A Third Way For Kerry Wood
Once again, for yet another season after his 20k game in 1998, Kerry Wood has significant health problems that render his hefty contract an albatross around the team. No less an esteemed figure in Cubdom than Steve Stone has stated that Wood ought to be "shut down" for the rest of the season.
Currently, the debate about Wood's status with the Cubs has been about whether he should remain a starting pitcher or if (as the Cubs seem to be planning on for the remainder of the season) he should be restricted to the bullpen. Both sides have merit to their arguments.
However, there is a third alternative that nobody in either team mgmt. or in the media seems to be considering. If you look at Wood's statistics, one thing that sticks out is that for a pitcher, Wood is an unusually good hitter. As of the end of the 2004 season, Wood's lifetime BA is .169 with 7 HR's & 28 RBI. Who can forget Wood's home run against Florida in Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS? That being the case, why not convert Wood from a pitcher to being a hitter? If Wood is given ample batting practice and coaching, could he not be elevated from a .169 hitter to being more like a .269 hitter who could be an asset on the bench?
Kerry Wood could be turned from a liability into an asset at least for the rest of this season. If the experiment fails, then the focus for next season could be to either try once again to fix Wood's problems or just trade him.
Now, this might strike some of you as being a bit far fetched. However, there is historical precedent for such a move. Consider a pitcher who in 1916 & 1917 who recorded 20+ win seasons, feats that Kerry "No More Than 14 Wins in a Single Season" Wood has yet to match. Despite the fact that this pitcher was widely considered to be one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, his team took note of the fact that he was very good at hitting and converted him into a hitter.
The name of this 20+ win season pitcher who became a full time hitter? George Herman "Babe" Ruth. As Paul Harvey would say, you know the rest of the story.
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Babe Wood
It's an amusing idea, but Ruth was one heck of a hitter even while he was still pitching. If Wood had hit .315/.376/.576 as a 20 year old rookie, like Ruth did, I'd be more tempted to try the idea. So, I gather, would the Cubs.
Wood, despite some pop, is not a good hitter, even for a pitcher. Even in 2000, his best year at the plate, he wasn't particularly notable with the bat. Making Kerry Wood a position player would be only slightly more productive than making Michael Jordan a position player was.
So, you just want to stay the
So, you just want to stay the course with Wood, which at this point seems to be nothing but running in place? The best case scenario for Wood seems to be not much more than a few more good performances then get on the DL again. If being a pitcher is not working out for the guy, then why not try for a different alternative?
alternatives
I agree an alternative is needed, but I'd lean more towards alternative mechanics or a different conditioning regimen. I don't believe the only options are "do nothing" and "move him to the outfield."
The Cubs can't just make radical changes at random and hope against available evidence that something sticks. They have to ask, what course of action is most likely to produce success? I don't believe for a minute that changing positions is the answer to that question. We know that Kerry Wood is a talented pitcher. He's had success before. The available evidence suggests rather strongly that he's not a very talented hitter.
So which course seems wiser: try to make him a better, more reliable pitcher, or give up and hope against hope that he has some hitting talent that has gone undiscovered over the last 7 years?