Wainwright Out for Season

The Cardinals' top pitcher, Adam Wainwright, will now miss the entire 2011 season due to the infamous Tommy John surgery.  Not only is this bad for our chances this year, but I think it also hurts the chances of Pujols staying here after this year.  This is for two reasons.  A) Wainwright being out significantly decreases the likelihood that we have a successful season, something which I think would give Pujols more reason to stick around.  B) Without Wainwright in the lineup, the Cards may feel like they have to go out and sign a big name pitcher.  This will obviously leave them without the money they will need to sign Pujols after the season.  The real hurter here, though, is losing Wainwright.  He's still a young pitcher who has had two Cy Young caliber seasons in a row and this is devastating to our playoff chances.  It's starting to look like a tough year to be a Cards fan.