And you thought spring training didn’t matter.
Try telling that to Mike Brown, the pitching coach Cleveland fired 12 days before Opening Day.
Said Indians manager Eric Wedge: “Timing is very important, but it’s better this happen now than during the season.”
Carl Willis, a former Twins reliever who has worked in the Cleveland organization for seven years, replaced Brown. He worked under Wedge the last two seasons at Triple-A Buffalo.
Loyalties are one thing, but, c’mon . . . a coach being fired in spring training?
“He told me that I wasn’t his guy,” Brown said. “This strictly has to do with a personality conflict. It came down to us being in the same book, just not on the same page.”
And certainly not in the same sentence.
A look at other nuggets from spring training:
Stop, thief
The Blue Jays released minor-league pitcher Pasqual Coco after he stole money from the locker of teammate Diegomar Markwell. Coco told the Toronto Star there was “a good reason” he took the money, but didn’t elaborate.
Does “wanting to buy things” qualify?
Media Ethics 101
A Florida TV station filed a complaint with the commissioner’s office claiming the Devil Rays won’t let them interview players or managers. The source of tension? The station ran a clip of new manager Lou Piniella losing his temper in the dugout during a game. The team claims the video was shot without authorization and says the station does have permission to interview members of the team.
Team official Rick Vaughn, though, acknowledged he won’t help the station arrange interviews or make officials available for one-on-ones.
“I don’t trust their news judgment,” he said.
Yeah, if they’re bothering to cover the Devil Rays, you have to wonder.
A new Lief?
Jeff Liefer, who was never truly given a chance to establish himself with the White Sox, got off to a horrid start while trying to do just that with his new team, the Expos.
Liefer, Montreal’s anticipated Opening Day first baseman, went hitless in his first 18 at-bats. Expos hitting coach Tom McCraw adjusted Liefer’s stance, trying to get him more upright.
“He was one of those guys who had a lot of mechanical things that don’t allow his body to work,” McCraw told the Montreal Gazette. “He has talent, but it hasn’t been tapped. . . . He has been getting beat by mediocre pitches.”
Back to the Whatchamicall’em
The Devil Rays are baseball’s equivalent of a Nike shoe factory.
Last week they released Greg Vaughn, the one-time slugger who had slight problems hitting left-handers last season–he batted .080 against them with one RBI.
By dropping Vaughn, the Devil Rays will field a team whose salaries total $15.175 million, according to the St. Petersburg Times. That’s about 10 percent of the Yankees’ payroll, less than half of what the Expos will shell out and about $6 million less than Texas’ Alex Rodriguez will make.
In all, 17 Devil Rays are expected to make the major-league minimum. Imagine if that figure hadn’t been raised this season from $200,000 to $300,000.
“I truly believe this is the last year of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays reducing payroll,” general manager Chuck LaMar said.
Way to be bold.
Get what you pay for
The purported major-league team in Tampa Bay has a slight problem: The Devil Rays’ .243 spring average is the lowest in baseball.
“You can’t score three runs a game and win with any consistency in the American League–period,” Piniella said. “If this was a situation where we could say, `Well, it’s only spring training,’ but this is something that has been consistent here for a couple of years. This is not a three-week phenomenon. So, yeah, I’m concerned about my offense and, yeah, I’ve asked my general manager to see if we can do something.”
We hear Greg Vaughn is available.
Nice team you have
Did we mention Jim Parque, the former White Sox lefty whose fastball couldn’t get a speeding ticket on an Arizona highway, made the Rays’ rotation? Best of all, he isn’t even their fifth starter.
At least Parque is doing better than James Baldwin, who couldn’t crack the Royals’ starting rotation.
Speaking of . . .
Kansas City’s Jeremy Affeldt blew his big chance to face the White Sox on Opening Day.
Royals manager Tony Pena called Affeldt and Runelvys Hernandez into his office recently and told them a coin flip would determine the team’s ace.
Pena flipped a quarter into the air and Affeldt called heads. Oops.
“Losing Opening Day on a coin toss? Tough one,” Affeldt said.
Best acquisition: Bartolo Colon
Years from now Sox fans won’t even remember whom the team relinquished to acquire one of the most dominant starters in the game. Last season Colon became just the second pitcher in baseball history to win 10 games in both leagues in one season.
No, Parque wasn’t the first. It was Hank Borowy of the 1945 Yankees and Cubs, or so we’ve read.
Shortstop Jose Valentin estimates Colon’s addition could mean an extra 15 victories for the Sox. That’s almost certainly an exaggeration, but considering they gave Liefer, Rocky Biddle and Antonio Osuna for him the trade could rank as one of the all-time steals.
Worst acquisition: Jose Contreras
The Yankees didn’t even need a starter but decided to give $32 million over four years to Contreras, who will try to buck the trend of disappointing and overrated Cuban defectors.
According to research by ESPN’s Jayson Stark, a dozen Cuban-born pitchers have pitched in the big leagues since 1993. If you subtract Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, the other 11 are a combined 24 games below .500.
Reasons? According to Stark:
– Fictitious ages.
– Inability to scout the Cubans against legitimate competition.
– A lack of motivation.
Part of the Yankees’ strategy in signing Contreras was to prevent him from going to Boston. Maybe they should have bought his ticket to Beantown.
Strangest acquisition: Jason Bere
The Indians were looking for a veteran starter, but at $1 million (with another $1 million in incentives), Bere was an odd choice. The veteran right-hander went 1-10 with a 5.67 ERA for the Cubs last season and made just 16 starts because of groin and knee injuries.
Hot seat–and hot rubber
Red Sox GM Theo Epstein could have acquired Colon from the Expos for third baseman Shea Hillenbrand and 165-pound left-hander Casey Fossum. Boston even signed another third baseman in Bill Mueller. But Epstein said no, pointing to Colon’s $8.25 million salary and free-agent status after the season.
A recent New York Times story, citing an informal survey of rival general managers and scouts, said Epstein should have made the trade.
This spring, Fossum has made the decision look even worse. After giving up three home runs to the Phillies on Saturday, Fossum’s ERA soared to 16.05 ERA.
“I hope you like (Triple-A) Pawtucket, Casey!” one heckler screamed.
Fossum, 5-4 last year with a 3.46 ERA, will break camp with the Red Sox. Here’s hoping the Fenway Park fanatics are kind.
Honesty doesn’t pay
Many people inside the game were rankled when A’s owner Steve Schott announced the team will not be able to re-sign reigning AL MVP Miguel Tejada. Several agents were aghast Oakland would make such a declaration without trying to negotiate in the off-season.
C’mon. Would Tejada cut a deal that’s worth half his market value?
Schott’s prime motive apparently was to dramatize his team’s need for a new ballpark so it can compete with its AL West foes.
Would it have been more honest to string along Tejada and A’s fans only to make an insulting offer? (Kind of like the two-year guarantee the Sox offered Robin Ventura before he signed with the Mets?).
The answer is no.
Big, fat lies
During David Wells’ glorious South Side stay, he publicly and loudly laced into a reporter for writing he was going to have season-ending back surgery. He had the surgery less than a week later.
He also ripped Frank Thomas for supposedly faking an arm injury, saying: “If you don’t have the guts to be out there, you know what, you don’t need to be here.” As it turned out, Thomas’ right triceps was torn.
That’s all you need to know about Wells, who essentially used the Charles Barkley defense last month to claim he was misquoted in his own book.
After galleys of the book revealed Wells’ estimate that 25 to 40 percent of major-leaguers use steroids, Wells changed the figure to 15 to 25 percent. He also ripped the media for getting it wrong. What a coward.
Wells, whom the Yankees fined $100,000 for smearing their good name, also took back his line about being “half-drunk” for his perfect game in 1998.
“[He] always wanted to be a record-setter, and maybe he finally is one,” wrote Newsday’s Jon Heyman. “His odious 432-page ode to himself might be the longest-running string of lies ever told.”
Tribune reporters’ 2003 picks
Mike Downey
EAST: Yankees
CENTRAL: Twins
WEST: A’s
WILD CARD: Mariners
AL CHAMP: A’s
BATTING CHAMPION
Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle
MVP
Miguel Tejada, Oakland
CY YOUNG
Tim Hudson, Oakland
ROOKIE
Hideki Matsui, NY
MANAGER
Ken Macha, Oakland
Rick Morrissey
EAST: Yankees
CENTRAL: White Sox
WEST: A’s
WILD CARD: Mariners
AL CHAMP: A’s
BATTING CHAMPION
Nomar Garciaparra, Boston
MVP
Magglio Ordonez, White Sox
CY YOUNG
Barry Zito, Oakland
ROOKIE
Mark Teixeira, Texas
MANAGER
Ken Macha, Oakland
Phil Rogers
EAST: Yankees
CENTRAL: White Sox
WEST: A’s
WILD CARD: Twins
AL CHAMP: White Sox
BATTING CHAMPION
Nomar Garciaparra, Boston
MVP
Magglio Ordonez, White Sox
CY YOUNG
Mark Mulder, Oakland
ROOKIE
Brandon Phillips, Cleveland
MANAGER
Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota
Teddy Greenstein
EAST: Yankees
CENTRAL: White Sox
WEST: A’s
WILD CARD: Twins
AL CHAMP: Yankees
BATTING CHAMPION
Mike Sweeney, Kansas City
MVP
Magglio Ordonez, White Sox
CY YOUNG
Barry Zito, Oakland
ROOKIE
Mark Teixeira, Texas
MANAGER
Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota
Paul Sullivan
EAST: Yankees
CENTRAL: White Sox
WEST: A’s
WILD CARD: Angels
AL CHAMP: Yankees
BATTING CHAMPION
Alex Rodriguez, Texas
MVP
Jason Giambi, New York
CY YOUNG
Pedro Martinez, Boston
ROOKIE
Francisco Rodriguez, Anaheim
MANAGER
Jerry Manuel, White Sox.
