Transaction Analysis: April 28-30, 2000

Optioned RHP Lou Pote to Edmonton; recalled LHP Mike Holtz
from Edmonton. [4/29]

Placed RHP Jason Dickson on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 4/29
(strained hip flexor). [4/30]

The sad news is that losing Jason Dickson may create the opening for Tim
Belcher that should herald the Angels’ drive for the basement after a nice
little start. Fortunately, Dickson’s injury isn’t arm-related, and after
Belcher flops and/or Ken Hill breaks down again, he should be able to
reclaim his rotation spot.

At first glance, nabbing Scott Morgan might look like a steal, and at the
price–practically free–it is. While Morgan has pounded the Eastern League
the last two years, he is about to turn 27. At 6’7", there’s more to
remind you of Billy Ashley than Matt Stairs, both superficially and in
terms of what anybody should expect from him. As long as the Angels are
goofing off with Scott Spiezio and Edgard Clemente as their DH platoon,
they could use Morgan with either or both of them pretty interchangeably.

Normally, I think carrying 12 pitchers is a waste of time, but Jesse Garcia
was as close to an effectively useless player as you can have on the
roster. Mike Hargrove isn’t the kind of manager who uses his bench
aggressively, and while Garcia might have value as a defensive replacement
for the Delino DeShields/Mark Lewis platoon, carrying three players to man
second base is pretty silly, especially when the Orioles are spending two
roster spots on multipositional utility man Rich Amaral and full-time DH
Harold Baines. Then again, considering the Orioles are carrying two middle
relievers they either shouldn’t or won’t use (Calvin Maduro and Chuck
McElroy), they could carry Garcia if they really wanted.

What’s interesting about the decision to go with the DeShields/Lewis
platoon is what it tells us about how the Orioles see themselves. Because
neither of them have futures or have much chance to get better in time, the
Birds are still thinking they can try to win now. I don’t blame them, given
that most of the roster is past its prime, but when it’s July and this team
is fighting to stay in fourth place in the AL East, the Orioles will be
better off cutting their losses and finally giving the job to Jerry
Hairston Jr.

Juan Castro should stick around as the Reds’ utility infielder even after
Barry Larkin heals, with Gookie Dawkins presumably going back down. So what
this past week’s worth of roster shuffling has done is elevate Chris Stynes
into Mark Lewis’s role (an improvement), brought in a utility infielder who
can field better than Larkin (an improvement) and changed the 11th
pitchers’ slot from a notional second left-hander in the pen (first Hector
Mercado, then briefly Norm Charlton) to a long reliever who can spot start.
That’s improvement, unless you’re Whitey Herzog and get cranky about teams
that don’t carry two left-handed relievers. Not a bad set of moves as far
as damage control goes, but not enough to make Dante Bichette disappear.

Alert the Devil Rays, an ex-famous person just got released.

Placed CF Kenny Lofton on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 4/27
(strained bicep tendon); placed OF Jacob Cruz on the 60-day DL (torn
ACL); recalled UT Jolbert Cabrera and purchased the contract of OF
Mark Whiten from Buffalo; signed 1B/3B Jeff Manto to a
minor-league contract; rescinded the assignment of RHP David Riske
to Buffalo, and returned him to the 15-day DL. [4/30]

If the Indians weren’t already in the market for a center fielder, they
will be now. While Jolbert Cabrera and Alex Ramirez have their uses,
neither one of them can play center field over an extended period of time,
while the legend of Mark Whiten’s strong arm is worth little more than
keeping batters at second base on the balls in the gaps he isn’t going to
reach.

The Indians’ problems are the same as they were over the winter: they need
a good fourth outfielder who can play center field and a backup catcher who
can hit. With Jacob Cruz, they had reason to hope they’d fixed one of the
two problems, but Cruz is apparently out for the year. Even then, he’s had
frequent problems with injuries, and the Indians mucked around in camp with
non-alternatives like Lance Johnson.

With Sandy Alomar Jr., there was no reason to expect anything other than
another injury, but instead of carrying a third catcher who can hit, like
Jim Leyritz or John Roskos, they’ve got multiple redundancy among their
sixth starters with Bobby Witt and Scott Kamieniecki and Chad Ogea and Joe
Roa and their ilk. If you’re a White Sox fan, these are the sorts of things
that warm your flinty hearts

Condolences to Jacob Cruz, who only seems to catch breaks in his limbs.

Purchased the contract of RHP Giovanni Carrara from Colorado
Springs; optioned RHP Rick Croushore to Colorado Springs. [4/30]

First Kevin Jarvis, and now Giovanni Carrara? Are all of the Quadruple-A
pitchers going to get their shots in Colorado? While I’m sure they’re happy
to get the opportunities, I could understand if they saw coming up with the
Rockies as a mixed blessing.

With Jerry DiPoto’s bulging disk likely to keep him out for the rest of the
season, some rotoheads may fidget about who’s going to get save
opportunities with the Rockies. While there are initial noises that they
might eventually elevate Jose Jimenez into the spot, the Rox are better off
continuing along the path they already seem inclined to take: skip the Tony
LaRussa roles and just keep using everybody for multiple innings.

Coors Field is the right place to start getting away from traditional or
LaRussian usage patterns, and while Buddy Bell is hardly synonymous with
evolution, we might be on the edge of some really interesting developments.
Would a six-man rotation in which everyone gets paired up and pitches every
three days for 60 pitches work? Or would a balance of one
"normal" starter, in this case Pedro Astacio, and that six-man
group working every four days for 60 to 75 pitches work better? You’d still
have at least four "relievers," five if you went with a 12-man
staff.

Regardless of how they do so, here’s hoping Bell and Dan O’Dowd get
creative. On a certain level, guys like Brian Bohanon have made their beds
by signing with the Rox; their chances of getting good money in their next
free agency spin are already maimed because of their place of employment.
So why bother with workloads and roles that don’t seem to be working in the
highest-offense environment in a high-offense era?

To some, Moises Alou’s knack for hurting himself is the difference between
a good career and a slim shot at the Hall of Fame. For the Astros, it may
not make that much difference. Lance Berkman is coming off a hot month in
the Big Easy, and he only perpetuates the team’s nice problem of choosing
from among Berkman, Richard Hidalgo, Roger Cedeno and the platoon of Daryle
Ward and Matt Mieske.

So losing Alou for however long he’ll be gone for this time isn’t really
the big problem. The problem is adapting to Enron Field. It doesn’t look
like the Astros can get away with a bullpen filled with retreads and
no-treads like they could in the Astrodome, which could mean some serious
roster shakeups. The question is whether they’ll put it off until the trade
deadlines. I don’t think they should take their time about it; while I
expect the Cardinals to cool off, I don’t see a reason to expect them to go
into a tailspin.

Activated RHP Juan Acevedo from the DL; purchased the contract of
LHP Ray King from Indianapolis; designated LHP Matt Williams
for assignment; released RHP Jaime Navarro. [4/30]

While you might want to commend the Brewers for finally doing what had to
be done with Jaime Navarro, it only begs the question of why they bothered
to do the White Sox the favor of trading for him in the first place. If
this was the price to get four years of John Snyder, it isn’t going to be
worth it, and in exchange the Brewers discarded one of their juiciest trade
options in Jose Valentin. Sometimes you don’t need Sal Bando to pull a Sal
Bando.

The Brewers keep trying to plug their organizational hole at catcher, and
keep nabbing guys who are better than Tyler Houston. At least they brought
Ray King up; if left in the situational role he was born to fill, he should
make people forget Mike Myers (the lefty, not the prospect or the comic)
pretty quickly.

A good month or so in Ottawa could be enough for Antonio Armas to come up
and claim the fifth spot in the rotation. For now the Expos have Jeremy
Powell making cameos while Mike Thurman heals; both of them are nice
pitchers, but neither has Armas’s upside.

Mike Piazza’s hand injury brings to the fore one of this team’s core
strengths: a bench loaded with guys who could start for other teams. Todd
Pratt isn’t merely the best backup catcher in baseball: he might be among
the 20 best catchers in the game. Expansion or no expansion, in terms of
having a real career as an everyday player, he’s gotten the shaft while
people like Jorge Fabregas get at-bats.

But Pratt is just the signature player on a bench that also has Jon
Nunnally and Benny Agbayani, who would be a better left-field platoon than
a good number of teams run out there. Kurt Abbott is a good-hitting
alternative to St. Rey the Batless at shortstop. Because of Rickey
Henderson’s slow start and Darryl Hamilton’s injury, they’ve already had to
press Nunnally and Agbayani into pretty regular use and, like losing Piazza
for a few days, it won’t kill them.

Placed OF Felix Jose on the 15-day DL (strained groin); purchased
the contract of C Chris Turner from Columbus; transferred 1B Nick
Johnson from the 15- to the 60-day DL. [4/30]

The team’s lack of depth just gets a little more obvious with every new
injury. At least the Yankees get two benefits out of this shuffle: Felix
Jose gets to Do No Harm while adding service time nobody thought he’d ever
get, and Jim Leyritz can move over to DH now that they have a third
catcher. It’s probably too soon for them to start seriously shopping for a
fourth outfielder better than Lance Johnson, but they already have that in
Luke Wilcox.

What this really brings to the fore is that as an organization the Yankees
did not do a good job shopping for veteran minor-league free agents who
might have made useful replacements.

Kevin Appier is expected to miss just two starts, so what this move really
does is give Ron Mahay a chance to double his total of career major-league
starts. This will only be important if another starter goes down at some
later date and the A’s have to decide whether or not Barry Zito is ready.

Meanwhile, Luis Vizcaino will get to repeat his middle-relief role from the
beginning of the month after flopping in a brief trial as a starter at
Sacramento. It would probably have been better to leave him alone for the
two weeks, and bring up someone else on the 40-man roster to hang out in
the mopup role.

Activated RHP Curt Schilling from the DL. [4/30]

There are two pathetic spectacles going on simultaneously, and the question
is which one is more feeble. First, the Cubs are trying to play up Kerry
Wood’s return as the move that will make everything all right, even if it
might only be the difference between 68 and 72 wins. In a similar vein, the
Phillies are bubbling about Curt Schilling’s return, as if he’ll fix a lame
offense or a badly-run pitching staff. I’m not convinced that he isn’t
rushing back, but on this team, what Curt wants Curt gets. I half-expect
him to reinjure himself by July after a spate of eight-inning starts in
which he waves off the bullpen and Terry Francona obligingly lets him pitch.

The interesting development is the decision to try to dump Amaury Telemaco;
long-time readers undoubtedly know I’ve got a soft spot in my heart/head
for him, because when his slider is snapping it really is something lovely.
But the odd part is that they’re keeping mopup man Steve Schrenk around
over Telemaco. They already know that nobody would claim Schrenk if they
took him off of the 40-man roster, while chances are pretty good that
somebody is going to nab Telemaco.

Here’s the chicken-shiznit move for the weekend. While Aramis Ramirez has
struggled in the field and at the plate, is running him off after less than
a month really going to help him? It certainly won’t help the Bucs, not
when the alternatives are Mike Benjamin and Luis Sojo.

It isn’t as if a struggling Ramirez was keeping an adequate veteran on the
bench, or hindering the Pirates’ chances at contention. Instead, because
some people in the organization–and some prominent writers–got silly and
started believing that this was the year the Pirates would contend. for no
more reason than because it became as briefly fashionable as mood rings,
the Bucs decided to scapegoat their best prospect once reality smacked them
around for a month.

Is there any organizational memory of how they screwed up the exact same
way with Kevin Young? It should be pretty easy to remember, now that they
have Young back and he’s their overpaid first baseman. Another comparison
might be to Bill Madlock, who should have been a Ranger, except that the
Rangers got silly and traded him away before his career really got started.

The real shame is that the Bucs might be a pretty good offensive team if
they weren’t too busy goofing off with people like Sojo or Benjamin or Wil
Cordero or Pat Meares. Thanks to moves like giving up on Ramirez too
easily, all they’re going to accomplish is making the run for fourth place
a dogfight.

While the Cardinals’ rotation options and their eventual depth have gotten
plenty of attention, the pen has its strengths as well. They’ve got four
left-handed relievers to sort through; Brunette throws hardest and is the
one with a future, but he’ll have to fight past LaRussa’s congenital
reliance on geezers like Scott Radinsky and Jesse Orosco (once they’re
healthy), or his ex-Oaklander fetish for Mike Mohler.

They’ve got a similar potential logjam among their right-handers behind
closer Dave Veres and Heathcliff Slocumb: Mike James is the best of the
bunch, but Gene Stechschulte has his uses and once Mark Thompson is ready,
he’ll be a fine long reliever. Anything that keeps them from resorting to
John Ambrose is a good thing.

Placed RF Tony Gwynn on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 4/29 (knee
inflammation); activated PH Dave Magadan from the DL. [4/30]

The Padres have put up a pretty good fight so far, but losing Tony Gwynn
and Brian Boehringer highlights this team’s problems: they’re not a young
team, a healthy team or a deep team. At least the callup of Rodrigo Lopez
gets to bring attention to the Pads’ Mexican connection, and that might
help sell some seats.

If you wanted to bet on which outfielder is going to get the most playing
time in a Pads uniform this season, fourth outfielder Eric Owens is looking
pretty good so far. With Gwynn out, they have to make a serious choice
between Kory DeHaan and David Newhan for one of the outfield corners, and
that’s every bit as good as it sounds.

While a three-headed monster of Carlos Guillen, Mark McLemore and David
Bell manning second base and third base might sound like a good idea, the
problem is that none of them are that good at second or hit as much as
teams expect from their third basemen. It’ll be interesting to see if the
Mariners elect to find a fourth head to add to the shuffle, or if they want
to continue to pretend that John Mabry could be part of the solution.

The four-man offense of Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez, John Olerud and Jay
Buhner works only so long as Buhner’s healthy, and that’s a dicey
proposition. Add in whatever bitter fruits Lou Piniella will reap from this
year’s pitching, and you can understand why neither Oakland or Texas need
to worry too much about the Mariners’ decent start. Especially in the
Rangers’ case, unless an evil trick by the scheduling gods suddenly curses
them with 20 more games against the Yankees…

While I’m probably happier than anybody to see Dave Eiland get some more
major-league time, the Rays would be better off trying to patch their
self-inflicted grisly problems by putting Bryan Rekar into the rotation and
bumping Eiland back to third-string mopup man behind Jeff Sparks and Rick
White. That’s what they get to stoop to, having thrown lots of money at big
injury risks like Wilson Alvarez and Juan Guzman.

Another pointlessly random callup and dismissal. While plenty of people
have faith in the idea that you should try to find and ride the hot hand,
that’s usually for hitters. The Jays might be the first team to look for
the hot hand among second left-handed relievers or mop-up men with nonstop
one-week auditions.