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Indians start out strong
DIAMOND NOTES: April 6
Every team looks for encouraging signs in the first week of the season. Check the Indians. Admittedly they played in Anaheim, then traveled to play what may be one of the weakest teams in Detroit. But not only has their pitching been very good, but their reconstructed offense has put up one patient, disciplined at-bat after amother, and five games into the season their team on-base percentage was .396.
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| Branyan |
Yes, Russell Branyan had four walks and two strikeouts in the Indians' first four games. The Indians are also very encouraged by the effort and attention of Milton Bradley, who has been working hard to improve with coaches Eddie Murray and Robby Thompson.
Cleveland made a useful pickup in outfielder Chris Magruder, who had to go off the Texas roster as the Rangers added five non-roster players to open the season. Magruder is a switch-hitter and plays all three outfield positions. Boston and San Francisco also called the Rangers about Magruder, but the Red Sox for some reason didn't get back to Texas in time.
If you watched any of the Rangers' telecasts from Oakland, you noticed that the director showed owner Tom Hicks in the crowd more than Alex Rodriguez at shortstop or at-bat. At least Hicks got a closeup view of Carlos Pena in an A's uniform.
The Washington Post suggested before the season that Orioles owner Peter Angelos and his club were attempting to "tank" the 2002 season so that they will be so bad that MLB won't put a team in Washington. Whew. So, when the O's won on Opening Day, the club issued a PR release titled, "ORIOLES WIN OPENER, SCUTTLE PLANS TO TANK SEASON." It ended with a quote from Angelos: "I thought it was merely an early April Fool's joke. I'm always mystified that people take these attempts at levity by members of the fourth estate seriously." To be serious, Angelos may have messed up the franchise, but he has always tried to protect and serve his season-ticket holders. And it's hard to believe that Angelos would ever try to lose anything to anyone.
OK, we really know Donald Watkins does have the money. We also know that he has made an offer to Carl Pohlad for the Twins. But Pohlad won't get back to him. Either Pohlad wants to try to get a few more bucks out of any new stadium, or he just wants to contract the team. And no one had better dare mention ticket sales. MLB didn't confirm the Twins would be back in 2002 until Feb. 28, an obvious attempt to further depress the franchise. Really nice.
It should come as no surprise that the Players Association vows never to allow the elimination of the DH, not when the average DH salary is $5.7 million. First basemen are next in line at $4.1 million.
One of baseball's great first-week sights: when they stopped the Cubs-Reds game at Cinergy Field on Wednesay night at 9:11, the catcher was Todd Hundley, No. 9, and the batter Barry Larkin, No. 11.
As long a season as it appears it will be for the Tigers, there is good news in that former No. 1 pick Seth Greisinger, out three years because of ligament-replacement surgery in his right elbow, made his pitching debut for Double-A Erie on Thursday and fanned five in four innings.
One of the early season's biggest surprises has been Kent Mercker, who is filling the prime left-handed setup role for Colorado. When Mercker throws from his normal three-quarters arm slot, he's 87-88 mph, but when he drops down sidearm he's 90-92 mph, and coming up with a curveball from the lower slot. "He could be absolutely filthy for left-handed batters," says one NL scout.
The Rockies are trying to trade some of their pitching depth to Toronto for infielder Orlando Hudson. Where once Hudson was the heir apparent at second base, now Joe Lawrence is the future for the Blue Jays next to shortstop Felipe Lopez. But the Rockies will not trade Jack Cust, no matter how much Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi wants him.
Welcome to Texas, Jimy
From the first day of spring training, Jimy Williams has reminded anyone willing to listen to him that baseball is baseball whether it's played in New England or Texas or Ponca City.
On his first Opening Day as manager of the Astros, Williams found out some things are different in the Lone Star State.
In five seasons with the Boston Red Sox, he'd never had 81-degree temperatures and 75-percent humidity on Opening Day. And in his five seasons with the Red Sox and four with the Blue Jays, it's unlikely he'd ever had a postgame news conference quite like the one that followed Tuesday's 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Astros Field.
"Coach, what about Wade Miller?" a reporter asked Williams.
Williams politely answered the question, but when the reporter continued to refer to the manager of the Astros as "coach," he got some good-natured ribbing.
"That's OK. I'll get used to it," he said, smiling. "Next time I come in, I'll have a football helmet on."
Worrying he had hurt the guy's feelings, Williams added: "Hey, really. It's OK. It doesn't bother me."
This and that
The Astros last year had the second-lowest payroll (after the A's) of any playoff team. Heading into this year, they let Moises Alou walk, and still are considered one of the best teams in the NL. The reason? Their farm system. The only player in their Opening Day lineup that had played a major-league game in another uniform was Gregg Zaun.
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| Everett |
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| Ensberg |
On the right side of the infield they have Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, with 24 years experience, 3,592 games played, 11 All-Star appearances and $19 million in salary. On the left side, they have Morgan Ensberg at third base and Adam Everett at shortstop -- 13 games and 10 at-bats combined of big-league experience heading into the season. Ensberg and Everett are also making a combined $400,000 this season.
Dave Wallace, the Dodgers' senior vice president of baseball operations, on Pedro Martinez and Kevin Brown: "They're both at the stage where they're making sure they're not hurt, rather than competing with hitters. It's natural. Once each knows that he is OK he'll concentrate on the hitters, not themselves. But it's a stage every pitcher has to go through when he's been hurt."
As for the Buck Martinez-Pedro Martinez flap, several Blue Jays players went through the Red Sox clubhouse to get to the Fenway weight room. Puh-leaze. Not baseball etiquette. In his defense, this hasn't been a good week for Buck Martinez, who lost Chris Carpenter and is in the middle of a flap because he went to Shannon Stewart's house before spring training and promised him he'd play in the outfield every day, then before the end of spring training made Stewart the DH. Yes, Shannon would like to be traded, but it's not going to happen for awhile.
Sources around the Rangers insist that if they hadn't been wiped out with so many pitching injuries at the end of spring training, they seriously would have considered releasing John Rocker.
Condolences to the family of Jim Duquette, who died Tuesday morning. The longtime Dalton, Mass. schoolteacher's son, Jim, is the Mets' assistant GM, while his other son, Pat, is an assistant basketball coach at Boston College.
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