Adam Wainwright: 2016 VEB Projections

Editor's Note: Two years ago, Site Manager Ben Humphrey asked readers to provide predictions for Cardinals baseball players. Last year, he renewed that request, and although Ben is in blogger retirement, we at VEB are re-renewing the request to predict how the Cardinals will do.

We will not get to every player on the 40-man roster, but we will get to most. There will not be a defined order for the players, but players most assured of playing time will go first so we can let some of Spring Training play out. We will ask for standard stats. For hitters: Plate Appearances, Home Runs, RBI (gasp!), Runs, Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage, and WAR. As trying to figure wOBA on is very difficult, we will use a rough approximation based on OBP and SLG ((1.7*OBP+SLG)/3). For pitchers: Starts, Games, Innings Pitched, K/9, BB/9, ERA, FIP, WAR, and Saves.

Next up: Adam Wainwright

After missing nearly the entire 2015 season due to an unfortunate Achilles tear, Wainwright appears poised for a big 2016. Frankly, for the Cardinals to have a legitimate shot at winning the National League Central over the Cubs and Pirates, their ace, who is tabbed to start Opening Day for the fourth straight season, will need to find his name in the comeback player of the year discussion. Fortunately, an underrated aspect of not being able to pitch much last year is the fact that Wainwright's throwing elbow was given basically another full year to recover after being operated on in the offseason after the 2014 season.

As Alex Crisafulli wrote last month, "Somehow from where I'm sitting there's nothing to be worried about because [Wainwright's] been one of the best pitchers in baseball and that should continue into 2016." So how do you project "one of the best pitchers in baseball" who turns 35 years of age in August? It may not be an easy task, but it is definitely a fun one, and I have a feeling the VEB community will be rather bullish with its projection.

Wainwright's FanGraphs player page with Steamer projection can be found here while Dan Szymborski's 2016 Cardinals ZiPS can be found here.

Thank you for your help. It is possible you might have missed a few projections thus far. Please visit our projections section or click on the links to the rest of the players below as they only take a few minutes.

Matt Carpenter 2016 Projections

Jhonny Peralta 2016 Projections

Trevor Rosenthal 2016 Projections

Matt Holliday 2016 Projections

Mike Leake 2016 Projections

Kevin Siegrist 2016 Projections

Kolten Wong 2016 Projections