6 Cardinals pitchers who dominated Spring Training but faded away in the regular season

Spring Training is now in full swing, and be prepared for the "best shape of his life" and "playing with something to prove" quotes for players all around the league. The St. Louis Cardinals are no exception to these statements, but fans are well aware that the exhibition season is really about getting reps in and preparing for meaningful games.

However, with the excitement of a new baseball season and watching the best players in the world perfect their craft, it is also easy to put too much weight into Spring Training performances. Looking back, there are plenty of pitchers who took advantage of being ahead of hitters in February but failed to keep the momentum going into the regular season.

Pitchers who raised fan expectations during Spring Training but failed to perform when the games counted

Kip Wells

Spring Training (2007): 23.1 innings, 1.16 ERA, 22 K's, 8 walks

Cardinals Regular Season Career (2007): 162.2 innings, 5.70 ERA, 122 K's, 78 walks

After a mediocre regular season turned into a World Series championship in 2006, the Cardinals were looking to revamp their starting rotation. The team could not trust veteran Mark Mulder to stay healthy, and bulldog Chris Carpenter had surgery to address bone spurs, while they also lost Jason Marquis and Jeff Suppan to free agency. Adam Wainwright was returning after missing the previous year, and Braden Looper shifted to the rotation, with Anthony Reyes being expected to take a jump in his development.

This left plenty of innings to be filled, so the Cardinals went with a familiar face and signed 30-year-old veteran Kip Wells. The righty spent five years pitching in the NL Central for the Pirates and showed his ability to handle innings for a below-average team. He never had great strikeout stuff but also started to show concerning command issues before the Pirates shipped him to the Rangers at the end of 2006.

The Cardinals paid Wells $4 million for his services, and that signing looked like a steal after Spring Training. The 1998 first-round draft pick showed increased strikeout numbers and lowered his walk rate while pitching to a 1.16 ERA in more than 20 spring innings. That performance slotted him into the middle of the rotation as a steadying arm ahead of the youngsters.

Oh how the table turned... Through the first two months of the 2007 season, Wells struggled mightily, and the team fell with him. At the end of May, the righty was sitting at an abysmal 2-9 with a miserable 6.20 ERA and only 48 strikeouts with 30 walks in over 65 innings. His 1.48 WHIP paired with 10 homers allowed did not give fans or the Cardinals much hope for a turnaround, as the team shifted him back and forth from the rotation to the bullpen as they tried to right the ship and recoup any value. Wells limped into the All-Star break sitting at 3-11 with a 5.92 ERA for a team quickly falling out of contention in the Central. While the second half was an improvement, it would have been tough to be worse. Through the end of the year, Wells went 4-6 and dropped his ERA during July, his only month with a sub-4 earned run average.

By the end of the season, Wells put together his worst statistical season as he led the NL in losses with 17, the second time in three years he led the league in that category. He was able to eat 162.2 innings but did not do so with any quality, as he finished with a 5.70 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP.

The 2007 season would be the last time Wells received full run as a starter, but he pitched for five more teams before calling it a career after the 2012 season.