Adam Wainwright is mad about where he was taken in a fantasy draft
Up until last season, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright was one of the safest pitchers in the majors. Sure, he missed 2011 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, but every other year he’s been one of the best pitchers in the game.
After tearing his Achilles last year, there’s some doubt about Wainwright’s production. He’s 34, coming off a major injury and was limited to just 28 innings.
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Those issues are especially concerning to people who play fantasy baseball. Sirius XM held its F.S.T.A Experts Baseball Draft on Tuesday, and Wainwright lasted until the seventh round. He was the 22nd pitcher to go off the board.
Normally, this wouldn’t be news. Who cares where Wainwright goes in a fantasy draft, right? Well, apparently, he does. Wainwright called into the station shortly after he was selected in order let the league know he felt disrespected with his current draft slot.
As you can tell from the interview, Wainwright’s not really mad. It seems like maybe he’s playing up his outrage a little. While the hosts try and get him to proclaim he’s better than some players selected ahead of him, Wainwright doesn’t take the bait.
If anything, Wainwright’s call is a good reminder that fantasy teams consist of actual people. Every season, those people are picked apart by analysts, ranked and then put into a draft thousands of times. That’s a little weird. Imagine doing that at your own job for a second. Is Bob from accounting really worth a second-round pick?
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For the most part, athletes seem to ignore this stuff. It’s pretty rare to see a baseball player comment on a random person’s fantasy draft because they probably don’t care. Wainwright probably doesn’t care either, and is just giving the station some entertaining sound bytes.
For now, all Wainwright can do is use this as an incentive to go out and dominate hitters again in 2016. Has a player ever hung up a fantasy draft sheet in their locker for motivation?
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
