After Kerry Wood's pitiful performance of last night, I just have to make it worse... by asking "what were we waiting for"?
In the last few years, Kerry Wood has continued to go down to injury. The Cubs' confidence deflates as they realize that he's going to be out for a while, the fans say "if only he could get better", and the media begins yet another exhaustive and indepth analysis of every move that Wood makes while in rehab and/or Triple A.
The oddest phenomenon out of all of this? The players and staff on the Chicago Cubs freeze like deer in the headlights: everything is put on hold while they await Kerry's return. The team begins to play like they're just trying to do the status quo until Wood returns. Never mind that there are pitchers like Maddux, Zambrano, and Marshall (Cubs rookie who has REALLY stood up and made a difference) who bust their butts everytime that they take the mound. For some reason, Kerry Wood is considered the end-all-be-all of the pitching staff, the "pitching captain", so to speak.
Look, whether they've said it or not, we all know that Wood is no longer a dependable starter. The Cubs would be better served with him in the bullpen, as a set-up man, which he was doing last year and was very successful at. The fans know it, the Cubs know it, and I'm pretty damn sure that Wood knows it as well.
So, my question still remains... what were we waiting for while Wood was in rehab this year? Did we really think anything would be different when he came back? Kerry needs to wake up and be honest about where he's at. The Cubs seem to be dedicated to living out the lie that Kerry Wood will, one of these days, get back on track and lead us to glory. Well, what is the team supposed to do until then? It's so incredibly stupid!
I know that some people will argue the same for Prior, and that's entirely possible. I admit that I tend to give Prior more of a break because he has been plagued with freak occurences: that and I really believe that Prior still wants it... unlike Wood.
Let's call the situation what it is and move on... I don't think that anyone can take too much more of this!