Imagine, if you can, a team picture of the 1992 San Diego Padres.
Nineteen of those players are gone. Plus the manager and other support troops. Greg Harris likely will be the 20th.
Also trimmed so far: about $23 million worth of salary. Of the 25 players now on the roster, 12 are making the $109,000 minimum. Seven others are making $165,000 or less.
Fred McGriff, traded for three Atlanta kids at the start of the week, was making $4.25 million. Gary Sheffield, $3.11 million. Darrin Jackson, $2.1 million. The list goes on.
Harris makes $2.025 million. If he goes, the payroll will be down to about $14.5 million-roughly Ryne Sandberg’s salary for 1993 and 1994.
The only surprise in the Braves’ deal was whom the Padres got in return: outfielders Vince Moore and Melvin Nieves and right-handed pitcher Donnie Elliott, none a blue-chip prospect. No Ryan Klesko. No Chipper Jones.
“We didn’t get any of the guys that were talked about,” said a disappointed Tony Gwynn ($3.95 million), who had pretty much been a company man. “These other guys, I don’t have a clue.”
Another opinion: From Detroit manager Sparky Anderson: “They certainly weren’t going to beat San Francisco and Cincinnati this year. They weren’t going to beat them next year. Every guy they’ve given up, they got choice kids. What they did to Atlanta was robbery.”
What goes around . . . The midseason collapse of the Phillies’ pitching didn’t shock Colorado manager Don Baylor. There was a game May 30 in Denver.
“When you have an 18-1 lead,” he said, “and they pitch a complete ballgame, like (Tommy) Greene did-I mean, you’re going to need those innings going into September. He could’ve gotten his six in and gotten out of there.”
Greene bounced back Thursday night with 8 1/3 shutout innings against the Dodgers.
The final was 7-0. He threw 126 pitches.
Throw it back: The Rockies, by beating the Marlins seven times in their 12 games, won their inaugural season series-and something called the “Surf and Turf Award.” No one seems to know who awarded it.
“This,” said Baylor, looking quizzically at the framed drawing of a mountain and a fish battling, “is what you get for $95 million.”
Staying focused: Trade rumors regarding Tim Belcher continue to float. A distraction? Not really, said Cincinnati manager Dave Johnson.
“Every time you put on a uniform, you hear that stuff going on,” Johnson said. “If it happens, it happens. Hopefully, it’s in a situation he likes.
“I don’t like reading about it, but he seems to handle it OK.”
Typecasting: An analysis of race in sports by Northeastern University in Boston found baseball still behind the NBA and NFL in most areas of minority hiring.
If also found this: 50 percent of black players in the big leagues are outfielders; 50 percent of Hispanic players in the big leagues are shortstops.
And only 1 percent of black players in the big leagues are catchers-this in a game that in the ’50s and ’60s featured the likes of Roy Campanella, Elston Howard, John Roseboro, Earl Battey and Elrod Hendricks.
Going up: Doug Drabek’s earned-run average.
April: 1.98. May: 3.71. June: 4.17. July: 4.82.
Cy? The Cardinals’ Bob Tewksbury came into Thursday night’s game with the Rockies carrying a 49-inning walkless streak but gave up a walk, suspending hopes of tying the record of 68 shared by the Padres’ Randy Jones (1976) and the Giants’ Christy Mathewson (1913).
“I didn’t see Mathewson,” Tewksbury said, “but Oquendo said he had a good slider.”
Jose Oquendo says he’s 30. There are doubts. In any case, the infielder denied he knew Mathewson.
“I was just coming in when he was going out,” Oquendo said. “Missed him by a year.”
Around the league: At least some Reds players would just as soon have seen Kevin Mitchell’s two-day suspension for going AWOL made permanent. Said one veteran: “This is the most messed up team I’ve ever seen.” . . . Tommy Lasorda says he may pitch when the Dodgers play the Indians at Cooperstown next month. Lasorda is 66. . . . The Braves’ Jeff Blauser, who leads the National League with 10 hit-by-pitches, on how: “I’m just a slow white boy who can’t get out of the way.” . . . Florida’s Jeff Conine is up to .306, but there’s almost no chance he’ll overtake L.A.’s Mike Piazza in the rookie voting. . . . Doc Gooden has allowed 21 first-inning runs in 18 starts. . . . When the Astros move corpulent Greg Swindell-who threw a simulated game Friday-off the DL, they’ll likely roll him into the bullpen for a while. . . . Will Tony Perez’s firing win him added support from writers who vote for the Hall of Fame? “I’m not saying it’s going to get me sympathy votes,” Perez, now in the Florida front office, told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I wouldn’t want that. But I think it brought out something of who I am, of what I’m about.”
The Expos have used 12 first basemen since trading Andres Galarraga to the Cardinals after the 1991 season. Galarraga wanted to return to Montreal last winter, but the Expos let him go to Colorado. . . . The night Jim Lefebvre squeezed for the first time this season, the Giants’ Dusty Baker squeezed for the first time this season, and it won a game. “I’m not a real squeeze-type dude,” Baker said Wednesday. “It’s not like I’ve been holding my breath all season to use it.” . . . Lefebvre and Houston’s Art Howe are the only NL managers without at least an option for 1994. Howe’s status depends on who’s guessing. . . . Mets media relations chief Jay Horwitz said he would shave his head if his team won four straight. “He’ll have to walk around bald,” said John Franco, “because there isn’t a hat in the world big enough to cover his head.” The streak stopped at three. The players were devastated. “The offer,” said Horwitz, “is still good.”
