The fabricated legend of Kerry Wood

With Kerry Wood’s career circling the bottom of the drain it’s time to take a look at the larger than life Cubs myth that surrounds Kerry Wood. We all know about the great stuff: the 20 K game, the wins in Atlanta in the 2003 NLDS, becoming the closer for the 2008 NL Central Champs. Of course we all know about the constant arm issues and his spot on the alltime leaderboard of simulated game appearances.

Last winter when Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer gave into the Tom Ricketts and signed Kerry Wood I was disappointed. The reason I was disappointed had nothing to do with Kerry personally, like most fans I like Kerry Wood and have enjoyed watching him pitch. I was disappointed because:

  1. The Cubs hired Theo and Hoyer so moves based on emotion and loyalty would be a thing of the past.
  2. Kerry Wood is just not very good anymore. The Cubs would have been better off giving his role to a minor league pitcher.

Still there are some of you that feel the Cubs somehow owe Kerry Wood like he’s been this hall of fame pitcher or great ambassador for the Cubs. Want to know the truth about Kerry Wood’s career? Surf on over to baseball-reference.com and look at his career numbers. His career line in it’s simplest form is 86-75 over his 14 seasons. His career ERA is 3.67.

Take a look at his similarity scores:

  1. Bobby Bolin (942)
  2. Kelvim Escobar (917)
  3. Moe Drabowsky (917)
  4. Al Benton (914)
  5. Don Larsen (909)
  6. Juan Berenguer (907)
  7. Greg Harris (907)
  8. Stan Williams (906)
  9. Ike Delock (902)
  10. Eric Plunk (898)

Now there’s a list of baseball greats! Eric Plunk, Juan Berenguer and Kelvim Escobar. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure there was never a fanbase dying to sign any of the players on the above list, certainly not at the end of their careers.

It’s shocking how much the blinders are on with Cubs fans when it comes to this guy. His contribution to the Cubs since the end of 2003 is minimal at best (mostly in 2008). Yet people still hold onto the myth, the legend.

Checkout where Wood ranks alltime in Wins for the Cubs:

Wins

RankPlayerWinsIP 1.Charlie Root2013137.1 2.Mordecai Brown1882329.0 3.Bill Hutchinson1803022.1 4.Larry Corcoran1752338.1 5.Fergie Jenkins1672673.2 6.Guy Bush1522201.2  Clark Griffith1522188.2 8.Hippo Vaughn1512216.1 9.Bill Lee1392271.1 10.John Clarkson1371730.2 11.Ed Reulbach1361864.2 12.Rick Reuschel1352290.0 13.Greg Maddux1332016.0 14.Pete Alexander1281884.1 15.Carlos Zambrano1251826.2 16.Claude Passeau1241914.2 17.Pat Malone1151632.0 18.Bob Rush1102132.2 19.Jack Taylor1091810.0  Lon Warneke1091624.2 21.Fred Goldsmith1071516.2 22.Larry French951486.0 23.Bill Hands921564.0 24.Carl Lundgren911322.0 25.Orval Overall861135.0 26.Dick Ellsworth841613.1 27.Rick Sutcliffe821267.1 28.Sheriff Blake811455.1 29.Ken Holtzman801447.0  Kerry Wood801276.2 31.Larry Cheney761061.0 32.Jack Pfiester701028.1 33.Johnny Schmitz691198.2  Hank Wyse691063.0 35.Jimmy Callahan661043.2 36.Tony Kaufmann63999.2 37.Ryan Dempster621114.0  Paul Minner621196.1 39.Glen Hobbie611218.2  Steve Trachsel611163.2 41.Terry Larkin601019.1 42.Ad Gumbert58934.0  Jake Weimer58839.1 44.Claude Hendrix571076.0  Jimmy Lavender571078.0 46.Ray Burris551068.2 47.Vic Aldridge53838.2  Bill Bonham531152.1  Bob Wicker53726.1 50.Warren Hacker521091.2  Larry Jackson52838.0

LMAO. Calling this guy any sort of ‘franchise legend’ is absolutely wrong. He’s been a nice player, but nothing more than that. He was not worth signing again and deserves no loyalty from the Cubs as they move forward.