Oh Wow, Kerry Wood IS Still on the Cubs and Other Bullets – April 25, 2011

You should probably brace yourself for an unhappy stretch of baseball. After the Cubs host the Rockies, they head out to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks, and then they get the Dodgers-Reds-Cardinals-Giants-Reds-Marlins-Red Sox. That, my friends, is a brutal stretch. In particular, the two Reds series and the Cards series will be put up or shut up time for the Cubs.

  • No, Kerry Wood is not injured or traded or retired. After not pitching for *over a week*, Woody finally got in a game yesterday and threw a scoreless frame. On his return, Wood stated the obvious: “It was nice to get back out there. I wasn’t as sharp as I wanted, but that’s to be expected (because of the layoff).” Let’s hope there isn’t another layoff of quite the same proportions in the future.
  • Ramon Ortiz threw seven innings this weekend in a AAA game. Is he a star? No. But is he clearly stretched out such that, had the Cubs planned for it, he could have started on Tuesday rather than James Russell? Yes.
  • Kosuke being Kosuke: it’s April and, as you would expect, Kosuke Fukudome is destroying the baseball. Through his interpreter, Fukudome said this weekend that he has no idea why he does so well early and so poorly late. He asked that if anyone knows, to tell him. Kosuke, I have a thought: in April and May, you stay down in your swing and on the ball. By July and August, the helicopter returns, and you’re pulling off the ball like you’re Ichiro (and you’re not Ichiro). You’re welcome.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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