Wakefield's Good, But An All Star He's Not

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Tim Wakefield should thank the fact that baseball is a sport that embraces history. Otherwise, there would be no way he would be going to an All Star game as anything other than a spectator.

When it's all said and done, Wakefield very well could hold the all-time record for wins by a Red Sox pitcher. At his current pace, the 42-year-old knuckleballer will have 184, leaving him nine wins away from being the winningest pitcher in one of the oldest teams in baseball's history.

Quite a feat. But Wakefield has managed to do that by being one thing - consistently there. Reliable. But does simply being reliable mean that you should get an all star nod?

This year Wakefield has been the Red Sox' most consistent pitcher. But his numbers are far from outstanding. He leads the team with 10 wins, which also puts him in a four-way tie for first in the American League and he only has three losses. He's currently on pace for his first 20-win season. The most wins he's had in a season in his 17-year career is 17, which he's done twice.

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But going into Sunday's games, his 4.30 ERA was ranked 29th in the leage, behind the likes of Andy Pettitte and Gil Meche, neither of which are even close to being considered all stars at any point this season. Last time I checked, what separated an all star from a good player was the ability to be dominating. an ERA over 4.00 hardly suggests dominance on the mound.

Still, he's been a steady hand for a team that has suffered ups and downs from most of its other pitchers, from Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has completely imploded, to Jon Lester, who had a horrendous start to the '09 season.

It seems that Wakefield is being rewarded for two reasons, and neither of which have anything to do with being a dominating force on the bump.

The first reason is his ability to stick around, which is admirable. Remember that this was a guy who at one time with the Red Sox was the whipping boy, someone they threw out there to eat up innings when things got out of hand. He bounced around from middle relief, to long relief, to spot starting to acting as the team's closer for a brief period of time and back again. You can't say he never did it without complaint, but he stuck with it and eventually became a fixture in the Red Sox rotation.

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The second reason is the fact that he plays for the team with the best record in the American League. The Red Sox have averaged more than six runs per game in games he has started and have scored double digits in runs in four of his 16 starts. It's pretty easy to rack up the wins with that kind of run support.

Is Tim Wakefield a bad pitcher? No. But he's no all star. He is what his numbers this year - other than the wins - suggest he is: a decent pitcher on a very good ballclub. He's done everything the Red Sox could expect of him and that's commendable, but not Midsummer Classic worthy.