Improving Indians sticking to core values
The 2004 Cleveland Indians bear no resemblance to the team that ruled the American League Central for better than a half-decade, from their World Series appearances in 1995 and 1997 to their last division title under Charlie Manuel in 2001. Omar Vizquel is the only link remaining from an All-Star lineup boasting such players as Eddie Murray, Manny Ramirez, the Alomar brothers (Robbie and Sandy), Kenny Lofton, and the beloved Jim Thome, who left after the 2002 season and led the National League in home runs with 47 last season, his first year as a Phillie. The price of rebuilding has been high. The Tribe lost 88 games in falling to third place in 2002, then lost 94 last season under first-year manager Eric Wedge, the former Red Sox catching prospect, their streak of sellouts at Jacobs Field a distant memory.
General manager Mark Shapiro, whose mandate was to trim payroll and rebuild after succeeding John Hart, looks at the core of young talent he has assembled -- outfielders Milton Bradley, Ryan Ludwick, Alex Escobar, Coco Crisp, and Jody Gerut, catchers Victor Martinez and Josh Bard, lefthanded sluggers Travis Hafner and Ben Broussard, and a pitching staff headed by 23-year-old lefty C.C. Sabathia, promising righthander Jason Davis, and lefties Cliff Lee and Jason Stanford -- and insists the Indians are not far from climbing back into contention, especially in a weakened division.
That optimism is bolstered even more by a talent-laden farm system, which last season compiled a .575 winning percentage, second best in the majors. The Indians have four righthanders with big league potential on the near horizon -- Jeremy Guthrie, Fausto Carmona, Jake Dittler, and Fernando Cabrera, and the jewel of the organization is Grady Sizemore, the 21-year-old outfielder who came to the Tribe from Montreal in the Bartolo Colon trade. Another highly touted player who came in that deal, second baseman Brandon Phillips, struggled last season (.208 in 112 games) and will begin the year in Triple A, but he's just 22 and Wedge says he has what it takes to be a quality major leaguer.
But Sizemore, an Eastern League All-Star last season at the age of 20, is a 6-foot-2-inch lefthanded hitter who hit .304 with 13 home runs last season in Akron and appears to be a can't-miss prospect, his arrival in Cleveland expected no later than next season.
"He's got a chance to be special," Wedge said in Fort Myers the other day. He's a throwback player. He's 100 percent out of the box, studies the game, has an incredible amount of ability, a clean swing, and range in the outfield and just takes an old-school approach -- mouth shut, eyes and ears open, paying attention to what's going on to give himself every chance to succeed. He's definitely not too far away."
And neither are the Indians, though their short-term prospects took a blow when closer Bob Wickman, trying to come back from Tommy John elbow surgery, suffered a setback and probably won't pitch until after the All-Star break.
"We're much further than last year," Shapiro said. "We have core players identified. We have a group of other guys we think potentially can be core players that we didn't know about a year ago. We're within 12 months [of contending]. We hope sometime in July or in the offseason, we'll be adding players with the intent of winning our division.
"I understand that it's a weaker division, but that's part of the strategy, and the first step for us, clearly, is to win our division and then the next step is to build a championship team by any standard. So the first step we have to take is to contend for and win our division, and I feel like that step, knowing the Central Division is an ally for us in the plans, is going to happen for us, either this season or next season."
Not curt, outspoken No one who knows Curt Schilling is the least bit surprised that he would find himself in the middle of the steroid controversy. Not because anyone ever suspected him of using supplements -- he's the first to make self-deprecating jokes about his body -- but because he is constitutionally incapable of remaining silent on any subject worthy of his attention.
His reputation for outspokenness was well known in the Red Sox clubhouse even before he arrived here. One Sox veteran, who expressed surprise at how Schilling had so much to say this winter, before he'd thrown a pitch in Boston, said that during labor negotiations two years ago, Schilling made comments some Sox players interpreted as selfish, when he implied he didn't want a possible work stoppage to jeopardize his chances of winning a Cy Young Award. "There were some ticked off guys in here," the player said. "I was kind of glad Schilling lost a few games after that and fell out of contention."
Schilling admits that he has tested the patience of management and teammates in the past, and there have been times he has said some "stupid stuff."
But he also likes to believe that over time, his judgments have been tempered by experience and greater insight. And reporters, knowing that Schilling usually will give a direct answer to a question, figured his locker was a place to stop to talk about steroids.
He was asked last week if he knew first-hand of players who had used steroids.
"Not anymore, no," he said. "I've played with guys, oh yeah. I've talked to guys. I've discussed it with different people. Not many people, and the ones I discussed it with had stopped.
"For whatever reason, this thing has taken on an incredible life of its own, obviously starting with the [Ken] Caminiti and [Jose] Canseco thing [both former players charged that large numbers of players were using steroids]. Everybody was knee-jerking out of that, including me saying I'm sure [the number of steroid users] was 25 percent or whatever. I really had no idea. Who have I played with that I know for a fact [used steroids]? A couple of guys in 15 years.
"Like everybody else, I suspected a lot of people, but that's exactly what it is, suspicion, which means nothing. There are guys I know who people have suspected, and I know for a fact they weren't using. They just put in time and effort to be what they are, and they're the ones paying the ultimate price right now."
One name that has surfaced in speculation is that of Schilling's former Arizona teammate Luis Gonzalez, because Gonzalez, who had never hit more than 31 home runs in a season, hit 57 three years ago for the Diamondbacks.
"Luis, that amazes me," Schilling said of people linking Gonzalez's name to steroids. "That's one guy, no way. I heard Nomar [Garciaparra]'s name, which just floored me. I've been around the guy. I've seen the effort, I've seen the work, I've seen the intensity and passion for the job. But again, I don't know. I just know what I feel and what I think. That doesn't make me right; that's just my opinion."
Schilling is militant on the subject of privacy safeguards for drug testing, as well as the inherent risks of a procedure that could prove ruinous to a player's career, even if the test proved to be a false positive.
"I have a friend who is younger and not in baseball," Schilling said, "who worked at a company that had drug testing for its employees, and he failed, because his test showed traces of cocaine. If you knew this guy, you knew that couldn't be true, but this guy was let go. Eight months later, it turns out that this guy had eaten a lot of bagels with poppy seeds, and because of some kind of chemical reaction his tests gave a false reading. But by then, eight months of his life was gone."
Schilling was asked if he thought the BALCO indictments, which include Barry Bonds's personal trainer, and the attendant publicity, had already caused cheating players to stop using steroids.
"I can't honestly answer that," he said. "I don't know because I don't have the knowledge on the medical side to say whether someone has stopped. Outside of what everybody else does, which is look at pictures and speculate, I don't have that kind of information."
Framingham's finest Something to cheer about in the Columbus Club in Framingham: Local fave Lou Merloni, though he has not hit for average, has had a fine spring with the Indians, with both Shapiro and Wedge giving the former Red Sox utilityman a strong chance of making the club. "From Day 1, he's been impressive," Shapiro said. "He's been a very tough out and put together some quality at-bats. What we're gauging right now is defensively where he's serviceable for us. We know he's good at second and third base, and we're looking at him in left and short, also. I think his ability to play those two positions as well will help us. It's hard not to see him making our club. He might not, because we have a lot of good competition with Ricky Gutierrez and John McDonald, but right now it's hard not to see him making our club." . . . Shapiro on Sox manager Terry Francona, with whom he worked in the Indians front office in 2001 after Francona was bounced as manager of the Phillies. "I consider him a close friend and a baseball man that I respect greatly. In a passionate baseball city, you're not going to find a more passionate baseball man. He has undying energy, positivity, and a relentless commitment to communicating with his players that fits anywhere. He's a guy who's going to bleed as much as every Red Sox fan bleeds when you lose, and he's a guy that's going to celebrate when you win as much as every fan celebrates. He's a good baseball man, a good friend, and I'm happy for him." . . . Johnny Pesky, a central character in David Halberstam's celebrated "Roommates," is a big draw again this spring in the book business. Local baseball historian Bill Nowlin has written "Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story," (foreword by Ted Williams before the Splinter's death). "He took three years writing this book," cracked Pesky, who undoubtedly wore out more than one of Nowlin's tape recorders telling stories. Nowlin offers a different interpretation of Pesky's 1997 banishment from the Sox dugout by GM Dan Duquette, an incident for which Pesky was widely portrayed, including by this typist, as innocent victim and Duquette as unfeeling villain. It probably was more complicated than that, Nowlin writes: "For Johnny, even though he felt hurt, this may have offered an outcome that wasn't as bad as it might seem. Appearances count, and Johnny came off looking good. He was portrayed as a martyr embodying old-time baseball traditions against a heartless, clueless GM who ran him off the field. In a way, he got out looking better than had he held on and held on, fading away and maybe embarrassing himself in some fashion."
How do they do that? New Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli, who had been Joe Torre's first-base coach with the Yankees, on why the Bombers have done as well against Pedro Martinez as they have (he is 8-8 with a 2.93 ERA against the Yankees in regular-season play since joining the Sox in 1998; the Bombers are 14-9 in games started by the Sox ace): "The Yankees have a uniqueness about themselves, in that they always find a way. Joe instilled that, I try to instill that in my guys, too. The Yankees have a way of just finding a way to get it done. You ask me how to do it, I don't have an answer. You have to find a way not to walk that guy in the eighth inning, find a way to get a guy over, find a way to steal a base, things of that nature, to not put you back in a hole. Whatever the reason is, they always find a way to get it done. That's what separates them from other teams." . . . Count Mazzilli among those who refuse to criticize Grady Little for not lifting Martinez earlier than he did in Game 7. Asked if he kept waiting for Little to emerge from the dugout and replace him, Mazzilli said: "You're hoping he does, because you're talking about one of the best pitchers in the game. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. There's no way you can sit back and fault Grady Little. He's a good baseball man. One thing you learn as a manager, you make that decision, you make it with conviction and you stay with it. Grady did that, and you have to respect him for that." . . . Further fueling the belief that Ugie Urbina may return to the Marlins May 1, when he is eligible to come back as a free agent not offered arbitration, is that the closer's successor, Armando Benitez, has been ineffective this spring . . . As if the young Astros pitchers aren't already profiting by the presence of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte in camp, they're now getting instruction from Nolan Ryan, who signed a personal services contract with owner Drayton McLane after leaving the Rangers. "It's special that I'm back with the Astros," said Ryan, who spent the final five years of his career with the Rangers after the Astros failed to sign him beyond the 1988 season, in the Houston Chronicle. "I left on terms that weren't desirable, I don't think, for myself or my family. It worked out very well to go with the Rangers, and I was honored that the Rangers felt that way about me. I was very thankful of the 15 years I had with [the Rangers]. But I think with our relationship with Round Rock [an Astros minor league affiliate] and the Astros organization, it just made more sense for me to be involved here. As I said, this is like coming home." . . . Frank and Jamie McCourt continue to encounter rough going in their first weeks as owners of the Dodgers, as three top executives, including president Bob Graziano, have left because of philosophical differences. Jamie McCourt, the team's vice chairman, also was blunt in her criticism of the previous regime, saying that the Dodgers should be drawing four million fans and calling it "crazy" that the club hasn't been in the postseason since 1996. Now the McCourts are getting whacked for raising parking prices at Dodger Stadium to 10 bucks, which would be like half-price day around Fenway.
Material from personal interviews, wire service reports, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
