6/08/10: Red Sox 3, Indians 2

I’ve always thought that Tim Wakefield was slightly overrated in some circles, due to the fact that he’s a charter member of what I call the Goatee Mafia (or, if you prefer, the blue-collar team chemistry guys who play the game the way it was meant to be played).

Still, I’m going to give some well deserved props to our resident knuckleballer on the heels of his newly achieved milestone.

In an era where starting pitchers are coddled like deformed infants,  and players change teams as often as they change their socks, this is pretty goddamn impressive:

Wake tops a list containing three of the best pitchers in baseball history, and another guy who should be in the Hall of Fame.  Most of the names on the list pitched in an era where starters would routinely throw 300+ innings in a season, with the exception of the hormone-laced mule at #2.

Wakefield’s ERA+ during this his time with the Red Sox was 109, comfortably above average.  While pitching relatively well for long periods, he’s taken a lot of the onus off of the bullpen and other less durable starters during the past 14 seasons.  At the risk of sounding like a tool here, these are things that don’t really show up in a box score.  Well, they do actually show up in box scores, but not in a way that can be easily attributed to Wakefield.

Notes & Takeaways:

• While people have a visceral reaction to any news involving Scott Boras, keep in mind that his interests are pretty closely aligned with Boston’s interests in the case of Jacoby Ellsbury, seeing as though the outfielder isn’t close to becoming a free agent and will need to play well to make a decent arbitration case.
• I’ll have more on the draft in my next post.

Comments are closed