10 players pivotal to their team’s success
Posted: Sunday, April 12, 2009 11:30 AM
My look at 10 players whose production is essential for their respective teams to thrive this season:
MILTON BRADLEY: Exposed by the Dodgers last season in the playoffs
for their right-handed hitting imbalance, the Cubs believe they have addressed that issue by signing Milton Bradley for three years and $30 million.
Can Bradley stay healthy and produce offensively without the DH position as a crutch? The Cubs don’t need Bradley to win the NL Central again, but they will lean on him in October.
JUSTIN VERLANDER: Detroit hopes to rebound and make another run in the AL Central. They have no chance at that unless Verlander can shake his disastrous 2008. First returns this week were not promising, and remember the Tigers have opened the season with Jeremy Bonderman on the DL.
YOVANI GALLARDO: Opposite of Verlander’s first two starts of the season, the initial reports were strong on the Brewers’ Gallardo as he outpitched Randy Johnson in San Francisco, beating the future Hall-of-Fame southpaw with a three-run homer.
Gallardo appears healthy with a fastball crackling in the 92-94 mph range. Milwaukee is two teams. It’s a lineup that should score a ton of runs while also presenting a dicey pitching picture from start to finish. The currently disabled Trevor Hoffman is a candidate for this list as well, but Gallardo must blossom into an ace given Milwaukee’s double whammy of the offseason: the departures of CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets.
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ: Emotional as well as physical, the burden Rodriguez agreed to try and erase with the Mets was born over two straight years of September collapses. Last season’s thud was largely the fault of a damaged bullpen, thus K-Rod must match Brad Lidge of the arch rival Phillies, and give the Mets every reason to believe that leads after seven innings will become wins.
BRIAN FUENTES: He has to become the answer to the K-Rod fallout with the Angels. One huge edge for the Angels in the AL West has been their superiority in closing games. Did that advantage leave when K-Rod left for the Mets? Fuentes must make the answer to that question a no or the Angels may feel some heat from Oakland and/or Texas.
CHIEN-MING WANG: Lost in the hysteria of the Yankees’ signing of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, is the return of Wang. A foot injury cost him a good chunk of 2008, and robbed the Yankees of their most stable starter. A return to form gives them as good a No. 2 starter as any team, and insurance against the unpredictability of Burnett as far as injuries go. First return on Wang: He was hammered by Baltimore. Second return, more of the same: Rays roughed up Wang for eight earned runs and six hits, and he lasted just an inning.
ERIC CHAVEZ: Word from the A’s was that Chavez had finally regained his health after incessant injuries cost the Gold Glover and productive hitter several seasons. Maybe they spoke too fast as just over a week into the season, Chavez is missing some time due to a sore shoulder.
Offense is the A’s focus this year, and the good Chavez combined with Jason Giambi and Matt Holliday could give a young pitching staff enough support to produce enough wins that could put pressure on the Angels.
ELVIS ANDRUS: Texas moved their perennial All-Star Michael Young, again, to make room for their prized prospect. The Rangers will once again hit a ton. But can they pitch and catch? The ability of Andrus to anchor shortstop will provide much of that answer.
DAVID ORTIZ: This may seem an outlandish pick for this list, at least at first glance, but can the Red Sox truly hope to survive the brutal AL East without Big Papi proving he can handle the offensive load over 162 games without wingman Manny Ramirez?
FRANCISCO LIRIANO: Minnesota has a homegrown rotation that was good enough to get the Twins into an extra regular season game last year against the White Sox to decide if they would make the playoffs.
If medical history holds to form, Liriano should thrive in his second year post-Tommy John surgery. Give the Twins the “old” Liriano, and a healthy Joe Mauer (the catcher started the season on the DL), and they are the team to beat in the AL Central.
Also deserving of inclusion on this list: Aaron Harang, Jeff Francoeur, Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells, and Eric Byrnes. Manny Ramirez was discounted as too obvious!
FIVE SWINGS:
1. WHY THERE IS NO SPORT LIKE BASEBALL. I took a friend into the dugout and clubhouse before the Brewers-Giants Wednesday night game. He is a devoted fan who had never seen “backstage” at the fabulous San Francisco ballpark.
We walked into the clubhouse and within 15 minutes, he had met Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Will Clark, and Shawon Dunston. Credit the Giants for their devotion to reestablishing and maintaining connections with their former players.
Credit the great players for the positive spirit they bring on their visits, none more so than Mays, an absolute beacon of joy around the park. Old acquaintances were renewed with smiles and hugs, old stories were told with the requisite embellishment, and at the end, my friend, a “veteran” fan, wore the look of a young boy at his first game. The rewards of his experience? Priceless.
2. WATCHED RICK PORCELLO…in his first start for the Tigers. He looks every bit of 20 years old, but seemed, like so many of his generation, unfazed by his surroundings. What struck me was the lack of an overpowering pitch. No 96-97 mph fastball boring in on a righty’s hands a la Tim Lincecum. No knee-buckling curve or nasty slider. If those are in his repertoire, they were not on display in Toronto. Porcello gave up four runs and nine hits in his five innings.
3. ONCE AGAIN, WHY DO TEAMS PAY STARTERS SO MUCH? Wednesday, Atlanta jumped out to a 10-3 lead without Chipper Jones in Philadelphia. After starter Javier Vazquez finished six innings, Atlanta’s bullpen imploded in an eight-run seventh inning that included FOUR bases-loaded walks. An interesting study would be to track a team’s success in relation to the runs allowed in innings six and seven.
4. CAREERS ARE REBORN WHILE OTHERS END. Watching transactions always interests the hardcore fan. A sampling from last week: Marcus Giles was cut by the Phillies. What happened to him to produce such a fast fall? Former 20-game winner Russ Ortiz came back from surgery to make Houston’s staff. Last Sunday saw the demise of Derrick Turnbow from Texas, and Adam Kennedy from Tampa Bay. The same day saw the unlikely trio of Kris Benson, Andruw Jones, and ancient Omar Vizquel make the Texas roster. Jacque Jones was cut by Cincinnati, and one of the game’s true survivors, Mike Stanton, failed to make the Cubs. Promising careers are also put on hold as Jeff Samardzija (Cubs) and Clay Buchholz (Red Sox), key performers in the bigs last year, start out 2009 in the minors.
5. WILLIE RANDOLPH...is back in uniform as Ken Macha’s bench coach in Milwaukee. A class act that met a classless end in New York, Randolph has done well in pushing his Mets’ experience to the memory cache. In a conversation covering the varied travails of managing in New York, Randolph couldn’t help but smile when he was reminded that precious few managers have “good endings,” in the Big Apple -- not even Joe Torre.
