Adam Wainwright starts Monday night for the St. Louis Cardinals, taking his 7.16 ERA to the mound against the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies, winners of nine of their past 10 games. Wainwright's strikeout-to-walk ratio has plummeted during his early struggles:
2012: 3.54
2013: 6.26
2014: 3.58
2015: 5.00 (28 innings)
2016: 1.27
It's certainly possible that Wainwright's peak season came in 2013, when he finished second in the Cy Young voting. He did go 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA in 2014, but that season was built on his ability to manage contact rather more so than striking out opposing batters, and very few pitchers can manage soft contact season after season.