Why Wakefield Should Be Named to the All Star Team

Yes, Tim Wakefield.

But his ERA is up over 4.00, and that crazy knuckleball?! Who’s gonna catch that?

Let’s start with his numbers.

On May 27, his ERA was 5.19 and over his last 7 starts, it has dropped to 3.72. He has gone at least 7 innings in each of his last 7 starts.

Here are the stats for those 7 games:

That’s a pretty impressive string of quality starts. His ERA over this time period is 1.98, again, pretty darned impressive.

I know it’s a long shot, but I think he should at least be named to the team. With 12 pitchers on the staff, it’s possible that he wouldn’t be called, but he still deserves this. His recent numbers support this, and just as important, he gets an A for All Star effort all year long, every year. Jason Varitek will be a late inning replacement at catcher. While he’s not Wake’s ‘personal catcher’, the two have worked together on the same team for years now. It wouldn’t be the first time Tek has caught Wake, and it would most likely be one inning of work or less. If Wake has another good performance in his next outing, which quite coincidentally will be in the same stadium as the mid-summer classic and could be considered a final tune-up, I say Tito should go with Wake as one of his picks.