Baseball has become an easy target in recent years. From complaints about rampant steroid use to games taking too long to owners and a commissioner loathe to address pressing issues or to embrace the future, critics are more than happy to proclaim America’s national pastime dead and gone. Funny thing is, attendance is up. Way up. Somebody forgot to tell the fans their sport is irrelevant.
For those who truly follow and understand the game, baseball isn’t merely a sport—it’s magic. “Field of Dreams” struck a deep chord with Americans because so much of the movie is true. Baseball really does change lives. It’s where the past meets the present, where Cornfield America connects with Fenway Park. Here are a dozen reasons why it’s still the greatest sport on Earth.
The Home Run: Basketball has the slam dunk. Football has the Hail Mary. But for fan appeal and sheer awesomeness, nothing is more sublime than the dinger. Think about it: The very object without which the game cannot be played (never mind that the umpire has hundreds of replacements at his disposal) is purposely drilled out of the field of play into a sea of humanity or empty bleachers, becoming a souvenir—possibly worth millions—for a lucky fan. There’s a reason that “home run” is America’s favorite metaphor for anything that seriously doesn’t suck.
Strategy: Think baseball is just a batter desperately trying to hit a pitch? Think again. Get to know the inner workings of the game and you’ll see it’s a living chess match where pieces are carefully moved into place, but with a twist—the pieces are fallible. The strategy is in the player movement, but the magic is in the uncertainty of what will happen next.
StatsBaseball’s statistics: , dating back well over a hundred years, have been called “sacred” (which is why passionate fans get worked up when alleged steroids users like Mark McGuire and Barry Bonds start messing with them). No other American sport boats such a rich history, catalogued so precisely. Sure the numbers can get boring sometimes, but pay them respect: They’re the sport’s DNA.
Summer: During late-fall and winter, when the NBA, NFL, and NHL seasons are in full swing, most of the country fights to stay warm and dry. This gets old and bothersome after a while. Except for the buffer months of April and October, baseball is played in short-sleeve or no-shirt-at-all weather. You can wear flip flops and shorts to a game, no matter how old you are. Summer makes everyone feel like a kid again, and so does baseball.
Time: To really fall in love with baseball, you have to slow down. After all, at upwards of four hours per game, it is a sport of patience. Which I suppose is why some in the Halo (or even the Donkey Kong) generation can’t go the distance. But there was a time, not so long ago, when people probably thought a game couldn’t last long enough—to get away from the daily cares of surviving a Great Depression or a world war or two. If you can be patient with baseball, it will provide you an enjoyable escape.
Daily Schedule: It’s good to know that no matter how bad your day goes, or no matter what changes pounce or creep into your life, six out of seven days of the week you can tune into your favorite team, or check the box score in the paper in the morning. A little consistency is good for sanity.
“It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over”: Coined by legendary Yankees catcher and manager Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” has very real meaning in baseball where the outcome isn’t determined by a clock but by outs. In theory, no matter how far a team is down, it can still come all the way back in that final at-bat in the ninth inning, no matter how unlikely. That, my friends, is poetry. And America.
Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium: The old yards have all but disappeared, but a few relics remain—even if their futures are uncertain. Better get to Yankee Stadium fast. It’s about to be replaced by a $1.3 billion (and counting) theme park.
Game-day Traditions: From the organ chimes (now probably a stadium intern clicking a mouse) to the ceremonial first pitch to the seventh inning stretch, baseball’s traditions are alive and well, and they’re not even corny. And there are few places left where you can bury your feet in peanut shells and feel proud.
Voices of the Game: Even as a 7-year-old kid I knew the name and friendly voice of Vin Scully. Listening to a good baseball announcer is like settling in for an entertaining books-on-tape session. Every game is a new story to be told, and baseball has the best stories. Hats off to Seattle Mariners’ broadcaster Dave Niehaus, who, still working the booth every day, enters the Hall of Fame this summer. If you’ve never listened to Dave, tune in.
AmericanaBaseball isn’t only played in major cities, ya know: Sometimes the best games are played by teams with names like the Toledo Mud Hens, the Birmingham Barons, or the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. You want to see players working hard and struggling to make it to the big leagues? Check out minor league baseball. One thing’s for sure: You’ll see more wacky marketing promotions in small parks then you ever will this side of Madison Avenue.
Real Men: They may not be pretty, and they’re certainly not “pretty boys” like the stars of other sports leagues. Baseball players are more like survivors. It takes a lot of grit to play night in and night out and work your way through the farm system. The spitting, the scratching, the grabbing of nether regions—it’s all good. And if you still don’t get it, go stand in the batter’s box with a 95 mph fastball whizzing by your head and see how that feels.
Why Baseball Is the Greatest Sport on Earth
By Kristopher Kaiyala
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
It's really tough to build a winning dynasty in Major League Baseball, this much we know. Reeling off a streak of winning seasons is hard enough, never mind stringing together multiple World Series victories. So many teams came close to achieving immortal status only to fall short that we rolled out an entire series on failed dynasties.
Building a lasting loser, though? That's a lot easier. The Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays are riding streaks of 10 or more losing seasons. Add in the Royals and Expos/Nationals, and those five teams have combined to post 54 losing seasons in 55 tries. Forget failed dynasties. These are the failure dynasties.
Two teams made a strong case to be included in our feeble five. The Milwaukee Brewers haven't tasted the postseason since 1982, the second-longest playoff-less streak in the game. From 1994 to 2006, the team never finished above .500. The Brewers finished last or second-to-last seven times in those 13 seasons, including three straight years in the cellar from 2002 to 2004. But Milwaukee's now a team on the upswing, coming off 83 wins and a second-place finish, with a core of young talent that's expected to contend for a division title. The Brewers are exempt.
The Cincinnati Reds own the fifth-longest streak of losing seasons, with seven. Counting Ray Knight's one-game tenure, five managers handled the reins in those seven seasons, either in permanent or interim positions. That seven-year itch included a three-year stretch in which the Reds' arsonist pitchers were last in the National League in park-adjusted ERA. But Cincy misses the cut, partly because of optimism toward a team that suddenly looks like a contender, but mostly because Kansas City, despite a more recent winning season, has a more impressive track record of losing.
The Texas Rangers have just one winning season in the past eight years, finishing last in the AL West five times in that stretch. The Rangers can't blame a lack of resources for the streak, either, as they've signed a number of players to big, multiyear deals. But Texas doesn't quite make it either: The Rangers won 89 games just four years ago, with a stretch of three division titles in four years in the late '90s.
With those pretenders out of the way, here are the five teams riding the biggest losing streaks in baseball, their signature moments and their hopes for the future.
BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Length of streak: 10 straight losing seasonsLast winning season: 98-64,
1997General managers: Pat Gillick (1998), Frank Wren (1999), Syd Thrift (2000-2002), Jim Beattie/Mike Flanagan (2003-05), Flanagan (2006-07), Andy MacPhail (2007-)
Five bad moves
1. Firing Davey Johnson. Yes, he has an ego, and there's a long list of owners and front-office people who've struggled to get along with him. But all he's ever done is win, in New York, in Cincinnati and, yes, in Baltimore. The year before Davey Johnson took over, the Orioles finished two games under .500. The next season, they won 88 games and the wild card, followed by a 98-win season and a division title. The O's cut him loose, and they haven't sniffed .500 since. But sure, Peter Angelos, you go right on losing games and watching your attendance dwindle. At least you showed everyone who's boss.
2. Signing Albert Belle to a five-year, $65 million contract. For all the Orioles' losing, no one could ever blame Angelos for being cheap, and this contract was Exhibit A of the owner's largesse. Belle had one of the best career peaks in baseball history, putting up gigantic numbers. But in giving him such a massive deal after the 1998 season, including a no-trade clause for the first three years, the O's were betting that Belle would stay healthy and hugely productive well into his mid-30s. Instead, Belle played just two more years before a degenerative hip injury forced him to retire.
3. Hiring Syd Thrift, Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan as GMs. Thrift was years past his prime as a talent evaluator, while Beattie and Flanagan owned lackluster track records and did little to move the team forward during their tenure as co-GMs. Of course in Baltimore, a willingness to say yes to the big boss usually transcends a winning résumé.
4. Trading for Sammy Sosa. In the final, $17 million season of a ginormous contract, Sosa had a .221 batting average, a .295 on-base percentage and .376 slugging. He hit 14 homers and played just 102 games. The trade didn't cost the Orioles any impact prospects. But it was a classic example of the kind of short-sighted, money-wasting moves that have plagued this team for more than a decade.
5. Nearly everything else they did in 2005. The O's jumped out to an early division lead in 2005, holding first place for 62 days. By season's end they'd lost 60 of their final 92 games, squandered $17 million on Sosa and fired yet another manager. The coup de grace came from Rafael Palmeiro, who started the year by testifying in front of Congress that he'd never used steroids, cracked his 3,000th hit on July 15, then got suspended 15 days later for testing positive for steroids.
Lowest moment: Facing the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards on Aug. 22 of last year, the Orioles gave up 30 runs, setting a modern-era record for a single game. The O's actually led 3-0 early in the game before allowing 30 straight runs in the 30-3 loss.
Favorite whipping boys: Peter Angelos. Every player, manager, GM and hot dog vendor who failed to do the job in the past 10 years is an extension of Angelos' reign of error.
Notable quotable: "This is something freaky. You won't see anything like this again for a long, long time." --Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd, after hitting one of Texas' two grand slams in the Rangers' 30-3 annihilation.
Hope for the future? The 15-13 start is nice, but the Orioles probably won't see a winning season for a while. Nick Markakis and Adam Jones are great building blocks in the outfield, Luke Scott is an above-average player as the third outfielder, Brian Roberts and George Sherrill should fetch some interesting loot in a trade, and Matt Wieters is a potential franchise player a year away from taking over at catcher. After that, the closet is nearly bare, with a severe lack of pitching the biggest problem.
ETA for next winning season: 2012.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Length of streak: 12 out of 13 losing seasons, no playoff berths in 22 years
Last winning season: 83-79, 2003Last winning season before that: 64-51, 1994
General managers: Herk Robinson (1995-2000), Allard Baird (2001-06), Dayton Moore (2006-)
Five bad moves
1. Trading Johnny Damon and Mark Ellis for Roberto Hernandez, Angel Berroa and A.J. Hinch. Damon's still starting for a championship-caliber team seven years later. Ellis was an afterthought in the trade, but he's become one of the best all-around second basemen in the game. Meanwhile, Hernandez is out of baseball and Berroa may as well be. On the plus side, Hinch is doing a great job with the first-place Diamondbacks -- as director of player development.
2. Trading Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez. There are a hundred ways to measure Jermaine Dye versus Neifi Perez in the 6½ years since this deal was made. Sometimes keeping it simple works best:
Homers since trade:Dye 169Perez 21
3. The Colt Griffin/Roscoe Crosby draft. The Royals couldn't have been more thrilled when they made these two high school phenoms their top two picks in the 2001 amateur draft. Griffin went from an unknown first baseman to darling of the scouting world within two months, wooing prospect hounds with a fastball that touched 100 mph and a storybook name. Crosby was a lefty-swinging outfielder considered by some to be the best athlete in that year's draft. Too bad the Royals ignored the negatives. Griffin was a great thrower but not a pitcher -- injuries and ineffectiveness chased him out of baseball. Meanwhile, the Royals got Crosby in the second round only because other teams feared he'd opt for a career in football -- which is exactly what he did.
Squandering high draft picks, something each of these teams has had in spades for years because of their lousy records, is a common theme here.
4. Passing on a chance to move to the National League. In 1997, with MLB set to usher in expansion teams from Arizona and Tampa Bay, the Royals were offered a chance to switch to the National League as part of a realignment plan. Here was a chance for Kansas City to forge an intrastate rivalry with St. Louis, likely driving greater interest and attendance for the team, while escaping the American League, ruled at the time by the dynastic Yankees (and later populated by other well-heeled powers like the Red Sox and Angels). Kansas City ownership, a faceless, inert group four years after the death of long-time owner Ewing Kauffman and three years before David Glass took the reins, decided to … do nothing.
5. Hiring Tony Muser, then waiting so long to fire Tony Muser. In baseball, as in life, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken poop. But while the Royals may have lacked premium talent throughout most of his tenure, Muser only made matters worse in his five years as manager, compiling a 317-431 record in the process. A slick-fielding, banjo-hitting first baseman in his playing days, Muser gave far too much playing time to similarly punchless first basemen on his teams. After watching the Royals saddle Jose Rosado with more than 200 innings pitched at the minor league and major league levels at age 21, Muser sent him back out for 203 more at age 22; Rosado was out of baseball three years later. More than just a butcher at building a lineup or making in-game decisions, though, Muser just wasn't cut out to be a major league manager. As long-suffering Royals fan Rob Neyer put it: "You had to watch Muser regularly to really appreciate him."
Lowest moment: Following the first 100-loss season in franchise history in 2002, new manager Tony Pena improbably guided the team to an 83-win season in '03, dramatically raising expectations. The Royals responded with a 7-14 April in 2004 on their way to 104 losses.
Favorite whipping boys: Tony Muser, Buddy Bell, Allard Baird, David Glass, Angel Berroa, Neifi Perez, Lima Time!
Notable quotable: "We got the best high school arm in the country, and we got probably the best athlete in the draft. If somebody would have told me before the draft we were going to get Mr. Griffin and Mr. Crosby, I would have said 'You're nuts.'" --GM Allard Baird
Hope for the future? Plenty, actually. A top three of Zack Greinke, Gil Meche and Brian Bannister in the rotation suddenly looks really promising. Billy Butler hits like Ichiro, even if it also looks he ate Ichiro. Alex Gordon's a future star. Joakim Soria is a young, cheap, lights-out closer and the key man in a very good bullpen.
ETA for next winning season: 2009.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Length of streak: 15 straight losing seasonsLast winning season: 96-66, 1992
General managers: Cam Bonifay (1993-2001), Dave Littlefield (2001-07), Neal Huntington (2008-)
Five bad moves
1. Keeping Andy Van Slyke instead of Barry Bonds. Van Slyke was wildly popular with the fans, he wasn't half the diva that Bonds was, and his asking price was much lower. But when Pittsburgh chose to keep Van Slyke after the team's stretch of three straight division titles (1990-1992), it ranked as one of the worst decisions in baseball history. The Pirates haven't had a winning season since.
2. Sticking with Cam Bonifay for too long as GM. Bonifay took the reins in 1993, inheriting a suddenly talent-starved team that had just lost the future all-time home run king. But in his eight years as general manager, Bonifay got stuck in the mud and never dug himself out. Failing to rebuild the farm system, the Pirates tried to compensate by dishing out big contracts to mediocre players (Mike Benjamin! Pat Meares!! Kevin Young!!!) and gigantic contracts to players a step above mediocrity. The six-year, $60 million contract he gave Jason Kendall remains one of the worst deals of an entire generation.
3. Sticking with Dave Littlefield for too long as GM. His trade record was a mixed bag, with some successful moves (acquiring Jason Bay from the Padres, albeit only after San Diego refused to give up Xavier Nady) balanced by a few stinkers (tossing future All-Star pitcher Chris Young overboard for Matt Herges). His greatest downfall was his woeful drafting and development record: The team exited the Littlefield era with a farm system in no better shape than it had been 6½ years earlier, despite owning top-10 draft picks every year.
4. Drafting Bryan Bullington No. 1 overall in 2002. Littlefield's draft record was best exemplified by taking Bullington, a college pitcher projected more as a safe, back-of-the-rotation starter than an ace, over the consensus top talent, B.J. Upton (who went No. 2 to the Devil Rays). Other first-rounders Littlefield passed up that year: Prince Fielder, Jeff Francis, Jeremy Hermida, Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher, Cole Hamels, James Loney, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Cain.
5. Selling the franchise to Kevin McClatchy. In a sense, it's hard to call the McClatchy Era a bad move. A team can pick its players, coaches, manager, GM, scouts and other personnel. But it can't pick the people who run the whole show, and therein lies the problem for many teams, especially the Pirates. The head of a publishing empire, McClatchy headed a group of owners who did everything on the cheap from 1996 to 2007, even after a beautiful, new, taxpayer-funded stadium landed in their laps. Everything from choosing signability over talent in the draft to sticking with the team's ineffectual GMs too long can be blamed on hapless ownership.
Lowest moment: Facing the Cubs on the second-to-last day of the 2001 season, the Pirates got crushed by a score of 13-2, their 100th loss of the season. It was the first time the Bucs dropped 100 games in 16 years.
Favorite whipping boys: Derek Bell, Kevin Young, Pat Meares, Mike Benjamin, Lloyd McClendon, Jim Tracy, Cam Bonifay, Dave Littlefield, Kevin McClatchy.
Notable quotable: "Nobody told me I was in competition. If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they're going to do with me. I ain't never hit in spring training, and I never will. If it ain't settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain't going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.'" --Pirates outfielder Derek Bell's reaction to competing for a starting job with the Pirates in spring training 2002, after hitting .173 the year before. True to his word, Operation Shutdown never played another game in the big leagues.
Hope for the future? Ian Snell's a keeper in the rotation. Nate McLouth may be in the early stages of a breakout season. Ryan Doumit should be a solid run producer at catcher. Andrew McCutchen is a five-tool prospect in center field. But the biggest hope resides in the front office, where new GM Neal Huntington has surrounded himself with a top-rate staff of baseball minds who should help the Bucs get back on the winning track. It won't happen right away, though -- the Pirates have a terrible farm system for a team that has had so many high draft picks.
ETA for next winning season: 2010.
TAMPA BAY RAYS
Length of streak: 10 years of existence, 10 losing seasons
General managers: Chuck LaMar (1998-2005), Andrew Friedman (2006-)
Five bad moves1. Trading Bobby Abreu to the Phillies for Kevin Stocker. Management showed a keen eye for talent in picking a future star in Abreu during the 1997 expansion draft. The decision the same day to trade Abreu for Stocker, a light-hitting shortstop who lasted just three more years in the majors, didn't go quite so well. This is probably one of the 25 worst trades in major league history.
2. Paying big bucks for Vinny Castilla and Greg Vaughn. Rather than wait for their farm system to bear fruit, the Rays added Castilla and Vaughn to a veteran core that already included Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco, hoping to replicate the success the Blake Street Bombers had in Colorado a few years earlier. One of those Bombers, Castilla, proved to be a lousy hitter at normal altitude, giving the Rays little return for their $13.5 million over two years. After hitting 95 homers the two previous seasons, Vaughn also slowed down considerably in Tampa, while costing the team more than $24 million over three years.
3. Handing the keys to Chuck LaMar. Like Thrift in Baltimore, LaMar was respected as a shrewd talent evaluator for years (with the Braves) but was over his head as a general manager. Some of the players drafted and developed during his tenure, including Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton, look like potential stars. But there also were far too many misses for a team that constantly drafted in the top 5. That their expansion cousins in Arizona won three division titles and a World Series in their first five years of existence only makes things look worse.
4. Trading Randy Winn to the Mariners for the right to negotiate with future manager Lou Piniella. Sweet Lou had garnered his share of success as a manager, and pursuing the Tampa native for the job made some sense. Still, giving up an above-average major league player for the right to throw millions of dollars at a manager was a move that typifies the team's existence under LaMar. Piniella did what he could, but the team still lost 285 games in his three years in the dugout.
5. Signing a 30-year lease for Tropicana Field. The worst real estate deal since the sale of Manhattan for 24 bucks. The team has been trying to negotiate out of it and get a new stadium since the moment pen hit paper.
Lowest moment: So many to choose from … maybe the time original owner Vince Naimoli allowed a local furniture store to set up a showroom at Tropicana Field, complete with dangling price tags.
Favorite whipping boys: Vince Naimoli, Chuck LaMar, Greg Vaughn, Vinny Castilla, Jose Canseco, Ben Grieve, many pitchers too numerous to name.
Notable quotable: "I believe it's a good idea. And the reason I believe it's a good idea is that there are some markets where I just don't think baseball works." --Naimoli, commenting on contraction in 2002.
Hope for the future? More than almost any other team in baseball. Led by new owner Stuart Sternberg and a savvy collection of front-office decision makers, the Rays have gone from being a butt of jokes to a potential powerhouse. The Rays own the best collection of young talent in the game: Crawford, Upton, Carlos Peña, Evan Longoria, Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza plus pitching prospects David Price, Wade Davis and Jacob McGee. Tampa still hasn't had a winning season. But once the first one happens, the Rays might not go back to losing for a long time.
ETA for next winning season: 2008.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS/MONTREAL EXPOS
Length of streak: The longest playoff drought of any club in the four major pro team sports, 26 years
Last winning season: 83-79, 2003General managers: Kevin Malone (1995), Jim Beattie (1996-2001), Omar Minaya (2002-2004), Jim Bowden (2005-)
Five bad moves1. The post-strike fire sale. Greed and stubbornness by the owners and players wiped out the end of the 1994 season, the playoffs and the best-in-baseball Expos' chances for a World Series run. Rather than push forward with the best young core of talent in the game, ownership ordered GM Kevin Malone to dump as many star players as possible in a week's time. The end result was a disastrous series of moves that ripped apart a loaded team while also failing to replenish the farm system. Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill and John Wetteland were jettisoned for pennies on the dollar. The Expos let hugely popular Canadian star Larry Walker walk without even offering him arbitration, ensuring that the team received nothing in return.
2. Trading Pedro Martinez for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. Of all the cheapskate moves engineered by Montreal's owners, the trade of Martinez to the Red Sox ripped out the hearts of Expos fans. Just 26 years old and coming off his first Cy Young Award, Pedro still had the best years of his Hall of Fame career in front of him. Instead, the team settled for Pavano and Armas, two talented young pitchers whose careers were derailed by constant injuries.
3. Jeffrey Loria engineering a blackout. Early in the Expos' history, owner Charles Bronfman relinquished broadcast rights in southern Ontario to the fledgling Toronto Blue Jays, as a favor to Canada's newest team. The move would prove disastrous, giving the Jays the platform they'd need to become a large-market power while forever condemning the Expos to small-market purgatory.
Heading into the 2000 season, owner Jeffrey Loria dealt a similarly cruel blow to the franchise's fortunes, though with far less honorable intentions. Loria supposedly shopped the team's TV and English radio rights around that year, but found no takers at his asking price. Rather than chalk up broadcasting rights as marketing costs, the Expos went dark in every medium except French radio that season, dealing a devastating blow to the team's already teetering fortunes. Given how conveniently Loria managed to bail on the Expos and reap huge rewards from the franchise sale, then extort the taxpayers of Florida into a lucrative taxpayer-funded stadium deal years later, it's easy to speculate that Loria sabotaged the Expos' final days in Montreal, with tacit approval from his accomplice Bud Selig.
4. Trading Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee for Bartolo Colon. Before the 2002 season, the Expos were identified as a prime candidate for franchise contraction. When the team surprisingly stayed in contention for a few months, GM Omar Minaya made a what-the-heck trade, acquiring Colon from the Indians. The go-for-it deal was a rare, pleasant surprise for Montreal fans, used to seeing their team trade away established stars. But the bounty sent to Cleveland in return was considered a king's ransom at the time, a short-sighted trade made under duress, even for an ace like Colon. Six years later, Nationals fans can only fantasize about Sizemore and Phillips playing alongside Ryan Zimmerman, with Lee fronting the starting rotation.
5. Failing to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero. Another future Hall of Famer, another unceremonious departure. The Expos supposedly offered Vlad a contract extension before he hit free agency, though the offer came in well below market value. The Angels snapped him up, getting a new franchise player in the process. OK, Nats fans, now imagine an outfield of Sizemore, Vlad and Lastings Milledge, with an infield anchored by Zimmerman and Phillips.
Lowest moment: Maybe you can trace the franchise's downfall to 1991, when a 55-ton concrete beam crumbled off the façade of Olympic Stadium and crashed onto a walkway. The Expos played their last 13 home games on the road, failed to reach .500 for the first time in five years, failed to reach 1 million in attendance for the first time since the Big O opened and added another chapter to their ill-fated history.
Favorite whipping boys: Bud Selig, Claude Brochu, Jeffrey Loria, Tom Runnells, Hideki Irabu, Brad Fullmer.
Notable quotable: "This was a team that had to be moved. We knew it had to relocate. Baseball didn't want to own it anymore. This was a team owned by baseball that we were anxious to get rid of." --Commissioner Bud Selig on the Expos' move to Washington after the 2004 season.
Hope for the future? Zimmerman and Milledge are 23-year-old twin building blocks for the offense, and top prospect Chris Marrero provides another potential impact bat down the road. But the pitching is thin both at the major league level and in the high minors. There's enough midlevel talent for the team to be respectable right now, but not nearly enough for the team to be really good for several years.
ETA for next winning season: 2012.
Building a lasting loser, though? That's a lot easier. The Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays are riding streaks of 10 or more losing seasons. Add in the Royals and Expos/Nationals, and those five teams have combined to post 54 losing seasons in 55 tries. Forget failed dynasties. These are the failure dynasties.
Two teams made a strong case to be included in our feeble five. The Milwaukee Brewers haven't tasted the postseason since 1982, the second-longest playoff-less streak in the game. From 1994 to 2006, the team never finished above .500. The Brewers finished last or second-to-last seven times in those 13 seasons, including three straight years in the cellar from 2002 to 2004. But Milwaukee's now a team on the upswing, coming off 83 wins and a second-place finish, with a core of young talent that's expected to contend for a division title. The Brewers are exempt.
The Cincinnati Reds own the fifth-longest streak of losing seasons, with seven. Counting Ray Knight's one-game tenure, five managers handled the reins in those seven seasons, either in permanent or interim positions. That seven-year itch included a three-year stretch in which the Reds' arsonist pitchers were last in the National League in park-adjusted ERA. But Cincy misses the cut, partly because of optimism toward a team that suddenly looks like a contender, but mostly because Kansas City, despite a more recent winning season, has a more impressive track record of losing.
The Texas Rangers have just one winning season in the past eight years, finishing last in the AL West five times in that stretch. The Rangers can't blame a lack of resources for the streak, either, as they've signed a number of players to big, multiyear deals. But Texas doesn't quite make it either: The Rangers won 89 games just four years ago, with a stretch of three division titles in four years in the late '90s.
With those pretenders out of the way, here are the five teams riding the biggest losing streaks in baseball, their signature moments and their hopes for the future.
BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Length of streak: 10 straight losing seasonsLast winning season: 98-64,
1997General managers: Pat Gillick (1998), Frank Wren (1999), Syd Thrift (2000-2002), Jim Beattie/Mike Flanagan (2003-05), Flanagan (2006-07), Andy MacPhail (2007-)
Five bad moves
1. Firing Davey Johnson. Yes, he has an ego, and there's a long list of owners and front-office people who've struggled to get along with him. But all he's ever done is win, in New York, in Cincinnati and, yes, in Baltimore. The year before Davey Johnson took over, the Orioles finished two games under .500. The next season, they won 88 games and the wild card, followed by a 98-win season and a division title. The O's cut him loose, and they haven't sniffed .500 since. But sure, Peter Angelos, you go right on losing games and watching your attendance dwindle. At least you showed everyone who's boss.
2. Signing Albert Belle to a five-year, $65 million contract. For all the Orioles' losing, no one could ever blame Angelos for being cheap, and this contract was Exhibit A of the owner's largesse. Belle had one of the best career peaks in baseball history, putting up gigantic numbers. But in giving him such a massive deal after the 1998 season, including a no-trade clause for the first three years, the O's were betting that Belle would stay healthy and hugely productive well into his mid-30s. Instead, Belle played just two more years before a degenerative hip injury forced him to retire.
3. Hiring Syd Thrift, Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan as GMs. Thrift was years past his prime as a talent evaluator, while Beattie and Flanagan owned lackluster track records and did little to move the team forward during their tenure as co-GMs. Of course in Baltimore, a willingness to say yes to the big boss usually transcends a winning résumé.
4. Trading for Sammy Sosa. In the final, $17 million season of a ginormous contract, Sosa had a .221 batting average, a .295 on-base percentage and .376 slugging. He hit 14 homers and played just 102 games. The trade didn't cost the Orioles any impact prospects. But it was a classic example of the kind of short-sighted, money-wasting moves that have plagued this team for more than a decade.
5. Nearly everything else they did in 2005. The O's jumped out to an early division lead in 2005, holding first place for 62 days. By season's end they'd lost 60 of their final 92 games, squandered $17 million on Sosa and fired yet another manager. The coup de grace came from Rafael Palmeiro, who started the year by testifying in front of Congress that he'd never used steroids, cracked his 3,000th hit on July 15, then got suspended 15 days later for testing positive for steroids.
Lowest moment: Facing the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards on Aug. 22 of last year, the Orioles gave up 30 runs, setting a modern-era record for a single game. The O's actually led 3-0 early in the game before allowing 30 straight runs in the 30-3 loss.
Favorite whipping boys: Peter Angelos. Every player, manager, GM and hot dog vendor who failed to do the job in the past 10 years is an extension of Angelos' reign of error.
Notable quotable: "This is something freaky. You won't see anything like this again for a long, long time." --Rangers outfielder Marlon Byrd, after hitting one of Texas' two grand slams in the Rangers' 30-3 annihilation.
Hope for the future? The 15-13 start is nice, but the Orioles probably won't see a winning season for a while. Nick Markakis and Adam Jones are great building blocks in the outfield, Luke Scott is an above-average player as the third outfielder, Brian Roberts and George Sherrill should fetch some interesting loot in a trade, and Matt Wieters is a potential franchise player a year away from taking over at catcher. After that, the closet is nearly bare, with a severe lack of pitching the biggest problem.
ETA for next winning season: 2012.
KANSAS CITY ROYALS
Length of streak: 12 out of 13 losing seasons, no playoff berths in 22 years
Last winning season: 83-79, 2003Last winning season before that: 64-51, 1994
General managers: Herk Robinson (1995-2000), Allard Baird (2001-06), Dayton Moore (2006-)
Five bad moves
1. Trading Johnny Damon and Mark Ellis for Roberto Hernandez, Angel Berroa and A.J. Hinch. Damon's still starting for a championship-caliber team seven years later. Ellis was an afterthought in the trade, but he's become one of the best all-around second basemen in the game. Meanwhile, Hernandez is out of baseball and Berroa may as well be. On the plus side, Hinch is doing a great job with the first-place Diamondbacks -- as director of player development.
2. Trading Jermaine Dye for Neifi Perez. There are a hundred ways to measure Jermaine Dye versus Neifi Perez in the 6½ years since this deal was made. Sometimes keeping it simple works best:
Homers since trade:Dye 169Perez 21
3. The Colt Griffin/Roscoe Crosby draft. The Royals couldn't have been more thrilled when they made these two high school phenoms their top two picks in the 2001 amateur draft. Griffin went from an unknown first baseman to darling of the scouting world within two months, wooing prospect hounds with a fastball that touched 100 mph and a storybook name. Crosby was a lefty-swinging outfielder considered by some to be the best athlete in that year's draft. Too bad the Royals ignored the negatives. Griffin was a great thrower but not a pitcher -- injuries and ineffectiveness chased him out of baseball. Meanwhile, the Royals got Crosby in the second round only because other teams feared he'd opt for a career in football -- which is exactly what he did.
Squandering high draft picks, something each of these teams has had in spades for years because of their lousy records, is a common theme here.
4. Passing on a chance to move to the National League. In 1997, with MLB set to usher in expansion teams from Arizona and Tampa Bay, the Royals were offered a chance to switch to the National League as part of a realignment plan. Here was a chance for Kansas City to forge an intrastate rivalry with St. Louis, likely driving greater interest and attendance for the team, while escaping the American League, ruled at the time by the dynastic Yankees (and later populated by other well-heeled powers like the Red Sox and Angels). Kansas City ownership, a faceless, inert group four years after the death of long-time owner Ewing Kauffman and three years before David Glass took the reins, decided to … do nothing.
5. Hiring Tony Muser, then waiting so long to fire Tony Muser. In baseball, as in life, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken poop. But while the Royals may have lacked premium talent throughout most of his tenure, Muser only made matters worse in his five years as manager, compiling a 317-431 record in the process. A slick-fielding, banjo-hitting first baseman in his playing days, Muser gave far too much playing time to similarly punchless first basemen on his teams. After watching the Royals saddle Jose Rosado with more than 200 innings pitched at the minor league and major league levels at age 21, Muser sent him back out for 203 more at age 22; Rosado was out of baseball three years later. More than just a butcher at building a lineup or making in-game decisions, though, Muser just wasn't cut out to be a major league manager. As long-suffering Royals fan Rob Neyer put it: "You had to watch Muser regularly to really appreciate him."
Lowest moment: Following the first 100-loss season in franchise history in 2002, new manager Tony Pena improbably guided the team to an 83-win season in '03, dramatically raising expectations. The Royals responded with a 7-14 April in 2004 on their way to 104 losses.
Favorite whipping boys: Tony Muser, Buddy Bell, Allard Baird, David Glass, Angel Berroa, Neifi Perez, Lima Time!
Notable quotable: "We got the best high school arm in the country, and we got probably the best athlete in the draft. If somebody would have told me before the draft we were going to get Mr. Griffin and Mr. Crosby, I would have said 'You're nuts.'" --GM Allard Baird
Hope for the future? Plenty, actually. A top three of Zack Greinke, Gil Meche and Brian Bannister in the rotation suddenly looks really promising. Billy Butler hits like Ichiro, even if it also looks he ate Ichiro. Alex Gordon's a future star. Joakim Soria is a young, cheap, lights-out closer and the key man in a very good bullpen.
ETA for next winning season: 2009.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Length of streak: 15 straight losing seasonsLast winning season: 96-66, 1992
General managers: Cam Bonifay (1993-2001), Dave Littlefield (2001-07), Neal Huntington (2008-)
Five bad moves
1. Keeping Andy Van Slyke instead of Barry Bonds. Van Slyke was wildly popular with the fans, he wasn't half the diva that Bonds was, and his asking price was much lower. But when Pittsburgh chose to keep Van Slyke after the team's stretch of three straight division titles (1990-1992), it ranked as one of the worst decisions in baseball history. The Pirates haven't had a winning season since.
2. Sticking with Cam Bonifay for too long as GM. Bonifay took the reins in 1993, inheriting a suddenly talent-starved team that had just lost the future all-time home run king. But in his eight years as general manager, Bonifay got stuck in the mud and never dug himself out. Failing to rebuild the farm system, the Pirates tried to compensate by dishing out big contracts to mediocre players (Mike Benjamin! Pat Meares!! Kevin Young!!!) and gigantic contracts to players a step above mediocrity. The six-year, $60 million contract he gave Jason Kendall remains one of the worst deals of an entire generation.
3. Sticking with Dave Littlefield for too long as GM. His trade record was a mixed bag, with some successful moves (acquiring Jason Bay from the Padres, albeit only after San Diego refused to give up Xavier Nady) balanced by a few stinkers (tossing future All-Star pitcher Chris Young overboard for Matt Herges). His greatest downfall was his woeful drafting and development record: The team exited the Littlefield era with a farm system in no better shape than it had been 6½ years earlier, despite owning top-10 draft picks every year.
4. Drafting Bryan Bullington No. 1 overall in 2002. Littlefield's draft record was best exemplified by taking Bullington, a college pitcher projected more as a safe, back-of-the-rotation starter than an ace, over the consensus top talent, B.J. Upton (who went No. 2 to the Devil Rays). Other first-rounders Littlefield passed up that year: Prince Fielder, Jeff Francis, Jeremy Hermida, Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher, Cole Hamels, James Loney, Jeff Francoeur and Matt Cain.
5. Selling the franchise to Kevin McClatchy. In a sense, it's hard to call the McClatchy Era a bad move. A team can pick its players, coaches, manager, GM, scouts and other personnel. But it can't pick the people who run the whole show, and therein lies the problem for many teams, especially the Pirates. The head of a publishing empire, McClatchy headed a group of owners who did everything on the cheap from 1996 to 2007, even after a beautiful, new, taxpayer-funded stadium landed in their laps. Everything from choosing signability over talent in the draft to sticking with the team's ineffectual GMs too long can be blamed on hapless ownership.
Lowest moment: Facing the Cubs on the second-to-last day of the 2001 season, the Pirates got crushed by a score of 13-2, their 100th loss of the season. It was the first time the Bucs dropped 100 games in 16 years.
Favorite whipping boys: Derek Bell, Kevin Young, Pat Meares, Mike Benjamin, Lloyd McClendon, Jim Tracy, Cam Bonifay, Dave Littlefield, Kevin McClatchy.
Notable quotable: "Nobody told me I was in competition. If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they're going to do with me. I ain't never hit in spring training, and I never will. If it ain't settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain't going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.'" --Pirates outfielder Derek Bell's reaction to competing for a starting job with the Pirates in spring training 2002, after hitting .173 the year before. True to his word, Operation Shutdown never played another game in the big leagues.
Hope for the future? Ian Snell's a keeper in the rotation. Nate McLouth may be in the early stages of a breakout season. Ryan Doumit should be a solid run producer at catcher. Andrew McCutchen is a five-tool prospect in center field. But the biggest hope resides in the front office, where new GM Neal Huntington has surrounded himself with a top-rate staff of baseball minds who should help the Bucs get back on the winning track. It won't happen right away, though -- the Pirates have a terrible farm system for a team that has had so many high draft picks.
ETA for next winning season: 2010.
TAMPA BAY RAYS
Length of streak: 10 years of existence, 10 losing seasons
General managers: Chuck LaMar (1998-2005), Andrew Friedman (2006-)
Five bad moves1. Trading Bobby Abreu to the Phillies for Kevin Stocker. Management showed a keen eye for talent in picking a future star in Abreu during the 1997 expansion draft. The decision the same day to trade Abreu for Stocker, a light-hitting shortstop who lasted just three more years in the majors, didn't go quite so well. This is probably one of the 25 worst trades in major league history.
2. Paying big bucks for Vinny Castilla and Greg Vaughn. Rather than wait for their farm system to bear fruit, the Rays added Castilla and Vaughn to a veteran core that already included Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco, hoping to replicate the success the Blake Street Bombers had in Colorado a few years earlier. One of those Bombers, Castilla, proved to be a lousy hitter at normal altitude, giving the Rays little return for their $13.5 million over two years. After hitting 95 homers the two previous seasons, Vaughn also slowed down considerably in Tampa, while costing the team more than $24 million over three years.
3. Handing the keys to Chuck LaMar. Like Thrift in Baltimore, LaMar was respected as a shrewd talent evaluator for years (with the Braves) but was over his head as a general manager. Some of the players drafted and developed during his tenure, including Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton, look like potential stars. But there also were far too many misses for a team that constantly drafted in the top 5. That their expansion cousins in Arizona won three division titles and a World Series in their first five years of existence only makes things look worse.
4. Trading Randy Winn to the Mariners for the right to negotiate with future manager Lou Piniella. Sweet Lou had garnered his share of success as a manager, and pursuing the Tampa native for the job made some sense. Still, giving up an above-average major league player for the right to throw millions of dollars at a manager was a move that typifies the team's existence under LaMar. Piniella did what he could, but the team still lost 285 games in his three years in the dugout.
5. Signing a 30-year lease for Tropicana Field. The worst real estate deal since the sale of Manhattan for 24 bucks. The team has been trying to negotiate out of it and get a new stadium since the moment pen hit paper.
Lowest moment: So many to choose from … maybe the time original owner Vince Naimoli allowed a local furniture store to set up a showroom at Tropicana Field, complete with dangling price tags.
Favorite whipping boys: Vince Naimoli, Chuck LaMar, Greg Vaughn, Vinny Castilla, Jose Canseco, Ben Grieve, many pitchers too numerous to name.
Notable quotable: "I believe it's a good idea. And the reason I believe it's a good idea is that there are some markets where I just don't think baseball works." --Naimoli, commenting on contraction in 2002.
Hope for the future? More than almost any other team in baseball. Led by new owner Stuart Sternberg and a savvy collection of front-office decision makers, the Rays have gone from being a butt of jokes to a potential powerhouse. The Rays own the best collection of young talent in the game: Crawford, Upton, Carlos Peña, Evan Longoria, Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza plus pitching prospects David Price, Wade Davis and Jacob McGee. Tampa still hasn't had a winning season. But once the first one happens, the Rays might not go back to losing for a long time.
ETA for next winning season: 2008.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS/MONTREAL EXPOS
Length of streak: The longest playoff drought of any club in the four major pro team sports, 26 years
Last winning season: 83-79, 2003General managers: Kevin Malone (1995), Jim Beattie (1996-2001), Omar Minaya (2002-2004), Jim Bowden (2005-)
Five bad moves1. The post-strike fire sale. Greed and stubbornness by the owners and players wiped out the end of the 1994 season, the playoffs and the best-in-baseball Expos' chances for a World Series run. Rather than push forward with the best young core of talent in the game, ownership ordered GM Kevin Malone to dump as many star players as possible in a week's time. The end result was a disastrous series of moves that ripped apart a loaded team while also failing to replenish the farm system. Marquis Grissom, Ken Hill and John Wetteland were jettisoned for pennies on the dollar. The Expos let hugely popular Canadian star Larry Walker walk without even offering him arbitration, ensuring that the team received nothing in return.
2. Trading Pedro Martinez for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. Of all the cheapskate moves engineered by Montreal's owners, the trade of Martinez to the Red Sox ripped out the hearts of Expos fans. Just 26 years old and coming off his first Cy Young Award, Pedro still had the best years of his Hall of Fame career in front of him. Instead, the team settled for Pavano and Armas, two talented young pitchers whose careers were derailed by constant injuries.
3. Jeffrey Loria engineering a blackout. Early in the Expos' history, owner Charles Bronfman relinquished broadcast rights in southern Ontario to the fledgling Toronto Blue Jays, as a favor to Canada's newest team. The move would prove disastrous, giving the Jays the platform they'd need to become a large-market power while forever condemning the Expos to small-market purgatory.
Heading into the 2000 season, owner Jeffrey Loria dealt a similarly cruel blow to the franchise's fortunes, though with far less honorable intentions. Loria supposedly shopped the team's TV and English radio rights around that year, but found no takers at his asking price. Rather than chalk up broadcasting rights as marketing costs, the Expos went dark in every medium except French radio that season, dealing a devastating blow to the team's already teetering fortunes. Given how conveniently Loria managed to bail on the Expos and reap huge rewards from the franchise sale, then extort the taxpayers of Florida into a lucrative taxpayer-funded stadium deal years later, it's easy to speculate that Loria sabotaged the Expos' final days in Montreal, with tacit approval from his accomplice Bud Selig.
4. Trading Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee for Bartolo Colon. Before the 2002 season, the Expos were identified as a prime candidate for franchise contraction. When the team surprisingly stayed in contention for a few months, GM Omar Minaya made a what-the-heck trade, acquiring Colon from the Indians. The go-for-it deal was a rare, pleasant surprise for Montreal fans, used to seeing their team trade away established stars. But the bounty sent to Cleveland in return was considered a king's ransom at the time, a short-sighted trade made under duress, even for an ace like Colon. Six years later, Nationals fans can only fantasize about Sizemore and Phillips playing alongside Ryan Zimmerman, with Lee fronting the starting rotation.
5. Failing to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero. Another future Hall of Famer, another unceremonious departure. The Expos supposedly offered Vlad a contract extension before he hit free agency, though the offer came in well below market value. The Angels snapped him up, getting a new franchise player in the process. OK, Nats fans, now imagine an outfield of Sizemore, Vlad and Lastings Milledge, with an infield anchored by Zimmerman and Phillips.
Lowest moment: Maybe you can trace the franchise's downfall to 1991, when a 55-ton concrete beam crumbled off the façade of Olympic Stadium and crashed onto a walkway. The Expos played their last 13 home games on the road, failed to reach .500 for the first time in five years, failed to reach 1 million in attendance for the first time since the Big O opened and added another chapter to their ill-fated history.
Favorite whipping boys: Bud Selig, Claude Brochu, Jeffrey Loria, Tom Runnells, Hideki Irabu, Brad Fullmer.
Notable quotable: "This was a team that had to be moved. We knew it had to relocate. Baseball didn't want to own it anymore. This was a team owned by baseball that we were anxious to get rid of." --Commissioner Bud Selig on the Expos' move to Washington after the 2004 season.
Hope for the future? Zimmerman and Milledge are 23-year-old twin building blocks for the offense, and top prospect Chris Marrero provides another potential impact bat down the road. But the pitching is thin both at the major league level and in the high minors. There's enough midlevel talent for the team to be respectable right now, but not nearly enough for the team to be really good for several years.
ETA for next winning season: 2012.
Hafner drops back to try and gain ground
Posted by Paul Hoynes May 01, 2008 20:58PM
Scott Shaw/The Plain DealerTravis Hafner responded with two doubles after being moved down to sixth in the lineup.There's a whole lot of hammering and drilling coming from under Travis Hafner's hood. Manager Eric Wedge is confident they'll get the Tribe's designated hitter refitted with new shocks and plugs. If they don't, the cobwebs will continue to grow in Pronkville.
One of the first steps came Thursday when Wedge dropped Hafner from third to sixth in the batting lineup. It's the first time Hafner has started a game hitting sixth since 2004.
What do the rest of the steps entail to snap the man called Pronk out of slump that is now a calendar year in length (May 1, 2007, to May 1, 2008)?
"I'm not going to get into that," Wedge said.
Said Hafner, with a smile, "It's top secret."
Then he added: "We're working on specific things. You always want to play your best. I know what I mean to this offense. I hope it's something that will work out for me and the team and get me back on track."
Hafner is hitting .242 (147-for-608) since May 1 of last year. Those numbers include Hafner's 8-for-43 showing in the postseason last fall.
"I feel like this young man is going to get back to where he needs to get to," Wedge said. "It's going to take a little bit of time and a lot of work. [Hitting coach] Derek Shelton and I have spent a lot of time together, and Derek has spent a lot of time with Travis talking about this. We're going to get him there and he's going to get himself there. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."
Wedge said Hafner will hit sixth for a while.
"I don't think it's the right thing to do to leave him in the No. 3 hole while he's making these adjustments," Wedge said. "We'll give him a little bit of break -- get him going and get him back up there where he likes to be and where we need him to be."
Hafner entered Thursday's game hitting .210 (21-for-100) with three homers and 16 RBI. The 16 RBI lead the team.
He does not think last year's slump has anything to do with this year.
"Every year is different," Hafner said.
Hafner felt getting dropped in the order "was the right thing to do for me and the team. A different perspective can help at times."
In his first at-bat Thursday, Hafner hit a long fly ball to the warning track in center field, which was caught by Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. Hafner received a round of applause from the crowd as he went back to the dugout.
"I have so much confidence in his ability to get this taken care of," Wedge said. "There's probably nothing more important for us right now."
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Panic unneeded for Tribe, but concern is merited
Posted by Terry Pluto terrypluto2003@yahoo.com April 17, 2008 22:20PM
Before the Indians beat Detroit, 11-1, on Thursday night, Mark Shapiro mentioned his team had "four dead spots" in the lineup
The general manager's point was the season being only 16 games old and so many things going bad, it's too soon to make moves from what would seem like a panic position. In the Tribe talk that you hear from this and other modern front offices, the "sample" is too small. Sixteen games is only 10 percent of the season.
The general manager is right, you can't fix four flat tires that have brought the offense to a halt.
But why not start with one?
On the night when Jason Michaels busted free from his 4-of-33 start by with two singles, three RBI and throwing out a runner at home plate from left field -- I still don't buy into the left-field platoon.
Yes, Dave Dellucci has come back from a major hamstring injury that required surgery to have a solid start. He's batting .276 on a team that entered Thursday night hitting an American League-low .232. Dellucci's .432 on base percentage is second on the team.
Can he maintain and improve on this? Who knows? But at least he's doing something.
Dellucci is 34, Michaels will be 32 on May 4. Neither player is likely to change, and that means the Indians won't get much pop from the position.
In his first two seasons with the Tribe, Michaels batted a modest .268 with only 61 extra base hits (16 HR) in 761 at bats.
The Indians love the OPS, which is on-base percentage added to slugging percentage. With the Tribe, Michaels' on base is .325 (.330 is the big-league average) and slugging is .395 (.440 is average). He is primarily a hard-working singles hitter with little speed on the bases.
Neither player is like the gifted 25-year-old Franklin Gutierrez, who is off to a slow start but deserves patience because he has power potential and is an excellent defensive right fielder.
In spring training, I wrote that the Indians should try to trade one of the veterans -- even if they have to pay most of the contract to convince another team to take a player such as Michaels ($2.1 million). That may be the only way to make it happen.
Ben Francisco is waiting at Buffalo, but the 2007 International League batting champ is off to a lousy start, batting .204 with no homers and a .283 on-base percentage. I'd still like to see Francisco in the outfield mix. After 953 Buffalo at-bats in his career, it's time to either move up or move out to another organization at some point this season.
Or the Indians could look at the bullpen, where Jorge Julio has a 5.63 ERA and has allowed 13 base-runners in eight innings. He's 29 and with his sixth team. In the last four years, his ERAs have been 5.23, 4.23, 5.90 and 4.57. That's not a track record that inspires much confidence, despite his 94 mph fastball.
When Joe Borowski went on the disabled list, they recalled Tom Mastny from Buffalo -- where he had allowed nine hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three in 1 1/3 innings with the Tribe Wednesday, and there is reason for concern because he's a control pitcher who suddenly is wild. Jensen Lewis has walked six in 9 2/3 innings, and his fastball has rarely been even 90 mph after reaching 92 mph a year ago.
Shapiro is right, now is not a time to make sweeping changes. He likes to wait 35-40 games to evaluate his team, but there are reasons to soon tinker with a roster that is far from perfect.
Posted by Terry Pluto terrypluto2003@yahoo.com April 17, 2008 22:20PM
Before the Indians beat Detroit, 11-1, on Thursday night, Mark Shapiro mentioned his team had "four dead spots" in the lineup
The general manager's point was the season being only 16 games old and so many things going bad, it's too soon to make moves from what would seem like a panic position. In the Tribe talk that you hear from this and other modern front offices, the "sample" is too small. Sixteen games is only 10 percent of the season.
The general manager is right, you can't fix four flat tires that have brought the offense to a halt.
But why not start with one?
On the night when Jason Michaels busted free from his 4-of-33 start by with two singles, three RBI and throwing out a runner at home plate from left field -- I still don't buy into the left-field platoon.
Yes, Dave Dellucci has come back from a major hamstring injury that required surgery to have a solid start. He's batting .276 on a team that entered Thursday night hitting an American League-low .232. Dellucci's .432 on base percentage is second on the team.
Can he maintain and improve on this? Who knows? But at least he's doing something.
Dellucci is 34, Michaels will be 32 on May 4. Neither player is likely to change, and that means the Indians won't get much pop from the position.
In his first two seasons with the Tribe, Michaels batted a modest .268 with only 61 extra base hits (16 HR) in 761 at bats.
The Indians love the OPS, which is on-base percentage added to slugging percentage. With the Tribe, Michaels' on base is .325 (.330 is the big-league average) and slugging is .395 (.440 is average). He is primarily a hard-working singles hitter with little speed on the bases.
Neither player is like the gifted 25-year-old Franklin Gutierrez, who is off to a slow start but deserves patience because he has power potential and is an excellent defensive right fielder.
In spring training, I wrote that the Indians should try to trade one of the veterans -- even if they have to pay most of the contract to convince another team to take a player such as Michaels ($2.1 million). That may be the only way to make it happen.
Ben Francisco is waiting at Buffalo, but the 2007 International League batting champ is off to a lousy start, batting .204 with no homers and a .283 on-base percentage. I'd still like to see Francisco in the outfield mix. After 953 Buffalo at-bats in his career, it's time to either move up or move out to another organization at some point this season.
Or the Indians could look at the bullpen, where Jorge Julio has a 5.63 ERA and has allowed 13 base-runners in eight innings. He's 29 and with his sixth team. In the last four years, his ERAs have been 5.23, 4.23, 5.90 and 4.57. That's not a track record that inspires much confidence, despite his 94 mph fastball.
When Joe Borowski went on the disabled list, they recalled Tom Mastny from Buffalo -- where he had allowed nine hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three in 1 1/3 innings with the Tribe Wednesday, and there is reason for concern because he's a control pitcher who suddenly is wild. Jensen Lewis has walked six in 9 2/3 innings, and his fastball has rarely been even 90 mph after reaching 92 mph a year ago.
Shapiro is right, now is not a time to make sweeping changes. He likes to wait 35-40 games to evaluate his team, but there are reasons to soon tinker with a roster that is far from perfect.
Shapiro says patience is key during slow start
Indians Insider: Shapiro says patience is key during slow start
Posted by Joe Maxse jmaxse@plaind.com April 17, 2008 20:30PM
Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer
Travis Hafner drives a two-run homer to left-field in the sixth inning, part of a five-run surge against Detroit's Zach Miner Thursday night at Progressive Field. After losing six of their last seven, outscored 49-24 in the six losses, the Indians are not about to reach for the panic button. But as General Manager Mark Shapiro said before Thursday night's game against the Tigers at Progressive Field, the time for a hard look is definitely approaching.
"After 15 games, it necessitates concern, not action, from a front office standpoint," said Shapiro. "We hopes it's a glitch. There's not enough there to address yet."
Of "concern" is the fact certain players counted on to pick up where they left off a year ago have not come any where near that expectation. Casey Blake (hitting .146), Asdrubal Cabrera (.173), Franklin Gutierrez (.182) and platooning Jason Michaels (.091) have struggled to say the least.
Those numbers are part of the reason the Indians are last in the American League in hitting (.232) and slugging percentage (.340).
"We've been the polar opposite of a year ago when we were able to control the baseball," said Shapiro. "Pitchers threw strikes and kept the ball in the ballpark. Hitters controlled the strike zone and had tough, quality at-bats from top to bottom in the lineup.
"Obviously, we've seen some dead spots. It's hard to get by with one dead spot, let alone three or four. No one has been exceeding our expectations."
Shapiro said a week ago that 40 games into the season is about the right time to make a fair assessment. Right now that time frame is closing in sooner than later.
Quality control: Manager Eric Wedge is not pleased with the type of at-bats too many of his players are putting in. If you are going to make an out, at least make it a tough one, he said.
"We haven't had a consistent approach," said Wedge, who held a team meeting before the game. "You can have a quality at-bat, but make an out in the right direction. You have to be tough in the box, a tough out. It's a team sport, but it's about one-on-one battles."
Wedge did not want to specify which players were not meeting the quality standards. He also would not discuss what was said in the meeting.
"I recognize we're 15 games in," he said. "Every thing is magnified, but there are certain things I don't like seeing."
Posted by Joe Maxse jmaxse@plaind.com April 17, 2008 20:30PM
Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer
Travis Hafner drives a two-run homer to left-field in the sixth inning, part of a five-run surge against Detroit's Zach Miner Thursday night at Progressive Field. After losing six of their last seven, outscored 49-24 in the six losses, the Indians are not about to reach for the panic button. But as General Manager Mark Shapiro said before Thursday night's game against the Tigers at Progressive Field, the time for a hard look is definitely approaching.
"After 15 games, it necessitates concern, not action, from a front office standpoint," said Shapiro. "We hopes it's a glitch. There's not enough there to address yet."
Of "concern" is the fact certain players counted on to pick up where they left off a year ago have not come any where near that expectation. Casey Blake (hitting .146), Asdrubal Cabrera (.173), Franklin Gutierrez (.182) and platooning Jason Michaels (.091) have struggled to say the least.
Those numbers are part of the reason the Indians are last in the American League in hitting (.232) and slugging percentage (.340).
"We've been the polar opposite of a year ago when we were able to control the baseball," said Shapiro. "Pitchers threw strikes and kept the ball in the ballpark. Hitters controlled the strike zone and had tough, quality at-bats from top to bottom in the lineup.
"Obviously, we've seen some dead spots. It's hard to get by with one dead spot, let alone three or four. No one has been exceeding our expectations."
Shapiro said a week ago that 40 games into the season is about the right time to make a fair assessment. Right now that time frame is closing in sooner than later.
Quality control: Manager Eric Wedge is not pleased with the type of at-bats too many of his players are putting in. If you are going to make an out, at least make it a tough one, he said.
"We haven't had a consistent approach," said Wedge, who held a team meeting before the game. "You can have a quality at-bat, but make an out in the right direction. You have to be tough in the box, a tough out. It's a team sport, but it's about one-on-one battles."
Wedge did not want to specify which players were not meeting the quality standards. He also would not discuss what was said in the meeting.
"I recognize we're 15 games in," he said. "Every thing is magnified, but there are certain things I don't like seeing."
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cleveland Indians' hopes spring eternal
Kissimmee, Fla. -- I'm a sucker for spring training.
I can watch Tribe second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera short hop tricky ground balls, coolly turn double plays and think, "This kid will win a Gold Glove one day."
I can smile as Grady Sizemore runs out every ball, even routine pop-ups, in these games because that's how Grady Sizemore plays.
I can see Cliff Lee throw five scoreless innings using three different pitches as he did Saturday and think, "Maybe he will win 15 games."
I can watch Jake Westbrook throw six scoreless innings like he did Monday and be convinced he'll win 15 games.
I can be mesmerized as Fausto Carmona shut down the Tiger regulars Sunday, and put at least 15 wins next to his name. And C.C. Sabathia will win 15, too. And before I know it, everybody is winning 15 games and the Indians could go 120-42.
I can see Travis Hafner struggle against left-handers -- as has been the case this spring -- and think, "Hey, it's just spring training. At least he's hitting righties, which he didn't even do last spring."
I can listen and nod as a scout tells me, "Trevor Crowe is an athlete trying to learn how to play baseball, and when he does, look out." I can almost ignore the fact that Crowe is 24, he's had 672 at bats with Class AA Akron, where his batting average is only .253 with six homers and 95 strikeouts.
I can watch Josh Barfield draw some walks, hit a few balls to right field, and tell myself that he does look more patient at the plate -- dismissing his .238 spring batting average. I can say I still believe Barfield will be a good player for the Tribe, and really believe it even as he's sent to Class AAA Buffalo.
I can walk around the small ballparks jammed with fans in Wahoo red, white and blue wearing T-shirts and shorts even when the temperature is in the middle 50s and the wind is whipping around. But the fans think, "This is Florida, it's March and it's supposed to be warm. At least we don't have five feet of snow like they do back home."
I can see that most of the fans are senior citizens and families with kids, not the corporate crowd. I see them in small ballparks close to the players and having bought tickets often cheaper than the regular season -- and that's why baseball's spring training games are so much better than the NBA or NFL preseason rip-offs.
I can study Kelly Shoppach catch and throw and really believe it when GM Mark Shapiro insists, "He's one of the 15 best catchers in baseball, teams call about him all the time." Like Cabrera, Shoppach's defense is not a spring mirage. Nor is Franklin Gutierrez in right field.
I can swear Victor Martinez gets two hits every spring game. That's close, as he's batting .345.
I can watch Paul Byrd with those high socks, that full over the head windup -- and then close my eyes and think about the pitchers of my youth. It's the 1960s, when a sinker was a sinker, not a "splitter." It's when pitchers had different windups. It's when no one counted pitches, when no one ever heard the words "set-up" or "closers." It's when relievers were relievers, and starters were supposed to try to survive nine innings.
I can think about how I'd listen to those spring games from Tucson, Ariz., with my father. Herb Score would tell us how one veteran lost some weight, another came up with a new pitch. And maybe, just maybe, the Indians will be improved this year. Down deep, both of us doubted it, but we tried to believe, anyway.
I can say that opening day is coming, and baseball doesn't make everything right with the world. But it can make it better.
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