Aug 2 Associated Press reports Chicago Cubs SP Kerry Wood (shoulder) has decided against having surgery on his partially torn rotator cuff and will miss the remainder of the season. He hopes to return next year as a reliever.
Has Wood or the Cubs talked about the reliever possibility before? Its funny, because I remember people posting here saying that could be a good use of him at this point in his career. I still won't draft him though ... I learned by lesson with Gagne.
Wood's problem has always been an early fatigue point that causes arm damage. I really think he could make a good reliever if a VERY competant bullpen/pitching coach worked with him on how to warm up efficiently. He's the kind of guy you could send out there for multiple innings...6th/7th or 7th/8th and he could be very effective.
Frappy wrote:If he stays in Chicago next year I could see him taking over dumpster's job. Hed be too expensive to just use him as mid-relief.
I don't know if I agree that he's too expensive to use in middle relief. I really believe he could be an 'old school' RP that goes out there and throws about 110 innings over the course of the season. Give him 50-60 appearances of an average of 2 innings a piece and he makes a nice every few days bridge from the starter to the closer. He's almost always good for 45-55 pitches before he hits a wall fatigue-wise but that's a lot more than most relievers throw in a game. Wherever Wood ends up pitching should use that to their advantage.
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by sox 06 » Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:04 pm 
