Kerry Wood - Whose Fault Is He?
Well, Kerry is back on his favorite hiding place, the DL. In fact, he may be the first player in major league history who is on a disabled list that isn't hurt. Maybe he's just tired after his first 4 or 5 starts, and needs to rest, you know, kind of like in The Godfather when Sonny was in charge and said he was sending Fredo to Las Vegas for "a rest". But enough about that for now. The real purpose of this is to look at his career and try to figure out where he went off the track. The way I figure it, there are several culprits.
1. Kerry Wood himself. After his 20 K performance in 1998, it looked like the Cubs had a legitimate superstar. However, it hasn't quite worked out that way. It seems like he never has learned the nuances of pitching, and feels like when he pitches he must strike everyone out. This has led to consistently high pitch counts and put his managers in a tough spot. You would think that pitching on the same team with Greg Maddux, he might pick up a few pointers on getting a few more groundball outs, but not so. Of course, since Maddux has been back, Wood has been hurt most of the time.
2. Dusty Baker. Unfortunately when put in a tough spot with pitch counts, Dusty almost always seems to err on the side of not enough caution. It has been documented numerous times on the number of 120+ pitch outings Wood and others have had while Dusty has been manager. While it seems like Dusty is best known for burning out pitchers, they probably wouldn't have made the NLCS without Dusty overusing Wood and Prior. So that points to:
3. Jim Hendry. Maybe had Hendry done a better job of staffing a bullpen in past years, or getting players that can get on base with more regularity, Dusty could have saved Wood's arm a little more often.
4. Jim Riggleman. A lot of people look at him for abusing Wood in 1998, but actually, at that time Riggleman caught flack for taking Wood out in the 6th inning of a lot of games,which when he did it was because of high pitch counts.
5. Don Baylor/Mack Newton - This would have been a good idea had they done it right. Baylor hired Newton to be the "attitude and flexibility" coach, or something like that. He was there for spring training, and the positive approach he preached seemed to be a positive factor in their good start, along with the stretching he had them do in spring training. But as usual, the Cubs did it half-assed, and instead of being with them all season, he would "pop in" once or twice a month and put them thru stretching drills when he was here. That didn't play as well as the season went on, and he was looked on as kind of an intruder later in the season. How do I tie this to Kerry Wood? Because he challenged Baylor on making his pitchers do this stuff in August, the late Oscar Acosta was fired by Baylor at the end of the season. Of all the pitching coaches in Wood's career, Acosta seemed to have the best connection with Wood. Wood seemed to throw more quality pitches in that timeframe than under any coach before Acosta, and certainly hasn't approached it since he's been under the tutelage of:
6. Larry Rothschild - For a pitching coach with such a great reputation, he certainly hasn't seemed to do much for Cub pitchers. It seems like they've done more nibbling, issued more walks, and been injured under his watch more than any other Cub pitching coach. When Kerry has been healthy, he hasn't been effective. Gotta be a connection there.
My conclusion is that each of the above has contributed to his downfall, along with others such as his high school coach who used him in both games of a doubleheader in the Texas state playoffs, and Andy MacPhail/Ed Lynch for not surrounding him with better players. In my opinion, though, the biggest blame falls to Hendry for not bolstering the offense, Rothschild for not having him be more aggressive and figuring out how to tighten his throwing motion to avoid injury, and Wood himself, for not learning how to pitch more efficiently. I'm sure next year, when he's with Texas, or Houston, or the Yankees, he'll reach his potential that he should have reached in Cubbie blue. Just one more star player that we screwed up.
Well, Kerry is back on his favorite hiding place, the DL. In fact, he may be the first player in major league history who is on a disabled list that isn't hurt. Maybe he's just tired after his first 4 or 5 starts, and needs to rest, you know, kind of like in The Godfather when Sonny was in charge and said he was sending Fredo to Las Vegas for "a rest". But enough about that for now. The real purpose of this is to look at his career and try to figure out where he went off the track. The way I figure it, there are several culprits.
1. Kerry Wood himself. After his 20 K performance in 1998, it looked like the Cubs had a legitimate superstar. However, it hasn't quite worked out that way. It seems like he never has learned the nuances of pitching, and feels like when he pitches he must strike everyone out. This has led to consistently high pitch counts and put his managers in a tough spot. You would think that pitching on the same team with Greg Maddux, he might pick up a few pointers on getting a few more groundball outs, but not so. Of course, since Maddux has been back, Wood has been hurt most of the time.
2. Dusty Baker. Unfortunately when put in a tough spot with pitch counts, Dusty almost always seems to err on the side of not enough caution. It has been documented numerous times on the number of 120+ pitch outings Wood and others have had while Dusty has been manager. While it seems like Dusty is best known for burning out pitchers, they probably wouldn't have made the NLCS without Dusty overusing Wood and Prior. So that points to:
3. Jim Hendry. Maybe had Hendry done a better job of staffing a bullpen in past years, or getting players that can get on base with more regularity, Dusty could have saved Wood's arm a little more often.
4. Jim Riggleman. A lot of people look at him for abusing Wood in 1998, but actually, at that time Riggleman caught flack for taking Wood out in the 6th inning of a lot of games,which when he did it was because of high pitch counts.
5. Don Baylor/Mack Newton - This would have been a good idea had they done it right. Baylor hired Newton to be the "attitude and flexibility" coach, or something like that. He was there for spring training, and the positive approach he preached seemed to be a positive factor in their good start, along with the stretching he had them do in spring training. But as usual, the Cubs did it half-assed, and instead of being with them all season, he would "pop in" once or twice a month and put them thru stretching drills when he was here. That didn't play as well as the season went on, and he was looked on as kind of an intruder later in the season. How do I tie this to Kerry Wood? Because he challenged Baylor on making his pitchers do this stuff in August, the late Oscar Acosta was fired by Baylor at the end of the season. Of all the pitching coaches in Wood's career, Acosta seemed to have the best connection with Wood. Wood seemed to throw more quality pitches in that timeframe than under any coach before Acosta, and certainly hasn't approached it since he's been under the tutelage of:
6. Larry Rothschild - For a pitching coach with such a great reputation, he certainly hasn't seemed to do much for Cub pitchers. It seems like they've done more nibbling, issued more walks, and been injured under his watch more than any other Cub pitching coach. When Kerry has been healthy, he hasn't been effective. Gotta be a connection there.
My conclusion is that each of the above has contributed to his downfall, along with others such as his high school coach who used him in both games of a doubleheader in the Texas state playoffs, and Andy MacPhail/Ed Lynch for not surrounding him with better players. In my opinion, though, the biggest blame falls to Hendry for not bolstering the offense, Rothschild for not having him be more aggressive and figuring out how to tighten his throwing motion to avoid injury, and Wood himself, for not learning how to pitch more efficiently. I'm sure next year, when he's with Texas, or Houston, or the Yankees, he'll reach his potential that he should have reached in Cubbie blue. Just one more star player that we screwed up.
posted by buck at 7:30 PM
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