Some of the biggest difference makers come the playoffs did not start the year with that team. Just think about last years World Series when Cliff Lee mowed down the Yankees in game one.
In 2010, with many teams on the brink of the playoffs, everyone was looking to improve their team.
Here are the top five deals made at the trade deadline.
Saturday, July 31 at 4:30 p.m. marked MLB’s official trade deadline—well, technically at least.
New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman was hard at work trying to fix the mess the organization has made of Joba Chamberlain.
It is no secret that the Yankees don’t know what else to do with Chamberlain, but looking at his historically short career, the answer is pretty evident.
Back in 2007, Joba was Cashman’s prize pupil. The problem was no one wanted to take the time to teach the 24-year-old because of one infamous bug game.
Then in 2008, Joba had the weight of an entire city on his shoulders. Failure didn’t seem to be an option, and whenever things looked bleak for Joba, he got yanked from the mound.
Fast-forward to 2010—Joba lost the coveted fifth spot in the Yankees rotation to Phil Hughes.
Joba didn’t deserve it; Hughes pitched better, and he continues to exceed expectations. Hughes went to the All-Star Game, and that must have taken a toll on Joba’s confidence level..
Skipper Joe Girardi’s solution is pretty simple: “We want him to pitch at the level he’s capable of pitching at. Until we get Joba right, I might look at matchups a little more.” (Per NY Daily News .)
The Yankees bullpen needed help, and Cashman’s answer was Cleveland Indians pitcher Kerry Wood. He claims it had nothing to do with Joba and every thing to do with Chan Ho Park, who was designated for assignment.
This has everything to do with Joba, but in one sense Wood is a veteran who once dazzled the city of Chicago with his fastball. Wood was Chicago’s pride after striking out 20 batters in his sixth career start.
Wood’s career didn’t pan out like it should have, as he has served 14 stints on the DL in his 13 seasons—his latest just days before he landed in New York.
Wood has 62 saves over the last three seasons with 165 strikeouts; he appeared in 146 games out of the bullpen.
For now, Wood is a walking liability, but with an upside that might be worth the risk. Wood’s experience could be just what the doctor ordered for changing Joba back into the phenomenon everyone witnessed in 2007.
Wood has been in Joba’s shoes, as he has yo-yoed from starter to reliever like musical chairs.
The other hope for Wood is to help down the stretch out of the bullpen in getting to Mariano Rivera. The fact is, Wood is an upgrade from Chan Ho Park.
So, Cashman covered his ass there. Maybe the Yankees secretly banned Wood from the DL list. Who really cares, because this could work.
This leaves many questions unanswered. For example, could Brian Cashman have killed two birds with one stone?
My bet is yes, and Cashman will be deemed a genius because the concept is just shy of being too good to be true.
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Saturday, July 31 at 4:30 pm marked the official end of MLB’s trade deadline—well, technically at least.
New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman was hard at work trying to fix the mess the organization has made of Joba Chamberlain.
It is no secret that the Yankees don’t know what else to do with Joba Chamberlain, but looking at his historically short career the answer is pretty evident.
Back in 2007, Joba was Cashman’s prize pupil. The problem was no one wanted to take the time to teach the 24-year-old because of one infamous bug game.
Then in 2008, Joba had the weight of an entire city on his shoulders. Failure didn’t seem to be an option and whenever things looked bleak for Joba, he got yanked from the mound.
Fast-forward to 2010. Joba lost the coveted fifth spot in the Yankees rotation to Phil Hughes.
Joba didn’t deserve it; Hughes pitched better and he continues to exceed expectations. Hughes went to the All-Star game and that must have taken a toll on Joba’s confidence level.
Skipper Joe Girardi’s solution is pretty simple. “We want him to pitch at the level he’s capable of pitching at. Until we get Joba right, I might look at matchups a little more.” (NY Daily News)
The Yankees bullpen needed help and Cashman’s answer was Cleveland Indians pitcher Kerry Wood. He claims it had nothing to do with Joba and every thing to do with Chan Ho Park, who was designated for assignment.
This has everything to do with Joba, but in one sense Wood is a veteran who once dazzled the city of Chicago with his fastball. Wood was Chicago’s pride after striking out 20 batters in his sixth career start.
Wood’s career didn’t pan out like it should have, as he saw the DL 14 times in his 13 seasons, his latest just days before he landed in New York.
Wood has 62 saves over the last three seasons, with 165 strikeouts, while appearing in 146 games out of the bullpen.
For now, Wood is a walking liability, but with an upside that might be worth the risk. Wood’s experience could be just what the doctor ordered for changing Joba back into the phenomenon everyone witnessed in 2007.
Wood has been in Joba’s shoes, as he has yo-yoed from starter to reliever like musical chairs.
The other hope for Wood is to help down the stretch out of the bullpen in getting to Mariano Rivera. The fact is, Wood is an upgrade from Chan-Ho Park.
So, Cashman covered his ass there. Maybe the Yankees secretly banned Wood from the DL list. Who really cares, because this could work.
It also leaves many questions unanswered. For example, could Brian Cashman have killed two birds with one stone?
My bet is yes and Cashman will be deemed a genius because the concept is just shy of being too good to be true.
Read More At Lady Loves Pinstripes …
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It’s been a whirlwind week for Indians fans.
After finally trading longtime fan frustration Jhonny Peralta on Wednesday, the Indians traded Austin Kearns to the Yankees Friday night, flipped ten-year Tribe veteran Jake Westbrook to the Cardinals Saturday afternoon, then pawned off Kerry Wood’s contract.
Most Clevelanders’ instinctual reactions to this news would be to moan and groan, to relive the moments from last year when Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez were shipped out of town and mumble something about the futility of rooting for a small-market team.
I can certainly relate to the abandonment issues my fellow Tribe fans are dealing with, and I understand the urge to crawl into a corner and sit in the fetal position for the rest of the season.
However, depression and rage are the wrong reactions to this year’s four deadline deals and the June trade of Russell Branyan.
The trading season for the Tribe can only be described with the words of a wise man from Kazakhstan: “Great success!”
Branyan, Peralta, Kearns, Westbrook, and Wood all had one thing in common: either their contracts were set to expire at the end of the season or they had options for the 2011 season that the Indians had no interest in picking up.
With the Indians already firmly out of the race, keeping these players around for the final two months would have been ridiculous. Had we just let them walk at the end of the season, we would have gotten nothing—the only ones who might possibly qualify for Type B status are Branyan and Peralta, and offering arbitration to either would be risky because they’d be likely to accept.
With the possible exception of Westbrook, who the Indians may try to reacquire in the offseason, they had no place in the Indians’ long-term plans.
We didn’t get a huge haul in return for anyone—two useful but uninspiring young position players (outfielder Ezequiel Carrera and shortstop Juan Diaz, both in the Branyan deal), a pair of solid pitching prospects (righty Corey Kluber for Westbrook and southpaw Giovanni Soto for Peralta), two PTBNLs (both from the Yankees, one each for Kearns and Wood), and at least $3 million in salary relief.
But even if the youngsters we’ve acquired don’t grow up to be All-Stars and Larry Dolan loses all the spare change in a single poorly played hand of Texas Hold ‘Em (stranger things have happened), the point is that in exchange for the outgoing veterans who weren’t helping us anyway, we got a chance to have more hope for the future—six of them, to be precise, maybe more if we put the extra money towards a solid free agent.
The Indians had five useful players who didn’t mean anything to us. All of them have been swapped for potential pieces of a future pennant-winner.
Mission accomplished.
This was outgoing GM Mark Shapiro’s last big chance to score. He brought home a winner.
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The Yankees made it one of their priorities to add a reliever to the team at the trade deadline. Octavio Dotel of the Pirates has been on fire this season. There was speculation that the Yankees may have been in on Dotel earlier in the season but that has all fallen apart.
The Yankees considered him a bad addition to the clubhouse, when he was with the team in 2006. The Yankees have a great atmosphere in the clubhouse with people like Burnett and Swisher. Bringing in a grumpy player like Dotel will only make things worse. It only takes one bad apple to spoil a bunch and the Yankees do not want that.
Originally, the Yankees’ No. 1 option was Joakim Soria of the Kansas City Royals, but he is reportedly not available. The Royals will be holding onto him and hope to try and get rid of a former Yankee reliever, Kyle Farnsworth.
The latest news is that the Yankees are on the verge of obtaining their reliever. This time, it will be former Cubs standout and Indians closer Kerry Wood. Buster Onley has tweeted that Kerry Wood could soon be joining the Yankees.
This rumor was also confirmed by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. He believes that this will definitely provide a safety net for Joba Chamberlain. Likewise is believed by other Major League Baseball scouts.
Kevin Davidoff has assured that Kerry Wood will be a Yankee. He also notes that this is the end of the Yankees Trade Deadline shopping.
Update: The Indians will cover a significant portion of Wood’s deal according to Joel Sherman.
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The Angels need bullpen help.
The Indians need payroll relief.
The Angels are about to give up on their top prospect Brandon Wood.
The Indians are about to give up on their season and closer Kerry Wood.
These are just a few of the reasons why a Wood-for-Wood trade might make sense for both teams.
Kerry’s bloated 7.02 ERA and 1.56 WHIP are not exactly living up to his bloated $10.5 million salary. It’s going to make it extremely hard for the Indians to get anything for him if they choose to try and get out from under that albatross of a contract.
Cleveland (28-47) is in another early death spiral, as they have already fallen 13 games behind first place Detroit.
The Indians probably felt they could trade Kerry for prospects mid-season this year if things didn’t go their way. Unfortunately, they probably weren’t counting on Kerry to have such a disastrous start.
Good luck getting anything for him now. The best Cleveland can hope for is to convince a large-market team to take Kerry’s salary off their hands.
Similarly for the Angels, things could not have gone worse for their 25-year-old infield prospect Brandon Wood, who was compared to the likes of Troy Glaus and Mike Schmidt during his minor league career.
The reality has been a nightmarish .176 batting average with four extra base hits and 45 strikeouts over 150 at-bats. Brandon hasn’t exactly made up for his anemic offense with stellar defense either. He has made eight errors in 399 innings.
However, Brandon’s upside might appeal to the Indians. Baseball America had Brandon ranked no lower than the 16th best prospect in baseball for three straight years—ranking him as high as third at one point.
Did I mention he also makes only $410,000 per year?
Brandon hit 43 homers, 116 RBI and had a .321 average one year in the minors. He seemed to be on track to put up similar numbers in the majors until the wheels fell off that turnip truck.
Many have speculated one reason was the unrealistic and unfair expectations put on the kid by the Angels organization and their fans. A change of scenery where not much is expected might be just what the doctor ordered for Brandon, who is obviously pressing.
Kerry Wood is a player that can probably relate to not living up to the hype, even though his problems were more physical than mental.
Kerry might be an excellent gamble for the Angels, who desperately need help at the back end of their pen, and are one of the few clubs who could handle that kind of a payroll hit.
A closer look at Kerry’s stats show 13 of his 16 innings this year were clean. His poor numbers are largely because of a horrible outing against Kanas City, where he gave up 5 runs while only recording one out.
Although he has been wild at times, Kerry is still recording almost a strikeout per inning. When he is on, he has proven he still has the mental toughness and “stuff” to come into games at big moments and shut teams down. Playing for a contender again might start to stir Kerry’s competitive juices and bring back some of his intensity.
It would definitely be a gamble for the Angels to take on the $10.2 million contract of a fragile and declining Kerry Wood, but I like his upside over that of Brian Fuentes.
There really is no gamble in this scenario for the Indians, who stand to save almost $10 million with this move—a move that they would be hard pressed to pull off with virtually any other club.
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Entering Sunday Night’s save opportunity, Kerry Wood’s ERA was a less than modest 7.98. He was 1-3 with five saves in eight chances. His ticket out of here, originally thought to be through a trade, was likely heading towards an end of the year release after the Indians refused to trigger the club option on his contract.
Then, something crazy happened. Maybe it was all this Stephen Strasburg talk, sending Wood back to the days when he was Strasburg. Maybe it was all the talk about Wood being stuck with the Indians for the rest of the year. Perhaps he’s just figured something out. Regardless of what you believe, Wood regained the form that enticed the Indians into signing him nearly two years ago.
Wood threw 17 pitches, 11 of which were strikes. Wood would strike out the side, and gain his 6th save, while lowering his ERA by half a run, to 7.48.
Tonight, Wood came in and threw 18 balls, 12 of which were strikes. He would give up a two-out hit, and strike out two in getting save #7. He lowered his ERA nearly another half run, to 7.02.
What does this mean? Kerry Wood might be making himself valuable again. There’s always room for relievers on contending clubs, and Kerry Wood is one of the more enticing ones. Why? He still throws in the mid-90’s, and when he’s on, he is one of the better relievers in the league.
The Indians and Mark Shapiro are likely looking at all options as we speak, with Wood’s coals directly in the fire. Can they get a top prospect for Wood? Not likely. But with another couple of shut-down performances, perhaps there is someone with some upside waiting in the wings.
With Chris Perez waiting in the wings (he had a hold in tonight’s game, after giving up two runs last night) as the heir-apparent closer, Wood might just be pitching his way right out of Cleveland.
Where to? More on that as we get closer to the deadline.
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It was eight years ago today that Mark Prior became only the 14th player in Chicago Cubs history to win his Major League debut dating back to 1920. Prior and the Cubs beat the Pirates 7-4.
Prior was drafted second overall by the Cubs in 2001. The Twins, who had the first pick in the draft, were interested in Prior, but were told that he did not want to play for them. Instead, Minnesota took Joe Mauer number one. That’s worked out pretty well for them.
Meanwhile, Kerry Wood had undergone Tommy John surgery in 1999, but posted a 12-6 record in 2001 to record back-to-back winning seasons.
In 2002, Prior’s first season with the Cubs, he went 6-6 in 19 starts with a 3.32 ERA. That same year, Wood notched his third straight winning season going 12-11 with a 3.67 ERA. Wood didn’t miss a start that entire season and set a career high with 213.6 innings pitched.
The stage was set for 2003. The tandem was dubbed “Chicago Heat” by Sports Illustrated , and the two of them were featured on the cover of the 2003 Baseball Midseason Report edition of SI .
That season, Prior went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA. He racked up 245 strikeouts and only walked 50 batters in 211.1 innings. He finished third for the NL Cy Young Award in his first full Major League season.
Wood recorded a career-high 266 strikeouts in 211 innings on the way to a 14-11 record.
It was all downhill from there.
From 2004 to 2006, Wood and Prior amassed a record of 30-32 with a combined ERA over 4.00.
2006 was Prior’s last season with the Cubs, and he has not played in the Majors since. On December 26, 2007, he signed a one-year contract with the San Diego Padres, but missed the entire season due to injury. On January 13, 2009, the Padres agreed to one-year minor league contract with Prior, but he was released in August of last year after failing to be called up the entire season.
Wood has not started a game since the 2006 season. Since 2007, he has appeared in 150 games in relief and has gone 9-10 with 54 saves in 67 chances.
This season, now with the Cleveland Indians, Wood has pitched 3.1 innings striking out three and walking five. He’s 0-2 with an ERA of 18.9 and a blown save, but at least he’s still in the Majors —at least for the time being.
It’s yet another story of what might have been for the Cubs.
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It only took two rehab appearances for the Cleveland Indians to feel Kerry Wood is healthy and ready to help the team. Wood, who has been out all year because of a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle was activated from the 15-Day DL yesterday.
Wood was roughed up in his first rehab appearance giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning, but settled down in his second appearance to pitch a scoreless inning of work. Wood felt he was ready after his second appearance and if a 6′5″, 220 lb Texan says he is ready, I’ll take his word for it.
I am guessing Wood will go back to being the full-time closer in Cleveland right away with Chris Perez moving into an eigth-inning setup man role. Perez, I would say was “fair” filling in for Wood. He has given up three earned runs, struck out five, and has a 2.89 ERA in 9.1 IP this season.
Walks are still an issue for Perez. It’s hard to be reliable when you are walking six guys every 6.1 innings.
If Wood can prove he is healthy and pitch decent for the Tribe, he will become prime trade bait in July.
For a fantasy spin on Wood, I would treat Wood as a low-end No. 2 closer. He might be a source of some cheap saves here and there, but won’t get enough chances on a consistent basis to have a major impact on your team.
You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg
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