Travis Wood spends 2009 season making hitters weep

October 15, 9:42 PMLouisville Bats ExaminerJason Stella

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Now you know what
Travis Wood and a
Carolina Mudcats' hat
look like.

As the Louisville Bats came down the stretch in the 2009 season, they received a huge lift from starting pitcher Travis Wood, who made his triple-A debut on July 25th. It was a no-brainer to promote Wood from the team's double-A squad in Carolina, as Wood was ruling the Southern League with an iron fist. The 22-year-old lefthander was tops in the league at the time of his promotion in several categories, including ERA, strikeouts, and wins. Wood's mound domination helped him earn the league's Most Outstanding Pitcher honor for 2009, despite not finishing the season with the Mudcats. 

Once Wood put on the Bats' uniform, he wasted no time clocking in, as he was a steady 4-2 with a 3.14 ERA in eight starts. Wood helped the Bats run away with its second straight division crown in August when he put together victories in four consecutive starts. When you combine Wood's numbers this year between the two levels, there is reason to believe he may be reaching the potential that made him a second-round pick of the Reds in the 2005 draft. Opponents hit a combined .204 against him for the year, and he gave up just 33 earned runs in over 167 innings of work. 

Wood was drafted after spending his high school days in a town called Bryant, Arkansas, which has a population just short of 15,000. Bryant is located southwest of Little Rock, and was ranked by CNN Money as the 86th best place to live in America, probably ranking slightly ahead of Flint, Michigan and Compton, California. In his debut season of '05, Wood came out with guns blazing, and was voted a Baseball America rookie all-star after throwing over 17 straight scoreless innings to begin his professional career. 

Some haters will try and write Wood off from ever having a chance to be a legit major-leaguer because of his slender five-foot-eleven, 165 pound frame. If all goes to plan, these are the people who will be dragged into the town square and scoffed at when Wood is making big league cash getting guys out for the RedLegs in a few years.