I agree. I didn’t say Wood wasn’t fantastic over most of the first half of the season (he was), and it’s hardly fair to judge his entire body of work on a couple of bad outings. All I said was that it wasn’t much of a stretch to call Wood “shaky” considering his ERA and WHIP since June 15.

Keep up the great work, Josh!

Anyhow, Kerry Wood is sporting a 4.12/1 K/BB ratio, with a 1.01 WHIP and a .301 BABIP, which is significantly higher than other closers. Cherry picking his last 5 appearances when he’s made 44 on the year is hardly a good argument if you’re going to talk about a reliever. If he has a 5.4 ERA in his last 10 and a 9 ERA in his last 5, then what’s his ERA for the 5 before that? ~1.80

Now, if you want to talk about relievers in general, then yes, Kerry Wood is no longer a top 5 pitcher. Okajima, Morrow, Marmol, Shields, Balfour, etc have been amazing this year as well. Sadly, the bullpen ace isn’t the person who gets paid the most, the one with the highest SV total is.

Wood has blown five saves in 29 opportunities and has a 9.00 ERA in his last five appearances. If you want to chalk that up to one poor outing (July 5 at St. Louis) that’s fine, but he also has a 5.40 ERA and a 1.92 WHIP dating back to June 15 (10 appearances). The five blown saves are nothing out of the ordinary, but he’s far from being a sure thing (few closers are). He ranks among the top five N.L. closers in at least six categories by my count, but is eighth in ERA and his 3.02 is nothing special for a closer. If you want to call him a top five N.L. closer, that’s fine, but he’s not quite as BEASTLY as you think, and I don’t think calling him “shaky”, at least since June 15, is much of a stretch. Try doing a little research of your own before coming here and blasting others’ opinions.

Professionalism is an important thing in journalism. If you want to be taken seriously, do some research. Kerry Wood has been a BEAST as a closer this year. There are maybe 3 closers in the entire league who are pitching better than him, and you think he’s shaky?

Lidge is better than Wood this year. He has made countless outs in pressure situations. As long as he isn’t facing Albert Pujols in the NLCS, you can pretty safely rely on him. 28/28 in SV opportunities with about a 12 K/9 rate.

Also, you realize that when laying odds, you have to create something that adds up to 100%, right? You’ve given the Padres and Giants well over a 50% combined chance of winning the NL West simply by virtue of not including them in this list.

I never know what to think of articles like this. half the time I just think they’re bait. No professional writer should have such a complete lack of a grasp on basic math.

Or the fact they still haven’t overcome that collapse in September?

I think to make the Phillies double the odds of the Mets might be a little off.