Appreciating Corey Wade

Corey Wade the unappreciated bullpen asset

 Corey Wade signed a minor league deal with the Yankees on June 13, 2011 after he was granted his release from the Tampa Bay Rays AAA affiliate.Wade pitched one inning for the AAA Scranton Yankees before getting called up to the Big league Yankees and pitched to a 2.04 ERA over 39.2 Innings and was a defiant asset in 2011.This year Wade has been trusted with some more high leverage innings and has been extremely valuable to the bullpen especially with the loss of Mariano Rivera and David Robertson going on the disabled list. Wade has already struck out 30 batters this year in 27.1 innings after striking out 30 in 39.2 innings last year. Wade's arsenal consists of a four-seam fastball (86-90 MPH), a cutter (84-86 MPH), a changeup that breaks away from left-handers (79-83), and a traditional 12-6 curveball (74-77) and because none of the pitches in his arsenal blow anyone away Wade is undervalued despite impeccable control that has allowed him to walk only 5 batters this season and maintain a 6.00 Strike out to Walk ratio. But Wade is not a strikeout guy, he is a contact pitcher which is shown by his 87.7 contact rate and 91.5 zone contact rate which are both above average and he consistently hits the strike zone at an above average rate as well.
The funniest part about Wade is that nobody seems to know that this ability didn't come out of nowhere, as he was just as great in 2008 in the Dodgers bullpen before Joe Torre blew out his arm. Wade could potentially contribute to the Yankee bullpen for years to come as he is under team control for another three years and he has more value than former castoffs such as Brian Bruney. However Wade may not even fit into next years bullpen as the Yankees have arms in Joba Chamberlain, Mariano Rivera and David Aardsma returning from injury and wade could find himself trade bait or in the minors despite doing everything the Yankees could have expected from him. At the very least Corey Wade will continue to be a valuable bullpen contributed to the New York Yankees for the rest of this season and one that we should all appreciate.