Don't expect a worldwide draft any time soon
With the June draft fast approaching, it appears there will be no changes to the current system this season.
Remember that worldwide baseball draft that appeared so imminent in the hours before the new labor deal was sealed last August? Uh, never mind -- at least for now.
As the labor agreement was going down, owners and players agreed on the concept for numerous changes in the draft. They just couldn't figure out the sticky details. So they decided to hold off for a year and let a new committee figure it all out.
Well, with the June draft just a few weeks away, zippo has been resolved. In fact, the committee has had precisely one meeting -- last week. And members were told, according to baseball sources, that if they couldn't get this mess worked out before this draft, baseball would just stick with the current system until the next labor deal.
| Burks on the move? | |||||
Here's a name to add to the July trade-candidate menu: Ellis Burks. The Indians explored trading Burks last July, too. But he had the ability to block a deal (most likely to Boston or Oakland) and opted to stay. This year, he's in the final season on his contract, playing on a young team going nowhere. So it would seem more likely he'll agree to go. But where? The A's have Erubiel Durazo now to fill that DH vacancy. Edgar Martinez is still mashing in Seattle. The Yankees and Red Sox are well-stocked at DH. And the Twins and Royals don't seem like good fits. So unless somebody gets hurt, the Indians might have a limited market for a premium bat who isn't a National League kind of player anymore. |
However, another member of the committee says no deadlines whatsoever have been established, and that the committee plans to meet twice a month for the next few months "and we'll see where that takes us." But even if the goal is now to get a new system worked out by the 2004 draft, massive complications remain.
"They can't even agree on how many rounds the draft should be," says one source. "Is it going to be 20 rounds, or 32, or 48? They can't even agree on that. So I don't think there's much chance of them agreeing on the hard stuff."
The worldwide draft has proved to be such a logistical nightmare that, as much as some baseball people love it in theory, they have no idea how to make it work. It's so difficult to determine such basic information as accurate names and ages in some countries that teams stand a good chance of not even knowing whom they're drafting.
But even some of the other, simpler issues that were supposed to be reworked -- letting teams trade picks, eliminating compensation picks for lost free agents -- are still hanging. So can all this be figured out in three weeks?
"No shot," says one baseball man. And what are the odds of it ever being figured out? Not a whole lot better.
With his big brother's team, Detroit, in town last weekend, Young worked out for a bunch of Devil Rays officials at Tropicana Field, including GM Chuck LaMar and manager Lou Piniella.
"To me," says one scouting director, "this kid is the best hitter and best position player -- high school or college -- in this draft. He's more athletic than his brother. He should have more power. And if he progresses the way you'd figure, he can be a Manny Ramirez or an Albert Pujols, a real advanced fast-track high school hitter."
Marlins Rumblings & Grumblings
Nevertheless, a high-ranking MLB official tells Rumblings: "That doesn't matter. No one wakes up on a Saturday and says, 'I think I'll fire this guy tonight.' You've always got time to think about it."
So the Marlins were required to tell the commissioner in advance what they planned to do, whom they planned to hire, which candidates were considered and why. Since they didn't do that -- and, apparently, considered no minorities before hiring McKeon -- they almost certainly will be disciplined, barring a tremendous late-breaking alibi.
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Our early line on Most Likely Marlin to Be Dealt Before the Deadline: Mike Lowell to the Cubs, who have been pursuing him relentlessly for months.
If Torborg and pitching coach Brad Arnsberg were canned because of the old-school way they handled A.J. Burnett and the pitching staff, how could they be replaced by an older-school guy like McKeon?
"Pitch counts -- Jack doesn't believe in that," says one executive who worked with McKeon in a previous stop.
To verify that, we went back and checked pitcher workloads under McKeon when he was in Cincinnati. Let's just say he was no Captain Hook.
In three and a half seasons, his pitchers threw 120 pitches or more 35 times, went 130 or more 10 times and peaked at 148, in a Ron Villone complete game on Sept. 29, 2000. Nine different Reds starters threw 120 pitches or more under McKeon. Six threw 130 or more. Sounds pretty old-school to us.
"They're just trying to win over that Miami Beach seniors group," quipped one scout. "That's all."
Not that a pitch count that high should surprise anyone who has followed Baker's managerial career. Giants starters blew by 120 pitches 19 times last year (most in the big leagues). And both Russ Ortiz and Livan Hernandez were allowed to top 130 pitches -- with Hernandez throwing 138 in a shutout last Aug. 19 in Florida.
The last Baker starter to throw 141 or more was also Hernandez, who reached 143 in a May 30, 2000 start in Philadelphia of 8 1/3 innings.
Hernandez threw 130 pitches or more eight times under Baker. Ortiz went over 130 seven times.
"When you get to 141, you're way out there with most pitchers," says an official of an AL team that closely monitors pitcher workload. "That's a real danger zone. You have to remember, if a guy pitches eight innings, that's also 64 warm-ups between innings, or 72 if he goes nine. Plus whatever he throws in the bullpen before the game."
Miscellaneous Rumblings
Meanwhile, Bud Selig and Don Fehr have both raised objections to the Washington group about the stadium-financing plan that would place a special tax just on the salaries of players. That tax would have to be approved by Congress, by the way. And baseball will lobby strongly against it.
| A Royal sucess story | |||||
Best young starting pitcher two AL scouts have seen this year: the Royals' Jeremy Affeldt. "This guy has a chance to be something special," says one scout. "His fastball is 93-94 (mph). He has a Zito curve ball and a real good change. He's something, man." Another scout who saw Affeldt's first start off the disabled list earlier this month calls his first inning that day "the most dominant inning I've seen anybody throw all year. And that includes (Mark) Mulder, (Barry) Zito or (Mike) Mussina." Some people think Affeldt's unorthodox delivery could come back to hurt him some day, but one scout says: "It's not something I'd worry about. To me, his delivery adds to his whole package, not detracts from it. It makes him very, very deceptive." |
Littlefield knows he opened the door to this speculation by not extending McClendon's contract. But he still says: "I just don't see Lloyd McClendon as being the problem here."
The bullpen, which was among the best in baseball last year, has been a late-inning nightmare. A lineup full of veteran position players has scored fewer runs than any teams but the Tigers and Indians. Their one offensive constant, Brian Giles, just came off the disabled list. And even defense has been a surprising problem. Which is a great formula for a collapse.
"Anybody who knows Lloyd knows he's a tough, strong guy," Littlefield says. "Holding the clubhouse together is one of his strengths. So whatever our record is, the status of his contract is one of the least of our problems. We just need to perform better."
In retrospect, Piazza's friend says, everybody regrets that Piazza wasn't given the opportunity early in his career to do what Johnny Bench did virtually his whole career -- to learn first base gradually and get more at-bats by playing first on days he didn't catch. Of course, the guy most opposed to that for most of those years was Piazza himself.
Piazza has long expected to finish his career at first base, his friend says. But now, his throwing troubles behind the plate have gotten almost embarrassing -- making Piazza more amenable to trying first than he's ever been.
By the way, Piazza would much rather be a first baseman than an American League DH, assuming he finds he can handle the position. But no one knows yet whether he can.
"For some reason, that's a position people take for granted, and you can't," says one NL executive. "That's a critical position to play. And this guy is not that athletic. It's going to come down to a question of where he can hurt you the least."
Mesa was scored on in seven of his first 18 appearances this year, including a five-run blow-up of a tie game with Arizona on Tuesday. And an official of one team he pitched against recently made a comment that was as telling about Mesa as it was about the fast-rising starter who had dominated his club most of that game, Brett Myers.
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"Man, I was glad to see Myers get out of there and Mesa come in," the official said. "At least against Mesa, you feel like you have a chance."
"That kid can pitch, man," Schilling says. "It's been a long time since I heard guys come back to the bench talking like that."
"You're going to hear a lot about that guy before he's done," says Mark Grace. "He's got three quality pitches, and he's got good command of all three. That hard curve ball is probably his best pitch, and he never even threw one to me. He didn't need to. The fastball and change were enough."
"They might have been looking in for location," says one scout who was at the game, "but I don't think they were stealing signs. (Catcher) Greg Myers is pretty intelligent, and he'd have figured it out if they were. From where I sat, they didn't swing the bat at Escobar like they knew something was coming."
Washburn's velocity is down to the mid-80s -- "and if this guy's velocity is down, as a high-fastball pitcher, he's going to have trouble," says one AL scout. "You just can't put that many pitches up in the strike zone at 85-86 (mph) and survive. He's not getting those swings and misses he used to get. And he's only pitching to one side of the plate (the outer half)."
Mays, meanwhile, has lost the feel for his great breaking ball since his elbow surgery -- "so he's trying to be a mini-Radke. A lot of sinkers. A lot of change-ups. He's a fifth starter now, is all he is, if his stuff doesn't come back."
"Minnesota used to be the young team to watch, but now it's Toronto," the scout says. "I'm not saying they're the best team. But teams like the Yankees and the Angels and the A's are pretty much the same teams they've been. This team is just fun to watch. Their young players really get you excited. I can't wait to see Jayson Werth's next at-bat, or Josh Phelps' next at-bat. And at least when this team gets beat, it's not because they don't play hard."
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"One thing that's obvious," says one NL scout, "is that he's lost a lot of bulk. He's not as stiff. He's more flexible now, and it's allowing him to play defense much better. I can remember last year, he was having problems in the field, and even (Tom) Glavine -- who never showed emotion or showed a guy up -- was really getting frustrated with him. And he wasn't alone. I think most people on that team didn't think he could play defensively.
"Offensively, he was always pretty good. But now he's hitting second behind (Rafael) Furcal. And you see him bunting Furcal over and doing all the little things he never did before."
Another scout calls Giles "the most improved player in the league." And he had to be to sell Braves manager Bobby Cox, who played veteran utility man Keith Lockhart over Giles much of last year.
"If Lockhart was still there, Bobby would probably still be running him out there," one scout says. "So maybe the best decision they made all winter was not bringing Lockhart back. It's allowed (Giles) to blossom."
The rent on the apartment Henderson is renting in North Jersey is higher than his salary (the Atlantic League maximum of $3,000 a month). So our man Rickey (last seen hitting .412, with a .553 on-base percentage, after 11 games) is actually playing for a loss. How much of a loss, only his accountant knows for sure.
5. "When I'm in South Florida, my favorite cataract surgeon is ..."
4. "If there's a better bingo hall in all of Miami than ..."
3. "For the best selection in pill boxes in South Florida ..."
2. "What do I take before a day game after a night game? Centrum Silver. Of course."
1. "I know a good cod liver oil from a cheap imitation, and ..."
Triviality answer
Question: Rafael Palmeiro is one of four active players who have homered against all 30 teams. Can you name the other three?
Answer: According to the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, Ellis Burks, Bret Boone and Richie Sexson have also homered against every team.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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