Bleacher Creature Feature

#41: June Musings

24 June 2003

My apologies to my loyal readers, but the problem with doing a regular column that you don't get paid for is that it tends to be moved to the back burner when the paying writing and editing gigs take precedence. I've been obscenely busy with assorted projects (many of which will be in your local bookstore between the months of August and December), so I haven't been able to keep up with my pinstriped prognostications.

So bear with me as I catch up on some assorted bits and pieces about the Yankees over the past couple of months.

---Roger Clemens finally got his 300th win and 4000th strikeout, taking a monkey off everyone's back. Along the way, Juan Acevedo finally proved his uselessness, coughing up one of Clemens's 300th victory attempts with one Wrigley Field pitch to Eric Karros, leading to his welcome release. Both these occurrences should have happened much much much sooner than they actually did.

---Apparently, it's a big deal that the Yankees were no-hit by six Astro pitchers, which I just don't see, as the Yankees got on base five times in the game. If the Yankees got three hits and two walks, or five hits and no walks, the game probably wouldn't have prompted as much comment, yet five walks and no hits is somehow extraordinary.

The no-hitter has to be the most overrated and useless "accomplishment" in all of baseball, with the possible exception of the save. A pitcher can pitch badly and still "get" a no-hitter because hard-hit balls can be hit right at fielders, and a pitcher can pitch well and still give up a bunch of hits on cheap grounders or dunkers in the short outfield. That's out of the pitcher's control. What is in the pitcher's control? Walks and hit-by-pitches -- neither of which are counted in no-hitters.

The most important thing in baseball, more important than anything else, is scoring runs, and to score runs, you have to get on base. That makes the pitcher's primary responsibility to keep people off base. What sense is there in crediting a pitcher with an accomplishment when he still allows people to get on base? Worse, does so in a manner that he is solely responsible for? Giving up a hit involves the participation of fielders -- e.g., if a ball is hit between the shortstop and third baseman, the fielder has to not catch up to the ball in order for it to be a hit, which is out of the pitcher's control. But when the pitcher gives up four balls, that's all on the pitcher for missing home plate.

So unlike everyone else, the fact that the Yankees were no-hit by the Astros is of less than zero interest to me. If it was a perfect game, then I'd be impressed. But a no-hitter by itself is not that much of an accomplishment.

---Does anyone else find it amusing that Armando Benitez gave up as many walks in two innings against the Yankees this past Sunday that David Wells has all season?

---I'm perfectly happy to admit when I'm wrong. In 2001, I thought Alfonso Soriano should be traded for someone who actually had the potential to be a good baseball player. As I see Soriano looking to set a record for All-Star votes, I freely admit that I was totally wrong about Soriano.

However, I've been talking for a year about how Sterling Hitchcock is a waste of a roster spot and that the Jeff Weaver trade was a mistake and I haven't seen a single shred of evidence to disprove either statement. Yes, now, Hitchcock is finally starting to settle into a role as a LOOG-ie (Lefty One Out Guy), but it took a year and a half and a lot of wasted time and money to get that far, and he's still used for long relief occasionally and having his head handed to him (like giving up five runs in one inning against Tampa Bay). Weaver has been a total train wreck. He's got good control, and his BB/K ratio is an excellent 24/47, but he's getting the crap pounded out of him by the likes of the Devil Rays. (As I type this, he's pitching to the team now, and he's only winning because the Deviled Eggs' pitchers are even worse.)

I don't know if Weaver is all promise and no delivery, or if he's suffering from Ed Whitson Disease (most recent victim: Kenny Rogers), but he's more and more coming up in trade talks, and I wouldn't be surprised to find him in another uniform by 31 July. Especially given how truly wretched the middle relief has been.

---It's amazing that the Yankees are still in first place, given the fierce competition from Boston and Toronto, and given how crappy they've been playing lately. Of course, the main reason for the latter is this:

compared to:

The first two are the BA, OBP, and SLG of Bernie Williams and Nick Johnson, who've been out since May and won't be back until the All-Star Game or so. The other two are the same for Juan Rivera and Todd Zeile, who have more or less replaced them -- and who've been sufficiently bad that the Yankees traded Marcus Thames for the streak-tastic Ruben Sierra, who has been generous enough to have a hot streak now when they need him to (until he hurt his hamstring yesterday), and Bernie and Nicky should be back by the time the streak ends and he goes back to being a spare part. Still, he should be vaguely useful as a bench player, as long as nobody gets delusions that he should be playing every day.

The continued fascination with Zeile befuddles me. We let Ron Coomer go to pay more money for this guy. Coomer is only hitting .227/.301/.318, but that's still better than the out-tastic Zeile, especially when you consider that Coomer's playing in the spacious Dodger Stadium. I wouldn't even mind having him if he was being used sensibly, but on what planet does it make sense to give a sub-.650 OPS 144 at-bats in the first three months of the season? Zeile's usefulness as a regular ended years ago, and any time he's used as anything other than Robin Ventura's caddy is wasting a lineup spot on someone who cannot actually perform. He's 37 years old, and he's not going to get any better.

---For the record, Sammy Sosa is still one of the greatest hitters of all time, and all this cork crap is just that -- crap.

---If the Yankees have anything like brains as an organization, both Bernie and Derek Jeter will shift leftward next year. Hideki Matsui has proven himself to be a most capable center fielder, and Bernie just does not have the mobility he used to. He needs to be in left where his rubber arm is less of a liability.

As for Jeter, his defense has never been great, and he's made an already-porous Yankee infield more so since his return. (I don't think it's a coinky-dink that the Yanks' pitchers' hits per nine innings went up after Jeter came back from his shoulder injury.) Jeter's got no range to speak of, but has a great arm -- that makes him much more useful as a third baseman, and that position will be open next season. (As for shortstop, I understand some guy named Tejada will be available....)

---I have to confess that -- until last Sunday's game against the Cardinals -- one reason for the lack of BCFs of late is that our actual trips to the bleachers did not inspire me to write. The team kept losing when we went to the game. When the Yankees opened the season with a 20-4 record, three of those four losses were games Terri and I attended. Then they started to lose more regularly, including every game we went to.

That Sunday thrashing of the Cards was, therefore, something of a relief. We're hoping the trend continues this Sunday against the Mets....

---Having said that, the thing I'm most looking forward to this weekend is seeing Brandon Claussen pitch against the Mets, after the way he's been tearing up the International League.

---Which is certainly better than tonight's disaster, as the Yankees' extra-crappy bullpen has just turned a mediocre effort by Weaver into a nightmare, turning a 6-3 lead into a 9-6 deficit. (Still going on, even as I type.)

This is a strange game...

NEXT: Meet the Mets, Sweep the Mets

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