Mario-Rijo
07-21-2007, 09:22 PM
This from Marty's favorite Red Sox fan, but not really.
Don't expect race-altering moves
posted: Friday, July 20, 2007
The three powers of the National League East are so empowered, so tightly wound, that one Doyle Alexander deal could win the division, not to mention deals involving a Joe Blanton or Roy Oswalt or Jon Garland. But a 1998 Randy Johnson is not going to show up in any storefront, and -- barring a purse as high as the Carlos Guillen/Freddy Garcia swag the Mariners extracted from Houston for the two-month rights to Johnson -- neither is Blanton, Oswalt, Garland nor any other significant starter. The starting pitchers whom contenders are scouting are Matt Morris, Jason Jennings, Kyle Lohse, Scott Elarton, Steve Traschel and Jose Contreras, and it isn't pretty; scouts from a half-dozen teams were in to see Jennings in Washington Wednesday. He threw 83-86 mph, allowed five runs in five innings and is 1-6, 4.76 for the season ... with another year on the contract. So while the Mets, Braves, Phillies, Red Sox, Dodgers and Padres would like a starter, nothing race-changing is likely to occur. And while the Astros convene next week to decide whether or not to weigh their options on Brad Lidge, Chad Qualls and Dan Wheeler, while the Rangers continue to market Eric Gagne and Akinori Otsuka, while the Pirates shop disgruntled Salomon Torres and the Royals take bids on Octavio Dotel, what general managers like Omar Minaya, Pat Gillick, Dave Dombrowski and Mark Shapiro won't do is make a deal similar to Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen. "I don't know of anyone who will trade a potential impact everyday player for a relief pitcher, especially one who isn't a dominant closer," says Minaya. Another contending GM says, "I don't blame Dayton Moore for trying to rebuild, but he wants a major league-ready positional player for Dotel." Hey, what outsiders don't understand is ownership pressure. Drayton McLane has to sign off on rebuilding before Astros GM Tim Purpura can even begin to market Lidge, who could mean the World Series to Detroit, Cleveland, Boston or the Mets. Those kinds of pressures are on Moore, Wayne Krivsky in Cincinnati, Jon Daniels in Texas and Andrew Friedman in Tampa Bay, pressures no one else knows who hasn't sat in their chairs in buildings operated by their respective owners. As odd as it may seem, Brian Cashman in many ways is the most relaxed of the GM bunch. On Friday morning, the Yankees are six games behind the Indians in the loss column for the wild card and seven games behind the Red Sox in the AL East (in New England, that's Anxt Legion), and Cashman on Wednesday took a leisurely drive to Trenton, N.J., to watch Philip Hughes. Cashman is looking to add a first baseman if it isn't Shea Hillenbrand, find someone to take Kyle Farnsworth, maybe move a Scott Proctor for depth (the NY Post has been on Wilson Betemit), and await the reconstruction of the Yankee pitching staff. "Unfortunately for the rest of us," says one AL executive, "the most important addition before the trading deadline will be Hughes." Cashman watched Hughes dominate on Wednesday, and will give him a couple of starts at Scranton to build up his pitch count and arm strength. And as Hughes fits in with Chien-Ming Wang, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte, he is not the only key piece that may fit in place for the final six to eight weeks of the season. There is a possibility that the Yankees will bring fellow Trentonian Joba Chamberlain up to audition for the Joel Zumaya role, and as he gets healthy, Ross Ohlendorf may soon be ready to fit in the middle of the bullpen as well. Before suffering a back injury, Ohlendorf -- who pitched with Chris Young for Scott Bradley at Princeton -- looked as if he could be a first-rate middle reliever after coming over from Arizona in the Johnson deal. But Chamberlain has now become the talk of the game. The Yanks' second pick in the 2006 draft out of Nebraska has drawn comparisons to a cross between Zumaya and Bobby Jenks as a reliever, and Justin Verlander as a starter. He's 8-1 with 108 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings between Tampa and Trenton. "He's 95-99 for seven innings as a starter," says one scout. "He has Verlander stuff, but if it fell apart, he'd still be Jonathan Broxton." Oh. It may be that the minor leagues, not the majors, are where the pitchers who impact races come from. Boston has already changed its rotation with Kason Gabbard and the bullpen with Manny Delcarmen, and may go to Clay Buchholz soon as another bullpen alternative once Curt Schilling gets back into the rotation. Buchholz's biggest question at this point is the command of his fastball, but he has big-time swing-and-miss pitches with his curveball and changeup, and that stuff may play very successfully in the bullpen as he prepares for the 2008 rotation. Just look at the National League East, where there are three very good position teams with general managers with long trade résumés who have been searching for starting pitching for six weeks. This is where those starters sat Friday morning: TEAM W-L ERA QS Mets 39-35 3.98 56 Braves 34-36 4.42 49 Phillies 35-35 5.13 48 Minaya will not even discuss trading Lastings Milledge unless he is guaranteed some proven starter. Instead, he's waiting on the return of Pedro Martinez. The Braves will deal kids, but not Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Yunel Escobar, to find someone to fill in at the end of the rotation; John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Chuck James and Buddy Carlyle are 31-19, but the other starters are an ugly 4-17, 6.41. The Phillies have tried a number of alternatives, even throwing Aaron Rowand's name around with Michael Bourn lurking, but they have yet to find any reasonable alternative, and they're hoping the bullpen returns of Tom Gordon and Brett Myers restore order. The problem is that none of those NL East teams appear to have minor league help on the horizons. And where the Yankees now can look within, the price for the Mets, Braves and Phillies might exceed reality.
Don't expect race-altering moves
posted: Friday, July 20, 2007
The three powers of the National League East are so empowered, so tightly wound, that one Doyle Alexander deal could win the division, not to mention deals involving a Joe Blanton or Roy Oswalt or Jon Garland. But a 1998 Randy Johnson is not going to show up in any storefront, and -- barring a purse as high as the Carlos Guillen/Freddy Garcia swag the Mariners extracted from Houston for the two-month rights to Johnson -- neither is Blanton, Oswalt, Garland nor any other significant starter. The starting pitchers whom contenders are scouting are Matt Morris, Jason Jennings, Kyle Lohse, Scott Elarton, Steve Traschel and Jose Contreras, and it isn't pretty; scouts from a half-dozen teams were in to see Jennings in Washington Wednesday. He threw 83-86 mph, allowed five runs in five innings and is 1-6, 4.76 for the season ... with another year on the contract. So while the Mets, Braves, Phillies, Red Sox, Dodgers and Padres would like a starter, nothing race-changing is likely to occur. And while the Astros convene next week to decide whether or not to weigh their options on Brad Lidge, Chad Qualls and Dan Wheeler, while the Rangers continue to market Eric Gagne and Akinori Otsuka, while the Pirates shop disgruntled Salomon Torres and the Royals take bids on Octavio Dotel, what general managers like Omar Minaya, Pat Gillick, Dave Dombrowski and Mark Shapiro won't do is make a deal similar to Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen. "I don't know of anyone who will trade a potential impact everyday player for a relief pitcher, especially one who isn't a dominant closer," says Minaya. Another contending GM says, "I don't blame Dayton Moore for trying to rebuild, but he wants a major league-ready positional player for Dotel." Hey, what outsiders don't understand is ownership pressure. Drayton McLane has to sign off on rebuilding before Astros GM Tim Purpura can even begin to market Lidge, who could mean the World Series to Detroit, Cleveland, Boston or the Mets. Those kinds of pressures are on Moore, Wayne Krivsky in Cincinnati, Jon Daniels in Texas and Andrew Friedman in Tampa Bay, pressures no one else knows who hasn't sat in their chairs in buildings operated by their respective owners. As odd as it may seem, Brian Cashman in many ways is the most relaxed of the GM bunch. On Friday morning, the Yankees are six games behind the Indians in the loss column for the wild card and seven games behind the Red Sox in the AL East (in New England, that's Anxt Legion), and Cashman on Wednesday took a leisurely drive to Trenton, N.J., to watch Philip Hughes. Cashman is looking to add a first baseman if it isn't Shea Hillenbrand, find someone to take Kyle Farnsworth, maybe move a Scott Proctor for depth (the NY Post has been on Wilson Betemit), and await the reconstruction of the Yankee pitching staff. "Unfortunately for the rest of us," says one AL executive, "the most important addition before the trading deadline will be Hughes." Cashman watched Hughes dominate on Wednesday, and will give him a couple of starts at Scranton to build up his pitch count and arm strength. And as Hughes fits in with Chien-Ming Wang, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte, he is not the only key piece that may fit in place for the final six to eight weeks of the season. There is a possibility that the Yankees will bring fellow Trentonian Joba Chamberlain up to audition for the Joel Zumaya role, and as he gets healthy, Ross Ohlendorf may soon be ready to fit in the middle of the bullpen as well. Before suffering a back injury, Ohlendorf -- who pitched with Chris Young for Scott Bradley at Princeton -- looked as if he could be a first-rate middle reliever after coming over from Arizona in the Johnson deal. But Chamberlain has now become the talk of the game. The Yanks' second pick in the 2006 draft out of Nebraska has drawn comparisons to a cross between Zumaya and Bobby Jenks as a reliever, and Justin Verlander as a starter. He's 8-1 with 108 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings between Tampa and Trenton. "He's 95-99 for seven innings as a starter," says one scout. "He has Verlander stuff, but if it fell apart, he'd still be Jonathan Broxton." Oh. It may be that the minor leagues, not the majors, are where the pitchers who impact races come from. Boston has already changed its rotation with Kason Gabbard and the bullpen with Manny Delcarmen, and may go to Clay Buchholz soon as another bullpen alternative once Curt Schilling gets back into the rotation. Buchholz's biggest question at this point is the command of his fastball, but he has big-time swing-and-miss pitches with his curveball and changeup, and that stuff may play very successfully in the bullpen as he prepares for the 2008 rotation. Just look at the National League East, where there are three very good position teams with general managers with long trade résumés who have been searching for starting pitching for six weeks. This is where those starters sat Friday morning: TEAM W-L ERA QS Mets 39-35 3.98 56 Braves 34-36 4.42 49 Phillies 35-35 5.13 48 Minaya will not even discuss trading Lastings Milledge unless he is guaranteed some proven starter. Instead, he's waiting on the return of Pedro Martinez. The Braves will deal kids, but not Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Yunel Escobar, to find someone to fill in at the end of the rotation; John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Chuck James and Buddy Carlyle are 31-19, but the other starters are an ugly 4-17, 6.41. The Phillies have tried a number of alternatives, even throwing Aaron Rowand's name around with Michael Bourn lurking, but they have yet to find any reasonable alternative, and they're hoping the bullpen returns of Tom Gordon and Brett Myers restore order. The problem is that none of those NL East teams appear to have minor league help on the horizons. And where the Yankees now can look within, the price for the Mets, Braves and Phillies might exceed reality.