A little info on today's opposing pitcher, Adam Wainwright

History

Adam Wainwright was originally drafted in the 1st round, #29 overall in the 2009 draft by the Atlanta Braves out of high school. He pitched well immediately in rookie ball and appeared at #97 on the Baseball America top 100 prospects list going into 2001. Wainwright continued to pitch well in the Braves system and peaked at #18 on the BA top 100 list. After the 2003 season, the Braves traded Wainwright, along with Jason Marquis and Ray King to the Cardinals for JD Drew and Eli Marrero. At the time, it made sense for the Braves because they wanted to find a replacement for Gary Sheffield, and JD Drew had a career year for the Braves before leaving via free agency.

Even though I'm sure the Braves regret the trade now, Wainwright struggled in AAA for two years for the Cardinals with ERA's of 5.37 and 4.40. However, Wainwright still won a spot on the opening day roster in 2006 in the bullpen and was a key member of the team as the Cardinals won the World Series. In 2007, Wainwright got his shot as a starter as Chris Carpenter was lost for the season due to injury and has never looked back, finishing in the top 5 in Cy Young voting in 2008 and 2009.

Stuff

According to Brooks Baseball, Adam Wainwright's main pitch is his low 90's sinker (43%) and mixes in a mid 80's cutter (21%) and mid 70's curveball (23%) with the occasional 4 seam fastball (6%) and changeup (7%).

Outlook

Even though Wainwright missed all of last year having undergone Tommy John surgery, he's come back and hasn't skipped a beat. Now, I'm sure some people may look at his ERA and think that he's having his worst year ever as a starter, but that's just not the case. Since becoming a full time starter, Wainwright this year has posted his career high in strike out rate, 2nd lowest walk rate, and maintained his career average home run rate. The reason for the high ERA could be attributed to "bad luck". His BABIP is .314, 22 points higher than his career average, and his baserunner strand percent is 8% lower than his career average.

I can't see it turning out well for our hometown heroes. Unlike many other ground ball pitchers, Wainwright has the ability to miss bats and is a righty (the Dbacks hit a porous .258/.326/.409 against righties).