But theres a rhythm to the ritual. He probably wont gain much more ground this year even assuming he does return, and as with the pitchers on either side of him in this list, free agency looms, though it seems unthinkable the Dodgers will let him depart. Predicting every Hall of Fame class through 2045 - ESPN Keep your fingers crossed, St. Louis fans.. While a Cy Young Award does not guarantee entry, it certainly helps. 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. Theyll defer. 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. Wainwright threw his sinker, cutter and curveball the most, and the velocity on all three pitches measured a significant drop-off from last season. Rile people up.. Unless Adam Wainwright continues to play for a few more seasons and perform at an elite level, the Hall of Fame may elude him, though he will certainly find his name on the voting ballot when eligible. All advice, including picks and predictions, is based on individual commentators opinions and not that of Minute Media or its related brands. Chapman notched his 300th save on August 26, but hes had an unimpressive season, walking 16.2% of hitters en route to a 3.68 ERA and 4.16, all career worsts. Adam Wainwright strikes out Chas McCormick swinging in the top of the 1st inning, one of his two strikeouts over three innings of work. Nelson Cruz, right field (42.2 career | 30.1 Peak | 36.1 JAWS, +1.3 JAWS). While Pujols and Molina are guaranteed to enter the Hall of Fame, Wainwright's case is a tricky one to say the least. PITTSBURGH, PA - AUGUST 28: Adam Wainwright #50 of, the St. Louis Cardinals applauds after a defensive play by Nolan Arenado #28 in the first inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on August 28, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But compared to Molina or especially Pujols, Adam Wainwright is an underdog. 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. 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. Updated: Friday, March 3, 2023 11:11 PM ET, Park Factors While best known for his voice as the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch for 26 years, Bernie has also written for The Athletic, Dallas Morning News and Baltimore News American. I took a look at 10 active starting pitchers with borderline Hall of Fame resumes and broke down their odds of enshrinement. Drew move to Atlanta. After posting a 3.84 expected ERA in 2022, that metric jumped to 4.53 last season. All betting content is intended for an audience ages 21+. 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. His induction was most likely heavily influenced by his passing, but I think sets the bar for what a pitcher needs to have accomplished in recent years. 132-72, 3.34 ERA, 2,005 strikeouts, 124 adjusted ERA. Even though three different physical problems were cited to explain Wainwrights plummeting velocity and ineffective pitching? Adam Wainwright - Age, Bio, Personal Life, Family & Stats - CelebsAges Its available on your preferred podcast platform. At least not for starting pitchers. 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. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. 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. Hall of Very Good. 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. 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.. Bernie On The Cardinals: Wainwright and Flaherty In Spring Training While I dont think the statistical mistake that was inducting Rick Ferrell means that we should induct Mickey Tettleton, in my perfect world we would have sixteen Hall of Famers at the catcher position, though the ones who are in would be different (for instance, among the currently eligible, Gene Tenace would be there), and we would go from there. Seven Pitchers (and Some More Position Players) Who Have Most Helped Wainwright, 40, who has played for the Cardinals since reaching the majors in 2005, is a three-time All-Star and twice led the National League in wins (2009 and 2013). This year, however, the biggest stars of Opening Day will be three players in Cardinals jerseys who all have legitimate shots of someday being in baseball's Hall of Fame themselves. 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. Dont hold your breath. "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. Flaherty insists hes feeling great this spring. It is possible that he ends up as one of those players who hangs around the ballot for his decade of eligibility, getting a boost because of his time in St. Loius, but the only way he ends up in Cooperstown will be with a ticket. Heres hoping this isnt the start of a Ken Griffey Jr.-like slog through the second half of his career. Adam Wainwright has the second-most WAR of any Cardinals pitcher all-time (44.5). For this exercise, Im focused mainly on mid- or late-career players rather than early-career ones. The veteran right-hander is the last remaining . Let's take a look at Flaherty. 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. 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). 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. That seems to be a pretty good baseline.. The Hall of Fame should immortalize the greatest starting pitchers of each era. On Wednesday, I took a swing at a question often asked of me: Which players have helped their Hall of Fame cases the most this year? Among those who are retired and eligible for Cooperstown, the 65th greatest starter of all-time is actually a pretty sufficiently big nameDwight Gooden. Be the first one to comment on this story. But Wainwright proved his solid 2020 wasnt a brief mirage. Injuries have me dubious that Chris Sale will ever accumulate the WAR necessary to reach the Cooperstown threshold, but hes only barely going to be 33 come Opening Day, so Im not closing the book just yet. 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. He trailed 5-0 on a pair of home runs by Tyrone Taylor, a grand slam in the first inning and a solo shot in the fourth. The slugger hit .274 with 32 homers and 97 RBIs in 160 games last year. Please logout and login again. All picks and predictions are suggestions only. Were just giving him a little extra time in between appearances to rebound from his first time out. Hes 28th in R-JAWS, 1.2 points behind the lowest-ranked enshrined reliever (Bruce Sutter), and at age 33, needs to rebound if hes to have a shot at election that is, if voters will overlook his 2016 suspension under MLBs domestic violence policy, which is uncharted territory for Hall candidates. Heres what Bowden wrote: Mozeliak was cautious in his comments and reminded me that the right-hander threw only 36 innings last year. At age 33, hes signed for another four years after this campaign, so he should have sufficient time to make a run at 3,000 strikeouts and another Cy Young award. He went 119-66 with a 2.96 ERA from 2007-15, a span in which only Kershaw had a lower ERA among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings pitched. 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. 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). Adam Wainwright Archives - Cooperstown Cred Interestingly enough, he missed the entire 2011 season for the world champion St. Louis Cardinals, but he did play an integral role as a closer in the 2006 playoffs, throwing 9.2 scoreless innings in the playoffs. Well have to wait and see. As for R-JAWS, hes entered the top 20, but as he approaches both his 34th birthday and free agency, the question of how many more years hell be trusted to handle the ninth inning looms. The baseball player is married to Jenny Curry, his starsign is Virgo and he is now 41 years of age. Its an impressive resume, and one that has him as a top-10 starting pitcher of the last decade, but its just not enough for Cooperstown. Its early, its the process, hell be ready to go when its time to go. Terms of Service. No Gavin Lux -- big problem. DRS changes, injuries, and the shortened season have dealt the slugging third basemans case a set of blows in recent years, making it even harder to overcome his late start. In his final inning, Wainwright didnt touch higher than 85 mph. I like that its a round number, but I assure you that this is merely a coincidence. There is a trio of starting pitchers not yet Hall-eligible who rank somewhere between Gooden and WainwrightFlix Hernndez, Cole Hamels, and Chris Sale. 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. 2nd stage: Everything is still on track. Sorry we could not verify that email address. When Wainwright has pitched, hes been traditionally one of the better pitchers in the league, having won 20 games twice, 19 games on two other occasions, and led the league twice. Gibson, who died last October, finished with 3,117. It goes something like this . NeverSober1900. Follow Cody Swartz on Twitter (@cbswartz5). Ill assume that FanGraphss weirdly defensive stance against Wainwrights pursuit of bulletin board material has subsided by then. (approx 1 - 2 per week). However, the future Cardinals Hall of Famer is coming off a 2022 season in which he lost velocity, suffered a decline in swing . Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina played their final game in the majors, a disappointing 2-0 loss to eliminate them from the Wild Card round. Bumgarner has thrown 36 career innings in the World Series and allowed one earned run. Adam Wainwright was born on the 30th of August, 1981. He'll retire with honors and accolades, becoming a fine coach and St. Louis area legend. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. The ageless Bartolo Colon leads all active pitchers with 235, CC Sabathia is next at 230, and then its down to John Lackey at 180. Adam Wainwright is going to have such an interesting Hall of Fame case once he retires. Laurie Skrivan, St, Louis Post-Dispatch Here's a look at some other top Cardinals not in the Hall of Fame. Wainwright went 41-28 with a 4.58 ERA (an ERA+ of 90, or 10 percent below league average) from 2016 through 2019. But, while neither was young, per se, by baseball standards (it was deGroms age-30 season and Scherzers age-33), there is a big leap to get to Adam Wainwrights age-40 season which looms ahead. 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. Or follow @seeingredpod on Twitter for a direct link. After doing some [strength] assessments, its something he can solve. As a result, Ive chosen not to include him on this article. Its a shame because he was off to a great start to his season, with 1.9 WAR and a 195 OPS+ in just 36 games. Hes pitched for five teams in two different leagues, which is unusual for a pitcher with such a successful resume. . In the five innings Wainwright yielded eight hits and four earned runs for a 7.20 ERA. We use cookies to improve your experience. Gerrit Cole (117 wins at age 31) and Chris Sale (114 wins at age 32) are the likeliest active pitchers to approach Wainwrights 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. Adam Wainwright is the quintessential "Hall of Fame candidate for Cardinals fans" Hall of Fame candidate of the current team. 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. 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. While Drew was a fine player throughout his career, he would only spend the 2004 season with the Braves. . He answers the tough question on if his legacy is enough to get him into the MLB Hall of Fame alongside the all-time greats.Follow all our social media channels for more content!https://twitter.com/FoulTerritoryTVhttps://www.instagram.com/foulterritoryshow/https://www.tiktok.com/@foulterritoryshowhttps://www.facebook.com/FoulTerritoryShowhttps://www.twitch.tv/foulterritoryshow by Retrosheet. All WAR (and WPA) figures here refer to the Baseball Reference version, unless otherwise indicated. He just turned 30 on August 7, and hes already fifth in JAWS and third in peak among center fielders, but this has been largely a lost year due to a right calf strain thats already required the longest recovery time in at least six years. Adam Wainwright (44.0 career | 35.5 Peak | 39.8 JAWS, +2.1 JAWS). By either that mark or traditional reliever JAWS, the 33-year-old Kimbrel is the biggest gainer this year. {* traditionalSignIn_signInButton *}, Comment and participate in our online community. During the 2022 regular season, 'Waino' finished with a record of 11-12 and 3.71 ERA in 191.2 innings, while also racking up 143 strikeouts. Flahertys exhibition-season debut was supposed to happen Saturday, but now the assignment has been switched to Sunday. But Wainwright still had good value because he supplied 192 innings. There are some people that feel Wainwright will join his legendary teammates in Cooperstown at some point in time, a trio of Hall of Famers all departing the Cardinals at the same time. Adam's parents had a rocky marriage, and they split up when he was around seven years old. 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.