Straining while carrying the Cubs.

On Monday, Randy Wells pitched another solid game for the Cubs in their 4-2 win over the Reds which propelled them into first place in the AL Central.

Wells pitched 7.1 innings, allowing one earned run while striking out five. More importantly for Wells and his candidacy for NL Rookie of the Year, Kevin Gregg and Carlos Marmol didn’t screw it up for him.

Wells notched his eighth win in his last nine starts and lowered his ERA to 2.73.  This kind of performance should be closing the door on the rest of the NL competition but Wells has the bullpen and the slow-starting offense to thank for keeping him from running away with the NL ROY award.  If the rest of the team had performed up to reasonable expectations in his first month in the league, Wells would be sitting with a 12-3 record rather than his ho-hum 8-4.

As it stands right now, Wells is second on the team behind Ted Lilly in wins, and depending on how much longer Lilly is out, could wind up leading a hot playoff team in wins heading into the bullpen. Add to that the fact that Wells has had only 3 starts where he has failed to go 6 innings, and racked up 12 quality starts in 16 outings.

Of teams that remain competitive in their divisions (See ya Andrew McCutchen) Wells’ competition appears to be Colby Rasmus (STL) and J.A. Happ (PHI and former Northwestern Wildcat).

Looking at the head to head comparisons with Happ, here’s how Wells stacks up.

W-L record (Overall Team Record)

• Wells 8-4 (57-48)
• Happ 7-2  (59-45)

ERA

• Wells 2.73
• Happ 2.97

K/BB

• Wells 65/23
• Happ 120/55

While Randy Wells isn’t the big strikeout pitcher (which sometimes hurts in these competitions), he compares favorably to Happ. Throw in that Happ maybe demoted to the bullpen when Pedro Martinez is added to the Phillies’ rotation and Wells might have the opportunity to lock down the NL Rookie of the Year award.