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Kerry Wood has a 7-5 record, but does not be fooled. He has pitched very well in most of his 15 starts this season, not including his start tonight against the Mets. His starts include 6 double-digit strikeout games, pitched at least 6 innings in 12 games, and given up more than 3 runs only twice. He has 10 quality starts, although I’m not a big fan of the definition of “quality start.” He also has 126 strikeouts to 56 walks. A little more run support than his current 4.07 per game would help.
The trade of John Rocker for Steve Reed and Steve Karsay could be beneficial for both teams. Both teams get rid of players that they really don’t want. Reed has never been as good as Cleveland wanted. He knows how to pitch, but too often he’s losing a game against a lefty. Karsay is in his free-agent season and was not going to re-sign with Cleveland. Both will excel in Atlanta since Mazzone will quickly figure out how to use them appropriately to be successful. Rocker needed to get out of Atlanta. He has clearly not been accepted by his Braves teammate, per the Chipper Jones comments after the trade. (Although Jones seems to make thoughtless comments regularly, but the media never makes a point of it. Perhaps because he’s an all-star who makes himself accessible to the media.) Cleveland fans are accepting of anyone who performs well, even Albert Belle. Amid all the premature hoopla about the Bonds Chasing 70 campaign (which will never happen), its gone relatively unnoticed that Todd Helton is on pace to drive in 172 runs this season. He’s currently batting .325-25-81. Other impressive numbers as we approach the all-star break: Larry Walker .347-24-76 Luis Gonzalez .360-32-75 Lance Berkman .352-19-65 Manny Ramirez .345-72-23 (which is very surprising, as I thought we would see a drop-off without the Cleveland lineup protecting him) Alex Rodriguez .323-22-63 Juan Gonzalez .342-18-67 Jason Giambi .345-19-59 This is just a sampling of some of the Triple Crown candidates out there. I would wager that we’ve never seen such an impressive group of all around hitters in baseball history. Go To Page: 1 2
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