Bruce Markusen
04-15-2005, 08:19 AM
Yankee Doodles
If there’s one thing that can be said with certainty about developments during the first week of the season for the New York Yankees, it’s that Jason Giambi can’t play first base anymore. While the jury remains out on Bernie Williams’ hand-eye coordination, Jaret Wright’s ability to replicate his 2004 success, and Mariano Rivera’s alleged fall from fame, it’s became plainly obvious that Giambi shouldn’t be allowed to play the infield under any circumstances. His mobility, which was previously statuesque, has now become glacial, calling to mind the slow-footed exploits of past first basemen like Zeke Bonura and Mo Vaughn. Even Giambi’s once sure hands have become suspect (think “Dr. Strangeglove” suspect) as evidenced by the three errors he committed during a rocky first week of the season.
Joe Torre had hoped to use Giambi at first base while employing Ruben Sierra as a DH against left-handers, but that plan will probably have to change. If Giambi plays, he simply has to DH (even though his declining bat speed may render him similarly dysfunctional at the plate), leaving Tino Martinez to play first base against right-handers. But who will play first against left-handers? For some reason, Torre seems to have lost confidence in Martinez against left-handers, despite the fact that he put together an OPS of .856 against lefties vs. .811 against righties in 2004. If Torre continues to bench Tino against left-handers, justified or not, the Yankees will eventually have to find a right-handed hitting first baseman. A logical solution would be to play 27-year-old prospect Andy Phillips, a solid right-handed hitter with above-average power, as the first baseman against lefties, but Torre has shown a disturbing inclination to use limited veterans over more talented younger players in recent years. In this case, however, the Yankees don’t even have a “limited veteran” who can platoon with Martinez, because of Torre’s stubborn refusal to give Sierra or Bernie Williams some innings at first base during the spring.
So how will the Yankees, namely general manager Brian Cashman, resolve their first base dilemma? Don’t be shocked if you starting reading rumors about the oft-injured, high-priced Mike Sweeney (who’s off to a hot start) coming to the Bronx. The Royals would love nothing better than to dump their onetime star and best player, and might not even demand a king’s ransom of prospects in return. And if Sweeney’s contract is deemed too luxurious for Yankee tastes, then we might start hearing names like the Pirates’ Craig Wilson, the Devil Rays’ Josh Phelps, or the Blue Jays’ Shea Hillenbrand as possible targets for Cashman and company.
The Rumor Mill
Let’s add the upstart Diamondbacks to the list of teams interested in trading for either the Tigers’ Ugueth Urbina or the Devil Rays’ Danys Baez. The D-Backs have also talked to the A’s about Octavio Dotel, but the problem is the same as it is with Detroit and Tampa Bay: all three teams want one of Arizona’s top outfield prospects, either Conor Jackson or Carlos Quentin, in return. The asking price for serviceable relievers with the ability to close games remains ridiculously high… As good as the Angels’ talent base is at both the major league and Triple-A levels, they remain desperate for a left-handed reliever. How desperate? They gave journeyman left-hander Pedro Borbon, Jr. a 15-minute workout earlier in the week, with both manager Mike Scioscia and pitching coach Bud Black watching intently. The 37-year-old Borbon (not to be confused with his father, Pedro Sr.) hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2003, when he posted a ghastly 20.25 ERA in seven appearances with the Cardinals… Realizing that they are in full rebuilding mode, the Rockies are looking at young talent that might be in need of a change of scenery. One of their targets is outfielder Marlon Byrd, who is both injured and blocked from a starting job in Philadelphia because of the presence of ex-Yankee Kenny Lofton. The Phillies would be willing to move Byrd, but only for the right package of young pitching.
Reliving The Red Sox and Reds in 1975
Throughout the season, we’ll be featuring 30th anniversary excerpts about the Red Sox’ and Reds’ classic 1975 World Series, as selected from a yet-to-be published book about the greatest World Series in history. In the first installment, we’ll examine the Red Sox’ climb to the top of the Eastern Division and the American League.
The pre-season consensus of scribes and sportscasters had tagged the Boston Red Sox as no better than a third-place contestant in the American League East. Boston’s star catcher, Carlton Fisk, was still recovering from a 1974 knee injury that one orthopedic surgeon had predicted would end his career. After Fisk defied that forecast, he suffered a broken right arm—courtesy of a stray pitch in an early spring training game. The Red Sox also lacked proven players at second base and throughout the outfield. And one of Boston’s most important starting pitchers, veteran Rick Wise, remained a question mark with a cranky right shoulder.
Six months later, the Red Sox had emerged as the best team in the Eastern Division. Fisk returned from both his knee injury and his fractured arm to bat .335, and continued to provide leadership to an overachieving pitching staff. Mid-season acquisition Denny Doyle, who joined the Red Sox in a June 13th trade with the California Angels, solidified the middle infield and batted .310 (a large improvement over his .067 mark with the Halos). In the meantime, Wise bounced back from arm problems to pitch 255 innings and win 19 games, giving the Sox a capable No. 2 starter behind staff ace Luis Tiant.
Yet, it was a pair of rookies who played the largest roles in leading the Red Sox to a status that far exceeded expectation. Fred Lynn, who won the center field job after initially being targeted to play left field, batted a crisp .331 and led the American League with 103 runs scored. Jim Rice, after staggering through a miserable spring, eventually settled in as the team’s left fielder, and batted .309 with 102 RBIs. The two freshmen staged an intriguing grapple for Rookie of the Year honors, with Lynn making a strong case for his own candidacy in the league’s Most Valuable Player race. In fact, he put on such a strong campaign that he became the first rookie in history to win the MVP.
Led by Lynn, Rice, Tiant, and the 36-year-old Carl Yastrzemski, the Red Sox earned a berth in the American League Championship Series against the Oakland A’s. These were the three-time defending World Champion Oakland A’s, who had grown so accustomed to winning when the pages of the calendar flipped from September to October.
This time around, the A’s had to make do without the services of staff ace Jim” Catfish” Hunter, who had become the game’s first full-fledged free agent after the 1974 season and had escaped Charlie Finley’s baseball asylum. Forced to use left-handers Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue at Fenway Park (a cemetery for some southpaw pitchers, even good ones), the undermanned A’s dropped the first two games of the playoff series. Nothing changed when the Championship Series moved to the Oakland Coliseum. Boston’s offense banged out 11 hits, Rick Wise and bullpen stalwart Dick Drago pitched efficiently, and the Red Sox won the game, 5-3, sweeping the reigning champs in three games. For a team regarded so lightly at season’s beginning, the Red Sox had done quite well in deconstructing an active dynasty.
If there’s one thing that can be said with certainty about developments during the first week of the season for the New York Yankees, it’s that Jason Giambi can’t play first base anymore. While the jury remains out on Bernie Williams’ hand-eye coordination, Jaret Wright’s ability to replicate his 2004 success, and Mariano Rivera’s alleged fall from fame, it’s became plainly obvious that Giambi shouldn’t be allowed to play the infield under any circumstances. His mobility, which was previously statuesque, has now become glacial, calling to mind the slow-footed exploits of past first basemen like Zeke Bonura and Mo Vaughn. Even Giambi’s once sure hands have become suspect (think “Dr. Strangeglove” suspect) as evidenced by the three errors he committed during a rocky first week of the season.
Joe Torre had hoped to use Giambi at first base while employing Ruben Sierra as a DH against left-handers, but that plan will probably have to change. If Giambi plays, he simply has to DH (even though his declining bat speed may render him similarly dysfunctional at the plate), leaving Tino Martinez to play first base against right-handers. But who will play first against left-handers? For some reason, Torre seems to have lost confidence in Martinez against left-handers, despite the fact that he put together an OPS of .856 against lefties vs. .811 against righties in 2004. If Torre continues to bench Tino against left-handers, justified or not, the Yankees will eventually have to find a right-handed hitting first baseman. A logical solution would be to play 27-year-old prospect Andy Phillips, a solid right-handed hitter with above-average power, as the first baseman against lefties, but Torre has shown a disturbing inclination to use limited veterans over more talented younger players in recent years. In this case, however, the Yankees don’t even have a “limited veteran” who can platoon with Martinez, because of Torre’s stubborn refusal to give Sierra or Bernie Williams some innings at first base during the spring.
So how will the Yankees, namely general manager Brian Cashman, resolve their first base dilemma? Don’t be shocked if you starting reading rumors about the oft-injured, high-priced Mike Sweeney (who’s off to a hot start) coming to the Bronx. The Royals would love nothing better than to dump their onetime star and best player, and might not even demand a king’s ransom of prospects in return. And if Sweeney’s contract is deemed too luxurious for Yankee tastes, then we might start hearing names like the Pirates’ Craig Wilson, the Devil Rays’ Josh Phelps, or the Blue Jays’ Shea Hillenbrand as possible targets for Cashman and company.
The Rumor Mill
Let’s add the upstart Diamondbacks to the list of teams interested in trading for either the Tigers’ Ugueth Urbina or the Devil Rays’ Danys Baez. The D-Backs have also talked to the A’s about Octavio Dotel, but the problem is the same as it is with Detroit and Tampa Bay: all three teams want one of Arizona’s top outfield prospects, either Conor Jackson or Carlos Quentin, in return. The asking price for serviceable relievers with the ability to close games remains ridiculously high… As good as the Angels’ talent base is at both the major league and Triple-A levels, they remain desperate for a left-handed reliever. How desperate? They gave journeyman left-hander Pedro Borbon, Jr. a 15-minute workout earlier in the week, with both manager Mike Scioscia and pitching coach Bud Black watching intently. The 37-year-old Borbon (not to be confused with his father, Pedro Sr.) hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since 2003, when he posted a ghastly 20.25 ERA in seven appearances with the Cardinals… Realizing that they are in full rebuilding mode, the Rockies are looking at young talent that might be in need of a change of scenery. One of their targets is outfielder Marlon Byrd, who is both injured and blocked from a starting job in Philadelphia because of the presence of ex-Yankee Kenny Lofton. The Phillies would be willing to move Byrd, but only for the right package of young pitching.
Reliving The Red Sox and Reds in 1975
Throughout the season, we’ll be featuring 30th anniversary excerpts about the Red Sox’ and Reds’ classic 1975 World Series, as selected from a yet-to-be published book about the greatest World Series in history. In the first installment, we’ll examine the Red Sox’ climb to the top of the Eastern Division and the American League.
The pre-season consensus of scribes and sportscasters had tagged the Boston Red Sox as no better than a third-place contestant in the American League East. Boston’s star catcher, Carlton Fisk, was still recovering from a 1974 knee injury that one orthopedic surgeon had predicted would end his career. After Fisk defied that forecast, he suffered a broken right arm—courtesy of a stray pitch in an early spring training game. The Red Sox also lacked proven players at second base and throughout the outfield. And one of Boston’s most important starting pitchers, veteran Rick Wise, remained a question mark with a cranky right shoulder.
Six months later, the Red Sox had emerged as the best team in the Eastern Division. Fisk returned from both his knee injury and his fractured arm to bat .335, and continued to provide leadership to an overachieving pitching staff. Mid-season acquisition Denny Doyle, who joined the Red Sox in a June 13th trade with the California Angels, solidified the middle infield and batted .310 (a large improvement over his .067 mark with the Halos). In the meantime, Wise bounced back from arm problems to pitch 255 innings and win 19 games, giving the Sox a capable No. 2 starter behind staff ace Luis Tiant.
Yet, it was a pair of rookies who played the largest roles in leading the Red Sox to a status that far exceeded expectation. Fred Lynn, who won the center field job after initially being targeted to play left field, batted a crisp .331 and led the American League with 103 runs scored. Jim Rice, after staggering through a miserable spring, eventually settled in as the team’s left fielder, and batted .309 with 102 RBIs. The two freshmen staged an intriguing grapple for Rookie of the Year honors, with Lynn making a strong case for his own candidacy in the league’s Most Valuable Player race. In fact, he put on such a strong campaign that he became the first rookie in history to win the MVP.
Led by Lynn, Rice, Tiant, and the 36-year-old Carl Yastrzemski, the Red Sox earned a berth in the American League Championship Series against the Oakland A’s. These were the three-time defending World Champion Oakland A’s, who had grown so accustomed to winning when the pages of the calendar flipped from September to October.
This time around, the A’s had to make do without the services of staff ace Jim” Catfish” Hunter, who had become the game’s first full-fledged free agent after the 1974 season and had escaped Charlie Finley’s baseball asylum. Forced to use left-handers Ken Holtzman and Vida Blue at Fenway Park (a cemetery for some southpaw pitchers, even good ones), the undermanned A’s dropped the first two games of the playoff series. Nothing changed when the Championship Series moved to the Oakland Coliseum. Boston’s offense banged out 11 hits, Rick Wise and bullpen stalwart Dick Drago pitched efficiently, and the Red Sox won the game, 5-3, sweeping the reigning champs in three games. For a team regarded so lightly at season’s beginning, the Red Sox had done quite well in deconstructing an active dynasty.