Uh, about that quick fix. Joe Torre’s return didn’t exactly shake the New York Yankees out of their unexpected late-spring malaise. Now it’s Roger Clemens’ turn to place a wake-up call.
Clemens has been on the disabled list with a strained hamstring and a Jaime Navarro-sized earned-run average. He is being activated to start for the Yankees Friday night at Comiskey Park, and Torre hopes Clemens’ fastball will trigger some Pavlovian response with his new teammates.
The Yanks were 8-12 in Clemens’ absence, most recently getting anesthetized as Pedro Martinez and rookie Brian Rose pitched the Boston Red Sox into first place in the American League East.
Torre says there’s “no question” Clemens’ return should provide a boost for the Yankees. But Clemens is hardly the Yankees’ last shot. Should the Rocket’s return not serve as a catalyst for George Steinbrenner’s $85 million machine, Torre always could play his Mike Figga card.
Figga, the Yankees’ third catcher, has been on the world champ’s roster since Opening Day. He has traveled 9,548 miles since spring training, earned $53,846 in salary and another $1,680 in meal money, yet he hasn’t played in a single game. Not even for one lousy chance as a pinch hitter or one inning behind the plate with Jay Tessmer or Tony Fossas pitching. The guy was 0 for the Don Zimmer era.
Through no fault of his own, Figga has become one of the symbols of these strange days for the team that is supposed to cruise to its third World Series victory in four years. The troubling part for Steinbrenner, Torre and General Manager Brian Cashman is that the Yankees have too many other invisible men.
Some, like exiled left-fielder Darryl Strawberry and traded-away pitchers David Wells and Graeme Lloyd, are conspicuous by their absence. Others, like leadoff man Chuck Knoblauch and cleanup hitter Bernie Williams, are dead bats walking.
“Oh, they’re frustrated, yeah, they’re frustrated,” said Torre, who rejoined his team Tuesday after missing 36 games while recuperating from surgery for prostate cancer. “I’d rather they be like that than have a lot of despair. It’s just a frustrating thing. They’re fighting themselves. My job is to reassure them it will be fine.”
But will it? Can the Yankees ever again rise to the level of brilliance they reached last season? They set an AL record with 114 regular-season victories before winning the maximum 11 games in the playoffs. Then Steinbrenner treaded into dangerous ground. He coveted another man’s Cy Young winner.
Cashman swallowed hard and paid a high price to win the winter-long Clemens sweepstakes. He sent Wells, Lloyd and young second baseman Homer Bush to the Toronto Blue Jays for Clemens and his five Cy Youngs.
At face value, adding a future Hall of Famer like Clemens seems like a no-brainer. But did the Beatles look for a new drummer after they reached the top of the charts with Ringo Starr?
“It was a gutty move, a gambler’s move,” Cashman has said about the trade. “But, obviously, I liked the odds in our favor, or else I wouldn’t have made it.”
Perhaps things ran too smoothly for Steinbrenner’s taste a year ago. Torre, a gentleman with a commanding presence, appeared to serve as the perfect buffer between the combustible owner and his players. But there’s no doubt this season has been a Steinbrenner production.
With Torre out of the picture, Steinbrenner slammed Hideki Irabu as “a fat toad” when the Japanese pitcher twice failed to cover first base in spring training. The organizational culture ripe for power struggles has returned, with Figga the embodiment of a house divided.
Because the 28-year-old Figga is out of options, the Yankees are afraid they would lose him on waivers if they tried to outright his contract to the minor leagues. Many believe Zimmer refused to play him because he had not wanted him on the Opening Day roster. Torre isn’t likely to let a situation like this fester much longer.
“It has been a couple of months since things seemed normal,” catcher Joe Girardi said Tuesday, when Torre returned. “Joe’s our leader, and we’re accustomed to seeing Joe in the leader’s chair.”
The Yankees also are accustomed to being on top of the standings and manufacturing runs with ease. Both of those staples have vanished in recent days, much to the delight of the crowds that filled Fenway Park.
With an 11-strikeout game by the powerful Martinez setting the tone, Boston took two out of three in the series. The Red Sox captured the East lead Tuesday night, interrupting a period of dominance in which the Yankees had led the division for all but 11 days since April 22, 1998, and enter the weekend leading by one-half game.
Although the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry usually brings out the best in both franchises, this one only served to illustrate the differences between the team Torre rejoined and the one he celebrated with last October. The same basic lineup that raked Kevin Brown in the World Series opener is scoring 1.3 fewer runs per game this year than a year ago–numbers that are more glaring considering how shortstop Derek Jeter has raised his production.
Knoblauch, who is in a 3-for-42 slump, was on base only once in both the 6-3 loss to Martinez and 6-0 loss to Rose, who was making his first start after being promoted from Pawtucket. The second baseman wore out pitchers a year ago, averaging 4.1 pitches per plate appearance. This year he’s seeing only 3.3.
Williams was 2 for 10 in the Boston series, including an insurance homer Thursday night. He has driven in only 18 runs–an extremely low total for a cleanup hitter who has played every game and is batting .318.
Where’s the clutch hitter who was billed as the second coming of Joe DiMaggio when he signed an $87.5 million contract extension last winter? Torre must wonder.
When Williams’ free-agent flirtation with the Red Sox was mentioned before Wednesday night’s game, Torre answered by saying how the Yankees were prepared to replace Williams with former White Sox slugger Albert Belle.
“I thought we had Albert Belle,” Torre said. “All of a sudden I got a call saying we had signed Bernie.”
Torre played golf with Belle when the Yankees were considering him. He still seems fascinated with Belle and what he could have brought the Yankees had the Baltimore Orioles not entered the picture. That prompted Steinbrenner to authorize an at-all-costs offer to keep Williams away from the Red Sox.
“(Belle) just started playing (golf) a few years ago, but he has a hell of a touch,” Torre said. “You can see what he does when he applies himself to something. The way I look at it, people talk about him throwing things, yelling things, but he plays 162 games a year. You have to be doing something right to play 162 games a year You can’t trick anybody to do that.”
Torre’s lineup has benefited from having designated-hitter Chili Davis healthy for the start of the season. But there has been a season-long void in left field. That’s where Strawberry would be playing if he hadn’t been arrested for solicitation and cocaine possession while in the final stages of his recovery from the surgical procedures that followed the discovery of colon cancer last fall.
Ricky Ledee began the season as the regular left-fielder but was demoted to Class AAA Columbus after he batted .200 in 17 games. Chad Curtis and Shane Spencer currently share the position, but have combined to hit .184. There has seldom been a hot hitter on the bench to bat for them.
No longer are the Yankees the fundamentally sound team of a year ago. They have commited 35 errors, the third most in the AL, while turning the fewest double plays in the league.
Despite these problems, Torre says pitching is the biggest concern. He believes Clemens will join David Cone to give him a solid 1-2 punch, but the rest of the starting rotation is shaky.
Orlando Hernandez has been great–as he was in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory Thursday night–and he has been rotten. Before beating Boston, the Cuban immigrant had gone 1-4 with an 8.62 ERA in his last six starts. Irabu (1-2 with a 5.46 ERA) has been up and down. Andy Pettitte has allowed six-plus runs in two of his last four starts.
A year ago Yankees starters worked at least five innings in 36 of 37 starts between April 11 and May 26. Their starters have taken such early exits six times in the last 19 games.
Zimmer and Torre have had to lean heavily on a bullpen that has been without the quietly consistent Lloyd, who compiled a 1.67 ERA in 50 appearances last year. Reliable Ramiro Mendoza, a bullpen luxury last year, was missed in relief when Irabu’s poor spring and Clemens’ injury had him in the rotation for five starts.
Clemens hasn’t been his old self, either, as his 5.47 ERA reveals. Yet he can establish an AL record with a victory Friday night, which would be his 18th straight since his last loss, which came May 29, 1998.
Before Thursday’s game, Torre said what his Yankees need most are “some well-pitched games.” He got one from Hernandez, and hopes for another from Clemens.
“We were a little spoiled last year,” Torre said. “We didn’t have any serious malfunctions. It’s just a matter of getting started. Somebody is going to take a beating one of these days.”
Retribution might be right around the corner. Figga wishes he could say the same about his first trip to the plate.
