Stat of the Day: More W's

Tim Wakefield put up another W for the Sox last night, as he becomes the fifth pitcher in the Major Leagues to win 9 games this season. Only one player (injured Roy Halladay) has more wins than the knuckleballer this season. Who knows, he may even get a shot at his first All-Star game! Joe Madden of the Rays, who has never coached an All-Star game, will be the AL skipper in the mid-summer classic. Madden isn’t your cookie cutter manager, and he may very well consider putting a knuckleballer on his pitching staff over the typical power pitcher you usually see chosen by coaches.

The Red Sox have 23 games remaining before the All-Star break, of which Wakefield will likely start four. At the pace he’s at now, 3 wins to every 1 loss (9-3 record), he’ll finish 12-4 before the All-Star break. Last year, only two pitchers had 12 wins at mid-season—one was Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. The average number of wins for all the pitchers selected for the 2009 All-Star game was 10.5, and the average number of innings pitched per game was under 6.8. Wakefield throws an average of 6.3 innings per start, and with the second-most wins in the AL, Madden would be foolish not to take a second look at him. In addition, most National Leaguers have never seen Wakefield, or any pitcher like him. How often does a batter not in the AL East see a 65 mph knuckler sail over their head, then find the catcher’s mitt in the middle of the strike zone? Having a pitcher like Wakefield on the AL pitching staff would be an advantage for the American League squad, as long as Joe Mauer can handle the erratic floater, that is. In the four starts Wake will have before the break, he’ll need to continue the path he’s on in order to make the team. He’ll probably face the Braves twice (interleague play), followed by the Orioles and A’s. Baltimore and Oakland are both last in their divisions, and the Braves are 6 games under .500. Look for Wake when the final All-Star rosters are released on July 9th.