Tigers, Wood Make for Bad Headline Puns

With so many teams having needs at the same positions - closer, shortstop, catcher, starting pitcher, etc. - any move by a team can end up causing ripple effects throughout baseball.  The Chicago Cubs tossed a rock into the pond earlier this week when they acquired Kevin Gregg from the Florida Marlins, thus setting their closer from last year, Kerry Wood, free into the open market. 

In his ranking of the top 100 free agents, ESPN.com's Keith Law considers Wood the best reliever available. 

He works primarily with two pitches, a mid-90s four-seamer with good life and a low-80s slider with a very sharp, late break.  His control took a huge leap forward in 2008, and he commands both pitches well, changing hitters' eye levels by working up with the fastball and down with the slider.

This past season, Wood saved 34 games for the NL Central champion Cubs, adding a 5-4 record and 3.26 ERA.  But what makes Wood most impressive is something he's always done in his major league career: strike out batters.  In 66 1/3 innings, Wood compiled 84 strikeouts, an average of almost 12 per nine innings.  And unlike earlier in his career, he's learned to harness that heat.  Wood threw only 18 walks, averaging out to 2.5 per nine innings.

With numbers like those, Wood is a popular target, especially now that he'll officially be pitching for another team next season.  Could he be a good fit for the Detroit Tigers?  Sure, but the Tigersosphere seems to accept the reality that Wood will likely seek a larger deal than Detroit is willing to offer.

At The Spot Starters, Blake says take a look, but only with conditions:

If Wood is looking for a three or four year deal then I think the Tigers should run from him as quickly as possible.  However, if he’s willing to take a two year deal then I think the Tigers should at least take a look.  It would be pretty similar to the deal they gave Troy Percival a year back.  Percival was of questionable health but the Tigers gave him a two year deal anyway to close games.  That deal couldn’t have gone much worse than it did but it was only two years long.

Sean of Trumbull and Michigan agrees that it's worth a shot:

The Tigers, in need of bullpen help could look to the flame-thrower. 

Hey, he's open to anything.

Unfortunately, Jason Beck has already tossed a bucket of water on any such aspirations:

Tigers president/general manager Dave Dombrowski all but ruled out the Tigers from pursuing former Cubs closer Kerry Wood, who hit the open market Friday when Chicago traded for Kevin Gregg.  After Dombrowski reiterated his stance that the Tigers would not be in on the top tier of closers, he was asked whether he considered Kerry Wood a top-tier closer.  Dombrowski said yes.

Wood is believed to be seeking at least a three-year contract.  That's too long of a commitment for the Tigers, who believe they can have one of their Minor League relievers ready to close by 2010.

Nothing we didn't already know, really.  Though maybe we have an even better idea of what sort of reliever the Tigers will be looking for.  And the closer market is actually looking pretty crowded right now.  The question is where that top tier ends.  Does it end at Wood, presumably behind Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes?  That's not quite how Law's rankings shake down, as he has Jeremy Affeldt ranked higher, but on the open market, Affeldt might be considered in that next tier of relievers.  (Especially from a financial standpoint.) 

It appears Wood could end up with the Rangers or Brewers, so it looks like we'll only get one chance to match "Tigers" and "Wood" in a headline.  I wasn't having much luck with creating either a play on Tiger Woods or, well, something a little more juvenile.