It's a June draft that has most scouting directors looking for a good therapist. No sure-thing, big-time, top-of-the-draft studs. Teams changing their minds every hour on the hour. The usual humongous signing demands.
But none of that is the real problem. The real problem in the draft world these days is that the supply of young American baseball players seems to be dwindling to dangerously spare levels.
"I'm really getting concerned," says one scouting director. "We said last year was a 'down' year, but last year wasn't as good as the year before that. And where I see it most is in the position players.
"We still have high school arms you can say are projectable. That part's not as tough, because kids are just born with good arms. But position players have to play a lot of years to develop their skills -- especially the hitting skills. And I'm just not sure that kids in this country are playing as much baseball as they used to."
Fortunately for baseball, Latin America and the Asian rim are rising to meet the demand. But the best idea to address the talent shortage in North America is still Syd Thrift's old brainstorm -- the Dominican-style baseball academy come home.
Think of all the great athletes out there who play a little baseball here and there but mostly dream of playing point guard for the Lakers or wide receiver for the 49ers. If baseball plowed some money and energy into teaching a fraction of those kids how to play baseball, it would get that money back and then some.
Draft Central
Yet one more projection on the top of the June draft, as it looked 48 hours in advance:
1. Marlins: Adrian Gonzalez, 1B, East Lake HS, Chula Vista, Calif.
(SCOUTING REPORT: "Good-looking swing. Solid first baseman. Might not have the power you look for in a first baseman, but a lot of guys like him to get stronger.")
2. Twins: Matt Harrington, RHP, Palmdale HS, Palmdale, Calif.
(SCOUTING REPORT: "Hardest thrower in the draft. Still needs work on command of breaking ball and consistency.")
3. Cubs: Luis Montanez, SS, Coral Park HS, Miami.
(SCOUTING REPORT: "Love this kid. Not sure he?s a shortstop. But could be a Chipper Jones-type third baseman.")
4. Royals: Adam Johnson, RHP, Cal Fullerton.
(SCOUTING REPORT: "They want a college pitcher, and this kid will get there pretty quick. But maybe not as high a ceiling as you?d like to see in the No. 4 pick.")
5. Expos: Mike Stodolka, LHP, Cenennial HS, Corona, Calif.
(SCOUTING REPORT: "Has touched 93-94. Pitches at 90-91. Denny Neagle with a little more fastball.")
Rest of the top 10
6. Devil Rays: Rocco Baldelli, OF, Bishop Hendricken HS, Warwick, R.I.
7. Rockies: Chris Bootcheck, RHP, Auburn, or Jason Young, RHP, Stanford.
8. Tigers: Bootcheck or Matt Wheatland, RHP, Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego.
9. Padres: Mike Phillips, LHP, Hanover (Pa.) HS.
10. Angels: Dane Sardinha, C, Pepperdine.
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List of the week
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Only a blown call at the plate Tuesday kept Shawon Dunston from becoming the fifth player since 1900 to hit a grand slam and an inside-the-park home run in the same game. The four guys who are in that inside-the-park, grand-slamming club, according to SABR's David Vincent:
Roger Maris Aug. 3, 1958
Leo Durocher July 15, 1935
Charlie Gehringer Aug. 4, 1930
Everett Scott July 4, 1923
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One of the other fascinating draft stories will be what happens to Bobby Hill, the former University of Miami shortstop who followed Scott Boras' J.D. Drew conscientious-objector script after the White Sox took him No. 1 last year and headed for the Northern League. The White Sox have told other scouting directors they have videotapes of three teams talking to Hill while the Sox still held his rights -- and if any of those three clubs draft him, they?ll file tampering charges.
As the realigment debate rages on, it now appears there?s a chance that the National League could remain at three divisions, at least temporarily, as a vehicle to retain the wild card. But owners are firmly against the union's plan to go to 15 teams in each league. So next year's divisions could look a lot like this year's, with minor tinkering, if Arizona and Tampa Bay still switch leagues.
Meanwhile, even in a three-division NL, schedules still would change in both leagues and become far more unbalanced. Each club would play most other teams in its league in just one home-and-home series a year, while playing up to 18 games apiece against the other teams in its division.
But that schedule would be much messier than it would if the NL split into four divisions. So there's plenty of haggling still to be done on this front.
It's unclear how that would affect next year's interleague schedule, which was expected to be the first year of an interleague rotation system. The tentative plan is to have each team continue to match up with a geographic interleague rival, then play either all or most of the rest of its interleague games against clubs from another division.
A San Diego friend of prospective free agent Andy Ashby now says he thinks the chances Ashby will re-sign with the Phillies has sunk to "zero."
"Ash is big on comfort level," the friend says. "And he was very comfortable in San Diego. He's in a pressure cooker there (in Philadelphia), and that's not him."
Reds GM Jim Bowden on Ken Griffey's "struggles" in Cincinnati: "He's just in another environment, and it's taken him a while to adjust. But he's getting there. Once Dante (Bichette) and Sean (Casey) start hitting behind him, he'll be fine. But oh, by the way, he's on a pace to hit 50 and drive in 120 and win a gold Glove. So if he's struggling, I'd like to have nine guys just like him."
The Mariners almost had a major ground-rules crisis last homestand. They were closing the roof of Safeco Field during a game, and Edgar Martinez just missed hitting a ball that went through the opening and landed on top of the roof. There's no ground rule for that.
There's a Gene Lamont rumor for just about every occasion these days. But people close to Pirates CEO Kevin McClatchy believe Lamont is one more prolonged skid away from getting fired.
Pedro Martinez may have missed his start this weekend in Philadelphia. But his next three starts should be big-time theater. He's scheduled to face the Indians on Thursday for the first time since getting suspended for drilling Roberto Alomar. Then his next two starts should be against the Yankees, June 13 and 19. There's a possibility that one of those games -- probably the second -- could be a rematch against Roger Clemens.
Finally, our buddy Jim Caple, of this site and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, came across this flyer sent to Seattle real-estate agents recently, to promote the availability of a house in Issaquah, Wash., belonging to a former Mariners all-star of some renown:
"A haven from the outside world," the flyer says, this 4.6 acre estate provided a sanctuary for Ken Griffey Jr. and his family during his acclaimed time with the Mariners. The approximate 5,000-square foot home is wrapped in its manicured setting where nature harmoniously co-exists with the creature of its inhabitants.
"The Griffey's created an entertainer's paradise reflective of a major league lifestyle ..."
Interested? The house goes for $2.3 million (or enough to pay Junior for about two months). And it includes a circular driveway that fits more than a dozen vehicles, a barbecue gazebo and a master bedroom with a private exercise atrium and spa.
Not suitable for commuting to Orlando, however.
Useless information dept.
Nobody rises to an occasion like the great Pedro Martinez. His win over Roger Clemens last Sunday marked the sixth time in the last two seasons he has matched up against a fellow Cy Young award-winner. His record in those six starts: 6-0, 0.77 ERA, 30 hits and 66 strikeouts in 47 innings.
Both starting pitchers threw complete games at Yankee Stadium on Sunday and Monday -- Pedro and Roger on Sunday, Andy Pettitte and Omar Olivares on Monday. So that's four complete games in less than 24 hours in one park -- while six parks this year still haven?t been the site of any complete games: Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City), Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay), Qualcomm Stadium (San Diego), Coors Field (Colorado), Cinergy Field (Cincinnati) and that other park in New York, Shea Stadium.
Through Friday, at least one team had scored 10 runs in a game for the last 46 consecutive days. The record for a streak like that is 55 -- set last June-August. But danger lurks next Thursday, when only two games are scheduled.
And we're now up to 20 games in which a team has scored at least 10 runs and lost. There were only 21 games like that in the 1988-89-90 seasons combined. Crazy age we live in, isn?t it?
Events in baseball that are still more rare than an unassisted triple play (11 of those since 1900, counting Bill Wambansgas' World Series trifecta): four-homer games (10), nine-inning 20-strikeout games (three) and 35-game hitting streaks (seven since 1900).
You can understand why GMs are afraid to spend big bucks on pitching when you consider the case of Osvaldo Fernandez. The Reds tugged him out of the scrap heap this spring. He hadn't won a game in any professional league since 1997. And naturally, he immediately went 2-0, meaning he went into the weekend with at least as many wins as six opening-day starters -- Mike Mussina, Hideo Nomo, Andy Ashby, Sterling Hitchcock, Steve Woodard and the Reds' own opening-day starter, Pete Harnisch.
The Phillies were the only team in baseball to have three starting pitchers in their rotation who were on the All Star team last year (Curt Schilling, Ashby, Paul Byrd). When they sent Byrd to the minors Friday, the combined record of those three was 4-14. But it isn't only them. Throw out Pedro and the Big Unit, and, believe it or not, only one of last year's all-star starters went into the weekend with a winning record: Mike Hampton. The other 10 were a combined 20-47. Great year to be a pitcher.
You don't have to look long to find the last pitcher to make an All Star Team one year and get sent to the minors the next. Jason Dickson made it in '97, then pitched himself back to Edmonton in '98.
When Al Leiter served up a grand slam Monday to Shawn Green, it was the first slam he'd allowed in 12 years The Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR's David Vincent, reports that's the longest span ever between slams. The previous record was nine years, 355 days, by Ray Kolp, of the old Browns and Reds in the '20s and '30s. He went slamless for one more day than the great Larry Andersen, who went through four teams but no slams between Sept. 9, 1977 and Aug. 29, 1987.
In more home-run news, Trot Nixon's home run off Roger Clemens on Sunday did more than win that game. It also broke the record for most homers in a month (981). In Trot's next at-bat, two days later, he hit the 1,000th homer of the first 1,000-homer month in history. According to the Sultan, there had been seven 900-homer months (including April) -- all since 1998. At the current rate home runs are being hit, last month figures to be the first 1,000-homer month until this month.
The most incredible aspect of Tomokazu Ohka's perfect game for Pawtucket on Thursday is that he threw just 79 pitches. The fewest pitches ever thrown in a major-league perfect game was 86, by Jim Bunning in his 1964 perfecto against the Mets. Ohka ran no three-ball counts and just two two-ball counts -- and never threw more than 10 pitches in any inning.
The Pirates turned a double play Friday in Colorado without a ball being put in play. How? Tom Goodwin started to launch the front end of a double steal, then stopped between second and third because he got a lousy jump. But Mike Lansing then had no place to go on the road to second. So Kendall ran down Lansing, then fired to third to throw out Goodwin, who finally decided to break for third in earnest. Hard to do.
Chuck Finley may have three different four-strikeout innings. But hey, he's no Chris Booker. Howe Sportsdata reports that Booker ripped off one of those seldom-seen five-strikeout innings May 26 for the Daytona Cubs. The inning went: double, strikeout, strikeout, strikeout-passed ball (that's three whiffs), run-scoring dropped throw by the first baseman on the strikeout, strikeout-wild pitch (whiff No. 4), stolen base, walk to load the bases, wild pickoff throw to score two more runs and then strikeout No. 5. So Booker's line for the night went: 1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 WP, 1 E. Try that on your Game Boy sometime.
Elsewhere in farm land, El Paso Diablos first baseman Alex Cabrera had a heck of a season last month. He hit 21 homers -- second most in any month in minor-league history, according to Howe (behind Dick Stuart's 23-homer June in 1956 in the Western League) -- batted .394 and drove in 50 (count 'em, 50) runs. Phew.
John Rocker last year: 74 outings, 30 without allowing a baserunner (40.5 percent). John Rocker this year: 19 outings, two without allowing a baserunner (10.5 percent).
The East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune's Ed Price reports that since last June 23, every team in baseball has lost four straight games at least once except the Diamondbacks. The Cubs have done it 11 times.
Gotta love those Tigers. They're 0-4 when they hit three home runs or more in a game -- and 0-2 when they score three runs or more in the first inning.
The Diamondbacks finally lost a game started by the unbeatable Brian Anderson this week. He's still 11-0 on his personal record over two seasons. But Arizona had won 17 straight games he'd started, dating back to last July 19. And that's the third-longest streak of the 40-season post-expansion era, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, behind Tom Filer (19 in a row, 1982-88) and Chuck Finley (18, in 1997-98). The all-time record is 22, in games started by Carl Hubbell (1936-37) and Whitey Ford (1950-53).
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings will appear each Saturday. | |
ALSO SEE
Jayson Stark archive
Stark: Week in Review
Draft player capsules
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