Kerry Wood to the 15-Day DL As Of 10 Days Ago?

This past Thursday, the Chicago Cubs placed relief pitcher Kerry Wood on the 15-day DL due to a blister on his throwing hand (or more likely a finger I'd suppose). 

That in itself didn't really catch my eye, given Wood's injury history and the fact that I knew he had the issue and they hadn't been using him recently. 

What caught my eye was the phrase in the report, "retroactive to July 14."  This means that the 15 days started on July 14, making Wood eligible to return as soon as July 29.  The day he was placed on the disabled list, to reiterate the first sentence, was July 24.  Or, 10 days into the stint as far as the injury report is concerned.

I wondered if it was within regulations to place a player on the disabled list 10 days after he could have been and use the "retroactive." label.  It turns out that 10 days is the limit as far as this maneuver goes.

I've seen a few days used with this retroactive label before, but I don't recall ever seeing anything beyond a week being used.  Ten days just seems ridiculous.  If a player is injured, he's injured.  There's not much room for interpretation.

This sort of deception by the Cubs (and that's what it boils down to) is almost on par with what the NFL's New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick do with that league's weekly injury report.  I can't even recall how many weeks running QB Tom Brady has been listed as "probable" with a shoulder injury.

Both of these scenarios demonstrate blatant and intentional abuse of the rules. 

I think the Cubs knew they weren't going to use Wood until he was healthy and the blister issue was rectified.  Under the rule in place, they could sit on him for 10 days and then put him on the disabled list for the remaining five.

You could say that hurt the Cubs, as they essentially lost a roster spot for that stretch of days if Wood was most likely not going to pitch and they didn't have another player to take that roster spot. This is another reason that the rule is a bad one.

The disabled list rule may need to be modified.  Limiting the use of the "retroactive to" label to seven days back seems logical and, most importantly, fair to the rest of the teams competing for playoff spots, division titles, etc.  It would also prevent teams from keeping what is effectively a "dead" roster spot any longer than a week.