Tim Wakefield and Stats

Tim Wakefield pitched six innings giving up just one run to help lead the Red Sox to a 7-1 victory over the Devil Rays last night. The stat that Tim Wakefield is now 8-0 against Tampa Bay in Tampa Bay and has beaten them 17 times overall kept being brought up during last night's broadcast.

As impressive as those numbers against Tampa Bay are - it is other numbers and stats about Tim Wakefield that I think are even more impressive.

Last night Tim Wakefield went into the game tied with fellow knuckleballer Joe Niekro in 89th place on the all-time strikeout list. Wakefield's 7 strikeouts last night not only broke the tie with Niekro but was also good enough to move him past Jason Schmidt and put Wakefield into 87th place all by himself with 1754 career strikeouts. The name that caught my eye on the list of all-time strikeouts was Ron Guidry at 84th place with 1778 strikeouts. Tim Wakefield could pass Louisiana Lightning in strikeouts? That gives some perspective into how good Wakefield's career truly has been so far.

Also the win last night gives Wakefield 163 wins for his career. That puts Wakefield just one win away from breaking into the top 200 for wins in baseball history. Maybe just as interesting it puts him just one win away from tying knuckleballer Wilbur Wood (and 4 other pitchers) in 196th place. Another name that caught my eye on the all-time wins list was Ron Guidry tied at 177th place with 170 wins. That's within striking distance for Wakefield.

Wakefield may not be close to being as good as knuckleball greats and Hall of Famers Phil Niekro or Hoyt Wilhelm in the pantheon of knuckleball pitchers but it can be argued that he's the in the company of Wilbur Wood and Joe Niekro. The strikeout list and wins list certainly support this.

I have mentioned Ron Guidry in relation to Wakefield on both the strikeout list and wins list. It is true that Guidry played in parts of 14 MLB seasons while Wakefield is now in his 15th season. That puts them about on an even playing field even if you say that Guidry's first two seasons shouldn't count because he spent most of those seasons in the minor leagues with just under 33 innings pitched with the Yankees. Those first two seasons for Guidry are offset by the time Wakefield had to spend in the bullpen and by the 1994 season where Wakefield got zero innings pitched at the MLB level (because of pitching in the minors and the MLB strike).

Now I am not trying to argue that Wakefield is close to being as good a pitcher as Ron Guidry but I am using this opportunity to show how just going by the stats can be misleading. Wakefield will most likely pass Guidry in both strikeouts and wins in comparable time spent at the MLB level but is not close to being the pitcher Guidry was at his peak. Mike Mussina, meanwhile, has pitched in 17 MLB seasons and has amassed 244 career wins. Mussina is a borderline Hall of Fame pitcher but in my book Mussina isn't close to being the pitcher Ron Guidry was and yet because he has stuck around to amass stats Mussina will probably get ten-times the Hall of Fame votes than what Guidry received.

Going full-circle back to Tim Wakefield in Tampa Bay, I'm surprised that back in 2000 when Wakefield was a free-agent that a dome team like Tampa Bay or Minnesota didn't try and scoop him up. Consider that in addition to the success Wakefield has had in Tampa Bay he's also 7-3 at the Metrodome with an excellent .216 batting average against some pretty good hitting Twins teams.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

So far this year there has been 1 HR for every 34.6 at bats in the American League. Last year there was 1 HR for every 30.8 AB in the AL. That's a decrease of about 11% in the frequency of HR league-wide. I bring this up because people keep bringing up the fact that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz haven't shown as much power this year as last year. Same is true for many players in the AL like Travis Hafner for example... I am more concerned with Manny's "power outage" that I am with David Ortiz's. So far this season Manny has an OPS+ of just 124. While still being well above league average (100) - this is a guy who hasn't had an OPS+ lower than 143 in 12 years (that was in 1997 when he batted .328 with 26 HR and just 88 RBI in 150 games). Ortiz has an OPS+ of 160 so far this season which isn't far off last year's 164 or 2005's 161. I still think Manny will have a hot spell this summer that will surge his numbers up to levels we've come to expect... Not for nothing but knuckleballer Tim Wakefield is just 3 strikeouts behind Joe Niekro of the all-time list. Niekro is at 88th place on the all-time list with 1,747. I have to think that given the special bond that has developed over the years between Tim Wakefield and Phil and Joe Niekro that tying Joe on the all-time list has to have some special meaning for Wakefield who probably will never catch Phil Niekro who is at 10th place on the all-time list with 3,342 K's...