Friday, February 6, 2009

Randy Wolf signs 1-yr deal

The Dodgers added a much needed arm today.

Wolf pitched for the Dodgers in 2007 and performed well until some shoulder issues flared up. In his first 12 starts he went 7-3, 3.68 ERA, 74/21 K/BB in 71 IP. Obviously these numbers are terrific.

But that hot streak would only last until early June. That's when Wolf struggled in his final 6 starts going 2-3, 7.11 ERA, 20/18 K/BB in 31.2 IP.

His season was over in July and Randy later underwent exploratory surgery in his throwing shoulder to remove some debris. In 2008, Wolf started the season with the Padres and simply didn't pitch very well at all. In 21 starts with SD, Wolf went 6-10, 4.74 ERA, 105/47 K/BB in 119.2 IP.

He was then traded to Houston in before the trade deadline and immediately went on a hot streak. Finishing the season by going 6-2, 3.57 ERA, 57/24 K/BB in 70.2 IP.

You can disect this info in 2 different ways. (1) Randy Wolf isn't very consistent. Or (2) Randy Wolf has finally found his mojo since recovering from 2 arm surgeries in the last 2+ years.

Wolf, 32, is a veteran left-handed pitcher with a good curveball and nice feel for the game. He has the mental makeup to make adjustments in this league and I think he could perform above expectations in 2009. Here's hoping Wolf can continue last year's late-season dominance in 2009.

5 comments:

Doc said...

http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090206&content_id=3805106&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la

Brandon said...

Randy Wolf! I can't believe I'm excited about this. I think it feels good to have some answers in the pitching department.

Brandon said...

Tony Jackson (he's almost always right) says the deal is for $5 million base salary with incentives up to $8 million if he reaches 200 IP.

Great monetary deal for Dodgers. Yeah, his health is in question, but I feel that Wolf is the one who lowered his demands.

Doc said...

Let's hope he gets paid $8M. We need as many innings from Bills/Kuroda/Wolf as possible.

The Dodgers won't be eager to overwork Kershaw and I'm sure they will be juggling #5 starters all season. This could lead to overworking the bullpen. Unless of course, the front of the rotation does it's part by getting deep into games.

Anonymous said...

Edwin Jackson & Dioner Navarro to the Rays for .... who? Can't remember, must have been nothing. Edwin Jackson looks pretty good right now on an NL team if we're pining for Wolf this bad. Navarro behind the plate, Martin at 2nd or 3rd, oh what could have been ... I do like Blake though, just old.