St. Louis Cardinals: Two Month Review

Underperforming Rotation

Had I known this offense was as potent as it has been, I probably would assume that this team was right at the top of the standings. However, that’s taking into account the rotation at least looking close to the way it did last season.

However, over the course of the 54 games this season, the rotation only has 29 quality starts. Adam Wainwright has not been his consistent self and has struggled to find consistency on a weekly basis as he has an ERA of 5.71 so far this season.

Along with Wainwright’s struggles, every other member of the rotation has had their inconsistencies as well. Carlos Martinez just shook off a rough stretch of five games that saw him go 0-5 with an ERA of 6.84 during that stretch. For more on why Martinez could be on the uptick check out Viva el Birdos writer Joe Schwarz’s piece.

Jaime Garcia has been as off and on as you can be with his 3.48 ERA. Michael Wacha had a great start to the season and seemed to be putting his issues behind him, but his command of his fastball and lack of confidence in his curveball has caused a litany of issues for the right-hander in his last five starts.

In these last five starts, Wacha has an ERA of 8.63. His FIP of 3.74 and opponents BABIP of .381 suggests that there is a lot of luck involved here. However, it is quite clear that this is a result of Wacha’s fastball catching far too much of the zone.

After having a rough start to the season, Mike Leake has turned it around by allowing a total of six earned runs in his last five starts. So, while things look grim for the rotation there is hope that it could be on the verge of turning things around.

If the rotation can turn things around and the offense adds a smidge more consistency, we could see things start to turn around for this team.

Next: Up and Down Bullpen