that fateful year.
The St. Louis Cardinals starting rotation is on the brink of being in shambles. The youngsters Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Tyler Lyons are finding trouble in the consistency department. Martinez is having serious control problems and Wacha is not missing bats as often as we expected. Lance Lynn is off to a decent start but he’s another guy who’s always been victim to spontaneously awful starts in the wake of false consistency.
In 2011, the Cardinals were driven by an offense that ranked in the top 5 in nearly every offensive category. This offensive prowess helped them cope with missing Adam Wainwright.
So far in 2015, the Cardinals are maintaining their record through pitching, but that pitching, as I mentioned above, is masking how fragile it really is. Offensively, the Cardinals just aren’t clicking this year. Yadier Molina, who’s supposed to be the central figure of this team, is off to a poor start. The Cardinals as a team don’t have much power and their run production isn’t hanging around at the rates they were in 2011.
While Jason Heyward looked like an astute signing at first, he’s fading into the frustration he was plagued with when he was suiting up for the Atlanta Braves. Aside from that, it’s the same old Cardinals lineup with very little additions from last year. The problem with that is that the Cardinals finished 23rd in the league in run production with a very similar (and one year younger) lineup last year. They were second to last in home runs.
Most of the Cardinals success last year came at the hands of a very stout pitching staff that was anchored by Adam Wainwright. This St. Louis Cardinals pitching staff is not equipped to cope with life without Adam Wainwright and the offense isn’t equipped to cope with a faltering pitching staff.
The Cardinals are capable of magic in the wake of adversity as we’ve seen all-too-often but this year may see the Cardinals in some serious trouble without their main man.