Michael Wacha, the 2012 1st-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals, has been the best arm in the Cardinals organization since the beginning of the season. However, the Cardinals promoted such stalwarts as John Gast and Tyler Lyons before Wacha in an attempt to give him “more professional experience” before bringing him to the big leagues.
However, the Cardinals have changed their tune (with some help from the injury Gods), and on Thursday, Wacha will make his Major League debut in a start against the Kansas City Royals.
Wacha, who is 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, has a 2.05 ERA this season at Triple-A Memphis, and has a career ERA of under 2.00 in his admittedly limited stint in the minors. It is somewhat unusual to see a 2012 draftee arrive in the Major Leagues before the calendar turns to June of 2013, but after the young right-hander posted a sub-1.00 ERA last season in 11 appearances, his 2013 production was more than enough to warrant a call-up.
He will be the 8th rookie pitcher to debut for the Cards this season, and the fantasy community has been begging for his debut as a high-upside pitcher. It will be difficult to project his future outlook for 2013, but ZIPS projections place Wacha with a 4.16 ERA (3.92 FIP) and a strikeout rate of 7.26 per 9 innings upon arrival.
With Jaime Garcia (out for the season), Chris Carpenter, and Jake Westbrook on the disabled list, the Cardinals are in dyer need of an effective starting pitcher. The call to “finally” promote Wacha came after a disastrous start from the aforementioned John Gast, and although it was clear that St. Louis did not want to promote the youngster this early into 2013, they’ve basically been backed into a corner. It will be incredibly interesting to see how Wacha performs, but at the very least, Cardinals fans will be excited when he toes the rubber on Thursday night in St. Louis.