It takes a lot of want-to for a guy about to celebrate his 39th birthday to decide he wanted to ride the buses in minor league baseball, scratching and clawing to get one more chance at the big leagues. He’s got a pretty good slider; he’ll be tough on righties because of the arm slot. “Every run matters”.
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The Tigers had several slots open on their 40-man roster after the trade deadline, but those quickly filled up with recent additions and call ups, including Tom Gorzelanny and Guido Knudson. But that’s where Randy Wolf found himself this spring as he attempted to extend his career as a baseball player for another season. He pitch for the Mud Hens on Thursday, allowing six runs on 12 hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings. He batted. 263 in 22 games for Triple-A Toledo. Things ended up working out pretty well for him. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Unfortunately, it’s part of the game”.
The 22-year-old lefty admitted his frustration at the inopportune timing.
It’ll be fun that he’s old enough to have played with Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, as well as in college and the pros with assistant hitting coach David Newhan. “You always assume when a starting pitcher goes to the bullpen there’s going to be a bump in velocity”.
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He pitched well at Triple-A for the Buffalo Bisons, where he was rotation mates with fellow Tigers Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd – “They’re great kids, man” – but didn’t get a sniff at the big leagues, even though the Jays were cycling through starters like Kleenex. The Rangers put up a four-spot against him in the third inning, but that was the only frame in which they scored. “He’s a veteran guy who knows what he’s doing”. I hadnt felt that way in a long time, Wolf said. “He went soft on us (started throwing more off-speed pitches) after that one inning”. Back when Ausmus was still playing, he caught three of Wolf’s starts from 2008-09. His velocity’s about the same. “Other than that, he looked very similar”.
