When the Brewers signed Randy Wolf, he was coming off a season that most people assumed he wouldn’t be able to duplicate. At age 32, Wolf logged 214 innings for the Dodgers in 2009, putting up an ERA of 3.23 that was largely seen as lucky.
His first year with the Brewers got off to a rough start, to say the least — for the first half of the season, he was the worst starter in a rotation that was one of the worst in the league. The comparisons to Jeff Suppan — as shallow and short-sighted as they were — were inevitable.
This year has been a different story, however. After another rocky start to the year (12 runs allowed in his first 10 innings pitched, 8 earned), Wolf has settled into being one of the best #4 starters in the league. In fact, to this point in the season, his numbers are starting to look a lot like the numbers in 2009 that got him his big free agent contract:
K/9
2009: 6.72
2011: 6.94
BB/9
2009: 2.44
2011: 2.77
HR/9
2009: 1.01
2011: 1.07
LOB%
2009: 77.3%
2011: 78.6%
HR/FB
2009: 9.2%
2011: 9.3%
ERA/FIP/xFIP
2009: 3.23/3.96/4.10
2011: 3.20/4.17/4.09
Now, are these stats everything? No. Are they a guarantee he’ll continue to get good results the rest of the year? Not at all. But right now, it is nice knowing that Wolf pitching every fifth day isn’t going to be the most frustrating part of every week.
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