They're 13 feet, 2 inches and 600 strikeouts worth of acehood. They've
started in three of the last four All-Star Games. And they make the Arizona
Diamondbacks the team no one wants to hit against in October.
But there's more to getting to October than making the trade of the year,
more to it than adding Curt Schilling to Randy Johnson's list of co-stars.
And three weeks after the mega-deal that brought Schilling to the desert, no
one understands that better than the Diamondbacks.
|  | | Curt Schilling has pitched two complete games in four starts with Arizona. |
In the 18 games that followed that deal, they sank from first place to
second, from a game up in the NL West to a game back, from a game ahead of
the wild-card leaders (the Mets) to 4½ behind.
That isn't Schilling's fault. He's 3-1, 1.91 with the D-Backs. And it
isn't the Big Unit's fault, even though he hasn't won in four starts
(featuring three blown saves) since Schilling came aboard.
"For us to get there, it's going to take everybody doing what they can
do," says Johnson. "Not any one person. Not any one pitcher. Not any one
position player. No one can carry a team through 162 games."
There may have been an instant tendency, the day Arizona made that
Schilling trade, to think that he and the Unit could cure everything that has
ailed the Diamondbacks these last three months -- when a 26-10 start turned
into a 39-43 record since. But the reality of the last three weeks
has shown it's time to think again.
Think offense, for instance.
Last year, this team hit .277, averaged 5.6 runs per game, led the league
in runs scored, led everyone but the Rockies in homers.
This year, Arizona is hitting just .264, averaging 4.9 runs per game,
rank ninth in runs scored and eighth in homers.
Think banged-up stars.
Last year at this time, Matt Williams had 27 home runs and 104 RBI. This year,
after three different leg or foot problems and two stays on the DL, he has
five homers, 21 RBI.
Last year at this time, Jay Bell had 29 home runs and 82 RBI. This year,
despite no major ailments, Bell has 12 homers, 49 RBI.
Steve Finley has battled back trouble. Todd Stottlemyre, already pitching
through a slight rotator-cuff tear, has been on the disabled list twice with
elbow trouble.
Matt Mantei was on the DL twice with shoulder soreness. Erubiel Durazo tore
cartilage in his wrist and has never been right.
"Last year," says Luis Gonzalez, "it seemed like everyone stayed healthy.
This year, that hasn't been the case. That's not an excuse. You still have to
go out and play. But those aren't things you expect when you come out of
spring training and envision how the year will go."
Think bullpen.
This team went 53-22 after Mantei arrived last July and all the bullpen
pieces fell into place. This year, while the Diamondbacks still rank fourth
in the NL in bullpen ERA, they've had to survive Mantei's physical problems. And the ups and downs of Byung-Hyun Kim. And the trade of Vicente Padilla
(key piece in the Schilling deal). And a tumultuous stretch from July 7
through Saturday in which the bullpen went 1-9, 5.00, with seven blown saves
in 12 opportunities.
Think debt.
The Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that the Diamondbacks' ownership group had to
borrow $20 million recently to meet operating expenses. And that report piles
on top of other rumors about previous loans, three straight years of
multi-million-dollar losses and the looming storm cloud that will rain down
many more million dollars in deferred-contract money owed a number of players.
Those debts haven't seriously impaired the Diamondbacks' ability to
compete -- for now. But other clubs long have talked about this team as a
financial volcano waiting to erupt.
Finally, think manager.
For a long time, Buck Showalter was the Diamondbacks. He was their
manager before they had a player. He was the man behind most of the personnel
moves that have made them the most successful expansion team in baseball
history. Now, for the first time, there are serious indications that at some
point, if this season turns out wrong, there will be someone else in the
manager's office.
"I don't even to respond to it," Showalter says. "If people want to say
those things, I just say it's their opinion and they're entitled to it. I
don't get bogged down with it.
"But I will say this: How many people in life really know you? Very few.
People want to write about you, talk about you like they know you. But how
many people really do? I try to keep that in mind."
What the Diamondbacks might prefer to keep in mind is just the comforting
thought of those Twin Towers in the rotation. But all around them, there is
tension, there is pressure, there is worry.
"Mostly," Gonzalez says, "we just want to play better. We just want to
step it up and play the way we can. You hear the talk, but we've stayed away
from it, hoping it all goes away. We're a veteran team. Nobody wants
distractions. But this is a very professional team. We don't get caught up in
things like that."
They might, of course, in more private moments. But for now, they'd
rather get caught up in the thrill of watching Schilling and Johnson make up
40 percent of their rotation.
Showalter calls his co-aces "special" pitchers. And combined, they have
the potential to form one of the most special two-headed rotation monsters of
modern times.
Only three previous times in history have two 300-strikeout men been part
of the same starting rotation. And only one of those twosomes -- Nolan Ryan
and Mike Scott, on the mid-'80s Astros -- even remotely parallels Johnson
Schilling.
There was Ryan and J.R. Richard in Houston in 1980. But that duet was broken
up after just a half a season by Richard's tragic stroke. And there was a
Steve Carlton-Vida Blue pairing on the '86 Giants that lasted only a month in the fading days of both pitchers' careers.
So only Ryan-Scott approaches this power duet -- particularly in 1987, when they
finished 1-2 in the league in whiffs. And both Schilling and Johnson know
there are unique benefits to having each other around.
Schilling on Johnson: "For seven or eight years, I would hear people say, 'We can't wait till you get out the mound, because we need a win today.' I enjoyed those expectations because I always felt like you had to earn that kind of reputation. And now, watching (the Unit) pitch, I think I know what
people feel like. When he goes to the mound, I'm counting it as a 'W.' And
when you lose and he pitches, it feels different than the other days."
Johnson on Schilling: "I've obviously pitched with a lot of very good
pitchers, but probably never with someone of his caliber. ... And there's a
lot to be said for it. It's a lot of fun having someone like that you can
talk a little shop with. Not that I haven't talked shop with other guys, but
we've had some real good conversations. He's not going to change the way I
pitch. I'm not going to change the way he pitches. But maybe I can get a
little insight from him on ways to pitch the other team. And maybe he can do
the same for me."
After Schilling lost to the Pirates on Saturday, he and the Unit sat next to
each other in the dugout the following day, chewing over what had happened
and why.
"We talked about the mistakes I made," Schilling says. "It was a treat ... We're dissimilar in a lot of ways, but exactly the same in a lot of ways. We approach things a lot the same. But we have different ways of explaining
it. And those are the ways you end up getting better and learning. He's 37
years old. He's been around. There's a lot of experience there. And I
definitely hope to tap into it."
But the Diamondbacks can learn something from Schilling, too.
Like perspective.
Measured against the standards they set for themselves last year, when
they won 100 games and outscored their opponents by 232 runs, this season has
been a letdown. But measured against the standards Schilling lived with for
nine years in Philadelphia, this is nirvana. He doesn't mind reminding them
of that, either.
"One of the hardest adjustments," Schilling jokes, "is that I have to
watch SportsCenter from the beginning now -- because the team I play for now
is on there at the beginning, not just at the end."
But there is good reason for that. This is a team that hasn't been more
than three games out of first place since April 29, 1999. This is a franchise
that is 18 games over .500 in its three-year history -- 41 games better than
the next-best expansion record after three years (the Rockies, who were 29
under). And this is a team, despite all its troubles lately, that seems to be
getting its act together.
One encouraging development is the bullpen. Mantei is finally healthy,
throwing 98 mph, mixing in the best slider of his career, ripping
off eight straight saves and a 0.66 ERA over the last five weeks. Kim, who
has 82 strikeouts in 50 innings, is back from a two-week tuneup in Tucson,
and seems recovered from a mini-implosion in July. And that has restored the
order that existed early, when Greg Swindell, Dan Plesac and Mike Morgan were
setting up as well as any group in baseball.
"We haven't really swung the bats the way we're capable all year, or like we
did last year," Showalter says. "But we were able to overcome that early
because of our bullpen. Now, with (Kim) back pitching the way he's supposed
to, we can get everybody back in the roles where they're the most
comfortable. Heck, we had to close some games with Mike Morgan. We had all
kinds of combinations."
But to beat the Giants, this team will still have to score more runs than
it has. Until last weekend in Pittsbugh, Arizona had scored more than five
runs in only three of its previous 21 games. But Sunday and Monday, Williams -- who had been 5-for-47 for the year with runners in scoring position (.106) -- busted out with four hits in seven at-bats with men in scoring position. So
suddenly, Williams was 14 for his last 40 (.350) through Monday. And there's
no more important cog in that lineup than him.
"I'm not going to feel 100 percent again until February in Tucson,"
Williams says. "But you have to make adjustments, whether it's in baseball,
whether it's in life, whatever it is. Sometimes it's tough to make those
adjustments. But that's what I'm trying to do. I'm going to try and play
every game from here on out -- hopefully until the last game of the World
Series."
If Williams can get straightened out, if Finley can regain his first-half
magic, if the bullpen gets back in working order, if Stottlemyre comes back
Sept. 3 and contributes -- and if those Twin Towers just dominate the way
they're supposed to -- the Diamondbacks remain a big threat to win it all.
But if those things don't happen? Then this won't be the happiest ship in
baseball's ocean. And the manager knows exactly where the fingers will point.
"People think there's some sort of agenda," Showalter says. "Well, the
agenda is winning. That's what I was hired to do. I was hired to win the
World Series. Anything short of that, the criticism comes with it. But that's
because we have expectations now. I'm very proud of the expectations we
created last year. I just want to continue creating them."
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | |
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