Is it time to start worrying about Chicago Cubs rookie Hayden Wesneski?

The Chicago Cubs have gotten good stuff out of their rotation early on in the season, with a pair of 6 inning shut down performances from Justin Steele and Marcus Stroman respectively. However, rookie starter Hayden Wesneski has been unable to find his groove in his first two games and he has looked pretty terrible to be frank.

Last night, Wesneski made it through just an inning and a third while surrendering 4 walks, 5 hits and 7 runs (2 of them earned) to the Seattle Mariners. His slider was completely ineffective, and since that is his primary weapon along with his fastball, not locating it is a big problem. Home plate umpire Adrian Johnson was not making it easy on Wesneski, but there was still a general lack of sharpness on the 25-year-old's part.

Although his first start against the Cincinnati Reds was a bit more encouraging, Wesneski still allowed a lot of traffic on the base paths with 6 hits, 2 walks and 3 earned runs over 4.2 innings.

Perhaps most perplexing is the fact that Wesneski looked extremely sharp in his Spring Training outings. Enough to earn him the fifth starting pitcher spot in a system crowed with depth. In 5 Spring starts, Wesneski threw 17 innings with a 2.12 ERA and 22 strikeouts. Maybe nerves have something to do with Wesneski's regression as it is a lot of pressure for a rookie to be given the starting job over a veteran like Adrian Sampson. And pitching in front of 40,000 loud fans at Wrigley is a much different vibe than Sloan Park during Spring Training games that don't really matter.

Hopefully Wesneski can settle in and find himself again because he has some of the best stuff on the staff, and one of the best sliders in baseball. We've seen him dominate at this level before over 33 innings last season. But the offense won't be able to erase 7 run deficits every fifth day so Wesneski either has to figure it out soon, or he will be back in Triple A Iowa. Wesneski is slated to make his next start on Monday on the road against the Oakland Athletics. The A's are not a good team this year so their lineup could be exactly what Wesneski needs to get back on track.