So who do you think is the strongest favorite to win a division title this season? Is it the Braves, who are trying to make it 14 in a row? Or how about the Yankees? They might have faded to lose the American League Championship Series to the Red Sox but have won the AL East seven straight years.
The answer, it says here, is obvious: It’s the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, or whatever you prefer to call Gene Autry’s old team. Forget that Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/Los Angeles-Anaheim has won only three titles in its 44-year history, and never two in a row.
Manager Mike Scioscia’s Angels look like prohibitive favorites, even if they did lose Troy Percival and Troy Glaus to free agency. They are in the right division (AL West), as Seattle Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi points out.
Bavasi, like many others, believes Oakland gave up a shot at contending by trading starters Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.
Athletics GM Billy Beane appears to be taking a step backward in the hopes he can ride another wave of talent to prominence in the near future, this one built around pitchers Barry Zito, Joe Blanton, Rich Harden and Dan Meyer.
“I think Oakland has done a good job, but in a different way,” Bavasi says.
“Billy told me at the general managers’ meetings he might take a step back so in the future he could go forward. In the immediate, they may be a different club without two of those strong guys in the front end. But they’ll make up for it real fast with the young players they have.”
Bret Boone agrees.
“Oakland did us a favor–got rid of two of the best pitchers out of our division,” Boone says. “Knock on wood–who knows what they have coming out of Triple A?”
After improving from 71 victories in 2003 to 89 last season, the Rangers believe they are ready to challenge Anaheim. But like many of his peers, Bavasi seems to wonder why Texas GM John Hart failed to add any veteran pitching in an off-season market that offered plenty of it.
“Texas has chosen to not do a whole lot, and with their offense, I’m not sure they need to,” Bavasi says. “It’s a monster offense, and they could get a little better. The pitching is suspect; it seems to me that since the days that Mike [Hargrove] was playing there, they’ve never had pitching. I don’t know why.”
Seattle improved more than any other team in the AL West, adding third baseman Adrian Beltre and first baseman Richie Sexson. But .500, not a division title, is a reasonable goal coming off a season as bad as the Mariners’ was. They got manager Bob Melvin and hitting coach Paul Molitor fired by going 63-99.
The Angels have almost as much pitching depth as they did in their 92-victory season a year ago. Newcomers Steve Finley and Kendry Morales should fit in nicely on a team that might be the AL’s most balanced.
Batter up
While getting bashed around in the wake of Jose Canseco’s expose, Major League Baseball’s brass quietly did a good thing last week, announcing a significant experiment to speed up the game.
During exhibition games, umpires will require batters to keep one foot in the box at all times.
If they do not, the umpire is given the power to call a strike on the hitter, although there are exceptions that allow the batter to back out.
The rule requires hitters to keep their focus when pitchers are dawdling while looking over to first base or shaking off signs from the catcher. It was used without incident in the Arizona Fall League. It will be enforced in the minor leagues throughout 2005 and could be used in the major leagues for the 2006 season.
Since committing to an effort to eliminate dead time, MLB has cut the average time of a game from 2 hours 58 seconds in 2000 to 2:47 last year. The White Sox averaged 2:39, the quickest of any team, and needed only an average of 2:33 during Mark Buehrle’s 35 starts. Eleven of those were played in less than 2:20.
Spreading it around
Will Clark is going to camp with Arizona as an adviser and part-time coach this spring. That is a very good omen for the Diamondbacks, who are trying to contend one year after a 111-loss embarrassment.
Clark was in the Cubs’ camp as a guest of manager Dusty Baker in 2003; the Cubs improved 21 victories and stole a division title. He was in the St. Louis camp as Tony La Russa’s guest last spring; the Cardinals improved 20 games and took the division title from the Cubs.
Imagine how much these teams might improve if Clark hadn’t returned home to New Orleans when the season began. Mark Grace, Matt Williams and Gregg Olson will join him as part-time instructors for Arizona.
Paid to watch
Josh Paul, the Buffalo Grove native who is the third-string catcher for Anaheim, has a way with words. He demonstrated that by writing for the Tribune about Mark Hindy, a former Vanderbilt teammate who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, and he showed it again while talking about his strange contract situation.
Though Paul had only 70 at-bats in 46 games last season, he exercised his right to file for salary arbitration. He had requested a raise from $335,000 to $625,000 but settled for $450,000.
There was little chance Paul actually would take the club to a hearing, but he jokes that he had his side of the case prepared.
“My big statistic was the number of innings caught between innings,” says Paul, who hit .243 with two homers and 10 RBIs. “I think I set a record last year.”
Consider him the new Charlie Silvera. Silvera backed up Yogi Berra as the Yankees’ catcher from 1948 through ’56. Even though he was a career .282 hitter, he averaged 48 at-bats per season. Those teams went to the World Series seven times, but Silvera got in only one of the 42 games.
Changing the order
Bud Selig messed with tradition again when he awarded the 2007 All-Star Game to San Francisco. That should have been an AL year as Pittsburgh has the 2006 game.
He’s trying to reward the franchises that have new stadiums and more have been built in the NL in recent years. Don’t be surprised if the 2008 game goes to Cincinnati, Philadelphia or San Diego before MLB returns to rotating between leagues, possibly with a game at Yankee Stadium in 2009. New York hasn’t had the game since 1977.
Selig acknowledges that a side effect of abandoning the rotation is that the NL gets the advantage of batting last in the game, which decides home-field advantage in the World Series.
“That’s the downside of it, but we’re trying to find the right cities and ballparks,” he said.
Whispers
Amid the NHL turmoil, MLB was patting itself on the back about a recent deal in which MLB.com paid the players’ union $50 million for the rights to use (and sell) players’ names in on-line fantasy leagues, among other things. Don’t be surprised if the next labor agreement is done NFL-style, with a new deal announced before negotiations had become a news story. . . . Chone Figgins will challenge Adam Kennedy for time at second base with rookie Dallas McPherson taking over as the Angels’ third baseman. Figgins or Kennedy could wind up being traded. . . . When Ken Griffey Jr. took 25 family members to the Bahamas for the holidays, he also took along physical therapist Tim Elser. He’s in great shape and due for some luck.
One name to file away: Raul Valdez. He’s a Cuban left-hander in the Cubs’ camp who absolutely dominated the Dominican Summer League, striking out 152 and allowing 38 hits in 88 innings. He had a 20-strikeout game in which he pitched seven innings. He finished with only eight walks, one every other start. Valdez was quite old for the league, however, at a reported 25. The Cubs will have a better idea what they have once he faces hitters in spring games. . . . Texas officials were disappointed when left-hander Ryan Wing, claimed on waivers from the White Sox, reported to camp behind in his recovery from shoulder surgery, which had forced him to miss the 2004 season.
Hard to believe, but even though Magglio Ordonez and Frank Thomas were out most of the second half, the White Sox used the disabled list fewer times than any other AL team last season. They had players on it for 422 days, 677 fewer than the AL average and 157 fewer than runner-up Tampa Bay.
The last word
“What? Are they testing writers for steroids too?”–Griffey to a Cincinnati reporter who lost 30 pounds in the off-season.
