Some players already feeling the heat
Posted: Friday, March 28, 2008 9:34 PM
Injuries are a major story entering the new season. We know the list of those who are hurt, but overlooked are the players who must produce in the absence of those who are sidelined.
JON GARLAND AND JERED WEAVER
A double hit to the Angels rotation as John Lackey is expected to miss at least the first month with a strained right triceps and Kelvim Escobar has a shoulder injury that will sideline him indefinitely.
Lackey and Escobar were the Angels Game 1 and 2 starters from the playoffs. Now Garland must be the pitcher of his All-Star 2005 season, 18-10, 3.05 ERA. The problem is 2005 is the only season in which Garland had an ERA under 4.20 and a WHIP below 1.3. Weaver was strong in his first full year, but his growth must accelerate. Let’s put it this way: the Mariners’ chances to take the AL West look much better now than they did a year ago.
RYAN CHURCH
Church had his first year of over 300 at-bats in 2007 and posted respectable numbers with the Nationals (15 HR, 70 RBI, .272 BA). So the Mets brought him in to fill a hole in right field and they hope that he will continue to increase his offense.
Now they need him much more than they figured. With left fielder Moises Alou hoping to return from hernia surgery by mid April and a part-timer at best this year and Lastings Milledge and Carlos Gomez dealt away, the Mets need Church’s bat. There is no Plan B unless they force feed 19-year-old Fernando Martinez to the majors
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA
Lingering sharp pains in his right hand make Garciaparra questionable for the start of the season, but the Dodgers hope that before too long the veteran will be their third baseman. Andy LaRoche was supposed to inherit the position this season, but a significant thumb injury has sidelined him into May. Thus, the Dodgers need Garciaparra’s bat to show some signs of late-career life.
MARCO SCUTARO
He made his name as the master of dramatic hits in Oakland, most notably a game-winning homer off Mariano Rivera of the Yankees last season. Toronto acquired him over the winter and he starts the season replacing Scott Rolen at third base. Rolen is out for at least a month with a broken finger so the Blue Jays would benefit from some of Scutaro’s late-game magic.
JEREMY ACCARDO
Staying in Toronto closer B.J. Ryan is hopeful of returning by mid-April as he makes his way back from Tommy John surgery. But it seems clear that the Blue Jays need a backup in case of any more hiccups in Ryan’s rehab. And that backup is Accardo, stolen from San Francisco in a 2006 trade. He saved 30 games in 35 chances last year and proved that he had the mentality to handle the ninth inning -- the one question that followed him to Toronto.
TIGERS’ BULLPEN
Denny Bautista, Jason Grilli, Bobby Seay, Aquilino Lopez, Zach Miner, and Yorman Bazardo. From that group, manager Jim Leyland hopes to piece together a relief corps that can get games to closer Todd Jones until Fernando Rodney (mid-April) and Joel Zumaya (mid-season) are back healthy from shoulder woes. As competitive as the top of the American League looks to be, the Tigers can’t afford early-season stumbles caused by a shaky bullpen.
PHIL HUGHES
There’s no secret about the pressure on Hughes and the other young highly touted Yankee arms of Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain. But the back spasms that have bothered Andy Pettitte will keep the veteran under close scrutiny and if Pettitte has trouble making his regular turn, the hot seat gets even hotter for Hughes.
One reason the Yankees pulled out of the Johan Santana sweepstakes was their belief that a Chien-Ming Wang-Pettitte combination would afford their young arms a chance to grow. Anything less than the best from Wang and Pettitte scraps that plan and the load on the young arms gets heavy in a hurry.
FRANCISCO LIRIANO
No injury hole to fill here just the need to make up for the departure of Santana and Carlos Silva as the Twins rotation has lost two key veteran arms. But remember Minnesota has kept other anchor players in Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Nathan. The Twins can actually contend in the AL Central if Liriano can pitch like an ace. Sure that’s a lot to ask for but the Twins are hoping that in Liriano they have a keeper coming back from Tommy John surgery rather than a fragile talent.
SIX MORE SWINGS
1. What happened to Marcus Giles? His career has bottomed out after a release by Colorado.
2. Baseball will certainly take some hits this weekend when the Dodgers and Red Sox play at the L.A. Coliseum. The left-field wall, due to reconfiguring of the Coliseum for football, will be about 200 feet from home plate. In advance of the expected knocks, let’s offer that these games are exhibition games and over 115,000 fans are coming out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Major League Baseball coming to California.
3. The White Sox sending Josh Fields to the minors and keeping Joe Crede at third base prompted some serious debate in Chicago. Fields needs to improve his glove and perhaps gain some outfield experience. Meanwhile, the White Sox will showcase Crede to teams like the Dodgers and Giants while hoping this decision does not impact the clubhouse.
4. A first look at a long season? San Francisco is the one team that sells three exhibition games to its fans, an amazing revenue grab that the Giants can pull off in their ballpark. But watching Thursday night’s game against Seattle, every camera shot showed complete sections of open seats. With the Giants a unanimous last-place pick in the NL West, they may this season face their “Camden Yards” moment -- the time when the aura of a new ballpark no longer overcomes a bad team.
5. Another laugher in a recent New York Times baseball column. Agent Scott Boras, he of the awful winter (although I doubt he’s struggling to pay any bills), wondered why this year’s group of veteran free-agent pitchers struggled to sign. He cited the group of Kyle Lohse, Livan Hernandez, Randy Wolf, Jon Lieber, Jason Jennings and Brett Tomko -- none received more than a one-year deal -- and Jeff Weaver is still unsigned.
Boras wouldn’t admit what was his asking price for Lohse, but the baseball grapevine whispered three years, $30 million as the bar. The fact that no pitcher including Lohse (check the numbers if you care) came close to that money can be summed up in one word: sanity -- which is not the word Boras would use.
6. Washington opens its new ballpark Sunday night and congrats to the Lerner family, strong local owners who have erased any doubts about the capital's viability to host Major League Baseball.
Want to feel old? Just 40 miles north of the Nationals new home, the Orioles begin their 17th season at Camden Yards. Washington’s is the 14th ballpark to open since Camden Yards. So when New York's two new stadiums open next April, Camden Yards -- the ballpark that started an architectural revolution to baseball's eternal benefit -- and the "granddaddy of them all" in “new” ballpark design, will be in the older half of baseball stadiums.
