Transaction Analysis: April 20-23, 2000

Darren Holmes is almost certain to be claimed by a team like the Cubs or
Astros, so it will be interesting to see if the Snakes pull off a trade
while they can. Mantei’s absence didn’t hurt the team, which is just one of
those things to remember a year or two from now when they could really use
a Nunez or two, or Brad Penny.

So what exactly does spring training accomplish again? Jason Johnson was
supposed to be in the rotation from the get-go, but he had a lousy camp. He
didn’t seem particularly repentant about it, and down he went. Did demoting
him inspire his hot start for Rochester? Maybe, maybe not. Causation is
slippery, but you can count on a few graybeards talking about how this
proves that Mike Hargrove makes people work for what they get, or that he
respects the game. The Human Rain Delay, respecting the game? Maybe it’s
just me, but his little gimmick between pitches when he played was the
ultimate expression of self-absorbtion.

Now sure, monkeying around with Calvin Maduro and Jose Mercedes didn’t
cripple them in the early going, but we’re talking about two very
undistinguished retreads, and Johnson’s coming off of a good year with the
big-league club. What did the little psychodrama of sending Johnson down in
the first place really accomplish?

Activated Perry; optioned CF McKay Christensen to Charlotte. [4/23]

Claiming Herb Perry makes some sense. Two infield starters (Jose Valentin
and Greg Norton) need platoon mates and barring cloning, Craig Wilson can
only take one of their places. But Perry can’t really play third base,
which means the team is making a couple of tradeoffs in carrying him.

First, they’re carrying a notional infield platoonmate over carrying a
defensive replacement for Carlos Lee in left field (Christensen would
normally go into center field, with Chris Singleton moving to left). I can
sort of buy that, because Singleton, Lee and Magglio Ordonez are going to
get the vast majority of the playing time in the outfield anyway. But the
other ripple effect is the question of whether it’s worth putting Perry’s
bat into the lineup over Jeff Abbott’s against left-handed pitching, and I
don’t really buy into that.

In addition to pretending Perry can handle third base, the Sox are claiming
he’ll get time in the outfield; this is because they’re the same team
that’s pretending that Jeff Liefer can play a position, and because they’re
still carrying 12 pitchers.

I was decisively not in the camp of people who thought Ken Griffey Jr.’s
arrival was going to guarantee an improvement over last year. There were
some obvious reasons for concern (a dubious starter or two, Fonzie
Bichette), and sadly, Barry Larkin had to be counted among them. Last year,
he gave the team his second consecutive full season, and that’s not
something you can bank on at this stage of his career. A move to third base
or one of the outfield corners still looks like a good idea, and will look
even better as Fonzie becomes more and more of an obviously bad idea.

Because my expectations for the Reds this year are low, a two-week cameo
for Dawkins is a nice little project for them to keep busy with for the
time being.

A strange swap: Scott Hunter has been waiver bait for a couple of years,
while Daniel McKinley is an adequate regular for some full-season
affiliates. Maybe John Hart’s trying to soften Jim Beattie up for his big
pitch for Ugueth Urbina.

Activated OF Jeffrey Hammonds from the DL; designated 1B/3B Jeff
Manto for assignment. [4/22]

For those of you who fret about "expansion pitching," there are
plenty of people like Rick Reed and Gil Heredia and maybe even Omar Daal
who would be languishing in lesser roles or the International League
without expansion. Of course, you can always come back with, "oh yeah,
what about Kevin Jarvis?" And I’d have to admit that you’ve got me
there. I can no more explain Jarvis than I can explain Tanyon Sturtze or
Cookies Pisciotta. I can’t explain them; they don’t even have those
infamous Four-A credentials that currently get slapped on people like Bob
Wolcott.

Facing the need for a spot starter, the Rox should have saved themselves
the roster spot and let Gabe White go out there for four or five innings.
There’s just something fundamentally wrong about Jarvis getting another
shot while someone like Jeff Manto gets bumped again.

Hammonds’s return is cause for joy for lots of rotoheads, but the man’s
still got one knee without cartilage. He’s going to have to be really lucky
to ever get 500 at-bats.

Bad things happen to bad teams; it becomes part of their charm. And when
Juan Go walks away, leaving Randy Smith alone in a room with a suddenly
very angry pizza baron, the story might even have a happy ending. Sort of
like the moment in Aliens when Paul Reiser as the corporate lackey
finally gets what he deserves for his thoughtless commitment to his job.
Watch out for the Meat Lover’s specials in Motor City in October: you never
know what the secret ingredient might be.

Ozuna was bound for a callup at some point, if only to observe the rule
that anybody traded for a major-leaguer shows up with the team that traded
for him, someday. He was pushed up from low-A ball to Double-A in his first
year with the Fish and struggled. Now he’s being bumped up faster than
expected again, and while I still haven’t given up on him at the tender age
of 21, calling him up to replace Castillo may have the unfortunate side
effect of solidifying the organization’s commitment to move Ozuna to second
base.

The best thing about this situation is that Ozuna might have a chance to
outshine Alex Gonzalez, which wouldn’t be too tough. The not-so-distant
future would be better with Ozuna and Luis Castillo up the middle, with
Gonzalez peddled for outfielders who can hit.

Less than a month into the season, and the Astros have sorted out their
catching situation, gotten one of their good young shortstops onto the big
league roster and, with Elarton’s return, gotten their rotation up to full
strength. I expected a slow start, but the major remaining issues are
shoring up the pen and getting Tim Bogar on the bench. We’ll see whether
they do it or not, but Gerry Hunsicker is one of the game’s better GMs when
it comes to attacking a problem. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly
they do something.

Not a bad little trade for the Expos: Scott Hunter is a free-swinger nabbed
off of waivers from the Mets last spring, while Daniel McKinley has some
value as a regular center fielder for one of their affiliates. Chances are
he’ll get to fill in at Harrisburg pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Powell’s demotion just means Mike Thurman will be up for
his next turn. Andy Tracy may not get that much of a chance to stick,
although he might bounce Trace Coquilette off the roster with a nice
pinch-hit or two.

Four years, more than $11 million and a quick tar-and-feathering incident
for his two agents for spacing on their client’s interests during
negotiations. Either that, or a nod to Beane for cleverly undermining their
not-unreasonable belief that Tejada would eventually have won big in
arbitration.

Sure, Rico Brogna could use a platoon mate, but you know Brian Hunter isn’t
happy about this. Sure, he gets major-league service time, but there went
his shot at postseason play. Maybe Don Fehr doesn’t see the problem, but
what’s the real payoff for getting to play in an ugly stadium for a team
shooting for third place? Getting to listen to Terry Francona’s uniquely
smarmy anecdotes about "When I managed Michael Jordan…"?

If he’s smart, Hunter will say something appropriately offensive about the
Daughters of the American Revolution being a bunch of snotty elitist
busybodies, get himself cut and get back to the organization that wanted
him all along. Just think, a Braves team featuring Hunter after that, John
Rocker, tomahawk-chopping fans, Ted Turner…who else could they offend and
how? Some snooty furriners would undoubtedly say that then they’d
really be America’s Team.

While Ben Davis didn’t do much to inspire keeping him around during his
brief return to the majors, the early-season scenarios haven’t looked too
good in terms of trying to swap Carlos Hernandez for stuff. Kevin Towers’s
best possible mark, Walt Jocketty’s Cardinals, are already getting some
good play out of Eli Marrero, and Mike Matheny is doing a breathtaking
impersonation of a good major-league hitter. Towers will have to wait for
Matheny’s inevitable crash, or a major breakdown by someone like Sandy
Alomar Jr. or Darrin Fletcher, if he wants to really cash in.

There’s always the chance that something really wacky could happen, like
the Pads hanging around .500 deep enough into the season that Towers turns
Davis into a slugging outfielder. It isn’t that likely, but the Dodgers and
Snakes aren’t going to run very far ahead of the pack.

Placed RHP Freddy Garcia (bursitis – knee) and OF/1B John
Mabry on the 15-day DL; recalled 2B/SS Carlos Hernandez and RHP
Kevin Hodges from Tacoma. [4/22]

Losing both Freddy Garcia and Jamie Moyer would cripple most teams, but
most teams don’t have Brett Tomko hanging out in Triple-A or a prospect as
good as Ryan Anderson on the horizon.

What losing Garcia and Moyer really does is put a simmering Mt. Piniella on
the spot. Will he erupt over Tomko’s refusal to crease beans with the pill
on command? Can he coexist with a rotation of wee pals like Gil Meche and,
soon, Anderson? Or will he bust it up as quickly as he’s burned and buried
his previous Mariners’ staffs, or Jack Armstrong and Tom Browning, or the
1988 Yankees team he took from second to fifth in a month?

He’ll always get to blame the injuries, and he’s never had to live with
serious second-guessing, but a good team and a good manager wouldn’t lose
pace with this kind of replacement quality. More likely, Pat Gillick will
inherit the bitter legacy of Woody Woodward: it has to be somebody
other than the manager.

Frank Catalanotto’s absence is a severe handicap to Johnny Oates’s handling
of his bench, robbing him of the opportunity to break out of his habit of
running his lineup Ralph Houk-style and letting his bench rot. Tom Evans
hasn’t gotten off to a blistering start, which doesn’t help his chances of
fending off Mike Lamb’s second attack on his nonexistent job security.