Bleacher Creature Feature

#37: Play Ball!

31 March 2003

As I type this, the Yankees have won their first game, 8-4 over the Blue Jays, and the baseball season has begun. The Yankees start the season with a variety of question marks -- ranging from the bullpen (which Chris Hammonds will we get? will Juan Acevedo and Antonio Osuna adequately replace Mike Stanton and Ramiro Mendoza? and who is this Jose Contreras guy, anyhow?) to Derek Jeter's disloacted shoulder, suffered this very evening -- but well positioned to win their sixth straight AL East title. In fact, the Yanks are already one game up on the Red Sox (who lost a come-from-behind victory to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and yes, you read that right).

Some moves were irritating. The Yankees are starting the season with Sterling Hitchcock occupying a roster spot for no compellingly good reason, and with Raul Mondesi as the starting right-fielder for reasons that aren't much better. Right now, the only thing Raul is accomplishing is delaying Juan Rivera's career. To the Yankees' credit, they sent Rivera to Columbus rather than have him sit on the bench, but I'd rather see Raul on the bench, ready to go if Rivera craps out, instead of leaving a weak-hitting decent defender out there to delay a much more promising long-term career.

Of course, the Yankees' offense can suffer the presence of Raul's .241/.315/.430 in the lineup if they have to, though the loss of Jeter for any length of time (which is likely) might pose more of a problem if that means the out-tastic Enrique Wilson (.181/.239/.295) will be getting lots of playing time.

As for the pitching staff -- I don't know, every year, there's concern about the Yanks' creaky rotation, and every year, it's one of their strengths (the 2002 ALDS meltdown notwithstanding). Mel Stottlemyre may not be a deity on the same level as Don Gullett or Leo Mazzone or Joe Kerrigan, but he's obviously at least a demiurge for the work he's done with this staff over the past several years. Yes, there've been injuries, but the emphasis has been on rehab and there's been very little recurrence of injury. It is for that reason, more than anything, that I'm not too worried about the pitching staff, assuming there aren't multiple injuries at once.

* * *

Last time I promised my Wholly Inaccurate Predictions, so let's get to it....

Since the Deviled Eggs came to town and exiled the Tigers to the Central in 1998, the AL East has finished in exactly this configuration each time, and there's no real reason to think that anything will change in 2003. The Yankees have to have a lot go wrong in order to not be successful (which, admittedly, could happen), and the Red Sox have to have absolutely nothing go wrong in order to do likewise (which also can happen, viz. the 2002 World Champions), which, to my mind -- along with the fact that it's, y'know, the Red Sox -- leads me to think that the Beantowners will be also-rans again, though they may well be in the wildcard hunt. And this configuration will be challenged in coming years thanks to Toronto's improvements.

It's also possible that Baltimore will be worse than Tampa Bay.

I can go either way on the top two and bottom two slots, but I'm leaning toward Minnesota for the top slot due to better depth and just fondness for watching a team branded for elimination because they supposedly couldn't compete being successful; and Kansas City for the bottom slot because they're still run by morons, where the Tigers seem to be at least making an effort to improve.

The only thing I can say with any surety is that Oakland will win the division, but the last-place team could very well win over 80 games. Yes, Anaheim is fielding the same lineup that won the World Series. It's also the same lineup that won 75 games in 2001. I don't see them repeating that performance, though they may backdoor in through the wildcard again. Texas looks to be better and Seattle worse, but those are relative. You've got four pretty evenly matched teams here.

Assuming Larry Bowa doesn't implode and the Cox/Mazzone pixie dust finally wears off (and this is the year it's gonna happen if it does), I think this could be the Phillies' year, as they've done the most to improve themselves. Ultimately, though, the inexplicable Kevin Milwood trade puts them over the edge for me. It was the stupidest thing John Schuerholz has ever done. Having seen the Mets play at Shea this afternoon, I'm convinced that 2002 was not an aberration, and this collection of people whose best years were in the previous millennium will continue to disappoint Mets fans everywhere.

The addition of Jeff Kent doesn't do quite enough to offset the other problems the Astros have, and I think the Reds and Cubs are almost-but-not-quite. St. Louis strikes me as the team to beat. I also predict that the Brewers will lose at least 110 games.

Yes, you read that right. I think this year Jim Tracy's miracle working will put the Dodgers over the edge. It was a tough call, but I decided I wanted to have at least one loony pick (all logic suggests the improved Giants or the still-hanging-on D-Backs will take the division), but I'm going to go with the former Brooklynites.

* * *

Was at Opening Day at Shea Stadium today, marking my second straight Opening Day at a New York stadium in 40-degree weather. Last time I was at Opening Day at Shea was in 1995, and Don Baylor was in the house then, too, as the Colorado Rockies' manager; this time he's the Mets' hitting coach.

Several Mets made their team debut (Tom Glavine, Cliff Floyd, Rey Sanchez, Graeme Lloyd, manager Art Howe), none of them auspicious. Glavine's line was ugly: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 88 PT. Much worse was Mike Bacsik's: 2 IP, 4 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 61 PT. Floyd made a horrid misjudgment that led to a bases-clearing triple, and also made an error earlier to go with his 0-4 to earn some boos from the few Mets fans who lasted through the whole game, and Lloyd pitched one mediocre inning.

In the end, the final score was 15-2. The Mets fans were rooting for Sammy Sosa to hit his 500th homer just to give them something positive to hang on to (it was 10-2 by that point). It was the biggest Opening Day loss since 1951, so it wasn't just bad for the Mets, it was historically bad.

NEXT: Bull Shift

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