Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
Milwaukee acquired second baseman Ray Durham from the Giants on Sunday in exchange for Class A outfielder Darren Ford and Triple-A pitcher Steve Hammond. The two teams waited to officially announce the deal until after they had played one another Sunday afternoon at AT&T Park, per the request of Durham, who didn't want to make his Milwaukee debut versus his former mates.
"Personally it was out of respect for the guys in this locker room,"
Durham said, saying his goodbyes in the Giants' clubhouse. "It really
was a stipulation I asked for."
The 36-year-old Durham, hitting .293 AVG / .385 OBP / .414 SLG / 799 OPS could complement and/or replace 25-year-old Rickie Weeks, who is hitting just .218 in 79 games for the Brewers this season with an OPS+ of 82.
Closer to home, Paul Sullivan makes it sound like the Cubs are inching closer to putting Kerry Wood on the DL for the 12th time in his career, owing to ongoing problems with that blister on his right index finger. Sullivan quotes Lou Piniella as saying:
"We're coming to the point where we're going to have to come to a conclusion about what to do."
If the Cubs were to backdate the DL decision to July 12th, Wood would be eligible to get back on the field next Sunday, when the Cubs wrap up their four-game series against the Marlins at Wrigley Field. According to Sullivan, Carlos Marmol will get to wear the closer's hat so long as Wood is unable to pitch. Marmol pitched a perfect ninth to close out the Cubs' 9-0 shutout of Houston on Sunday.
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#1 Re: Blister
That blister dates back to at least July 9th when he was already said to be "nursing" one.
#6 Re: Blister
If Kerry Wood hasn't tried it already he needs to give STAN'S RODEO CREAM a shot at that blister.
It was created by former Dodgers' head trainer Stan Johnston who was a rodeo performer when he wasn't working for the Dodgers.
It works. Even Peter Gammons has written about it.
#9 Re: Blister
I think Beckett uses that.
#11 Re: Blister
I think Beckett uses a different kind of cream...
#26 Re: Blister
He should look into this new product I heard about, "Moises Alou's Blister Juice".
#20 Re: Blister
IIRC, Wood used to use super-glue to help his blisters on a short-term basis.
#2 Marmol closing is dumb
he has two good outings after 6 weeks of being bad and now Lou is going to give him the most imporant role in the bullpen? What happens if he blows a few saves and goes right back into his 6-week funk? The wiser thing would be to let Howry close for the week since I doubt Wood needs more than that heal a blister he has already had for a week before the DL trip.
#12 Re: Marmol closing is dumb
But Howry has been worse and even more inconsistent.
#25 Re: Marmol closing is dumb
Personally I'd let Gaudin do it, but Lou seems to think his big 3 are Wood, Marmol, and Howry. I'd rather have Howry fail then Marmol because I dont want Marmol losing his confidence again.
#3 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
I'm all for a trip to the DL, assuming that this is only a bad blister and assuming that he'll be back as soon as he is eligible. The side benefit, which is resting his arm, outweighs the more tangible benefit, which the blister going away.
#4 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
That article by Sullivan that you linked was horrendous. Ostensibly about Wood going on the DL, he turned it into a story about how Marmol and Zambrano deal with booing. And not only that, the story empowered fans to boo because booing makes good players "mentally tough."
Personally, I don't boo.
#5 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
I've never understood the ongoing blister problems that some pitchers develop. Don't these blisters turn into callouses? Why on earth aren't pitchers that have been throwing a ball for two decades not immune to develop blisters?
#7 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
pitching blisters can be some of the ugliest things you've ever seen.
some guys, especially ones pushing it at the end of a season cuz they know they're about to have 4+ months off, will pitch on blisters til their hands are constant open sores being constantly sealed up and treated with various anti-bacterial stuff.
josh beckett has had some pretty legendary blisters he carried around early in his career, for instance.
#10 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
Agreed. Happens most often to power pitchers mainly because they grip the ball so damn hard. They're almost always on the fingertips, and the outside of the index finger is usually the trouble spot.
When you throwing a breaking ball of any kind (sliders in particular), the way you impart spin on the ball can cause some irritation on that outside part of the index finger. Some guys can grip certain breaking balls in a way that the seam can rub against the outside of that finger as you release the pitch. That only compounds the problem.
Now I'm no scientist about why callouses don't form there, but they just don't, I guess. I always figured it was because the skin in that area is sensitive and not as thick as in your palm, for instance. Not sure you'd want a callous to form on your fingertips, anyway. Sure, you wouldn't have blister problems, but you'd also lose any feel you had for the baseball.
And of course, as crunch eluded to, guys will usually pitch with them until they just can't stand it anymore. They get really, really nasty.
#15 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
"Not sure you'd want a callous to form on your fingertips...you'd also lose any feel you had for the baseball."
Speaking as a guitarist, you have to form callous on your fingertips to keep the damn strings from killing you -- but after they form, you still have a lot of feel for the strings. In fact, I'd argue that by the time you form a good callous, you have much better feel for the strings, with much more subtle fine control, touch and feel -- but without the pain.
On the other hand, the problems with being unable to form callous on the sides of the finger makes sense to me. The fingertips and palm are specifically used for grip and tactile contact. Not so the skin on the side of the fingers.
I would also mention that my son had quite a bit of trouble for about a year with sub-cutaneous pain in the middle finger of his throwing hand. It wasn't a matter of blistering on the surface of the skin -- it was pain in the deeper tissues underneath the skin. He had to wear a little rubber tip on his finger for a while (the kind sold in office supply stores for counting paper money, etc. -- for practice, not during games) until the sensitivity went away.
#32 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
"because the skin in that area is sensitive and not as thick as in your palm,"
Good thing your palm doesn't blister!
(had to be said)
#8 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
Also curious to see if Wood's toughness gets questioned. Obviously, there is a lot of ignorance out there about blisters.
#13 off topic: BRIAN DOPIRAK He's healthy and doing well in the FSL.
Dopirak flourishing in Florida heat-All-Star homers in third straight game, goes yard twice on five-RBI day
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.js...
#14 Re: off topic: BRIAN DOPIRAK He's healthy and doing well in thL.
Too bad he can't field or hit above A+ ball; hell of a guy, though. Class act.
#16 Re: off topic: BRIAN DOPIRAK He's healthy and doing well in thL.
25 year old "kid" in A ball...tearing up A ball for quite a while...and can't find his way to the AA roster. hell, he should be in AAA by now.
maybe if he'd quit swinging at EVERYTHING thrown at him.
he makes good contact when he does actually make contact, though. patience is just something that never caught on.
-edit-
my bad, he's 24...25 in december...and from the looks of it he's still swinging at everything this year, too (88Ks in 342ab).
#18 Re: off topic: BRIAN DOPIRAK He's healthy and doing well in thL.
I remember when he was new to minor leagues. He hit rockets into the seats and called them "dope-slaps." Was a happy go lucky guy but then he had to hit breaking stuff. Too bad he couldn't do it. Would be primo trade bait
#17 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2008/7/19/574909/ch...
John Sickels has a mid-season review of the Cubs Top 20 prospects. Reviewing the list makes the farm system seem pretty lousy.
Highs: Samardzija, Harden for three of top 20, Ceda, Vitters
Lows: Colvin & the rest of the comments aren't real encouraging
#19 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
Did Arizona Phil go on vacation? He hasn't posted anything for quite a while
#21 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
Umm he's saving it for the Arizona series?
#28 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
TCR put him on the 15-day DL with blisters on his typing hand. RobG, CubNut and Transmission will report from AZ by committee. "We need to save him for the postseason" -RobG
#22 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
I don't believe anyone will question Woody's "toughness." The guy could've easily just bagged it last year, after his umpteenth rehab - not to mention coming back to the Cubs at a discount. He really loves this team and this city, as old - fashioned as that sounds these days.
#23 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
maybe he needs to talk to moises alou (he has some free time now)
maybe moises can give kerry some ideas on how to toughen up
the hands and fingers.
#24 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
"It doesn't take a whiz to see that you're looking out for number one."
#27 Re: Durham Headed to Brewers; Wood Headed to DL?
According to Levine, Wood will not be put on the DL for a couple days as the pen has not been taxed recently they feel they can wait a few days to see if it clears.
#29 Off Topic: ERIC PATTERSON
says he learned about work ethic from his brother Corey
(more)
http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/1096809.html
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