Shane is probably laughing at Wes' .261 career batting average.
Wes spent the 2007 season here in Philly and was expected to be a power-hitting righty off the bench. He was coming off a nice ’06 season in Florida where he hit .329 with 10 homers and 47 RBIs and while he wasn’t expected to set the world ablaze he was supposed to be a valuable veteran off the bench.
Unfortunately that acquisition won’t go down as one of then-GM Pat Gillick’s finest. Helms hit a measley .246 and had only 5 homers in 40 more at-bats than he’d had the year before. At the start of the ’07 season Helms was traded back to Florida for a dollar, and surely nobody here expected to hear from the mediocre journeyman again.
That seemed like it would be the case, until this past Monday rolled around. Helms came into that game on a 2 for 20 skid since the beginning of May playing sparingly for the Marlins. He had yet to hit a home run, and had only 6 runs batted in. In a series against the Phils earlier in the season Wes went 0-5 with 2 strikeouts.
None of that ended up mattering on May 25, 2009.Wes went a whopping 3 for 5 (his first multi-hit game of the season), with a home run and 4 RBIs in a 5-3 Marlins win. Adding insult to injury the loss kept Phils starter Jamie Moyer from career win #250.
One of the things I love about sports is the sheer unpredictability of it all, and Helms’ big game was about as unpredictable as it gets. That of course doesn’t mean we can’t hate the old fart for it. Congrats on earning this week’s Wednesday’s Worst, Wes. Enjoy it, it’ll be the only thing anyone ever awards you once your incredibly underwhelming playing career is through.
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