What a week.
The Expos swept the Mets. The Tigers swept the White Sox. The Rockies swept the Cardinals. Chris Peters beat Al Leiter. Joe Beimel beat Seth Etherton. Chris Michalak beat El Duque.
The A's, Diamondbacks, Reds and White Sox were all in last place a week into the season. The Expos, Blue Jays, Twins and A-Rod-less Mariners were all in first place.
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Jayson Stark's
Lines of the Week
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First prize
Andy Benes, Cardinals
Wednesday vs. Colorado
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IP
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H
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R
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ER
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BB
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K
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2.2
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9
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10
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10
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2
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2
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Benes also gave up five extra-base hits (two home runs, two doubles and a triple) among his nine hits. "You've got to be able to get somebody out," Benes said. "And I didn't do that." |
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Second prize
Steve Trachsel, Mets
Saturday vs. Montreal
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IP
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H
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R
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ER
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BB
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K
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5
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9
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10
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10
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4
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5
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Trachsel became the third veteran starter in the last six seasons to give up 10 runs or more in his first start for his new team. The others, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: Frank Viola for Toronto (in a 17-3 loss to Cleveland) on April 28, 1996, and Jim Bullinger for Seattle (in a 13-7 loss to the Yankees) on April 7, 1998. "It's not the way I wanted to start the season," Trachsel said.
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Third prize
Matt Morris, Cardinals
Thursday vs. Colorado
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IP
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H
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R
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ER
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BB
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K
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3
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11
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10
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6
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1
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1
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73 pitches to get 9 outs. In Morris' defense, the carnage did include three bloop hits, two infield singles and an error that led to four runs. "It's hard enough pitching nowadays," Morris said. "Then you see infield hits, pop-ups falling, opposite-field home runs."
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Which means it's time to ask:
What the heck is going on here?
"Parity," says Indians soon-to-be-GM Mark Shapiro. "That's my first impression. You sit back and look at the scores, look at the standings, and that's the word that comes to mind: Parity."
OK, before Bud and all the guys at Labor Central have a conniption, parity is all relative. Everybody understands that. The Twins aren't ready to dethrone the Yankees. The Expos aren't planning their parade route yet. But even a week into the season, one thing seems more clear than ever:
This is one year when the rich haven't gotten richer. There appears to be no super-duper team out there, ready to run off and obliterate everybody in its path. The jury is still out -- on just about everything.
But that, of course, is why we love this sport. So here's our attempt to make sense of what we've seen so far:
Power Alley
We've come to think of the Braves and Yankees as our two annual known quantities -- two teams that ought to just start the season Oct. 1. But even after a week, it's obvious both have holes they haven't had before.
Yes, the Yankees have Mike Mussina. But Friday, in a game that wasn't played at 10 a.m. in Tampa, their names in the pitching half of the box score went: Parker ... Almanzar ... Choate ... Williams.
"The Yankees aren't as good," says one NL scout. "Their bullpen really bothers me. And the age of their club bothers me."
A week into the season, the Braves had a 5.37 team ERA -- and were next-to-last in runs scored and team batting average. Which is a very un-Braves-like combination.
They continue to insist the Time-Warner-AOL merger hasn't affected their operations in any tangible way. But officials from other clubs continue to buzz about it.
"I hear they're streamlining in the minor leagues now," says one official. "And money is a bigger concern there now than people think. I always think of them as the free-spending Braves. But I don't think you can apply that term anymore."
Shed no tears
The Braves and Yankees aren't the only playoff teams showing cracks. The Giants' strength is supposed to be pitching -- but they got their brains beat in over the weekend in Dodger Stadium.
"Some of it is just cyclical," says one baseball exec. "The Braves and Yankees are just dealing with the natural maturation of their teams. And San Francisco is just a victim of monetary limitations. They couldn't do the things they needed to do over the winter. They couldn't keep Ellis Burks or sign the kind of guy they needed to replace him."
Meanwhile, the Mets -- another team that rode pitching and defense to the postseason -- just gave up 25 runs in three games in their sweep at Stade Olympique. And Benny Agbayani's broken hand makes their already-thin outfield even skimpier.
"The only thing that's made the Mets better," says one scout, "is the Braves, because they've stayed status quo themselves."
Who's expecting?
Then we have the case of the defending AL Central champion White Sox and the Marlins and Royals -- three young teams being viewed as teams on the rise.
So the Marlins promptly opened the season by getting swept by the Phillies (before rebounding to take two of three from Atlanta). The Royals started 0-4 -- before winning Saturday and Sunday. And the White Sox won Opening Day in Cleveland, behind David Wells -- then lost four in a row.
"It's always harder to win when you have expectations than it is when you're just riding that feel-good momentum," says one front-office man. "I think you're seeing that with the White Sox. We're not sure Wells has No. 1-type stuff anymore. And after that, they're putting a lot of weight on guys like (Mark) Buerhle, (Sean) Lowe, (Rocky) Biddle. They're going to need to stabilize their pitching. And the pressure they're facing this year -- it's a different kind of pressure than they faced last year."
Another club official says of Florida: "I really think the Marlins are going to be good eventually. They remind me a lot of where the A's were a few years ago. But it's a progression. The A's made a run and almost got there two years ago. Last year they made the playoffs. Now this year, they're ready to win. The Marlins still have to make all those steps."
The A's, of course, haven't exactly roared out of the gates, either. But there seems to be a sense that they're different -- because they have made that progression and because they added Johnny Damon to the mix.
"They've got those expectations, too," says one exec. "But they've got the confidence to deal with it. I still feel Oakland will be the power in the American League."
Who's for real?
Break up the Twins.
"They're better," says one scout. "Their kids have played enough now that they're getting experienced. Their rotation is good enough to give them five to seven good innings a lot of nights. They're not going to win. But they have a shot to be as close to .500 as they've been in a lot of years."
Break up the Expos.
"They've got so much young position-player talent," says one exec. "If they only had enough money to go get one or two veteran guys, it would really help, because they've got a ton of talent all over the field."
Break up the Blue Jays.
"This might be the year the world finally recognizes Carlos Delgado," says one scout. "We were talking the other night about who was the most feared power hitter in the game. And we decided this guy was No. 1 -- over Manny, over Sosa, over any of them. And this is a very athletic team. They play hard. If they get any pitching at all, that could be a club to be reckoned with."
The paper-weight division
How good are the Indians? How good are the Cardinals? How good are the Rangers, Mariners, Red Sox, Rockies and Dodgers?
You can make a great case for all of them on paper. But ...
Will the Indians stay healthy? What kind of contribution will the Cardinals get from Mark McGwire?
Can the Rangers pitch? Can the Mariners hit? Can the Red Sox not be a daily soap opera until Nomar gets back? Can the Rockies really win at Coors Field? Can the Dodgers finally fit all the pieces together?
"The first month throws out so many weird questions," says one NL official. "You don't know what to make of them. So many clubs could go one way or the other, and it's too early to say. But it all comes back to pitching, especially starting pitching. That's where I'm seeing the parity. Who's got a real good solid staff, one to four? The Yankees? And then who?"
Well, we'll find out, won't we? That, friends, is why we also play weeks 2-26.
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Triviality
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When Rickey Henderson returns to the big leagues, he'll arrive with a streak of 22 straight seasons of at least 20 stolen bases. Can you name the active player with the second-longest streak of 20-plus steals?
(Answer at bottom.)
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Miscellaneous rumblings
We don't know where John Hart's next journey will take him. But we know this: What he accomplished in Cleveland over the last decade qualifies as an official baseball miracle.
The Indians hadn't finished first in 37 years when Hart arrived in 1991. Now they're a quasi-dynasty, and a model franchise.
The respect his successor, Mark Shapiro, has accumulated around the game at age 34 is remarkable. But Shapiro also knows he has a near-impossible act to follow.
"With the track record we've had here, there's very little up side and a lot of down side," Shapiro admits.
Hart could see that over the next few years, under new owner Larry Dolan, the Indians were about to drop out of the top five in payroll to the upper reaches of the middle of the pack. And that may have played a role in his decision to step down at the end of the season. But still, this isn't a fire-sale situation on the horizon. Shapiro says it's more "like a market correction."
"We'll still be 10-12-14 in payroll, like where the Cubs and Rockies are," Shapiro says. "And that's OK. There are no excuses for not winning when you're in that range. But the days of trying to win with an All-Star at every position here will be gone."
The Indians are loaded with young pitching (C.C Sabathia, Tim Drew, Danys Baez). They're short on young position players, but they have enough of their nucleus tied up to be good for a long time.
So the big question isn't where they go from here. It's where Hart goes from here.
There is already speculation about Atlanta, if John Schuerholz decides to move upstairs, or Los Angeles, if the Dodgers change regimes. But whatever, Hart has the unique opportunity to kick back in Cleveland as a special advisor if he wants, or to pick the perfect job elsewhere if he wants.
"I think there's no doubt John doesn't want to be a slave to the (grueling GM work) cycle for at least some period of time," Shapiro says. "I think he's open to any possibility that's out there. But he's not doing this to create something else. He's like one of those rare athletes -- the one in 20 who pulls back of his own choice. And he's earned that."
Esteban Loaiza's hot start has surprised a lot of people. But you're hearing a lot of "it's about times" from the scouting community: "This guy's got good stuff," said one scout. "There's no reason he shouldn't be good. It comes down to competitiveness, and he hasn't always shown it in the past."
A couple of years ago, Houston's Jose Cabrera was seen as a potential closer. Now he's on the block, after being designated for assignment by the Astros last week. Among clubs believed to be interested: Royals, Pirates and Diamondbacks.
Devil Rays mega-prospect Matt White finished strong in Triple-A last year, indicating he was finally on track to the big leagues. But White lost his delivery this spring, hit three batters in his first spring-training outing and continued to be scary-wild in his Triple-A debut this weekend (4 IP, 6 H, 2 WP, 2 HBP).
One observer's report: "The line in the box scored looked better than he really was. He threw some pitches behind hitters. He completely missed his spot on a bunch of pitches. He looked almost like he's got 'The Thing.' "
The era of the 10-man pitching staff has gotten to be almost as extinct as the Bronze Age. Only three teams opened the season with a 10-man staff: the Giants, A's and Tigers. But 19 clubs carried 11 pitchers, and eight went with 12 -- including two AL teams (Texas and Toronto).
And we don't know what this means, but we'll pass it along anyway. We've often thought of Duke and the Yankees as the two remaining dynasties in modern sports. But they've never won championships in the same calendar year. Duke's national titles: 1991, 1992 and 2001. The Yankees obviously couldn't shoot the three in any of those years.
Useless information dept.
Hideo Nomo no-hitter note No. 1: Nomo is only the second pitcher since 1900 to throw the first no-hitter at two different major-league parks (Coors Field, Camden Yards).
The other, according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Randy Robles, was some nobody named Cy Young. Young achieved his feat at Boston's Huntington Ave. Baseball Grounds (May 5, 1904) and the Coors Field of its time, New York's Hilltop Park (June 30, 1908).
Hideo Nomo no-hitter note No. 2: Not only is Nomo the only pitcher with no-hitters at both Coors and Camden Yards, how about this: Only one other pitcher has thrown a shutout at both Coors and Camden Yards. That would be -- who else? -- Mr. Pedro Martinez.
Hideo Nomo no-hitter note No. 3: Nomo is the only active pitcher with more than one no-hitter -- and the first in the big leagues with multiple no-hitters since Nolan Ryan retired in 1993.
Our friend Lee Sinins, of baseballimmortals.net, reports that the only longer drought of its kind since 1900 was 12-plus years (between the retirement of Dutch Leonard in 1925 and Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter in 1938). Most active pitchers at one time with more than one no-hitter: five, in 1974, by Ryan, Ken Holtzman, Bill Stoneman, Don Wilson and Steve Busby.
Hideo Nomo no-hitter note No. 4: The Red Sox hadn't thrown a no-hitter since Sept. 16, 1965 (Dave Morehead). The only Red Sox player on the field for Nomo's no-hitter who was even alive for Morehead's was Craig Grebeck -- who had just turned 9 months old at the time.
Hideo Nomo no-hitter note No. 5: In between Red Sox no-hitters, we had eight presidential administrations, 14 Red Sox managers, 15 teams not from Boston that won a World Series, nine NBA championships by the Celtics, two Stanley Cups won by the Bruins, six Cy Youngs won by Red Sox pitchers who didn't throw a no-hitter, 18 one-hitters by Red Sox pitchers who didn't throw a no-hitter, nine 20-win seasons by Red Sox pitchers who didn't throw a no-hitter, 71 shutouts that weren't no-hitters just by the Roger Clemens-Luis Tiant-Pedro sector of the Red Sox rotation and 91 no-hitters by teams that weren't the Red Sox.
Say what you will about Manny Ramirez. But he can obviously say hello with just as much hoopla as he says goodbye. He homered on the last pitch he saw as an Indian at Jacobs Field last year -- and the first pitch he saw with the Red Sox at Fenway.
Among many unexpected developments in that Rick Ankiel-Randy Johnson duel Sunday was this one: The Unit had four strikeouts, while Ankiel whiffed eight.
Elias' Rob Tracy reports this was only the fifth time in Johnson's career that the opposing starter had at least four more strikeouts than he did:
April 26, 1996 -- Scott Karl (Brewers) 8, RJ 1
Aug. 8, 1993 -- Steve Dreyer (Rangers) 6, RJ 2
Sept. 16, 1990 -- Mark Langston (Angels) 8, RJ 3
May 7, 1989 -- Pete Smith (Braves) 8, RJ 4
The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, reports that the Dodgers did something Thursday they'd never done before -- in either Brooklyn or Chavez Ravine: start a game by having their first two hitters go deep. Tom Goodwin and Mark Grudzielanek (who hit 13 homers all last season) did the honors.
More from Vincent. Astros third baseman Chris Truby became just the seventh player in history to hit a home run in his team's first three games of the season. The rest of this tremendous list:
Carl Furillo -- '55 Dodgers
Kevin Mitchell -- '91 Giants
Dean Palmer -- '92 Rangers
Billy Williams -- '71 Cubs
Dave Winfield -- '83 Yankees
Jim Wynn -- '74 Dodgers
Still more from Vincent: Phillies third baseman Scott Rolen homered on Opening Day for the third straight year -- one short of the all-time record streak held by Yogi Berra (1955-58), Gary Carter (1977-80) and Todd Hundley (1994-97).
Rolen joins 11 other men who homered in the opener three straight years. That group includes four Hall of Famers (George Brett, Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, Dave Winfield), two future Hall of Famers (Ken Griffey Jr., Jeff Bagwell), his current hitting coach (Richie Hebner) and a funky cast of others (Dan Ford, Frank McCormick, Danny Tartabull, Gus Triandos).
Welcome to Coors Field, Mike Hampton. Eight shutout innings in his first start at Coors. Nine runs allowed in his second.
Since only four Rockies before Hampton ever took a shutout into the ninth at Coors, we thought we'd look at how those four did in their next home start:
Brian Bohanon, Sept. 10, 1999, vs. Milwaukee: 8 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
Darryl Kile, Sept. 26, 1998, vs. San Francisco: 6 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR
Roger Bailey, May 25, 1997, vs. Houston: 8 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 0 HR,br>
Mark Thompson, Aug. 24, 1996, vs. Pittsburgh: 9 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
Quite a week for those Orioles. In between winning a game Pedro started and getting no-hit by Nomo, they also became the first AL team since the '93 Red Sox to go homerless through their first five games of the season. (Incidentally, only one member of that Red Sox team, Mo Vaughn, went on to hit 15 homers.)
Three NL teams in the last 10 years managed to avoid any home-run trots through the first five games, according to Elias: the '98 Phillies, '98 Pirates and '93 expansion Marlins.
When a no-hitter and a three-homer game come on the same day, it's a veritable feat-a-thon. And counting Nomo and Carlos Delgado, there now have been four days on which we've seen that combo happen. But Baseball Immortals' Lee Sinins counted eight other times they've happened on back-to-back days.
Same day
DATE NO-HITTER 3-HR GAME
May 17, 1963 Don Leppert Don Nottebart
August 13, 1969 Jim Palmer Roberto Clemente
July 3, 1970 Clyde Wright Mike Lum
April 4, 2001 Hideo Nomo Carlos Delgado
Back-to-back days
May 12-13, 1955 -- Sam Jones, Mickey Mantle
April 22-23, 1964 -- Willie McCovey, Ken Johnson
June 18-19, 1974 -- Bobby Grich, Steve Busby
September 18-19, 1986 -- Reggie Jackson, Joe Cowley
May 29-30, 1977 -- Larry Parrish, Dennis Eckersley
June 1-2, 1990 -- Glenn Davis, Randy Johnson
September 7-8, 1993 -- Mark Whiten (4 HR), Darryl Kile
May 10-11, 1996 -- Ernie Young, Al Leiter
Who's the most unhittable pitcher in baseball so far? Arizona's Byung-Hyun Kim. Literally.
The Valley Tribune's Ed Price reports that two appearances and one week into Kim's season, he's faced 13 hitters -- and NONE have put the ball in play. Nine strikeouts. Four walks. No fair balls.
Finally, here's our banner of the week:. In the upper reaches of Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium -- home of Randy Wolf's "Wolf Pack" and Omar Daal's "Daal House" -- this banner was hung last week in honor of Pat Burrell:
"Burrell's Penthouse."
Lists of the week
Mike Hampton might not have won his last start at Coors Field. But at least he hit a home run, making him the 18th pitcher to go deep at Coors since it opened in 1995. That's the good news. The bad news is: Of those 18 pitchers, only four wound up with a homer and a win.
First, here's the complete total of home runs hit by pitchers at all NL parks since '95, courtesy of David Vincent:
18 Coors Field
15 San Diego/Jack MurphyStadium
10 Joe Robbie Stadium
10 Veteran's Stadium
9 Dodger Stadium
8 Riverfront Stadium
8 Three Rivers Stadium
7 Turner Field
7 Wrigley Field
7 County Stadium
7 Shea Stadium
5 Stade Olympique
4 Busch Stadium II
3 Bank OneBallpark
3 Pacific Bell Park
1 Enron Field
Then there's this list -- EVERY PITCHER WHO EVER HOMERED AT COORS (and how he fared in the pitching half of his day):
PITCHER DATE TEAM (W-L-ND)
Bill Swift May 7, 1995 Rockies ND
Kevin Foster May 23, 1995 Cubs W
Marvin Freeman May 23, 1995 Rockies L
Jim Bullinger April 10, 1996 Cubs ND
J. Isringhausen July 24, 1996 Mets ND
Darren Holmes April 13, 1997 Rockies ND
Carlos Perez April 13, 1997 Expos W
Steve Trachsel Aug. 28, 1998 Cubs W
Scott Karl June 6, 1999 Brewers L
Curtis Leskanic June 9, 1999 Rockies ND
Carlos Perez July 7, 1999 Dodgers ND
Brian Bohanon Sept. 10, 1999 Rockies W
Masato Yoshii May 26, 2000 Rockies L
Gabe White June 10, 2000 Rockies ND
Livan Hernandez June 28, 2000 Giants ND
Joe Nathan June 29, 2000 Giants L
Brian Bohanon Sept. 19, 2000 Rockies L
Mike Hampton April 7, 2001 Rockies ND
Trivia answer
Kenny Lofton (nine in a row), followed by four players with streaks of six years: Omar Vizquel, Tom Goodwin, Eric Young and Brian Hunter.
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings appears each Monday.
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