The End Of The Kerry Wood Era

it seemed like Woody would always have the good ole blue pinstripes

and slightly less money.

…but what’s done is done.

the natural evolution of baseball. Older players move on, and youth will ultimately be served. I’ll miss Kerry, but it’s very encouraging that the Cubs can have a high-profile player walk, and have a capable farmhand available to replace him.

Nicely done.

I doubt the Brewers will get in on Wood, I would imagine they’ve learned their lesson after Sheets.

My guesses: Mets, Rangers, Angels

The Prior/Wood era is officially over, all the Maddux/Glavine scenes dancing through our heads 6 years ago can officially be put to rest.

“Face of the ballclub” as Al states? Therein perhaps lies the problem. The face of the ballclub was an oft-injured, oft-unreliable pitcher. For as great a professional and gentleman that Kerry Wood is (and he is) I find it actually refreshing that the Cubs are permitting objective analysis to outweigh sentimentality. For too long the Cubs (and Jim Hendry) have lived in denial about certain players. Today was a black and white decision on what is in the best interest of the ballclub. While sad to see Wood go I vigorously applaud Hendry.

I’m really upset with this. I know Wood has had his problems, but like a married couple, the team and him fought through it all and now he appears to be healthy. So what do the Cubs do? They let him go.

Regardless of the cons… there are a lot of pros with having Wood on this team. I am worried about next season because Wood is a gamer, and though we have a lot of talent on this team, we do not have much in that bulldog attitude department.

We need more players like Wood last season in the playoffs.

This offseason is going to SUCK.

We lose Wood and Ceda essentially in exchange for Gregg.

We’ll probably sign Dunn or Abreu

we’ll resign Dempster for an expensive contract and he’ll probably not be nearly as good next year..

Prove me wrong Hendry, but I am so frustrated with his plans so far this offseason..

Hey gang! I took my “break” and have now turned the page looking forward to the 09 season! Hoping for a busy offseason

Sad news about Woody, but I can see that Hendry has Wood’s best interest at heart

…and it looks like a stupid non-deal from Hendry. The guy is one of the best in the biz, and he knows sure as shit Kerry has been beyond loyal to this team, and there’s probably no ONE player on a current Chicago sports team that is more respected, admired, or enjoyed. Stupid, stupid move.

Dan

Marmol’s time is now. If they had signed Wood for 2 to 4 years, where would that leave Marmol. He’s ready to be a dominant closer, not in 2 to 4 years, but now.

Wood is a great human being and like most Cubs fans, I like him a lot and wish him well. But it’s time to move on, both for him and for the Cubs.

I just hope he doesn’t go to Milwaukee or St. Louis.

I’ll miss ya, Kerry. I hope the deal turns out OK for The Cubs.

Sums it up.

Kerry will be missed, what a shame if he’s not resigned

meh…just got the damn thing too in October…

I want Kerry Wood to stay a Cub, plus I think Jose Ceda has a future. We saw him pitch this summer for Tennessee and while he was a little raw he was impressive. Anybody look at his stats?

Huge sums of money paid since 1998 for an enigmatic, oft-injured and often frustrating when healthy pitcher. I’m going to miss Kerry Wood too. But today was a day about making the smart move.

98 13-6, 26 games, 3.40 ERA
99 DNP
00 8-7, 23 games, 4.80 ERA
01 12-6, 28 games, 3.36 ERA
02 12-11, 33 games, 3.66 ERA
03 14-11, 32 games, 3.20 ERA
04 8-9, 22 games, 3.72 ERA
05 3-4, 21 games, 4.23 ERA
06 1-2, 4 games, 4.12 ERA
07 1-1, 22 games, 3.33 ERA
08 5-4, 65 games, 3.26 ERA

It is clear that this is a baseball move over sentimetality, and I do agree with that. However, I’m not sure that Marmol is ready. He gets way too pumped sometimes, especially when the crowd is roaring. I hope he can get past that.

And yeah, Gregg doesn’t excite me.

I feel like Woody and I have “grown up” together. His years here were my growing up period as a cub fan. I always figured there’d come a point when he wasn’t here anymore… but I figured it’d be a long time away.

Just wish they’d gotten someone better then Kevin Gregg out of losing Woody.

Bummer.

WHY?

Kerry Wood sure as hell be better than Gregg. I don’t get the rationale at all.

Unless Wood expressed interest in wanting to play elsewhere this just boggles my mind.

Words can;t describe how upset I am over this. I dont care if I’m the only one that feels this way.

What a joke.

Hendry has a close relationship with Wood, and said the move was made in the best interests of the right-hander, who finished fourth in the NL with 34 saves and figures to command a deal worth up to $50 million for four years on the free-agent market."

Are you serious? 50 million dollars? I know he might (or might not have) taken a discount, but how big of a discount would that actually have been? I might get flamed over this, but honestly, people here need to grow the hell up. 40 over 4 for Wood would still be crazy, considering he’ll only pitch about 70-80 innings a year.

I love him as a pitcher, and it stings, but shit, I’ll always care more about the Cubs winning than one individual player, regardless of their contribution to the team.

by some of the reaction over this. I mean, I’m sad to see Woody go. Woody was great (and a great human being) and I’m proud to say he was a Cub. I’ll defend him as a someone who had the talent to be a great pitcher (and would’ve been if his body had held up), instead of just a good (every once in a while /very good) pitcher when healthy.

But baseball teams need to do what’s best for the team on the field; not what makes us most sentimental to buy t-shirts. The only exception I’ve ever felt to that was Mark Grace, who I would’ve given wheelbarrows of money just to hang out in the dugout and tend a martini bar. But I also realized I was silly to feel that way.

Anyway, I’m surprised how sentimental people are over Woody, especially given that it often seemed like he was hurt as much as he was playing (and exaggeration I realize, but it often felt that way). Because I felt like that, it was hard for me ever to get extremely attached to him to the point of saying “Money be damned!”.

He’s a good guy. Glad we had the privilege of having him on the team, and best wishes towards his future (non NL central) success.

that Kerry really understands the history of this franchise, more than any other current player. He has seen the true highs and lows, and been probably the biggest player in the “transformation” over the past 10 years and the rise in expectations.
Another thing is that it seemed he had that “old school” feel that the players of the 80s and early 90s had. He was that link to Grace and Ryno.
Not that this is all a big deal, but I think it’s important in terms of team leadership.

This day will go down as truly a sad day in Cubs history. I haven’t felt this emotional over a departure since Ryno left.

Thank you Kerry for the great memories.

Thank you for alwas being at the fan events and being a pleasure to meet.

Thank you for all you did for the community.

Chicago lost a great contributor to the community today as well. Guys if everything he does in the community made the paper they;d have to have a paper just for that.

I feel like someone has taken my heart out and kicked it and stuffed it back in and then punched me in the stomach.

But from a baseball standpoint I’m waiting to see what else happens. I have full confidence in Marmol replacing Kerry in the closer role I’m more worried about Marmol’s role.

And ironically if I were to switch who’s other wife I’d be on the current roster it would be Ryan Dempster.

I predict he goes to Texas. And if they get their hometown boy can we get Tony Romo?

Leaving the Cubs as a closer has always been a good career move.

My first thought was this is the first time since we starting spending all that money on the backloaded contracts, that we weren’t able financially, to resign somene we wanted.

However after thinking about everything, I think it was the smart decision.

Consider this:
-He’s going to command huge dollars over 4 years.
-He’s getting up there in age.
-He has been injury prone. One season does not convince me yet.
-But most importantly, we have our closer of the future waiting in the wings, who will probably be BETTER. I imagine some of the “honest discussion” Hendry and Wood had talked about how Marmol was going to be the closer in 2009 regardless.

I’m not totally convinced he has the temperment to be a closer…

While I hope he does, that period last year where he looked like a deer in headlights every pitch doesn’t make me feel real confident. Afterall, closing is usually more about what’s in your head than what’s in your arm (if Rod Beck is any indication…)

Of course, he’s also lights-out at times, so who knows…Fingers crossed I guess. And anyway, most closers seem to think it’s their job to make games more interesting and thereby shorten all our lives.

will Kerry’s number be on one of the poles? As far as “greatness” he doesn’t come close to the others that are already there. But sentimentally speaking, he’s right up there with them in my opinion.

I don’t think Wood is worth some crazy contract of 4 years $50 million or something.

Its a good business decision by the Cubs not to resign him for that price.

Everyone will miss him, but Sandberg is about the only fan favorite in my lifetime who retired a Cub.

I agree with Al that baseball-wise Wood and Gregg are very similar.

As for Ceda…who knows? We’ll have to wait and see if he ever makes the majors to evaluate him.

K-Rod is apparently on the move, per Sportscenter tonight.

No use overspending on an overhyped position.

Z won the Silver Slugger award.

Who robbed Geo?

But that doesn’t mean acquiring Gregg is a good idea. A rehabbing closer who wasn’t that good before, anyway. Ughh!

This is just fitting isn’t it! After the joke they made of themselves in the playoffs. Now this. The idea of seeing Woody in a different uniform is heartbreaking for me.He can’t be replaced in many many ways.

Put him and Gregg at the back of that bullpen, one a closer one as a replacent for Howry.

Jim Hendry made the right move today. Kerry Wood has made enormous sums of money wearing the Cub uniform while he sat on the DL or was inconsistent. The absolute most I would have been comfortable giving Kerry Wood in a new contract is 2 years and $15 million w/ plenty of incentive clauses and the ability to earn a third year. Apparently that isn’t good enough for him, which I can understand and is completely within his right.

If he can get some team to give him 3 or 4 years and $30 million, $40 million or more? Than more power to him.

type payroll, but still didn’t feel the need to go out and get every single ace, batting champ, HR leader, etc.

Then this type of thing doesn’t happen.

The Cubs = a family making the decision to buy food (aka what’s best for the team) instead of buying medicine (aka re-signing Wood)

Maybe that was a bit of a stretch but you still get my point.

I think everything I felt after 2003 was expressed by this noble competitor in the interviews after game 7. I am absolutely going to hate seeing him pitch for the brewers or cards or someone else, but he’ll still be one of my favorite players.

I’ll never forget when he came back from being injured last year in that night game against the Mets. As awful a night as that was, I looked at my buddy and said “Kerry Wood is a badass.” That’s the Woody I’ll remember.

However, its not as terrible as a lot of people are making it out to be. It seems a lot of people here think that its a huge hit to the Cubs’ chances of winning next year. Really? Anyone notice that Wood didn’t have a save chance in the playoffs? That’s because there are bigger fish to fry than spend $50 million on a closer. Kerry Wood will forever be one of my favorite ballplayers, and if he were to tell Hendry he wants to stay, and to pay him whatever he can, no one would be happier. That being said, I think its a tremendous overstatement to say how it will hurt the Cubs in the clubhouse. Not saying Woody isn’t a leader, but where was the leadership in October? Just one guy leaving, isn’t going to make the difference. Look at Johnny Damon leaving the Red Sox, they won another title a bit down the road.

The only way this worries, is that they don’t sign Dempster, and this whole ordeal is for nothing. That kind of money can be more wisely spent than on a closer, when we have Marmol waiting to fill that role. I know it will hurt the setup role, but its not like Gregg is Salomon Torres.

…but any crying over the departure over a pitcher who’s next pitch could be his last is a bit much for me. So, I have the feeling this is a minority opinion. Let some idiot GM overpay for…maybe 4 years on a pitcher who, most assuredly, won’t last the length of the deal.

The Cubs got all they could out of this guy. I consider it fortunate that he had a decent 2008. Long-term deals with this individual…..way too risky. In fact, I believe any long trem deal to any pitcher with an injury history, or a sketchy past IS risky. (Could Dempster have had his career year? Will he ever pitch as well again? Who knows?) MLB is littered with terrible long-term contracts to pitchers, and historically, the Cubs have had their share. (That means YOU, Danny Jackson.)

We know Wood’s a good guy. But that’s not the point. I’ll say it again — root for the laundry to win, (again, thanks to Jerry Seinfeld) and don’t worry about individuals. Players come and go. The team is the constant. Don’t get attached to players.

DO NOT overspend on a closer. You can develop these guys, and Marmol can probably do this. The only thing the Padres are doing right is not tendering an offer to the 41-year-old Trevor Hoffman.

So what?

I see why Hendry’s doing it — this is probably in the best interest of the club right now.

But this is hard to take. I do love Woody as a player, and I hatehatehate the idea of watching him go. This is different than Sosa (who wasn’t what we initially thought and waaay overstayed his welcome) or even Andre Dawson (who I loved at that time). This is more like Maddux — Woody was a Cub when he started out, has been a Cub the whole time. And, in Wood’s case, has often put the Cubs and what he felt was his responsibility/obligation ahead of himself.

It is what it is, though, and I will still root for the Cubs. The Cubs are why I liked Woody so much, not the other way around.

People who aren’t sad miss the point. It can be a good business move — and a good move for the Cubs — and also be a sad day. And it is.

but I’ll always remember watching the video of him trembling after he threw 20 K’s….Priceles..

also speculate Gregg might be headed to SD, if a deal for the (talked about too much) Jake Peavy comes about. Heath Bell might not be the Padres closer-in waiting.

An easy pick up for the Cubs — and he’d be cheap, would be the Astros Doug Brocail, for more help in the pen. This guy has closed when he was with the Pads, and Hoffman was injured, or unavailable. This is how you find bull pen help on the cheap. (Brocail is a FA) Hendry overpaid for Howry and Eyre. Obviously, that mistake won’t be duplicated on Kerry Wood.

Blue Mike, word for word……..shocking…

Guess some people are now screwed with their free agent picks in the contest hahah

but we have to move forward. Maybe some day Kerry will be back and retire in a Cubs uniform.

  Best wishes to Woody. I must say Iam not much of a Gregg fan,
Although we won 0 world series with Wood. Here is to a new year.

I think all of us are sad to see the Kerry Wood era come to a close. But it does seem that a healthy number understand the objective logic in waving bye-bye to Wood. Today, I think the Cubs took another step as an organization. One that is focused more on winning and less on sentimentality. I like that. A lot actually. I’m ready for this 101 year old drought to be over.

I certainly hope Hendry knows what he is doing. I will miss Woody a great deal and wish him the best. Here is to great service, honorable actions, solid pitching, and an all around stand up guy.

Cheers to Woody. Now go far away where we will see you but once a season and I don’t have to root against you.