Kerry Wood

The Angels need bullpen help.

The Indians need payroll relief.

The Angels are about to give up on their top prospect Brandon Wood.

The Indians are about to give up on their season and closer Kerry Wood.

These are just a few of the reasons why a Wood-for-Wood trade might make sense for both teams.

Kerry's bloated 7.02 ERA and 1.56 WHIP are not exactly living up to his bloated $10.5 million salary. It's going to make it extremely hard for the Indians to get anything for him if they choose to try and get out from under that albatross of a contract.

Entering Sunday Night's save opportunity, Kerry Wood's ERA was a less than modest 7.98.  He was 1-3 with five saves in eight chances.  His ticket out of here, originally thought to be through a trade, was likely heading towards an end of the year release after the Indians refused to trigger the club option on his contract.

It was eight years ago today that Mark Prior became only the 14th player in Chicago Cubs history to win his Major League debut dating back to 1920. Prior and the Cubs beat the Pirates 7-4.

Prior was drafted second overall by the Cubs in 2001. The Twins, who had the first pick in the draft, were interested in Prior, but were told that he did not want to play for them. Instead, Minnesota took Joe Mauer number one. That's worked out pretty well for them.

It only took two rehab appearances for the Cleveland Indians to feel Kerry Wood is healthy and ready to help the team. Wood, who has been out all year because of a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle was activated from the 15-Day DL yesterday.

Wood was roughed up in his first rehab appearance giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning, but settled down in his second appearance to pitch a scoreless inning of work. Wood felt he was ready after his second appearance and if a 6′5″, 220 lb Texan says he is ready, I’ll take his word for it.

With so much talk in Cubs' camp this spring training surrounding top prospect Starlin Castro, I decided to take a look back at so of the top rookie performances in team history.

I went back as far as 1947, which was the first year that the Rookie of the Year Award was handed out. I only looked at the stats that the player posted during their rookie season when ranking them.

In the last ten years, Cubs fans have seen their share of disappointing seasons, bad trades, over-hyped prospects and greedy super stars.

No other franchise in the entire MLB has experienced more disappointment then Chicago, and here is a tribute to the best players that graciously took the blame.

102 years of painful seasons has made the Wrigley faithful the most loyal and passionate fans in all of sports, though times may seem tough.

Though thousands of players have set foot into the hallowed walls of Wrigley Field, these athletes have proven to be the best since the Y2K.

When the Cleveland Indians traded for Chris Perez last year, they envisioned him as the closer of the future. Well, for the next six to eight weeks, the Indians are going to get a glimpse of what their future at the closer position is going to look like.

What I’m Reading

• Just imagine a Mauer-less Twinky-Town. Through means of a trade, no less. My head hurts already.

• So Jose Reyes’ thyroid is due to keep him out anywhere from two weeks to two months. Great diagnosis, Doc.

As December dawns, Major League Baseball holds its collective breath. Next week at the Winter Meetings, rumors will fly, and both players and money will change hands. Trades will come to completion, and free-agent negotiations will advance rapidly.