Kerry Wood doesn't beat hitters with deception, he beats them with gas. His stuff is so good, that ESPN sports pundit and former Blue Jay's special assistant GM Keith Law ranked Wood higher than both K-Rod and Brian Fuentes out of the available FA closers.
In a recent article for SI.com, Baseball Prospectus's Joe Sheehan wrote an article playing the part of Met's GM and selected Wood as his candidate for the closer role. He would come cheaper than both Francisco Rodriguez & Brian Fuentes and at a shorter term. His sheer throwing ability and experience pitching multiple innings brings tremendous upside to the bullpen. The Mets would be able to bring him in come the 8th inning should they need him in a big spot.
The downside of Wood is very apparent as he has lived on the DL for the majority of his career. However he thrived in the closer role in 2008 converting 34 saves in 40 opportunities while striking out 84 in 66+ innings with a phenomenal swing and miss ratio. He had a blip on the DL with a blister on his throwing index finger - something that shouldn't raise too many flags as he pitched more innings this past season than the prior 2 combined.
As has been written across the Mets blogosphere, it is believed that the organization will trade for a setup man with closer experience. All of the options for the closer role have risks (K-Rod's violent delivery, Wood's DL history, & Fuentes's sheer ability) and it is starting to look like Wood may have the greatest reward to whichever team takes that risk. As projected by Buster Olney, it's looking like Omar is going to offer Wood something in the range of 2 years @ $8 - 9 million per.
It's great to have someone injury prone on a short leash - however will there be a buyers market for closers again in 2 years? Should the team sign him, lets hope so - otherwise we'll all be going through this process again come 2011 hot stove season.
Posts
stumble it!