St. Louis Cardinals: Stay Patient with Mike Leake

Mike Leake struggled once again in his second regular season start with the St. Louis Cardinals. The time is now to stay patient with the newest Cardinal starter.

Considered to be the “marquee” signing by the St. Louis Cardinals this off season, Mike Leake has struggled in each of his regular season starts after impressing throughout spring training.

Signed for five years at $80 million, the Cardinals picked up a guy that they expect to 1) eat innings and 2) throw lots of strikes.

Leake made it through six tonight against the Brewers after failing to get out of the fifth inning against Pittsburgh last week.

Even when he allowed a couple of runs early tonight, it’s encouraging to see him push through and still go deep into a ballgame.

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Leake is just a touch off right now, evidenced by high WHIP and low strikeout values through his first two starts.

Leake’s WHIP here in early 2016 of 1.98 is .71 higher than his career average of 1.27. In other words, he’s allowing between 6-7 more baserunners per nine innings than he has in the rest of his career.

Pitches that he is used to painting on corners are missing a couple of inches off of the plate. When he falls behind on those misses, he has to go towards the middle of the plate, and that isn’t a good situation for Leake to be in.

As Leake locks his command in and continues to get comfortable with Yadier Molina, those walk/hit numbers are going to move back towards his career average.

He’s never going to strike out 200 hitters in a season, and he may never make an all-star roster in his time in St. Louis.

That doesn’t mean that he can’t be an impact arm for the Cardinals.

I think that he could very easily win 15 games this year, assuming that he makes the small adjustment that I he needs to make.

Sure, David Price would have been the ideal offseason pickup. He’s a bonafide ace, a guy that I believe would have fit perfectly in St. Louis.

But we still got a pretty good one in Leake. He’s working with the best defensive catcher in the game, and one of the best pitching coaches in Derek Lilliquist.

The Cardinals made a long-term commitment to Leake when they gave him a five year deal. They’re going to get him right.

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Leake showed way too much ability in spring training to keep struggling as he has while playing for a team that is as talented as the Cardinals are.

All we need to do is show a little patience.