Saturday, May 15, 2004
INCHING CLOSER TO 300
Vintage Maddux last night against the Padres:
8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR
Best of all? 88 pitches, 73% for strikes.
Somebody shut Dusty the hell up and make Kerry talk to this man. Case in point: an injury scare forced flamethrower Jason Schmidt adopt a more economical Maddux-like approach last season (the two were teammates back in Atlanta). Granted, the reduced workload (his #P/IP dropped from 16.4 to 15.0) didn't keep him healthy, but he went ape-shit on the league. Yes, Schmidt's K/9 dipped a bit (he still finished the year with over a strikeout per inning), but his H/9, BB/9, HR/9, and ERA all plummeted. Wood's raw stuff is probably even more impressive than Schmidt's. But until he learns to pitch at the Greg Maddux Master Level, Wood's not even the best pitcher of his draft class.
