Wakefield Ready? I Don't Know About That. Will He Ever Be?

The Tampa Bay Rays have the Boston Red Sox' number so far this spring, beating them yesterday by a score of 15-7. Ugly it was...no doubt. Tim Wakefield started and was able to go three innings, giving up two earned runs (4 in all) on 2 hits and 1 walk. Here's the entire Sox pitching summary...
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BOSTON ip h r er bb so hr era
T Wakefield 3 2 4 2 1 3 0 3.60 **
W Littleton 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 17.17
D Hansack 1 2/3 3 5 0 2 1 0 1.93 **
M McBeth 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 0 6.77
B Traber 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.00
D Richardson 2/3 1 4 4 3 0 1 21.56 **
M James 1/3 1 2 0 0 0 1 0.00 **

**=gave up runs
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Wakes wasn't helped by a ball that leftfielder Baily lost in the sun. That allowed the two unearned runs to eventually score. But at best, he was mediocre, an outing a .500 pitcher might turn in. Maybe that's all Timmy will be this year. If so, I hope they take him out of the rotation when Smoltz is ready, but that depends on Brad Penny's health, too. As for where he is conditioning-wise, Wakes said this...

“I feel like I’m game-ready now. I don’t think my pitch count would be Opening Day-ready. But it’s not like I labored today. I felt like I could have gone at least one more inning, maybe two. Once I get my pitch count up to about 95, I think from that point, we’ll back it down to 70 right before the season starts and then we’ll be ready. My timing seems to be better,” he said. “I got a lot of swing-and-misses and three strikeouts, which is good. I may have felt a little behind in my first start. But today, I’m happy with the way I felt.”

Maybe Tim is happy with the way he felt but the final results were just not good enough. It's simple. The Red Sox do not need a confirmed .500 pitcher in their rotation if they want to play deep into October. What do you thimk? Please let me know...I'd love to read those comments. I know it's the weekend and readership is down that part of the week, but if you have a couple seconds, let me know where you think Wakes belongs. I know exactly how some of my readers feel about the righthander...boy, do I!

Have a great Sunday, catch some of the World Baseball Classic if you can and as always, BE WELL. Spring is coming...I hope you remembered to "spring forward" your watches and clocks. And you can click on the title of this post for more Sox stuff. Thank you for being here...see ya.