I don’t think I would have been doing a Phillies based blog site justice if I wouldn’t have written about Mr. Wolf heading to the Orioles. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my desk and the monotony of doing the same cases over and over finally got to a breaking point. So I took a quick stroll around the building and checked the Twitter, like I always do for my latest Orioles news, and saw we landed Randy Wolf. The following 5 minutes I was hit with 3 different texts and 2 emails in regards to the news.
Obviously, at this point my work day was complete as I began to do my Randy Wolf homework, and as my parents always taught me…homework comes first. Not spending a whole lot of time focusing on the N.L. this year, I had to look up Wolf’s stats and immediately saw 3-10 5.69 ERA. I said to myself, “Ok, a little off but I am not discouraged.” I then looked up the 4.19 lifetime ERA and felt a little sigh of relief.
Overall, I like the move. Of course there are things that worry me, he’s 36, he has had a brutal year, and he has never pitched in the A.L. more noteably the A.L. East, so there is definitely some reason to be concerned, but the good outweighs the bad here.
1. He is heading to the bullpen
The bullpen this year has been fantastic. Every guy in the pen has stepped up and done their job. The glaring problem with the bullpen in the past 2 1/2 weeks has been the loss of Troy Patton, who the hell would ever think that would be said. Patton was put on the 15 day DL due to an ankle injury, leaving the Orioles with no left-handed relief…kind of scary. In turn they brought up JC Romero, well that was a bigger failure than trying to get Mike Mussina to give an emotional speech at his own Orioles H.O.F. induction. By the way that went along the lines of, “Hello. Thanks to all the fans, and the organization for this honor. Thank you.”…riveting. Anyway, Romero game up and was a disaster and now he is gone. Which left the Orioles to call up Brian Matusz, whose struggles this season have been well documented and not only he but our opening day starter have both been moved from starters to the pen. Signing Randy Wolf brings stability. He can pitch long relief, he can start, and he understands how to pitch in September and the postseason. Which leads into my next point.
2. He could sure up postseason possibilites
There are 34 games remaining. 2 remaining in the series against the White Sox, 7 against the Yankees, 7 against the Blue Jays, 6 against the Rays, 6 against the Red Sox, 3 against the A’s, and 3 against the Mariners. It has been 15 years, so yes I am going to be a homer and overly optimistic. But if you look at it, the Jays, Red Sox and Mariners are all out of the race. That is 16 games, pretty much half our schedule remaining for teams that are packing it in until the end. Not to mention the Yankees are so beat up we just keep catching them at the right times, now that Teixeira is said to be out for multiple series.
All this said, if we make the playoffs, I am 100% comfortable with Randy Wolf making a postseason start. In looking at all of our pitching, Wolf has the most postseason experience, seeing as the majority of our pitching has none. Pitching in New York in October or facing a Rangers lineup in October is a little different then pitching in those scenarios in July. At this point I think if I was Showalter I would definitely be more willing to send Wolf out on the mound than to send a guy like Miguel Gonzalez, who has been really good so far, but is starting to show signs of fatigue.
3. He was dirt cheap
The Orioles paid $80,000 for the remaining salary for verteran minimum for Randy Wolf. 80 grand! There are some people that walk around my office that do less work than a major league starting pitcher that make more money than 80 grand. I would throw 80 grand at the experience of a guy like Wolf, especially if it turns into 2 or 3 key September wins and a potential win or two in October. Worst case scenario, he pitches to his 5.50 ERA and we release him and we say nice try.
4. He wanted to be here
This, to me, is the most important thing. Once released, Wolf had the choice to go wherever he wanted. Apparently, the A’s who are also in playoff contention, immediately called for his services. I have sat through 15 years of Adam Dunn telling us no. Adam LaRoche telling us no. Paul Konerko telling us no, twice. Vlad Guerrero telling us no, until he was ancient and worthless. Mark Teixeira pretty much laughing in the hometown’s face. For once it was nice to hear Randy Wolf picked us. Granted this isn’t some monster free-agent that weighed 12 different offers and decided Baltimore was his new team. It was Randy Wolf. But Wolf, success or failure, gives me great hope that this will start a trend in Baltimore that brings fans back to park, that has free-agents pay attention and take a harder look at Baltimore, and hopefully just brings back that amazing winning tradition.
34 games left and I am hung up on every pitch.
