Waino: Brief, Batted Around, Bound for Bullpen
MEMPHIS — Cardinals’ righthander Adam Wainwright – no longer rehabbing in a pitching-role limbo – made a swift and not entirely successful appearance in his first start of an assignment with Class AAA Memphis.
He did, however, make one thing more clear than his line: He’s coming back as a reliever.
“I know I’m very close to being able to help in whatever role it may be,” Wainwright said after his 27-pitch outing here tonight. “They’ve pretty much told me they are grooming me down here to pitch in the backend (of games) up there.”
Wainwright got two outs in the first inning from his 27 pitches. He allowed four hits, all of which were line drives or harder. The first four batters he faced reached base, the first three by hits. New Orleans Zephyrs’ No. 3 hitter Chris Aguila ripped a 1-0 fastball for a three-run home run to the sidewalk in front of AutoZone Park’s left-field bluff.
After walking the cleanup hitter on four pitches — all made from the windup — he got the next two batters out. He struck out Ramon Martinez on a full-count cutter.
Wainwright left the inning, and the game, to Blake Hawksworth.
The Cardinals’ righthander is here in Memphis to begin an accelerated rehab assignment, a change in schedule to get him back to the majors as quickly as possibly and into a relief role. Though the Cardinals won’t say it officially, if Wainwright is going to be a reliever, Wainwright is the closer.
Wainwright is recovering from a ruptured pulley in his right middle finger, an injury that has kept him off the mound since he felt it pop throwing a curveball in early June.
The Cardinals pushed his start up a day and will have him throw Monday as well for Memphis. As if further telegraphing the likelihood that Wainwright would return to the majors in a relief role, the Cardinals prescribed only 25 pitches for his first outing.
If the major-league bullpen settles and Wainwright is shifted to starting, he would probably have to strengthen his arm on the job.
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More from AutoZone Park and Wainwright’s start in Saturday’s paper. More from the other Cardinals and could-be Cardinals here in Memphis later tonight on the blog.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Oy.
His first start in awhile… He came out of the game uninjured, so the outing was a success… He will regain his poise, in his next start…
Sounds like he’ll fit into the bullpen nicely.
he’ll have to do better or he will just be the 2nd coming of Izzy. Better luck next time!
having Wain-o come back as a reliever would be huge (if not monumental mistake). if we need to move a starter to the ‘pen, why not wellemeyer? i think he is more suited for the ‘pen anyway
Agree, Phillip. I said in another post yesterday that if they put Wainwright in the bullpen, all of the decision makers should be fired immediately. What a dumb idea this would be, especially as Perez seems to be holding up okay in pressure situations the last couple days.
wainwright as a starter might pitch seventy or so innings where as a closer he might only pitch twenty. but you won’t find twenty more important innings than those twenty as a closer. he will be much more valuable this season as a closer.
I agree it’s a mistake. First of all, Wainwright wasn’t exactly light’s out as a closer. Agree that he would be better than the Izzy/Franklin combo, but we have Perez who should get a shot before they sacrifice a top of the rotation starter. Second, we’ve been hearing all season that the biggest problem for the bullpen has been the number of innings they’ve had to pick up. How does it make sense then, to take the guy who has given the team the most innings as a starter and put him in the bullpen? Are they going to burn his arm out next? I think it’s an idiotic proposition, unless his injury makes him incapable of pitching 6 or 7 innings, which I don’t believe is known yet.
The Only Problem was that well was a bullpen guy and just wasnt successful. Thats why we tried him as a starter. Some Players can work both sdes of the tracks mentally like Wano. Some Cant..I think for the rest of the season let wano clean up izzy’s mess. Then next year get him back into starting. By then we wont have to push anyone out. We let either Looper or Loshe go to free agent. Personally I want Loshe Back and let Looper go to free agent. Carp will be fully the Ace and then you have a Knock out Punch of Carp,Wano,Loshe and tail end it with Welly and Pinero. That is the best way to go and then on top of that youll have a ton of mony for bull pen help and a bat or two..
This is absolutely a HUGE mistake. There’s no way that getting back a top of the line starter is less valuable than even a lights-out closer (of which there’s no guarantee anyway). I’d also point out that the rotation hasn’t exactly been covering itself in glory recently. Both Lohse and Wellemeyer seem to be fading, and with Carp down again (hopefully briefly) getting Wainwright back every fifth day would be huge. If the Cards can’t find a way to patch up the holes in the bullpen with Perez, McClellan, Springer and Franklin, they’re probably not going to go far in the playoffs anyway.