Cardinals Ace Wainwright Battling "Dead Arm" Issue

 

 

Wainwright battling common condition. Photo Credit: Getty Images 

 

Adam Wainwright has been the Cardinals ace since day one of this season and he was pitching like one for most of the season. In recent times though, he has struggled and not been nearly as sharp and on top of his game as he and the Cardinals had become accustomed to.Their is one very big reason why he has been off his game.

 

By: Michael Hanley

 

 

The 32 year old pitcher is coming off a defeat to the  Pittsburgh Pirates in which he was average at best. The Pirates did not hit knock him round like  he was a rookie pitcher but they did get their fair share of hits and runs, eight hits and three runs specifically off Wainwright.  

 

He was lacking the usual velocity and control of his pitches that he more starts than not always had with him. The Pirate hitters were able to make the adjustments in game and able to make him work real hard to get outs and have to work deep into counts on them, raising his pitch count on him as a result.

 

It was revealed after the game by Wainwright himself that he has been battling a “dead arm” in recent starts. That certainly could be justified  by the sheer numbers he was putting up in recent outings.

 

Check this out, in his first 19 starts of this season, he had a record of 12-4, pitching to a 1.83 ERA, NL CY Young Award worthy type of pitching. In his last eight starts though its been a completely different story. In these last eight starts he has a record of 3-5 with a 4.68 ERA, numbers you would expect a fifth starter of a starting rotation to put up, not the ace of the staff.

 

The “dead arm” that Wainwright is experiencing is not an injury of any sort to his actual pitching arm. It has more to do with the pitcher experiencing simple fatigue. It is a usual occurrence that happens in spring training  and now in the dog days of August to more experienced pitchers whose bodies are not as quick as they were in their younger years to respond to the wear and tear that  a baseball season can put on it.

 

This is especially true when players hit this month of August. They have already been through almost five months worth of games plus what they did in spring training. The amount of travel all of them have done from city to city, coast to coast on occasion can also wear them down easily. The summer weather also plays a factor, especially in St. Louis on day games when it can get boiling hot for the Cardinal players who have to stand out in full sun with temperatures near or over 100 degrees on the field. 

 

Wainwright has pitched 188 innings this season which is in addition to the 276 ⅓ innings  he tossed last regular season and postseason combined. That is a enormous amount of innings for one pitcher to go through, let alone one that is a veteran like he is. It was bound to happen that we would go through a rough patch at some point. Wainwright has been so consistent and pitched at a high level for the last year plus that at some point he would come back down to earth, even for just a period of time.

 

This  “dead arm” period for Wainwright seems to be nearly over according to what he said postgame yesterday. There is no reason why he cannot emerge from this slump of his and get back to the level he was pitching at over the first part of this season. If he is able to do that, the Cardinals  may be able to win this NL Central that at one point earlier in the season looked like it was a only  a mere dream.

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