Brandon Backe faces native Texan Kerry Wood tonight. Let’s hope that Backe feeds off the home crowd and Kerry doesn’t.

Let’s hope the Cubs have whiffle bats instead of us.
Let’s hope Brandon pitches like he did the night he 1-hit the Cards in the playoffs.
This year, he’s pitched reasonably well, except for the last game against the Cards – he’s a flyball pitcher and needs someone better than Palmeiro in left…

He’s 1-1 with a 6.17 ERA, 5 BB, 20 K in 23.1 IP. He has 4 starts, 2 QS and the St. Louis debacle.
vs Chicago: 2 GS and one in relief – 0-1 with 2 HR, 6 BB, 8 K in 10 IP (yeccccccccch) for a 6.30 ERA, 2.00 WHIP and .341 BAA.

Kerry Wood – Texan with a ‘tude – drafted in the 1st round in 1995 (ohmigawd was it REALLY 10 years ago????) out of a Dallas area HS. Called up in ’98, had that game against the Astros in which he struck out 20 guys (remember, please that the 98 team won the division and we had guys like Jeff Bagwell at his best, Moises Alou, Carl Everett who DID hit well) and he was gonna be the next Nolan Ryan. Well, he blew out his elbow, had Tommy John surgery and came back in 2000. Well, guess the Wrigley Faithful figgered they would be getting Pedro 99 but in reality, it DOES look like they DID get more of a Nolan Ryan type guy – from 00 to 04 he went 54 – 35 averaging 175 IP/ year with a 3.68 ERA, 10 K/ 9 IP and a 2.3 : 1 BB:K ratio. He spent a LOT of last year on the DL, and there’s plenty of talk talk about elbows, shoulders, etc this year too – did Dusty frag Kerry’s pitching arm by letting him throw too many pitches in games where he looked tired etc…

But THIS year, he hasn’t looked real too sharp: 1-1 with 5 HR, 12 BB, 27 K in 23.1 IP with a 5.79 ERA, 1.54 WHIP and .273 BAA.
Yeah, I said bout the same thing when I looked at the Pirate pitchers, too…. I remember.
We better HIT…….

career vs Houston:
5-6 in 14 GS with 11 HR, 28 BB, 105 K in 85 IP ( 6 IP/ GS) with a 4.45 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and .241 BAA
at Minute Maid:
2-2 in 6 GS with 4 HR, 12 BB and 31 K over 33 IP with a 4.91 ERA, 1.48 WHIP and.282 BAA

We’d better hit…..

Tags: Cubs, Houston Astros, MLB

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 at 11:08 am and is filed under Bandon Backe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.