156-111, 3.18 ERA, 2,286 strikeouts, 126 adjusted ERA. Sure there are. Will this happen? All of the starters have a JAWS of at least 42.0; roughly speaking, thats the equivalent of seven six-win seasons, a point at which I start to take mid-career pitchers seriously. Its my belief that this as-yet-unnamed metric which Im hoping to formalize in time for the upcoming election cycle does a better job of emphasizing closers rather than starters-turned-relievers who racked up significant WAR in the rotations before making the move to roles more fireman-like than closer-like; it bumps the likes of Tom Gordon, Ellis Kinder, Bobby Shantz, and Kerry Wood down several pegs. Your email address will not be published. I sincerely hope Flaherty is fine and that theres no reason for concern. Covering the latest and most controversial news around the world of sports, heavily centered on the Philadelphia Eagles and National Football League. The two were teammates from 2005-07, and Rolen was out at third base when Wainwright recorded the final out of the 2006 World Series for the St. Louis Cardinals.. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Drew move to Atlanta. Wainwrights candidacy as an elite pitcher of his time should strengthen during the five years between his retirement and his first appearance on a Hall of Fame ballot. The Cardinals looked like one of the best teams in the National League throughout the 2022 regular season, finishing with a record of 93-69, winning the NL Central Division in the process. After slaying the October beast that had haunted him for so many years, Kershaw pitched reasonably well through the first three months of the season, posting a 3.39 ERA and 2.98 FIP the latter his lowest mark since 2016 in 106.1 innings. He's a hell of a pitcher and even better human being. Hes made two starts this spring, covering five total innings. Even 250 wins is a rare accomplishment at this point. In the five innings Wainwright yielded eight hits and four earned runs for a 7.20 ERA. Verlanders resume is impressive; hes led the league in strikeouts four times, wins twice, won a pitching triple crown, and thrown two no-hitters. Flaherty pitched 348 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Though hes overcome health scares and worked hard to expand his arsenal to become less reliant upon his cutter, Jansen has continued to take Dodgers fans on a rollercoaster this season. 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. He has a $217 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, and to make the Hall of Fame, he may need another Cy Young award and a dominant performance in a World Series championship. However, not all stories have happy endings. Still, his 2.60 ERA is his lowest since 2017, and his strikeout rate is a solid 29.8%. . Now his current difficulties are being downplayed because the leg/glute tightness, the back spasms, the finger. But the Cardinals and the pitcher Cardinals changed the schedule for his first start; Flaherty threw on the backfields instead. Adam Wainwright Future Hall of Fame Candidates: N.L. Even so, five catchers including the younger and still-productive Buster Posey outrank him in the framing-inclusive version of my metric, and with an 80 wRC+ and 0.7 fWAR this year, plus plans to retire after 2022, he might not even catch Russell Martin (49.1) or Joe Mauer (49.3) in the rankings. Since then, hes made the All-Star team every year, led the league in wins on three occasions, and won a Cy Young award in each league. Its available on your preferred podcast platform. Actually, it's two starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright. Actually, its two starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty and Adam Wainwright. Sep 14, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fifth inning at Busch Stadium. SUMMARY 2022 Career WAR 1.8 46.7 W 11 195 L 12 117 ERA 3.71 3.38 G 32 457 GS Your existing password has not been changed. Don't miss out - sign up for our newsletters! 2/4/18 Super Bowl champs. For relievers, Im using the WAR-and-WPA hybrid stat via which Ive examined recent candidates such as Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, and Billy Wagner. Ill assume that FanGraphss weirdly defensive stance against Wainwrights pursuit of bulletin board material has subsided by then. Outside of Clayton Kershaw, he may be the most dominant pitcher in the game right now; FanGraphs credits Scherzer with more WAR than any non-Kershaw pitcher (25.9) since 2013. Adam Wainwright K's McCormick. 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. He had a 4.99 ERA in his last 11 starts in 2022 including a 7.22 ERA in his final six starts. Injury? 82-53, 2.99 ERA, 1,380 strikeouts, 138 adjusted ERA. But until we see Jack pitching in games against opposing hitters in game conditions down there in Florida and recovering on time to do it again, and again, and again Ill have to take the wait-and-see approach. 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. Albert Pujols is, barring something unforseen, going to easily sail into the National Baseball Hall of FameI always feel the need to add a caveat since uncodified steroid accusations have already kept one of the few modern hitters unreservedly superior to Pujols out of the Hall of Fame, though seeing David Ortiz make it does give me hope that Albert Pujols being a nice guy that everyone in baseball media seems to like would provide sufficient cushion to whatever random conjecture somebody wants to throw out into the discourse. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. And right now, he simply isnt there. Justin Verlander has pulled off one of the rare accomplishments for a pitcher winning a league MVP award. Flaherty pitched 348 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons. And while deGromcontinued to blast 100-mph fastball after 100-mph fastball past hitterseven while missing turns here and there due to what were believed (by the Mets, at least) to be minor and disconnected injuries, he finally landed on the IL in early July with forearm inflammation. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Adam Wainwright was one of many players lucky enough to have shared a clubhouse with Scott Rolen, the newest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.. 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. Throughout his career, Wainwright has won a World Series and has been selected to the All-Star game three times. 141-80, 3.23 ERA, 1,547 strikeouts, 124 adjusted ERA. 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. That seems to be a pretty good baseline.. Reports on Wednesday, October 26th, say that Wainwright will return to the Cardinals for his 19th MLB season with the club, as he continues to chase his 200th career win. 2nd stage: Everything is still on track. What a career Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina have shared together! Theyll defer. A two-homer, two-walk game on Wednesday added half a win to whats now his seventh-best season (4.5 WAR); with a big finish, he can approach the peak standard (42.7 WAR). The hot air balloon . 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. He'll retire with honors and accolades, becoming a fine coach and St. Louis area legend. Of course, theres no prorating stats when it comes to evaluating Hall of Fame candidates, and so Wainwright appeared to be in the company of the likes of Roy Oswalt Wainwrights most similar pitcher per Baseball-Reference.com Cliff Lee and former teammate Chris Carpenter as pitchers who had terrific peaks but lacked the length for serious Cooperstown consideration. If this is the end, Wainwright is leaving behind a solid career. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. March 2, 2023 | 00:00:10. Poll : Should Adam Wainwright be in the Hall of Fame? He was merely a good pitcher on the Detroit Tigers, vastly overshadowed by teammate Justin Verlander. We've sent an email with instructions to create a new password. 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. Listen to the Seeing Red podcast on the Cardinals, featuring Will Leitch and Miklasz. 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. 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. It is possible that the same will be the case for a third Cardinals legend. Hes also climbed from 12th to ninth in saves (372) and should easily move past Joe Nathan (377) and Dennis Eckersley (390) within the next year. On Saturday, June 11, 25,000 fans, ages 16 and older, will take home one of their replica . Your login session has expired. Replacing those lost or disrupted seasons with three average Wainwright seasons a 13-7 mark with 138 strikeouts over 164 innings would have Wainwright at 223-126 with 2,418 strikeouts. Im skeptical only because of the history of how the Cardinals do this when a pitcher doesnt pitch, or takes a delay before his next assignment. Still, Hernandez has quite a resume over the last decade hes been named to six All-Star teams, won 156 games for a perennially-losing franchise that hasnt sniffed the postseason, and hes won a Cy Young award to go with multiple ERA titles. Waino certainly isn't a National Hall of Famer, but there is an argument for the Cardinals Hall of Fame for sure. Winnowing the 180/2,000/3.40/350/2,300 field down to just wild card-era pitchers makes for an even more exclusive group: Wainwright, Scherzer, Verlander, Kershaw, Clemens plus Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay and Pedro Martinez. Even having covered the progress of 17 mid- and late-career players in these two installments, there are a handful who have posted JAWS gains that would fit on the leaderboards and about whom people have questions regarding their Hall progress. While Drew was a fine player throughout his career, he would only spend the 2004 season with the Braves. After the divorce, his mother, Nancy, became a real estate agent and raised the boys on her own. Ive covered the Mets for a variety of outlets since 1997. But its just not going to happen anymore the way pitchers are used now and the way free agency is and (how) careers go. The two-time NL Cy Young winner began his season by reeling off one of the most amazing runs of any pitcher in recent memory, posting an 0.50 ERA and 0.87 FIP through his first 12 starts. At 41-years-old, Adam Wainwright's statistics suggest no signs of slowing down. Its just hard to pitch that long nowadays, without injuries especially. "Adam Wainwright is going to have such an interesting Hall of Fame case once he retires." - Connor Looker Throughout his career, Wainwright has won a World Series and has been selected to. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted Scherzer and Hernandez are among a group of pitchers at somewhat similar points in their potential Hall of Fame paths; Verlander, Cole Hamels, Zack Greinke, Adam Wainwright and Jon Lester are in . But Wainwright proved his solid 2020 wasnt a brief mirage. Adam Wainwright never won a Cy Young Award. But is 40-year-old Adam Wainwright starting for the visiting Cardinals against the Dodgers in the winner-take-all tilt also on his way to joining Scherzer in the Hall of Fame? Its early in spring training. Adam Wainwright, is probably not a Hall of Famer and his 36.7 JAWS likely shouldn't be used as the new . Once Molina has been. 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. Maybe he has it in him to stick around for another 20 wins to get to 200, but he might not even crack the top 100 in JAWS while doing so. I think Hall of Fame credentials might change a bit, Wainwright said. Laurie Skrivan, St, Louis Post-Dispatch Here's a look at some other top Cardinals not in the Hall of Fame. This doesnt mean that Wainwright definitely deserves to make itTim Hudson, who barely qualified for a second turn on the BBWAA ballot and didnt receive the 5% of votes needed to qualify for a third, ranks ahead of him, for instance. Adam Wainwright (44.0 career | 35.5 Peak | 39.8 JAWS, +2.1 JAWS). While he has never won a Cy Young Award, he was in the top 3 on four occasions. They cited various ailments that impacted Wainos performance. 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. No ones winning 300 games again, probably, Maybe there will be a couple guys that have a chance Claytons got a chance, Max maybe. 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 still going strong, as hes tops in the NL in wins (8) in 2017. Pitching to a 3.66 ERA and 4.45 FIP, hes produced a respectable 2.2 WAR, though hes still 0.6 points below the JAWS standard. (And hes been getting his work in, at least for the most part.) The 40-year-old right-hander became the ninth active pitcher with 2,000. The only active pitchers behind Wainwright (2,375 2/3) in the 2,000-inning club are 36-year-old David Price (2,103 1/3), 35-year-old Johnny Cueto (2,034 1/3) and 32-year-old Madison Bumgarner (2,034).