Tim Wakefield Live!

With the Red Sox making a huge trade to acquire a #49 (you may have heard) it made me wonder. What about the other #49? What about Tim Wakefield? How did he do while I was scoring the game? I figured his would be interesting. He played for a long time, in many roles. How did he do? Well, let’s see.

Right away I saw I was going to have to change things up. Since Wake pitched as both a starter and a reliever, my projections would be off. My totals too, for that matter. His lack of wins per appearance makes more sense when you realize he was a middle reliever for a lot of those. In fact, check out his games in May of 1999. On the 9th, he comes in for a regular one-inning save. Then, on the 22^nd he gets the start and goes 8.1 innings for the win. This is not typical behavior.

But, overall, how did he do? A 3.54 ERA is about what I would have expected. Solid, if not spectacular. Just like Wake. He also performed better as a starter than as a reliever while I was watching. No wonder I was always a bit nervous with him as a close.

I find it really interesting that I apparently missed seeing him for the last seven years or so of his career. How odd that he didn’t pop up once or twice after 2005.

As for the projections? Meh. As a starter, a ten win season with a mid-tree ERA. As a reliever, 25 saves with an ERA over four.

But, the numbers were never the whole story with Wakefield. It was his ability to do whatever you needed, and do it well. From closer to starter to mop-up. All in one month if that’s what the team needed. 

That’s pretty valuable.

How did Wake do while you were watching?