A Tale of Two Closers

It's about halfway through the season and I thought it would be fun to compare Kevin Gregg with the closer that we could have had (again), Kerry Wood. It wouldn't be fair to either one of these guys if we didn't just compare the last two years. So here is why I am happy with having Kevin Gregg.

Kevin Gregg's numbers over the past two years:

Year	W	L	ERA	G	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	BAA	WHIP
2008	7	8	3.41	72	29	68.2	51	30	26	3	37	58	0.203	1.282
2009	3	2	3.62	38	14	37.1	32	15	15	6	16	37	0.222	1.286

Kerry Wood's numbers over the past two years:

Year	W	L	ERA	G	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	BAA	WHIP
2008	5	4	3.26	65	34	66.1	54	24	24	3	18	84	0.219	1.085
2009	2	3	5.27	31	9	27.1	25	16	16	5	16	30	0.248	1.500

Except for a few things, these guys are almost completely identical. You can say Kerry Wood had better number in 2008 (barely) because he was on a better team and you could say the same for Kevin Gregg this year.

Ok, not much room for argument right? Wrong. Let's take a look at the contracts.

Kevin Gregg got a contract for 1 year with the Cubs worth 4.2 million.

Kerry Wood got a contract for 2 years with the Indians worth 20.5 million with a guaranteed option worth 11 million if Wood has 55 GF in 2009 (26 up to this point).

Now you tell me, who got the raw deal?