Kerry Wood

-



    Why the sudden interest in Kerry Wood? you may ask. Well, I first looked into him when I read a letter that he wrote to someone in the book Every Pitcher Tells a Story (a really good book that I suggest you read). It was then that I found that he was a very interesting player. The letter he wrote this guy was about a phone call he had gotten from Roger Clemens when he tied Rocket's record for strikeouts in a game with 20 (the record still stands, but now is also held by Max Scherzer). Anyway, I just looked him up on good old Baseball Reference and found some very interesting things about him.
    He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1998, throwing to a 13-6 record and 3.40 ERA. Wood held batters to only a .196 batting average that season. He struck out a league-leading 12.6 batters per nine, and holds a career K/9 of 10.3. Though he had really good strikeout numbers, punching out as many as 266 batters in a season, he had shaky control, walking about 4.3 batters per nine across his career, and leading the league in hit batters twice. 
    Wood also collected 63 saves and pitched the first 6 1/2 years of his career as a starter. He was also a good postseason pitcher, throwing to a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 innings pitched. 
    Wood's career regular season batting average was .171. However, in the playoffs he hit .273 and slugged .636! He went 3-for-11 with a double and home run, driving in 5 teammates. 
    And finally, Kerry Wood struck out the last batter he ever faced in the Majors. His career BAA is only .217, and opposing hitters only had a .678 OPS when facing him.
    And now for fun facts: 
    Interestingly enough, Kerry was the son of Garry and Terry. Their house must have had a draft because it was sure airy!
    He organized a bowling tournament for celebrities called 'Kerry Wood's Strike Zone.'
    
    
    Well, that's all I have to say about him. Nothing super special, but I found him an interesting guy, and especially thought his postseason performances to be both interesting and impressive. Thank you for reading.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The LOOGY

-
      I didn't know what a LOOGY was until a few months ago. It was then that I figured out that it was not phlegm, but an acronym.  Left-handed One  Out GuY      LOOGY. Pretty simple, right? Alas, the LOOGY has gone extinct due to overhunting and habitat loss from Rob Manfred. The semi-new rules state that when a pitcher comes into the game, he must face three batters or finish an inning. So unless your LOOGY comes in with two outs and  gets the batter out, then he no longer exists.      Anyway, LOOGYs were pretty cool and also quite useful for platoon advantage if you have a left-handed batter sandwiched amidst a bunch of righties, which I can imagine happened quite often. If you were in a big spot when said lefty came up to bat, the LOOGY was your man. But you wasted a reliever, especially if you were throwing Billy Wagner to get one out. Then you're out one of the greatest closers to ever live, and you put yourself in that ...
Read more

THE TOP PLAYERS FOR 2024

-
      As we get even nearer to the start of the 2024 MLB season, we wonder who will be the best players. I am going to answer that question to the best of my ability.      There are some players who have been solid for many seasons, some who have had the recent rise to stardom, and some who have just come out of nowhere. Let's get started, shall we? CATCHERS AL: Adley Rutschman, BAL NL: JT Realmuto, PHI     Adley Rutschman is a young man of about 26, and has already emerged as one of the best catchers in the game today. He has plate discipline, pop, and defense, as well as age. He is a very solid young player, and seems able to stick around for a long time.     JT Realmuto is entering his age 33 season and has been in the Majors for ten years. In that time, he has made an impressive name for himself as quite possibly the best catcher in his time. He holds a career 34% caught stealing rate, a massive 9% above the average! He has three all...
Read more

Commentary on the Cy Young Awards

-
  The last award to come out that I am writing about is the Cy Young Award. I notice that this one is wrong a LOT of the time. Let's see if they were right on at least one of them, and, if there is a miracle, both of them. NL: Winner: Blake Snell Runner up: Logan Webb Third: Zac Gallen  Fourth: Spencer Strider Fifth: Justin Steele     Is this even a contest? The player in the top five with an ERA closest to Blake Snell's is off by a massive 81 points! This happens to be number five, Justin Steele, who had a 3.06 ERA in his breakout 2023 campaign. While there were a key things that the 2-5 choices had (Logan Webb leading the league in innings pitched and shutouts, Zac Gallen tied in shutouts, Spencer Strider leading in wins, and Justin Steele with the second lowest ERA in the top five and a .762 win percentage), it's not even close. Snell had a 2.25 ERA, 234 Ks, and a league leading 182 ERA+.  AL: Winner: Gerrit Cole Runner-up: Sonny Gray Third: Kevin Gausman Fou...
Read more