Mike Nadel: Wainwright is positively critical of himself
Pathetic. Putrid. An insult to the very craft of pitching. If Adam Wainwright keeps going like this, the St. Louis Cardinals are doomed to be the only sixth-place team in the major leagues.
Before you shoot the messenger, the above sentiments come not from a mean-spirited columnist but from Wainwright, the newly anointed team ace.
After he finished pounding himself over the head with a sledgehammer in response to Wednesday's unsatisfying exhibition start -- "I was awful! I was horrible!" -- it was amazing Wainwright had the strength Thursday to batter himself some more.
"Hey, you can't get better without being hard on yourself," he said. "I have very, very high standards for myself. That's what drives me."
What should an observer make of this?
On the one hand, it sure is refreshing to hear a professional athlete hold himself accountable. Before serving up a three-run homer to Florida's Hanley Ramirez, an error by Cards shortstop Brendan Ryan had kept the inning alive. Rather than whining about the unearned runs, Wainwright said he pitched so poorly, "the runs should have been earned."
On the other hand -- the hand Wainwright still was using to smack himself around a day later -- if he's this rough on himself after an early-March exhibition start, you worry about him making it through an entire season with his confidence and sanity intact.
After all, as the No. 1 starter in a rotation that also includes guys named Disabled List Resident and Who's He? and That Guy's Still In The Majors?, Wainwright will face more than enough expectations from outside his own head.
"I've always put this much pressure on myself; that way, I don't feel pressure from anybody else," he said. "It's good pressure, though. I'm being critical but it's a positive critical, if you know what I mean."
A positive critical? I love it! I think I'll steal the phrase to describe my often acerbic way with words.
"No matter the circumstances, Adam goes out there to beat the other team," pitching coach Dave Duncan said. "When he doesn't feel he's done his part, he's disappointed. He expects a lot from himself, and that's probably a good thing."
Wainwright certainly has been a very good thing for the Cardinals. As a rookie in 2006, he went from mop-up guy to set-up man to playoff closer. He allowed nary a postseason run and wrapped up the World Series with a Game 5 whiff of Detroit's Brandon Inge. With closer Jason Isringhausen healthy again last season, Wainwright returned to his more familiar starting role and went 14-12 with a 3.70 ERA.
His ERA over his final 24 starts was 2.96, and lack of run support cost him several victories. For long stretches, Wainwright was the only reason to bother watching the '08 Cardinals.
When told he was on a rocket ship to stardom, he said: "I don't want to get too far ahead of myself on that rocket ship. It's important to remember where I came from. Three years ago, I was struggling to get one inning in the big leagues."
With Chris Carpenter still recovering from elbow surgery, the 26-year-old Wainwright for the first time enters a season facing the burden of being the unquestioned No. 1.
"Chris told me I'm gonna have more pressure on me this year than I've ever had in my life because people are gonna expect me to win," Wainwright said. "Everybody had high hopes for me last year but they didn't really know what to expect. Still, there's no added pressure on me because I already expect to win every start."
Wainwright is savvy enough to know something about baseball psychology. Having an ace who pitches like an ace doesn't guarantee a team's success, but having an ace who falls flat on his face almost always condemns a club to failure. That could go double for the Cardinals, whose other starters won't exactly make opposing hitters quake in their cleats.
"When we had Number 29 (Carpenter) starting every fifth day, we fed off that," he said. "Every fifth day, we had a guy on the mound we KNEW would win ... and you could feel the energy in the clubhouse.
"I want to be that guy. I feel like I am that guy. Now I just have to go out and do it."
Any time he doesn't do it and you want to get on his case, you'll have to stand in line.
Right behind Adam Wainwright.
Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is a GateHouse News Service sports columnist. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.