Tim Wakefield: Potential Winningest Pitcher

Tim Wakefield is a man on a mission. He has 154 wins in his thirteen years with the Boston Red Sox, he's 38 wins short of the team record of 192 (held by Cy Young and Roger Clemens), but his goal is 200.

"I'd like to get to 200 wins and I'd like to tie or maybe break Cy Young or Roger Clemens' for all-time Red Sox (wins) but I don't know if that's possible. If I win 20 games the next two years, it's possible. It's probably within reach if I can play for four more years."

It's hard not to like Tim Wakefield. I'd certainly like for him to achieve that goal, even if it means a couple more years of Dougie (though Dusty Brown has been working on catching a knuckleball). I would just hope that in achieving those 46 extra wins, he doesn't accumulate 47 or more losses.

He also talked about pulling himself off the World Series roster. Right after the last win, his buddy Timlin made sure we knew that how hard that was and Wake agreed:

"The hardest thing to do is to take yourself out, to not think of yourself but to think of the team. As an athlete or as a competitor, it's hard to do that."

and

"You train and you play for a whole season to get to that point and not being able to perform on the biggest stage, I was disappointed. But, I think, from a team standpoint it was the right decision."

But don't cry for Tim Wakefield. He pulled himself out of contention because of torn cartilage in his shoulder but word on the street is that he's healthy now. Theo had this to say:

"He's in good shape and we'll see when we talk to him how he wants to approach this spring. I think he's approaching it as any other year, looking to give us a lot of innings."

He did say that it's not as easy to throw as it used to be; it takes him longer to recover between starts. Perhaps cautioning fans not to necessarily expect 17 wins from him this season. [aside: I think that was the first time I typed this season to mean 2008 and not 2007. It was a happy little moment.] He also said that he doesn't know when he plans to retire but here's hoping he holds together and can be the winningest pitcher in Red Sox history.