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The Rockies had not signed a pitcher for a free agent contract for more than two years since Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle until they inked Jorge de la Rosa to a deal worth effectively $32million over three years. It looks like Tommy John surgery will rob the Rockies of all but 10 starts in the first two years of that deal.
Why is that relevant? Because the Brewers followed a similar path with Randy Wolf, signing the left-hander after arguably his career season to a 3-year, $29.5million deal from 2010-12. Milwaukee hasn't been undone by injuries to Wolf - he has not missed a start in his Brewers career - but he certainly has not been particularly effective. While de la Rosa was very valuable over 10 starts (1.0 rWAR/1.4 fWAR), Wolf has been essentially a back-of-rotation starter over 89 starts (3.1rWAR/2.7 fWAR).
Wolf has been good against the Rockies in his career (7-3, 3.73 in 16 starts) and has handled Coors Field just fine (2-2, 4.04).
The Rockies have a chance to win their second series in their past three with a win tonight, an encouraging sign following their 1-8 homestand. Tyler Chatwood will try to prevent the Rockies from choosing him to oust when Jhoulys Chacin returns next week. The righthander has allowed just 1 ER over his last 10 IP.