Do I Make You Randy

The Cubs destroyed the Houston Astros today at Wrigley 12-0, and getting his 7th win of the year was starting pitcher Randy Wells. Wells was never really a top prospect, picked by the Cubs in the 38th round of the draft in 2002, and went to Toronto as a Rule 5 pick in 2008 before he was returned to the Cubs later that year. Next month he's going to be 27, so its taken him a while to get regular playing time in the majors. He came up early in the year when Carlos Zambrano was banged up and was pretty much just expected to be a brief fill-in guy for a couple of turns in the rotation. However, with Sean Marshall needing to stay in the bullpen, and with more recent injuries to Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly, Wells has gotten a chance to stay around and prove himself, and he's done so spectacularly.

Today was Wells' 15th start and he's now 7-4 with a 2.84 ERA. With 95 IP, he's just outside of being qualified for rate stats for pitchers (the rule is that you need 1 IP for each game that your team has played), but if he had a few more innings, it would put him firmly in the top 10 in the NL. With 60 Ks, he hasn't been a lights out pitcher, but he's also only walked 21. He's generally able to keep his pitch count down and go pretty deep into games. Today he threw 110 pitches and lasted 8 innings. Hitters can definitely make contact off of him, but to this point he's mostly managed to keep the ball in the park and keep himself out of giving up big innings. So, with Wells' performance as good as its been, the question becomes, could Randy Wells win the NL Rookie of the Year? Geovany Soto deservedly won it in 2008, setting up the potential for back-to-back awards for Cubs players--and Cubs players who took a little while to get up to the Majors (Soto was 25).

It's seemingly a pretty down year for position player rookies in the N.L. St. Louis Caridinal outfielder Colby Rasmus, has been up for the whole year and has hit 11 homers, but hasn't hit much for average. Former Cub Casey McGehee is hitting .312 in 60 games for the Brewers, but his performance hasn't really jumped out as being amazing, and he would probably be further hurt by the fact that the Brewers aren't that good right now and might be fading in the divisional race. Wells might have stronger competition from his fellow pitchers. J.A. Happ started in the bullpen but has moved into the rotation for a good Phillies team, and has posted a 7-1 record with a 3.13 ERA. Then there's the 22-year old Tommy Hanson of the Braves, who has only been with the major league club since the start of June, but has gone 5-1 with a 2.95 ERA in 9 starts. The Braves aren't that good of a team, but if Hanson continues to pitch well he might have a little bit of an advantage in that he seems to be a little bit more of a genuine prospect who's expected to become a top pitcher, rather than someone of the journeyman underdog ilk like Wells. If Wells is pitching meaningful games for the Cubs in August and September though--and at this point it certainly seems like he will--Wells should get a good deal of national attention. At any rate it should be interesting.