Adam Wainwright

The “Fabulous Foursome” is a new column here at Rotoprofessor that we are going to run once a week focusing on four players fantasy owners should be looking to acquire for various reasons (for example, a new closer, prospect on the verge of a recall, buy-low candidates, etc.). 

Let’s take a look at who you should be targeting this week:

Injuries are a part of any game, and we know that some injuries mean more to a team than others.  A star first baseman means a lot more to a team than a bench player who might get 20 at bats as a pinch hitter per year if he’s lucky.

An injury means more to a team if a player is a big part of their pitching or hitting games too.  If a team is like the 2010 San Diego Padres and does not have a very good offense, they would be more at risk if their start hitter, Adrian Gonzalez (now with the Boston Red Sox) was injured.

Before the start of the season, I wanted to see which pitchers statistically had the best fastballs, curveballs, sliders, cutters, changeups and splitters of the 2010 season.

Here are a look at the top curveballs of the 2010 season. A few notes:

The Pitch Value data was created by Fangraphs.com. I will be using the statistic, wCB, which denotes the runs above average for a particular pitch—in this case a curveball.  

Every baseball season, there are injuries around the league.  Some are so bad that a few can never rebound and make the same impact as they did before—i.e. Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets, who has now been forced to change positions due to injury.

Depending on the situation, whether it's Tommy John surgery, a shoulder operation, elbow tendinitis or a broken foot, baseball is a very tough sport to recover in.  This can be due to the fact that "Americas pastime," puts a high demand on muscles that aren't used in everyday life. 

Injuries are a part of any sport, and baseball is no exception.

Injuries can change a team’s ideas and plans, alter division standings and cause managers infinite frustration.

The regular season has not started in baseball, but there have already been many significant injuries.  Not all injuries are the same.  Like anything else in this world, some are more important than others.

Spring Training is in full force now, and we now have some insight into the teams of the MLB.

This piece is second in a series of seven, each predicting the records of teams in each division and then predicting the entire postseason (the schedule for which can be found on the last slide).

Pretty simple. If I was betting on the season's final standings, this is where my chips would fall. I'm going to pass on predicting all the playoff stuff, but stick to the regular season, with my award favorites as well.

In the AL East...

Boston: 99-63

New York: 90-72

Baltimore: 83-79

Toronto: 77- 85

Tampa Bay: 70-92

As we know, the injury of Adam Wainwright has put the St. Louis Cardinals in a really tough position. What was looking to be a promising 2011 season is now looking to be one of disappointment. Adam Wainwright has been the Cy Young runner-up in the National League the past two seasons. According to the Wins Above Replacement statistic, Wainwright was worth 5.7 and 6.1 wins in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Albert Pujols has dominated much of the baseball news in St. Louis this offseason, but he may not hold the key to the Cardinals' success in 2011

One of baseball's brightest and most underrated pitching stars, Adam Wainwright, will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery this spring, leaving a gaping hole in St. Louis' rotation.

Wainwright, the Cardinals' co-ace, has the game's lowest ERA over the last two years and finished second and third in Cy Young voting during that time.

After news broke that Adam Wainwright will miss the entire 2011 MLB season, the Cardinals have a serious decision to make whether or not they want to exercise his option for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Originally, that option was extended due to Wainwright’s stellar 2010 performance when the "Cards" saw their No. 2 starter end the season second in the National League Cy Young voting.