Sunday, July 09, 2006

wood diagnosed with torn rotator cuff

this can hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has been watching the cubs since 1998, but kerry wood was yesterday diagnosed with a partial tear in his rotator cuff. a decision on surgery has not yet been made, but wood will clearly miss most of if not all of the remainder of 2006.

this page has gone on at length about the abusive pitching-management policies of dusty baker, and there is little doubt here that wood has suffered the consequences of 2003 ever since. it would be blank speculation to comment on wood's future, if there is one, as a major league pitcher. someone will probably give him a try in 2007. it probably won't be the cubs.

in other dl triplets news, mark prior is being scratched from his start this afternoon with a "strained oblique". it is hard to envision such an injury arising between starts, and so suspicion about what this actually means is of course warranted. when the team has lied to just about everyone over just about everything having to do with anything but especially pitching, it seems irresponsible to assume that prior really is suffering from the injury they say he is.

lastly, wade miller has been shut down in his rehabilitation of his repaired labrum. with his fastball not exceeding 84 mph according to published reports, the cubs are rumored to be near to cutting him loose.

all of this was easy enough to predict months ago -- and of course it was, here and elsewhere. the question left to the observer is only this: were jim hendry and andy macfail really blind to the likelihood -- that is, incompetent -- or fully aware and merely deceptive in their public comments? this page would suspects elements of both, but in the end it matters little. the end result has been one of the worst baseball teams in the majors, and by either path the responsibility lies squarely on their doorstep.

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