Performance on the field in 2010 seemed to confirm the passing of the torch of ‘the ace of the St. Louis Cardinals’ from Chris Carpenter to Adam Wainwright.
This past season, Wainwright stepped up his highest level of performance as a professional. The right-hander not only topped the Cardinals in almost all pitching categories, but was among the National League leaders as well. Wainwright finished second in the NL in wins (20), ERA (2.42) and complete games (five). He tied for second in shutouts, was third in innings pitched and fourth in strikeouts, while allowing the third-fewest walks per nine innings.
After coming close in 2009 with 19 victories, this was the 28-year-old’s first 20-win season. It is a milestone Carpenter reached once, during his Cy Young Award season of 2005. Both Wainwright and Carpenter were named 2010 National League All-Stars. Adam tossed a scoreless inning in the July 13 contest, won by the Senior Circuit.
What Carpenter does possess that Wainwright does not is that Cy Young Award, though the younger pitcher is on a positive trajectory, having improved his placement in the vote in each of the last two years.
Wainwright moved up to second in the 2010 NL Cy Young Award race, this time behind Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay. The Cardinals starter received 28 votes for second, three for third and one for fifth from the 32 Baseball Writers Association of America voters, two from each NL city. Halladay took every first place vote for a 224 to 122 total.
The season prior, Waino had finished third with Carpenter second in the Cy Young voting, collecting 90 and 94 points respectively. In one of the closest three-way races ever, San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum won with 100 points in the balloting. It is worthy to note Wainwright had the most first-place votes of all candidates.
Though it appeared that the 2010 competition might go down to the wire, a late-season slump doomed Wainwright’s Cy Young Award chances. Between August 18 and September 14, he went 1-5 with a 4.73 ERA.
Despite that rough period, looking at the season by months, Wainwright was amazingly consistent. He won three or four games in each month from April through September/October. His ERAs ranged from a low of 1.85 in July to a high of just 3.09 in the final period. Wainwright’s 230 1/3 innings pitched was just 2 2/3 frames short of his career peak, set the year prior.
With that milestone 20th win accomplished on September 24 and his team out of the playoff hunt, Wainwright was held out of his final start for precautionary reasons. The precise problem was vague after the pitcher attributed it to simply having slept wrong on his arm. Reports of elbow tightness and a forearm strain followed, which led to an MRI. Rest was prescribed.
The 28-year-old Wainwright completed his fourth season as a major league starter while Carpenter is now 35 years of age, having become a professional back in 1994. The two will surely be pitching for the Cardinals this coming season, but the final passing of the torch would occur if it turns out that 2011 becomes their last year together.
Carpenter is under contract through 2011 but there seems no guarantee his $15M club option for 2012 will be picked up. The club could instead pay a $1 million buyout. Wainwright is under team control through 2013 with a below-market contract wisely negotiated by general manager John Mozeliak early in his tenure.
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Aahh my favorite subject.
If Waino doesn’t win a Cy Young it will be the biggest injustice in the history of baseball. Okay so I exaggerate a little but you get my point. The only thing that worries me is that elbow. Is Tommy John in his future? I certainly hope not but it seems almost every pitcher in MLB has had it or is having it.
My brother is of the opinion that if Waino has a couple more 20 win seasons, he will be asking for a Cliff Lee type salary or more. He thinks Waino is a better pitcher than Cliff Lee. I agree. I think the Cardinals will not pick up Carp’s 2012 option in anticipation of that event. 2011 may be the last year of the Carp/Waino combo.
No Cliff Lee money for Waino until he shows he can when big playoff games. To do that, your team has to make the playoffs!
when = win
I believe Wainwright first proved his playoff mettle in 2006. He also pitched an excellent game two on the road in the 2009 NLDS. He would have won the game 2-1 had not the Holliday drop and Franklin meltdowns occurred.
Well, I’ll be darned, crdswmn, something we can AGREE about. The 2009 CY vote was a huge rip-off… Tiny Tim making off with the award Waino, IMO, clearly deserved. But that’s water under the bridge now, and the going in the NL is getting tougher with quality pitchers like Halladay and Grienke now in the mix.
I can’t think of anything that would be more damaging to the hopes of Cards fans for 2011 than for Waino to be out hurt. He is the ace of the staff now, and if you look at the numbers, the passing of the torch probably happened about three quarters of the way through the 2009 season. Before then, Carp was the man, but the way I see it Waino met and passed him at that point.
Just got the DVD set of the 2006 World Series, which also contains games 5 & & of the NLCS vs. the Mets. One of my favorite moments in all of sport is watching Waino carve up Carlos Beltran on three pitches with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 7 of the NLCS. It just doesn’t get much better than that!
… games 5 & 7, that was supposed to be.
Waino is my favorite Cardinal. He is in the Stan Musial mode of people that you could characterize Waino, the man, as being a better person than he is a baseball player and he is an all star player. He is one cardinal that I pull for to do good every time he touches the field. Great guy and a stud pitcher.
If I had a daughter Waino would be the one guy you would hope she would come home with wanting to marry.
I worry about the elbow as well Crdswmn. Those flare ups usually lead to an injury in my experience but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Waino because in order for his options to be picked up he can’t be on the disabled list at the end of this year I think.
I’m pulling for Carp to have a solid year but I believe you are right, he may be the odd man out with Alberts pay day coming up.
Waino is my favorite Cardinal as well. I am not an autograph person, but his is one I would like to get some day.
Brian — Question… Are you ranking the top stories of 2010 in order of importance? If not, it would be an interesting exercise to see how others here would rank them, when you’ve finished the series.
Yes, they are ordered in my view of importance, so highly subjective. Where is the right place for Stan Musial and Whitey Herzog compared to the current season items, for example? To start, I had so many candidates that I combined some and cut others.
I had already been thinking about your idea of letting you all rank the stories, perhaps using the new polling feature. In that case, we could start with number one and go up. To be consistent, we would use the same story groupings as I use. I could list my top ten and let you vote on your #1, then list the nine remaining plus my #11 in the vote for your #2 and so on.
Is that the kind of thing that would interest folks?
I guess the question is so profound everybody was struck dumb. Bring it on Brian.
That was probably Bw52 voted for 20 or less.
Wrong again Blingoboy.Not me.
Off-topic but amazing… Albert Pujols, career, has 456 plate appearances with a 3-0 count… The results? 25 hits, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 6 homers, 18 RBI and 407 walks. His batting average is .510, OBP is .947 and he slugs 1.020 with a completely sick 1.968 OPS.
Moral of the story… Albert gets you 3-0, put him on!
The Cards haven’t been dealt yet………………… Waino may be dealt an Ace……..but Carp most certainly has a pair………………….. they aren’t playing against each other…………are they?
I’ve ran across some indications that the oddity’s I’ve been pointing out in the A. Gonzales situation, are indeed about something………………. they also seem to suggest that AP will indeed play in St. Louis this year………… and that puts LB in the outfield……..not so good………….. but damn interesting……………..
“LB in the outfield”. That’s a good one Westy. You’re talking crazy. The man has a .400 OBP, if he could play the outfield, he would’ve been. If he’s healthy and can hit, then if he’s not needed at first, he’ll be offed to an American league team, either with the Cards eating some salary, or taking on some in return. Either way, money well spent to give Mo options this winter.
I see what you’re suggesting BB……….plausible……………
I see a very strong indicator that there is in fact a collusion happening……….. not all collusions are successful though…………… some moves are “defensive” offering plausible deniability in the end.
Wow, Westie wants to be seen as prognosticator for predicting AP will play in STL this year. Welcome to reality Westie.
That is no way suggests he has the extension…………………… it suggests someone may be steering him towards 2012 Free agency………….. and a prepared market……….. when there is an appearance that the Commissioner’s office is assisting………… it gets my attention……….. but hey, its all craziness. I’m wacky………………