A few years back, 2007 to be exact. I used the term “effective” to sum up what Tim Wakefield was as a pitcher. It was a debate about whether or not the Red Sox were good enough to win the World Series that season. And as any Red Sox fan knows, the pitching staff was a very important reason why we as fans thought the team to be good enough to win. And I’m talking about in the beginning of the season, when they took off with the division, and left the Yankees behind.
Yet there were a few Yankee fans that discounted everything that they were doing. He came out with all the negatives; why Dice-K would struggle simply because Japanese players struggle more with Major League talent. Why Schilling would crumble with age. Why Beckett would either experience blister issues again or regress. And basically, this fan ignored Wakefield as a quality pitcher.
So “effective” I thought summed up Wakefield well. Six straight seasons of “league-average” ERA+’s led me to use that word.
Make it eight straight to date.
And at the time, Wakefield was the fourth starter, with Lester’s return on the horizon (sometime during the remainder of the season.) Then, I knew the rotation was the real deal. Julian Tavarez was a stopgap that wasn’t very good, but at least held the spot until another pitcher of quality would arise.
So Wakefield is what he is; league-average. If he was a teams number one starter, then they would be in serious trouble. But he was manning the back end of the rotation, and that seemed like a huge plus. Average starters don’t exactly blow anyone away, but they don’t exactly grow near the apple tree in the field over yonder, either.
What Wakefield has been to this Red Sox team, 2007 being no exception, is a very important piece. Yet no one ever seems to realize this. Well, some do. But some don’t understand what the Red Sox organization have when they pencil in a league-average starter (maybe even a little better) basically every fifth day, for what will be 15 straight seasons when 2009 begins.
And what makes it even more of a privilege at this point, is that Wake is merely $4 million a season, and not under contract unless the team renews his “team-option” before each season.
While teams like the Mariners have thrown $12 million a year trying to acquire a league-average starter (Carlos Silva). While the Yankees spent $17 million on a half season of slightly above-average starts (Clemens). And while several other teams have attempted to sign and acquire pitchers to eat quality innings over that 14-year period. Wakefield has been an absolute bargain for the Red Sox, and would be a bargain for any ballclub.
It took me some time to come around to believing this. Like many people, I saw that Wakefield could be hit…very, very hard on any given day. So I never fully appreciated Wake’s ability. It was obvious that he wasn’t an ace, for ace pitchers don’t get rocked that often. But with my growing understanding of statistics, came my growing appreciation for Tim Wakefield.
I mean, seriously. Five of the past six seasons, Wakefield has started 30 or more games. Each season he has cost the Red Sox about $4 mill. And each season has resulted in no worse than average production.
For a guy that one has no idea what to expect from start to start…Talk about reliable.
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