It’s an odd predicament, to say the least. The more progress Kerry Wood makes, the more his return gets pushed back.
Wood took another encouraging step Monday, throwing modified curveballs from 50 feet into a covered batting cage.
“Everything felt great,” Wood said.
But within an hour of that proclamation, Cubs manager Don Baylor offered the sobering reality that Wood might not be ready to pitch at all during spring training.
Wood’s target date to face opposing batters in a game has slid from March 9 to March 18 to anybody’s guess.
“We had talked about the 18th or 19th, but I don’t know how accurate that is now,” Baylor said. “That’s the hope.”
Because of the Cubs’ season-opening trip to Japan, the team’s last day in Arizona will be March 23. That makes it a virtual certainty Wood will start the season on the disabled list and stay in Arizona for extended spring training.
“I’m trying to stay away from that word,” Baylor said, referring to the DL. “He has heard it enough and doesn’t need to hear it from me.”
Fortunately for the Cubs, Wood is long on patience. The 22-year-old right-hander is content to take small steps, rather than risky leaps, in his recovery from reconstructive elbow surgery last April.
Wood “spun” about a dozen curveballs from flat ground Monday, exerting only about 65 percent of his energy to minimize strain on his elbow.
“It wasn’t the big whooping [curveball],” Wood said, “but I was definitely very pleased with it.”
The curveball was Wood’s third best pitch during his dominant 1998 season behind his fastball and slider. The Cubs will wait to decide whether to let Wood to throw the slider, which can put heavy strain on the elbow if thrown improperly.
“I have a tendency to twist [my wrist] at the end of a slider,” Wood said, “and that’s not what they want me to do.”
What pitching coach Oscar Acosta does want is crisper mechanics. Acosta admonished Wood during Monday’s workout whenever Wood let his elbow drop before his delivery.
Acosta doesn’t know when Wood will take his next step, throwing curveballs off a mound.
“It has a lot to do with Kerry and how he feels,” he said.
He’s all wet: Baylor doesn’t want to hear about Arizona needing the rain. He was downright annoyed Monday that the Cubs’ game against Anaheim had to be postponed and rescheduled for next Monday.
The Cubs added a “B” game Tuesday morning against the Angels in Tempe so that seven of their pitchers, including Micah Bowie and Greg McMichael, would get their work in. The rest of the team will play Tuesday in Tucson against Arizona.
Third baseman Willie Greene will not make either trip after straining his right hamstring while rounding second base Sunday. Greene, who has been present and healthy for only a handful of days during camp, is in serious jeopardy of not breaking with the team.
“I’m at a loss for where we go from here and how often I can play him,” Baylor said. “[March] 24 is getting closer and closer and I’m getting nervous.”
Warm feeling: Monday’s cold and rainy weather upset a lot of players who have sore joints. Wood was not one of them.
“I figure if there are no problems today, we shouldn’t have any problems when we have decent weather,” he said.
