Randy Wells

Randy Wells born in Belleville, Illinois seems to have come out of nowhere. But he was in the Cubs minor league system from 2003 to 2007. At that time he was claimed by the Toronto Blue Jays under the Rule 5 draft rules. The Rule 5 draft is an annual event each winter where players are selected by other teams wishing to promote a player from the minor league system to the Major Leagues. So Toronto saw promise. Except they didn't keep Wells on the major league roster and when they assigned him to their minor league club he went back to the Cubs.

The Cubs brought him up for a short time in September when Jon Lieber went on the DL. He started the 2009 season with the AAA franchise in Iowa. When Carlos Zambrano went on the DL they brought Wells up in May, 2009.

Now you wonder what took so long. He has pitched as well as anyone in his time with the Cubs. His W-L record doesn't show it but his ERA does. He has pitched well enough to give the Cubs the opportunity to win each game he has started through the end of June 2009. The Cubs just can't give him any support or hold on to a lead. He has battled every step of the way. He doesn't have the great stuff that Zambrano has, but what he does have is his ability to pitch. Pitching isn't just about how fast your fast ball is. It's location, changing speeds and knowing what to throw to each hitter. And that is what I see he excels at. Wells is one of the few bright spots we have so far in 2009.

You wouldn't say 2010 was a great year for Randy Wells. His record was 8-14 with a .426 ERA. He started out with 3 wins in April but then went on to lose the next 6 decisions. He went from April 30 to July 3 without a win. He had a few games that he didn't last more than a couple of innings as the first inning was a problem finding his groove. He did do better but August was another bad month as he lost 4 of 5 decisions.

The Cubs have a boat load of starting pitchers and not sure where Randy is going to end up.

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