Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:20 am EDT
Kerry Wood could return to Cubs by the weekend
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Kerry Wood could be back for the weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals. A key will be how Wood feels today after throwing a simulated game Sunday, his second over the last four days. Wood threw 30 pitches as bullpen catchers Corey Miller and Edgar Tovar batted. Miller nearly hit one of the first pitches into the seats.
But Wood improved as he threw, while an audience, including manager Lou Piniella, pitching coach Larry Rothschild, trainer Mark O'Neal, bench coach Alan Trammell and assistant general manager Randy Bush, watched.
''He felt OK,'' Piniella said. ''He looked a little rusty, but that's to be expected.''
Wood has been idle since before the All-Star break because of the slow-to-heal blister on his index finger.
''The important thing is to see how he feels Monday,'' Piniella said. ''Then we can put together a schedule to continue. I would think against St. Louis on Friday is the [earliest] possibility.''
Wood threw a variety of pitches with a medicinal coating on the finger.
''Initially he had problems getting the breaking ball over, but what's important is how [the finger] feels [today],'' Piniella said. ''Once we get the first obstacle taken care of, we can step it up.''
Piniella indicated he might ease Wood back in the middle innings instead of directly in a closing situation depending on his status.
Source: Sun-Times
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34 Comments
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even when he does come back, all this time off, he's never gonna be the same. and will prolly hurt himself even worse next time.
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Lou's done very well in places where he's had plenty of talent to work with i.e. seattle and chicago. But he wasn't successful in tampa. No matter how good a manager is, he can't feed 20,000 fans with two fishes and a loaf of bread
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Tampa was a terrible organization loaded with no talent. Lou got everything he could out of what he had to work with. Now, that they are winning, they still can't draw without having a free concert. The only thing it is not free for the owners. I believe that the franchise will be moving in the not too distant future because of non support.
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Yeah ownership lured him there under the false pretext that they were gonna spend money and try to compete, then tried to paint him as the bad guy when he called them out for lying to him. No wonder the fans don't show up now. They know their interests will be sold out at ownership's earliest convenience.
I think all those years in the bronx did help teach lou how to create and maintain, in the words of michael kay, "a culture of winning."
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You are so correct. This is a difference in winning organizations and the rest. Lou has never been shy. He should use all the instincts he has learned from the best organization in professional sports.
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I hope Wood comes back OK. That blister issue really seemed to linger, and I'm sure it was as frustrating as he indicated it was. He's very important to that pen, as it allows Marmol and his rediscovered confidence to slot back to 8th inning duty. Smardizja looks to be the guy before Marmol, so it'd be nice to have Wood back and closing again to stabilize the pen a bit.
Go Cubs!
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You know who would be a good fit for the spot, Rick Ankiel
Cubs
Brewers
Astros
Cards (ouch)
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That would be a huge disappointment for them, but I wouldn't mind it myself.
Felix, glad you made it back alive. And yes, we feel lucky to have him.
I sure do anyway.
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Plus a guy like that with the talent that he has, you have to wonder what might have been if he'd have stayed healthy.
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I agree with DST--Wood has always seemed to be a good guy--when times were good, he never got full of himself (at least not that I saw) and when times aren't, he keeps trying to come back by staying positive and working hard.
I never count the Cards out -- that's because even though I don't care much for LaRussa, I still really admire how he seems to get his team to get the job done. This year is the "making a silk purse out of a
sow's ear" kind of job, with all of the injuries (and lack of management getting him some players he needs.)
jeff--how's your ticket search coming for this weekend?
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I do respect Wood for his loyalty.
He really has been a class act his whole tenure on the Cubs.
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i wish the cards had the cubs schedule then we might be in first. the cards have to play 15 teams this month who have at least a 500 % while the cubs play only 7. september i would say is worse for the cubs, but they play almost the whole month at home, here is your silver platter cubs to at least the playoffs, say thank you MLB!. i am not a cubs hater, especially since they got jimmy edmonds working for them, he deserves another ring. really though the cards will never fall behind houston and i think with the return of wainwright have a great chance at the wild card and this division.
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Got my fingers crossed tho, hoping to get some reserved this week.
I've got an uncle that may or may not be able to cash in some favors to get his favorite nephew some tickets. I think I'll let him get me tickets in lieu of wedding gift. I'm all for that!
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Brew Crew looks to have the most favorable one left, but there is a reason you play the games.
If we only have 7 games this week with a .500 opponent, then we've already gotten thru the meat of schedule with the best record in the NL. Not sure if this changes your assessment that the Cards would be in first, but food for thought. For the record, we have 10 games left this month with teams better than .500, you might have forgotten about the Marlins.
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i blame the bullpen mostly for the cards, especially of late, if you look at all the games we have lost by one run and in late innings. the brewer series case in point, besides the game cc pitched the cardinal should have won the other three but the bullpen let them down. hopefully with the return of wainwright we can stabilize the bullpen and make a good run at this.
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