Kip Wells

Dejan writes about him.

I think the Bucs have to cut him loose.

. . .I should elaborate. Two theories come to mind that answer the, "What's wrong with Kip?" question. The first and most common one appears to be, Kip does not like playing in Pittsburgh, does not improve under our coaching, and does not know how to help himself. This leads to the worry that the Pirates will let him go, and some other pitching guru will "solve" him over a weekend. And he'll pitch like Jason Schmidt for the next ten years.

I am not privy to the opinions of Pirate coaches on Kip Wells. I don't know how they explain his inconsistency and general failure to get good results from good stuff. I would guess, however, that if they have a hypothesis, Kip has either rejected it or they have tested it with bad results.

The second theory, which does not get enough play I think, is simply that Kip is a bad pitcher. Not all Pirate pitchers left Pittsburgh for greater success elsewhere. KPatrick brings up Jimmy Anderson. The second theory is simpler. Why buy into a line of psychobabble about a young man's troubled response to what he (maybe) perceives as his dysfunctional baseball family? Why not just say, Kip Wells is a bad pitcher?

More and more he reminds me of Brett Tomko. I think I've said that before.

The odds are that, no matter where Kip pitches in 2006, he's not going to pitch well. I wish him luck but that has to be the most common-sense prediction.

Since he's not going to pitch well, we can't afford to pay him. If we bring him back at a much higher salary, that's a Daryle Ward-type gamble with much higher stakes. We don't need to gamble with the rotation at this point, especially since it's clear we are committed to Oliver Perez.