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Commentary by Jeff Mayfield
Major
league report: Midterm grades
Part
2
[JULY 21, 2000]
A
few months ago this LDN reporter made some bold predictions about
this year’s major league baseball season, and amazingly some of
them have actually come true! This proves once again, conclusively,
that if you make enough predictions you might actually stumble on a
correct one every once in a while. Needless to say, it has been an
exciting campaign so far. The St. Louis Cardinals are in first place
by seven games over the Cincinnati Reds, and the Chicago White Sox
have a double-digit lead over the Cleveland Indians in their
respective Central Divisions. The Chicago Cubs managed to keep Sammy
Sosa on board and hope to turn things around during the second half
of the year. This week the LDN gives you a mid-season look at how
the season has shaped up so far and what you might expect in the
second half.
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You may recall the
LDN’s excitement when we learned that the Birds had acquired Jim
Edmonds in a trade with the Angels. He hasn’t done much…except
to put up near-MVP numbers, and he has been a favorite in the
clubhouse as well as with the fans! Mark McGwire has continued his
home run march, but his injury has put a scare into me. The Cards
withstood Fernando Tatis’ long stint on the DL, and the rest of
the infield has been sterling. Edgar Renteria has been good at the
plate and in the field, and Fernando Vina has been a spectacular
leadoff man while playing a very stingy second base.
While Ray Lankford
has struggled in left, Eric Davis and J.D. Drew have picked up a lot
of his slack with their great platoon job in right. J.D. has shown
signs of the "can’t miss" label he was tagged with a few
years ago. Mike Matheny and Eli Marrero have been a very solid
catching tandem. And what can you say about the utility players?
Craig Paquette, Placido Palanco and Shawon Dunston – just to name
a few – have just been sensational. They may spell how far the
Birds may go when the playoffs roll around. If the Cardinals can
close out the Reds, this will truly be one of those all-time great
seasons that will be worth remembering.
And what about those
Chicago White Sox? Once again the LDN was right on top of it when we
predicted that the Sox would have the best record in baseball at the
break…You say, we didn’t predict that?…We meant to, but how
could we have? With as young a team as the Sox have and with dozens
of question marks regarding their pitching, not to mention the
question mark over Frank Thomas’ head, how could anyone have
foreseen what Chicago has done? At Disney World, Mr. Toad’s wild
ride isn’t any more fun than this has been!
The Sox have
displayed outstanding pitching. James Baldwin, Cal Eldred and Mike
Sirotka look more like one of the old LA Dodger pitching staffs than
one we’d expect to see wearing Chicago colors.
And what about the
rejuvenated Big Hurt? The fact that he wasn’t chosen for the
all-star game is criminal! I saw Thomas on an interview the other
day, and he was explaining to the reporter how he has gone about
correcting the flaws in his swing. He said that as he stepped into
the pitch his left shoulder (the one closest to the pitcher) was
going up through the swing, causing all kinds of bad things to
happen: pop-ups, strikeouts and such. He worked hard in the
off-season to get that shoulder to come down at the point of
contact, and although I’m not a baseball expert like Peter Gammons
or Ray Knight (give me a break), whatever Frank is doing seems to be
working pretty well to me. In fact, you can put it on the board…YES
(I’ve always wanted to say that)!
(To
top of second column)
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[Wrigley
Field]
However, of all the
White Sox, my personal "pick to click" for this season was
Magglio Ordonez. And of course, he did make the all-star team (we
were hoping he would; we just wish the LDN would have predicted it).
This guy just has superstar written all over him.
If Jerry Manuel is not manager of the
year, baseball should just shut down for a year until they get over
it. He has his team playing loose and with the confidence of a
veteran-laden team. They find all kinds of ways to win and have fun
doing it. That makes what the Cardinals did – going up there after
the break and winning two out of three – all the more impressive.
Wouldn’t you just love to see a Cardinals vs. the White Sox World
Series? The LDN would call it the I-55 Showdown! In any case, the
LDN joyfully gives the Sox an A+ on their midterm!
Final predictions
The
LDN is predicting that the White Sox will hold on and win the
Central Division. How far they go after that will depend on their
pitching and how the youngsters handle the pressure of the playoffs.
In
addition, we see the Cards hanging on in their quest for a
divisional title, but not before the Reds make at least one last run
at them. Then it will be up to the starting rotation to get the job
done until Veres can come in and put out the fire. Hopefully,
McGwire will be healthy, finish with 50-plus homers and the rest of
the team will be hitting on all the cylinders, taking them deep into
the playoffs.
I
saved this choice morsel for last, lest you think that the LDN is
out of touch and that the sports crew just does a lot of hometown
cheerleading for our regional teams. But according to a report on
last week’s CNNSI Web site (do you think they may have a free
subscription to the LDN?), baseball fans across the country have
predicted that the White Sox will meet the Cardinals for the 2000
World Championship.
If
indeed it gets to that point, the LDN says…take the points and the
Cardinals in six!
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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Commentary by
Jeff Mayfield
Major
league report: Midterm grades
Part
1
[JULY 20, 2000]
A
few months ago this LDN reporter made some bold predictions about
this year’s major league baseball season, and amazingly some of
them have actually come true! This proves once again, conclusively,
that if you make enough predictions you might actually stumble on a
correct one every once in a while. Needless to say, it has been an
exciting campaign so far. The St. Louis Cardinals are in first place
by seven games over the Cincinnati Reds, and the Chicago White Sox
have a double-digit lead over the Cleveland Indians in their
respective Central Divisions. The Chicago Cubs managed to keep Sammy
Sosa on board and hope to turn things around during the second half
of the year. This week the LDN gives you a mid-season look at how
the season has shaped up so far and what you might expect in the
second half.
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[J.K. Jones sits in the bleachers with daughter
Chelsea at a Cardinals game.]
In
our early season baseball report, we here at the LDN suggested that
the only way the Cubs and the Cardinals would be able to compete was
if their pitching came through for them. Charles Dickens’ classic
"A Tale of Two Cities" starts with the familiar, "It
was the best of times…it was the worst of times"…and there
may not be a better way than that to sum up the fortunes of these
two teams. For the Cubs, it has been the worst of times, as Kerry
Wood has still not quite recaptured the form he displayed two years
ago and the staff just hasn’t come together as Don Baylor hoped
that it would. The bullpen has also been an adventure with even
closer Rick Aguilera getting pounded in some outings. Overall, the
LDN gives the Cubbies a C- for their work up until now. That letter
was skewed upwards, since – outside of the Reds – the rest of
the division has struggled right along with them.
For
the Cardinals, it’s been the best of times, and it’s certainly
been a breath of fresh air this season. It’s a no-brainer to see
why they have earned an A- from the LDN. For most of the last three
seasons I would rather have seen them go into the crowd and pick
somebody in the stands to pitch rather than send to the hill some of
the pitching imposters they forced the fans to endure. No wonder Joe
Torre struggled when he managed the Cards. If your job depended on
some of the pitchers we signed to contracts during that time, it’s
hard telling what you would be doing today!
(To
top of second column in this section)
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This
year, Cardinal starters have been nothing short of phenomenal! At
the All-Star break, all but about five of the team’s victories had
been picked up by the starters. Not only do they have three or four
guys with 10 or more wins, but they also have put together a number
of quality starts. If you recall, the LDN was one of the first
publications to say that the Birds had signed the right starters and
that things would be better! The LDN even backed Pat Hentgen while
he was struggling and while the trade rumors were swirling. Now
everybody wants to get on the LDN bandwagon. I guess there’s still
a little room…
It’s
a good thing that the starting rotation has been so spectacular,
because the bullpen has been shaky at best. Apparently some of the
imposters’ contracts are not up, and some of these would-be major
leaguers have just gotten shelled. When I played college baseball,
current Rochester resident David Upchurch used to have a saying when
our less-than-stellar hurlers would take the mound: "Man the
walls!"…And that’s exactly what it has been for St. Louis
at times from their bullpen. You don’t want to see guys coming in
pouring gas on the fire. Now that Matt Morris and Alan Benes are
healthy, perhaps the Redbirds are in the process of turning it
around. The one real bright spot out of the pen has been Dave Veres,
who now has something like 17 saves. He has been exceptionally
solid, and I hate to say it, but once again the LDN applauded
picking up Daryl Kile during the winter, and we were very high on
getting the throw-in Veres in the deal. In fact, we stated that if
he became a dominant closer that the Cards would contend for a
divisional title…We rest our case.
[Craig Smith trains sons Tyson and Tanner in the art
taking in a big league baseball game.]
There
have also been some exciting developments outside of the pitching
corps. We’ll have more on that tomorrow.
[Jeff
Mayfield]
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