Hunt and Peck

Thinking about Adam Wainwright - A Hunt and Peck

I don’t really have a point, just some thoughts.

By lil_scooter93 Sep 22, 2020, 2:00pm EDT

While watching the game last night Brad Thompson began talking about potential Cy Young candidates and brought up Adam Wainwright. Admittedly, I have been less informed about this season than of seasons yore and so it surprised me a bit to hear Adam Wainwright could be a Cy Young candidate. How did I miss that?

Ah... Got it. I didn’t miss it.

So maybe this is not exactly what we would consider a Cy Young season. That was probably a stretch. This list did bring something to my attention about Waino’s season, though. Let’s break this list down further.

These are the qualified National League starters age 35 of over. This is the list. (Side note: goodness gracious, Max Scherzer is really good.)

During this weird season Adam Wainwright has pitched 59 innings for 1.2 fWAR. At that pace, a 200 inning season would result in about 4.0 - 4.1 fWAR. This would be Waino’s best season since 2015 — the season he was pitching incredibly until his Achilles tendon ruptured. A 4.0 fWAR season from a qualified starting pitcher 38 years old or older would be tied for 55th best in that category of ALL TIME. What Adam Wainwright is doing in 2020 is not Cy Young worthy, but over the age of 38, there are only a handful of pitchers that are hanging with Cy (Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, and John Smoltz appear on the list a few times). It might not be award-winning, but how Adam Wainwright is pitching is impressive. I, for one, plan on keeping my eyes on it.