wood to have shoulder re-examined

it almost seems that, if you post about one, dear reader, you have to post about the other -- so intertwined the fates of mark prior and kerry wood seem to have cosmically become since that fateful october of steve bartman. yesterday it was the belated admission from prior that, as long suspected here, his shoulder does hurt after all and that dr. lewis yocum would be getting a visit.

no sooner was that revealed than today's bright one drops a little more candy for the injury watchers of cubdom.

Wood is expected to have his damaged shoulder re-examined, possibly by Cincinnati surgeon Timothy Kremchek, who performed Wood's shoulder surgery in August 2005, the source said. Wood has not been able to throw from a mound since recurring pain in his shoulder ended his bid to earn a bullpen job this spring after only five one-inning appearances.

Cubs officials, including general manager Jim Hendry, declined to comment on the status of the pair once considered among the top starting pitching tandems in the majors. But with the latest double dose of injury news, the chances that either takes the mound again for the Cubs have gone from dim to grim -- and neither has turned 30.

one would have to think that the kerry-wood-bullpen experiment is rapidly nearing a close (apologies for the pun). wood hasn't thrown in nearly a month and logged only five innings this spring. that pitcher isn't coming back to the majors anytime soon, no matter what his name is or how much hope was invested in him.

it would thus seem that, for the time being, angel guzman will remain unchallenged in the cub bullpen -- at least until the third of the dl triplets, wade miller, forces his recall to the rotation.

Depth	SP	RHRP	LHRP	C	INF	OF
1	Carlos Zambrano	Ryan Dempster	Scott Eyre*	Michael Barrett	Derrek Lee	Cliff Floyd*
2	Ted Lilly*	Bob Howry	Will Ohman*	Henry Blanco	Mark Derosa	Alfonso Soriano
3	Jason Marquis	Michael Wuertz	Neal Cotts*	Geovany Soto	Cesar Izturis**	Jacque Jones*
4	Rich Hill*	Angel Guzman	Clay Rapada*		Aramis Ramirez	Matt Murton
5	Wade Miller	Rocky Cherry			Ryan Theriot	Daryle Ward*
6	Mark Prior	Roberto Novoa			Ronny Cedeno	Angel Pagan**
7	Juan Mateo	Kerry Wood			Scott Moore*	Buck Coats*
8	Sean Marshall*				Brian Dopirak	Felix Pie*
9	Carlos Marmol
10	Jeff Samardzija