So Kerry Wood was upset with Lou Piniella for his strategy of wanting pitchers to work a certain number of innings over a certain number of days before being ready to break camp. Then Wood gets hurt - again, and as Sun-Times new Cubs beat writer Gordon Wittenmyer reported exclusively today, Wood's ready for the DL again http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/313075,CST-SPT-cub26.article.
Wood showed up a few pounds lighter and ready to dive into the reliever's role this spring. But nothing's really changed. He and Mark Prior are just never going to be able to stay healthy.
I recommend them getting rid of both of them and starting this year off clean and fresh, but at least get rid of one of them. A message needs to be sent to those guys that - their era is past here in Chicago. I know everyone is in love with these guys, but what they did is long past, and i'm talking VHS past, not DVD. Pinnella should'nt have to deal with broken down fragile relics.
The Cubs need to cut bait with Wood, and they probably will need to cut bait with Prior in about two months.
The Cubs Ball Club is first and foremost a business. We have two members here who are consistently not meeting the most basic requirements of the role, ability to play. This is a no brainer - Stop wasting more money, time and energy on these two and get new pitchers!
I really don't know what to say about players being injury prone. These players nowadays don't really earn their paychecks. Pitchers, when I became a fan ,used to pitch complete games, even losses and used to throw a bunch of innings without breaking down. Now everything is so situational and no one is counted on to do much. Guys are .500 pitchers and they get big contracts and never seem to live up to them. It's funny how Wood broke down after receiving some information he didn't like. What did he do to actually get a contract for this year?
It's not as simple as "just cutting bait" with players or "getting rid of them". There are financial ramifications to consider. But I still believe there is a way to do it. My issue has always been that the task of getting them off your books has gotten increasingly difficult the last few years and the club should not have allowed themselves to be put in this position. But they are in this position now and this problem isn't going anywhere. It's not like Prior or Wood are going to voluntarily retire and forego there guaranteed future earnings, even if for just 1 season. The best thing they can do is keep them off the big league roster, let them rot away in AAA or Arizona Extended Camp or The Towel League or wherever else they can stash them away. Even when Prior/Wood think they're ready to come back, keep them there. And at some point they'll grow disgruntled and maybe ask for a release or to be traded. Maybe do what Kenny Williams does and create a PR buzz that they have great stuff and somehow possess value. You ever wonder how Kenny always manages to create a buzz about his players and somehow get them involved in trades and NEVER have that player he traded away come back to haunt him? That's because he knows when to cut somebody loose and has a great track record of rarely trading away players that go on and play great in another uniform. More times then not, they end up not even being in the big leagues much longer. But back to Prior and Wood. I say keep them away from the big league squad and stop talking about them. No more updates on when they'll be back, how they're doing in The Simulated Game League, or anything else that. If nothing else, the Cubs will limit the distraction a little bit.
sean unfortunately you're right concerning ramifications of players contracts, you can't simply fire them. And in the case of Wood & Prior you'd be lucky to be able to trade them for a cute ball girl for each foul line (something I would go see before going to see those two pitch again). I also agree with you thatthe role of pitchers has dramatically changed over the years. Used to be a pitcher was expected to go into the 7th or 8th inning consistantly, middle relief wasn't even in the baseball vocabulary then. Late relief pitchers were part of strategic batting line-up moves in tight games or used in late innings to take advantage of lefty vs lefty (or righty vs righty) odds in crucial situations. A starter these days is only expected to go 5 or six innings and once he reaches the 100 pitch mark he is likel;y to be pulled. Much of the blame for all of this was the advent of the DH rule in the AL. That may have prolonged the careers of several big hitters but what did it do in the long run to the games strategy and pitching quality? The ability to change pitchers without batting line-up consideration threw a lot of strategy out the window and added another level of boredom to the game.