As Kerry Wood Sets to Retire A Look Back At Three M'aidez

Kerry Wood struggled in a game in May, this time on May 9th, and for the second time in 2 years he'll need to replace his glove as a result except this time the life expectancy of the new glove will be short lived as he is set to announce his retirement in the next day or two.

On May 8, 2012, Kerry Wood walked off the mound after an unsuccessful outing and tossed his glove and hat into the stands. After the game he was asked about the incident and responded:

After the game Wood was asked about the glove toss which he responded, "Irrelevant,  had nothing to do with the game" and when he was asked if he felt as sharp as he needed to be Wood said,  "Obviously, with giving up a five-spot, I'm not [expletive] sharp."

On May 19, 2009, Wood then the closer for the Cleveland Indians was handed a 5-2 lead to protect against the Royals in Kansas City. The lead evaporated in magnificent fashion no back to back solo homers, a walk, RBI triple, and walk-off sacrifice fly.

WATCH THE 2009 BLOWUP (VIDEO)

On May 18, 2010, nearly a year to the day that he couldn't protect a 3-run lead in KC, the Indians handed him the ball with a 4-3 lead vs the Royals in Cleveland. He proceeded to give the lead back on an leadoff triple, infield single, RBI double, intentional walk, and a bases clearing double to put the Royals in front 8-4. As Wood walked off the field that day he chucked his glove into the stands in frustration and said this to reporters after the game.

WATCH WOOD BLOWUP V2.0 (VIDEO)

More About The Indians Blowups After The Jump

Indians Organization Report - 05/15/2012

Corey Kluber registered 6 strikeouts through the first four innings but was unable to make it out of the fifth as the Columbus Clippers lost to the Syracuse Chiefs 5-1. Kluber worked 4.1 innings and was charged with 5R/5ER allowing 9 hits while striking out 6 and walking 2.

T.J. McFarland made his 8th start on the year and improved to 7-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.85. He worked 7 innings allowing 3 hits while striking out 6 and walking 0. The Aeros offense was led by Jared Goedert who went x-x with a home run and x driven in to raise his average to .378 on the year. Tim Fedroff hit his 1st homer on the year and is hitting .339 on the year.

The Carolina Mudcats lost the first game of a doubleheader 8-6 as the Salem Red Sox scored 7R/6ER on Mudcat starter Mike Rayl in 2.2 innings. Jerome Tice and Carlos Moncrief each homered for the Mudcats in the loss and in an oddity the Mudcats had nine hits with each member of the lineup having exactly 1.

Cody Anderson improved his record to 4-1 and dropped his ERA to an impressive 1.89 on the year by going 6 innings allowing 1R/1ER on 2 hits while striking out 5 and walking 1 in a 5-1 Lake County Captains victory over the Great Lake Loons. Francisco Lindor had two hits to raise his average to .319 on the year.

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Indians Organization Report - 05/14/12

The Columbus Clippers defeated the Pawtucket Red Sox 5-3. Eric Berger worked the first six innings allowing 2R/1ER on 5 hits while striking out 4 and walking 1. Scott Barnes worked 2 innings in relief and allowed 1R/1ER, and Chris Ray worked a scoreless ninth for his 6th save on the year and lowered his ERA to 2.08. Matt Laporta delivered a 3-run homer to pace the offense.

The Akron Aeros dropped a game to the Erie Sea Wolves by a final of 6-3. Giovanni Soto had his second rough outing in a row going 4.1 innings allowing 5R/4ER on 8 hits while walking 4 and only striking out 3.Adam Abraham and Kyle Bellows each hit solo homer for the Aeros.

The Lake County Captains defeated the Great Lake Loons by a final score of 6-3. Joseph Colon worked into the 9th inning completing 8.1 innings while surrendering 3R/3ER on 7 hits while striking out 4 and walking none. Additionally, 12 of his outs were of the groundball variety. Tribe Top Prospect Francisco Lindor went 2-4 with a homer and 5 RBI on the night to push his season numbers to .312/.385/.475 with four homers, three triples, and five doubles. HE has 11 walks to only 19 strike outs and has 11 stolen bases in 15 attempts...oh, and he is still only 18 years old and won't turn 19 until after the season ends.


Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

Check out IPI's Jim Pete and his Around The Farm Report

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Indians Organizational Report - 05/12/2012

The Clippers were defeated by the Pawtucket Red Sox but the good news is that minor league journeyman Ben Copeland connected on 2 home runs, Russ Canzler hit a home run, an Ezequiel Carrera had 3 hits. Daisuke Matsuzaka made the rehab start for Pawtucket and went 5.1 inning allowing 5R/5ER on 7 hits striking out 5 and walking 1.

The Akron Aeros lost 6-5 to the Harrisburg Senators and like the Clippers the highlight was three hits by a non prospect Thomas Neal who had 3 hits on the night.A name to keep an eye on in Akron is closer Kyle Landis who tossed another scoreless inning to drop his ERA to 0.48 on the year.

The Carolina Mudcats beat the Potomac Nationals 8-2.  Kyle Blair tossed 5 innings allowing 1R/1ER on 1 hits striking out 5 and walking 1. Jeremie Tice went 2-4 with 5 RBI and raise his average to .342 on the year.

The Lake County Captains behind the solid pitching of Felix Sterling defeated the Great Lake Loons 6-4. Sterling went 6 innings allowing 1R/1ER on 3 hits while striking out 4 and walking 2.


Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

Check out Jim Pete and his Around the Farm Report
.
For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Lewis Pollis takes a look at the Indians 4-1 loss to the Red Sox

Indians Organizational Report -05/11/12

Cord Phelps was the only bright spot for the Clippers as they lost to Pawtucket Red Sox 5-1. Phelps hit his third homer and a double. Chris Seddon took the loss for the Clippers who drop to 17-17 on the season.

Knuckleballer Steven Wright has his first rough outing of the season giving up 5R/4ER on 5H while walking 3 and striking out 2 as the Akron Aeros fell to the Harrisburg Senators 8-1.  Rob Bryson dropped his ERA to 2.60 with two scoreless innings.

Micheal Goodnight of the Carolina Mudcats pitched the first 3.2 innings giving up only 1R/1ER but had to be removed from the game after a line drive hit him in the elbow. The Mudcats offense was led by Carlos Moncrief (3-3 with a walk) and Jake Lowery (2-4) as they defeated the Potomac Nationals 9-2.

Luigi Rodriguez and Alex Lavisky both had multi-hit games but it wasn't enough as the Dayton Dragons defeated the Lake County Captains 5-4.

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

For a more detailed look into the days action check out IPI's Tony Lastoria and his Around the Farm Report.

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com
.

Indians Organization Report - 05/10/12

Indians Organizational Report provided by FirstInning.com

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

The Scranton WB Blog recaps last nights 4-3 Clippers Loss -

From the SWB Blog: Matt LaPorta and Manny DelCarmen were both ejected:

With Manny Delcarmen on the hill and two outs facing LaRoche a pitch that came in behind the back of the Clippers third baseman drew the ire of LaPorta from the Clippers dugout.  He yelled at Delcarmen from the top stop of the first base dugout and Delcarmen yelled back and both benches and bullpens emptied.  No punches were thrown as there was a bit of gesturing on both sides and when the dust settled LaPorta and Delcarmen were ejected by home plate umpire and crew chief Chad Whitson.

T.J. McFarland pitched 7 shutout innings and Bryan Price worked to scoreless innings as the Akron Aeros defeated the Harrisburg Senators 7-0 to improve to 22-9 on the season. McFarland is now 6-1 with a 2.18 ERA on the year.

The Carolina Mudcats were swept in a doubleheader against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans dropping the first game 2-1 and got roughed up 10-1 in the nightcap.Carolina pitcher Mike Rayl was effective in the first game tossing 7 innings of 5 hit ball giving up 1-run striking out 3 and walking none.

The Lake County Captains were led by Cody Anderson who worked 6 innings yielding 1-run on 6 hits while striking out 5 and walking 2 as the Captains defeated the Dayton Dragons 2-1.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

Check out Tony Lastoria of IPI and his edition of Around the Farm:

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Upon the announcement of the retirement of Casey Blake, Merritt Rohlfing of WahoosOnFirst looks back and presents An Ode to Casey Blake

Indians Organization Report - 05/09/12 - 3 stars - Berger, Weglarz, and Lindor

Yankees top prospect Dellin Betances worked 8 strong innings of 1 run baseball surrendering only 2 hits while striking out 7 and walking 2 as Scranton Wilkes-Barre defeated the Columbus Clippers 2-1. Cord Phelps had the only 2-hits for the Clippers while Eric Berger made a rare AAA start and the lefty went 6 innings allowing 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 6 and walking 3.

Akron Aeros Giovanni Soto gave up 4 runs in 5 innings of work allowing 7 hits while striking out 1 and walking 2 picking up the loss as the Erie Sea Wolves defeated the Aeros 7-5. The Aeros offense was led by Nick Weglarz who once again has been mired in a season long slump but yesterday he went 2-4 with 2 HR and 4 RBI.  Appearing for the Aeros was newly acquired  7'1" reliever Loek Van Mil who, if he makes it to Cleveland, will become the tallest pitcher to ever appear in a major league game.

Lake County received an outstanding outing by Joseph Colon who went 8 innings surrendering 1-run while scattering 4 hits and the Captains defeated the Dayton Dragons 4-1. The offense was led by Francisco Lindor who went 2-5 (6th multi hit game in his last 10) and is now hitting .307 on the year.

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

Make sure to check out IPI's Jim Pete and his Around the Farm Report

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Lewis Pollis of WahoosOnFirst takes a look at Jeanmar Gomez's rough outing last night as Jake Peavy and the White Sox shut down the Tribe 8-1.

Indians Organizational Report - 05/08/12 - Arms Arms & More Arms

Arms Arms and More Arms


The Columbus Clippers split a doubleheader against  Scranton-Wilkes Barre. The Clilppers won the first game 1-0 as  David Huff threw a 7-inning complete game shut out allowing 4 hits while striking out 5 and walking 1.  The Clippers lost the nightcap 4-3 as Kevin Slowey continues to struggle giving up 4 runs in 5 innings.

T.J. House worked 6 scoreless innings surrendering only 2 hits while striking out 7 and walking 2. House started the year in High A Carolina posting a 2-0 record with a 1.44 ERA in 4 starts. Yesterday was his first win in 2 tries at Akron and he has a 2.25 ERA. The victory came against former Indian Kelvin DeLaCruz who saw his record drop to 1-4 with a 4.50 ERA.

The Carolina Mudcats received a strong performance from Francisco Jimenez (3-1, 2.93 ERA) in defeating the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 6-0. Carlos Moncrief hit a 2-run homer to help Jimenz and the Mudcats to victory. Jesus Aguilar continues to hit and went 1-3 to maintain his impressive .330/.402/.570 slash line on the young season.

The Lake County Captains received another good outing from Elvis Arajuo who went 4 innings allowing 1R/1ER on 4 hits while striking out 5 and walking 2 as the Lake County Captains defeated the Bowling Green Hot Rods 4-3.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com & be sure to check out Jim Pete's Daily Around the Farm Report.

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

At Wahos on First -  Steve Kinsella takes a look at Rocky Colavito's 4 Homer night, the 4 Homer Club, and how the members performed the next game. Interesting note, there were more fans in attendance for Colavito's four homer night in May of 1959 i(Memorial Stadium in Baltimore) then for. Josh Hamilton and his  4 homer  game last night at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Blast from the past: Yesterday the San Diego Padres signed former Indians Anthony Reyes to a minor league deal.

Indians Organization Report: 05/07/12

Indians Organizational Report provided by FirstInning.com

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com
Not a lot of action last night with Columbus and Akron rained out and Carolina having a scheduled day off. Jim Pete of IPI looks at the highlights of the Lake County game in his Around the Farm Report .

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Lewie Pollis of WahoosOnFirst looks at the day that was as the Indians swept the day night doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox. The Tribe won the first game 8-6 as Zach McAllister earned his first major league win and Nick Hagadone his first major league save.  The Indians used timely hitting en route to a 3-2 victory in a rain delayed night cap.

Katie Hendershot of WoF takes a look back at the week that was for the Cleveland Indians in her column This Week In Indians Baseball.

One of my personal favorite Web-Sites is Plunk Everyone. A web-site devoted to the hit by pitch or as the administrators there say  a web site dedicated to "all those players who won't get out of the way." Yesterday, Travis Hafner became a headline becoming tying the all-time franchise leader (Napoleon Lajoie) in hit by pitches. A record which has stood since 1914.

Travis Hafner got plunked by the White Sox last night, his 11th against that team, and the 79th plunk of his career.   That ties Hafner with Napoleon Lajoie for the Indians franchise plunk record.  That record has stood since 1914, but Hafner has now tied it.  The White Sox have contributed more to that than any other team, with their 11 plunking of Hafner.  There are now 6 active players who hold at least a share of the plunk record and two more active players who hold the plunk record for a team they used to play for.  That was also the 44th time Hafner has been plunked at Progressive Field, extending his park record.

Draft for Org Report: 05/06/12

Indians Organizational Report provided by FirstInning.com

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker

Jim Pete at IPI takes a stroll around the minors in his Around the Farm Report. The above the fold top stars goes to Steven Wright, Jared Goedert, and Francisco Lindor.

Speaking of Steve Wright: Last week we took a look at him in an article titled: Steven Wright the Knuckler Not the Comedian. Later in the week Tony Lastoria from IPI had an interview published on the IPI Youtube Channel (which I highly recommend people subscribe to) and he also had an article go up titled 2012 IPI on Site: Steven Wright. The discussion about Steven Wright is certainly ready to pick up steam as he is dominating AA with his knuckleball and yesterday threw a complete game shutout to lower his season ERA to 1.13.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Marla Ridenour of Ohio.com takes a look at Ubaldo Jimenez's performance yesterday (Here)

Jason Kipnis with one of the best Tweets following yesterday's game:

Tired of hearing from reporters ?'s about Darvish... Here's my answer: Ubaldo won the game, not him. Give the guy/tribe props for once
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) May 6, 2012

Bowling Green 2, Lake County 6

MAY 06, 2012 | MIDW (A)

Players	Pos	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Robel Garcia	2B	5	2	0	0	0	0	2
Francisco Lindor	SS	5	2	0	0	0	0	1
Bryson Myles	CF	4	0	0	0	0	0	3
Alex Monsalve	DH	4	3	2	0	0	1	0
Jordan Smith	RF	5	1	0	0	0	0	1
Alexander Lavisky	C	4	1	0	0	0	0	2
Jerrud Sabourin	1B	3	1	0	0	0	1	0
Leonardo Castillo	3B	4	2	1	0	0	0	0
Zachary MacPhee	LF	4	0	0	0	0	0	3

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Shawn Morimando	4.0	2	2	2	1	4	2
Cole Cook	3.0	2	0	0	0	0	1
Grant Sides	2.0	1	0	0	0	2	0

Carolina 0, Frederick 1

MAY 06, 2012 | SOU (A+)

Players	Pos	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Tyler Holt	CF	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Tony Wolters	2B	3	2	0	0	0	0	0
Carlos Moncrief	RF	3	1	0	0	0	0	2
Jesus Aguilar	1B	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jake Lowery	DH	3	0	0	0	0	0	1
Justin Toole	3B	3	0	0	0	0	0	1
Ronny Rodriguez	SS	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dwight Childs	C	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Delvi Cid	LF	2	0	0	0	0	0	0

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Michael Goodnight	5.0	4	1	1	0	3	5
Shawn Armstrong	2.0	0	0	0	0	0	3

Carolina 3, Frederick 2

MAY 06, 2012 | SOU (A+)

Players	Pos	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Tyler Holt	CF	4	1	0	0	0	1	0
Tony Wolters	2B	5	1	0	0	0	0	2
Carlos Moncrief	RF	5	2	0	2	0	0	1
Jesus Aguilar	1B	2	1	0	0	0	2	0
Jake Lowery	DH	4	0	0	0	0	1	2
Anthony Gallas	LF	2	0	0	0	0	2	0
Ronny Rodriguez	SS	3	1	0	0	0	0	1
Justin Toole	3B	4	1	0	0	0	0	1
Tyler Cannon	C	3	0	0	0	0	1	1

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Brett Brach	3.0	2	0	0	0	0	1
Kyle Petter	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Curtis Haley	1.0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Kyle Blair	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jose Flores	2.0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Dale Dickerson	2.0	1	0	0	0	2	2

Bowie 0, Akron 5

MAY 06, 2012 | EAST (AA)

Players	Pos	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Tim Fedroff	CF	5	2	1	0	0	0	0
Juan Diaz	SS	4	1	0	0	0	1	0
Jared Goedert	LF	5	2	1	0	0	0	0
Adam Abraham	1B	3	1	1	0	0	0	0
Ryan Rohlinger	DH	3	2	0	0	0	1	0
Thomas Neal	RF	4	0	0	0	0	0	1
Kyle Bellows	3B	4	0	0	0	0	0	1
Davis Stoneburner	2B	3	1	0	0	0	1	1
Roberto Perez	C	4	2	1	0	0	0	1

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	Notes
Steven Wright	9.0	5	0	0	0	2	6	2 WP

Indians Organization Report: 05/05/12

Indians Organizational Report provided by FirstInning.com

Follow all the Top Indians Minor League Prospects with Baseball Prospectus' Prospect Tracker.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

Jim Pete at IPI recaps the Indians minor league action in his Around the Farm Report. Jim speculates that Bryson Myles, currently hitting .316/.356/.481 may be up for a promotion to High A Carolina to replace Tyler Holt who may be heading to Akron. Holt is currently hitting .319/.426/.418 for the Mudcats.

For more on the Indians minor leagues visit IndiansPropsectInsider.com

For more on the Cleveland Indians visit WahoosOnFirst.com

Adarew Clayman of the TheClevelandFan.com takes an in-depth look at the Matt LaPorta Quad-A Debate .
Steve Kinsella of Wahoos On First reflects on the Indians 5-2 loss to the Rangers and questions why Manny Acta chose to intentionally walk Mitch Moreland to face Adrian Beltre?

 Intentionally walking anyone to get to Adrian Beltre in any circumstance is ridiculous. Then to suggest after the game to suggest that a five plate-appearance sample is what the decision was based on makes it even worse. Acta said this about the decision:

“You have to give him credit. I made the decision. I don’t second-guess myself. Some will work, some won’t, but I’ll sleep fine because I don’t second-guess myself.”

Here’s to hoping that this was one night where he lays his head on his pillow and second guesses himself to the point where we won’t ever see an intentional walk issued to a marginal hitter to bring up arguably the team’s best hitter.