What If...? Kerry Wood and Mark Prior career rewinds: OOTP 26 vs. MVP 2005

A few weeks back I pondered a simple question:

Then a realization dawned on me, I have the means to make this happen! (at least digitally..)

The fantastic baseball sim Out of the Park lets you travel back in time and play any historical season from the history of baseball. I've done this in my free time with the 2001 Cubs, rewriting history, getting Steve Bartman rightfully off the hook for game 6 of the NLCS, and winning the World Series in 2001.

So why not do the same for the Prior/Wood duo? 2004 was the year the injury bug really killed the careers of these two outstanding pitchers. Wood suffered a right triceps strain that forced him to miss nearly two months in the middle of the year, while Prior suffered from an inflamed right Achilles tendon and elbow soreness to start the 2004 season, which had him miss nearly two months of the 2004 season.

Wood would go on to make just 14 more starts in his career, transitioning to a reliever and closer role to close out his career, Prior would make just 36 more starts as severe injuries cut what once was a very promising career short.

So what if we made sure they stayed healthy, and played out their careers as the 1-2 combo at the top of the rotation for the Chicago Cubs?

This question also prompted me to do one more thing: Hop on Ebay and buy a copy of MVP Baseball 2005, one of my all time favorite baseball video games, which also by chance starts in the 2004 season.

So, using both OOTP 26 and MVP Baseball 2005, let's have their careers playout and see where they finish! I will giving yearly updates comparing each game to one another. Relevant stats, roster moves, team performance, and more will be talked about in each update, providing extra context to each situation.

Time to see what this duo was truly capable of.