Tommy John for Wainwright?

St. Louis Cardinals fans can’t be thrilled about the start to their 2011 season.  We’ve been talking about Albert Pujols contract extension (or lack thereof) for a while now, and that didn’t get done by his self-imposed start-of-spring-training deadline.

Now? Things may be even worse. Stud pitcher Adam Wainwright will seek a second opinion on his throwing elbow.

“Wainwright scheduled to receive second opinion Thurs. #Cardinals will have announcement about treatment then. #stlcards,” tweets Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Wainwright injured his throwing elbow on Monday while throwing batting practice. This is a 20-game winner that looks like he’s going to be lost for the season (and beyond) with Tommy John surgery.

GM John Mozeliak was hesitant to say “Tommy John” earlier this week, but you know he’s well aware of the inevitable.

“I don’t want to speculate, but obviously ligament damage, that’s usually what it results in,” he said.

This would be a huge blow to the Cardinals’ chances of doing much of anything this season. Not to say they are going to be bad, but how many teams outside of Philadelphia can deal with losing a pitcher of this caliber? Hell, the Cardinals are even deep at pitcher and it’s still a huge hit.