BASEBALL NOTES

Early look at the class of '06

By Gordon Edes | March 26, 2006

The Red Sox have had five winners of the American League Rookie of the Year award, the last being Nomar Garciaparra in 1997, and as they enter the 2006 season, Jonathan Papelbon is the team's leading candidate to make it six. His chances would be heightened either as a starter or closer, roles that appear unavailable to him eight days before the regular season, as he accepts his assignment to be a setup man in Terry Francona's bullpen. But that could change.

Here are some of the top rookies around the majors expected to make an impact:

Kenji Johjima, C, Mariners. Manager Mike Hargrove said he didn't want his catcher to be a wallflower. Johjima wasn't familiar with the expression, but the Japanese catcher not only has proven to be a quick student of English, he's already made an impact with his personality and presence. The Mariners gave Johjima a three-year, $16.5 million contract last winter to lure him from Japan, and after Japan's victory in the World Baseball Classic, maybe it's time to stop calling Japanese League veterans ''rookies."

Francisco Liriano, LHP, Twins. With not-yet-20-year-old Felix Hernandez of the Mariners having pitched too many innings last season to be called a rookie (the cutoff is 50; Hernandez pitched 87), Liriano, 22, looms as potentially the top rookie pitcher this season. He's already drawing comparisons to teammate Johan Santana, though the Twins are debating whether to keep him in the pen or have him start in Triple A

Justin Verlander, RHP, Joel Zumaya, RHP, Tigers. Verlander, 23, 6 feet 5 inches and out of Old Dominion, and Zumaya, 21, have both hit 98 this spring and have been called ''extra-special arms" by manager Jim Leyland. Verlander could win the job as fifth starter; Zumaya could stick as a reliever.

Brian Anderson, OF, White Sox. From the alma mater of Terry Francona and J.T. Snow, the University of Arizona, Anderson made it possible for general manager Kenny Williams to swap Aaron Rowand to the Phillies for Jim Thome. The center fielder has a strong arm; he was clocked at 94 m.p.h. as a reliever in college. He's not particularly fast afoot but has decent range. He's a line-drive hitter projected to hit 20-25 home runs.

Delmon Young, OF, Devil Rays. He struggled in camp and has already been sent to Triple A, but Dmitri's younger brother is rated as the game's best prospect, and at 20, he is the youngest player so designated since Andruw Jones made it to the big leagues at 18 with the Braves. The Devil Rays have veteran chips (Aubrey Huff, Julio Lugo) that will increase in value by the trading deadline, so don't expect this kid to languish long in the minors.

Nick Markakis, OF, Orioles. A favorite of Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who helped put together the Greek national team for the Athens Olympics, Markakis both hit and pitched in Athens, but it is as a center fielder that the 22-year-old lefthanded hitter has made a strong bid to make the Orioles.

Conor Jackson, 1B, Diamondbacks. The son of character actor John Jackson, Conor was taken out of Cal in 2003 by the Diamondbacks with their No. 1 pick, and has been tearing up Arizona, hitting over .400. His best asset may be his strike-zone discipline.

Prince Fielder, 1B, Brewers. The 21-year-old Fielder has already dealt with some tough issues off the field -- his parents' messy divorce and his father Cecil's serious gambling habit (the former Tigers and Yankees slugger is said to have skimmed $200,000 from his son's signing bonus). But after slimming down from the 300 pounds he was in high school, Prince has shown signs of the same prodigious power his father showed when he hit 51 homers for the Tigers in 1990.

Jeremy Hermida, OF, Marlins. The 6-4, 200-pound Hermida, who became the first player in more than a century to hit a grand slam in his first big-league at-bat, has elicited comparisons to Yankees mainstay Paul O'Neill for his lefthanded stroke. Hermida, 22, was the Marlins' No. 1 pick out of high school in Georgia in 2002.

Matt Cain, RHP, Giants. The 20-year-old Cain dazzled the Giants with a 2.33 ERA in seven starts last season, and with a 91-97 m.p.h. fastball and classic 12-to-6 curveball, the 6-3, 230-pounder could easily become the face of the post-Bonds Giants, whenever that time comes.

Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Nationals. Picked fourth overall by the Nationals as a University of Virginia junior last season, Zimmerman was fast-forwarded to the majors in the middle of a division race in September and responded by hitting .397 in 20 games. That led the Nats to trade Vinny Castilla, leaving the starting third baseman's job for Zimmerman. That's a lot to ask.

Of minor significance

Touching a few bases with the Pawtucket Red Sox:

The plan at this time is to have Dustin Pedroia and Alejandro Machado switch back and forth between second base and shortstop for the PawSox. Neither Mark Loretta nor Alex Gonzalez is signed beyond this year. Pedroia is considered the team's top infield prospect, but he injured his shoulder and has been limited in his activity this spring. Machado, a 23-year-old from Venezuela, was originally drafted by the Braves and went to the Expos/Nationals in 2004 in a minor league deal for pitcher Fernando Rijo. He hit .300 and stole 21 bases last season for Pawtucket, and probably impressed the Sox more in camp than Willie Harris, who is fighting for a spot on the Sox' bench.

Early line on the Pawtucket rotation: Jon Lester, Matt Ginter, Abe Alvarez, Phil Seibel, and Jimmy Serrano. Ginter is an under-the-radar guy who has attracted some positive notice this spring. A former No. 1 pick by the White Sox out of Mississippi State in 1999, Ginter made it to the majors a year later, spent parts of three seasons in the Chicago bullpen, then was dealt to the Mets for Timo Perez. They used him as a swingman, then cut him at the end of spring training. The Tigers picked him up, and he split the season between Toledo and Detroit. The numbers don't impress (4-4, 5.46 ERA in 92 big-league appearances) but his stuff has in camp, and he's still just 28. Figure he'll get a summons to Boston at some point. And while he hasn't cut a CD like the departed Bronson Arroyo, he does play the banjo.

The PawSox bullpen should be loaded, with Craig Hansen, Manny Delcarmen, Jermaine Van Buren, Cla Meredith, Craig Breslow, and Mike Holtz all in the mix. Last year's closer, Meredith, has obviously ceded that role to Hansen, last year's No. 1 pick.

And circle June 23 on your calendars. That's the day Hall of Famer Wade Boggs plans to return to Pawtucket to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the longest game in the history of organized baseball, a 33-inning affair played over two dates. The first 32 innings were played April 18, 1981, and it was 4:09 a.m on Easter morning before play was suspended with the score tied at 2. The game was resumed June 23, and the PawSox beat Rochester, 3-2. Marty Barrett, Bruce Hurst, and Walpole Joe Morgan will be among those returning for the event.

Message is clear as Peña and his bat go silent in Tigers camp

He's seven weeks shy of his 28th birthday and should be entering the prime of his career. Instead, Carlos Peña, born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Haverhill, drafted on the first round out of Northeastern by the Rangers just eight years ago, looks to be out of a job with the Tigers.

Peña, who got off to a brutal start last season, was demoted and wound up playing 71 games in the minors before he was called back. He played well on his return; from Aug. 17 on, Peña hit .286 with 15 home runs -- second most in the American League over that span -- and had 30 RBIs. But this spring the Tigers have made it clear they're going with Chris Shelton at first base, with Dmitri Young as his backup. There has been speculation out of Tigers camp that they may release Peña so they're obligated only to pay a fraction of his contract.

The frustration has been mounting for Peña, who customarily is as intelligent and accommodating as you could ask, but this spring decided to stop talking to the media to minimize the distractions. Last week, he fired his helmet against the dugout wall after going out a third straight time against Astros ace Roy Oswalt. The sound the helmet made, manager Jim Leyland said, sounded like the Fourth of July.

An AL executive said the Tigers have been fielding offers for Peña. ''You know, the other day he nearly hit a ball clear out of the stadium in Clearwater, but he just hasn't put it together," said the exec.

The Tigers thought at one time Boston might have interest, but that dried up after it got J.T. Snow.

Etc.

Displaced, misplaced pitcher

While the stat analysts look at Wily Mo Peña at 24 and see a young Sammy Sosa (or Dave Kingman) the number-crunchers look less kindly on what the Reds can expect to get from Bronson Arroyo. Here's Joe Sheehan in Baseball Prospectus: ''As much as I've talked up Arroyo in the past, he's established himself as a mid-rotation innings guy and he's about to move to a context that will absolutely kill him. Great American Ball Park is a terrible spot for pitchers, and when you consider that the Reds, even adjusting for ballpark, put a lousy defensive team on the field, Arroyo is going to see his numbers take a hit. Even if he rebounds from a poor second half of 2005 in which his strikeout rate plummeted, it's hard to see Arroyo as more than an affordable stopgap for the Reds. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine what word in the previous sentence means the most to Arroyo's new team." But can we all agree that Arroyo could not have handled his parting any better, stopping short of lashing out at the Sox, though it would have been understandable to do so?

Very superstitious

Perhaps you noticed the Cuban players tossing water out of the dugout at the start of a rally, a gesture signifying that it was about to ''rain" runs. Well, that wasn't the only superstition at play. An agent for one of the Dominican players in the World Baseball Classic said last week that the Cuban players teased the Dominicans about having little voodoo dolls made up in the players' likenesses. ''They were familiar with the Dominican players," the agent said with a laugh, ''so they could make them look just like the players. But they didn't know what to do when they played the Japanese. They didn't know those guys."

Behind enemy lines

One of Terry Francona's closest friends in baseball is Chuck Cottier, the former infielder and Mariners manager who was Francona's bench coach with the Phillies. He also is an advance scout with the Yankees, often traveling in tandem with Wade Taylor. Makes for an awkward situation for both Francona and Cottier. ''I miss being around him," said Francona. ''It's a weird situation. I see him in the stands, but I haven't even had a beer with him." Fraternizing with a Yankee, as Manny Ramírez and Enrique Wilson have proven, isn't unheard of. ''Left fielders get mulligans," Francona said. ''Managers don't."

Getting a W on Opening Day

President Bush reportedly will throw out the first pitch at the Reds' opener April 3 against the Cubs. New Reds CEO Bob Castellini was a partner with Bush when Bush owned the Rangers, and Dick Williams, a special assistant to Reds GM Wayne Krivsky, worked in D.C. on Bush's re-election campaign. I keep waiting for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to say that Bush will throw a forkball.

Good field, no hit?

Nomar Garciaparra, with tutelage from Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, is adapting nicely to first base, but the Dodgers are privately concerned about Garciaparra's bat. As of Thursday, he was hitting just .214 with one extra-base hit, a double. Ordinarily, you might just chalk that up to meaningless exhibition stats, but Nomar's splits over the last three years outside of Fenway Park are .281 BA, .325 OBP, .448 SGP. That's certainly not the Nomar we knew: .337 BA, .384 OBP, .572 SGP lifetime at Fenway.

Can the Rangers hook him?

The Sox aren't the only ones putting the full-court press on Roger Clemens. Rangers owner Tom Hicks has invited Clemens to the Texas-Boston opener, and offered to fly Clemens to the NCAA championship final on his private jet later that day if the University of Texas is playing. Texas football coach Mack Brown, coach of the national champions, will throw out the first ball. ''He can come incognito as a fan if he wants or he can participate in the ceremonies," Hicks said of Clemens. ''If he comes, it would be a good sign, but I wouldn't read too much into that."

Good news

Great to know that former Sox pitching coach Tony Cloninger, who was forced to give up his job to battle bladder cancer, has spent some time in minor league camp this spring as a player development consultant. And kudos to Red Sox minor league field coordinator Rob Leary, beginning his third season with the club, for winning the team's prestigious Ed Kenney Sr. Award, named after the team's longtime minor league boss.

Manny Madness

And of all the Sox players to host a gathering to watch NCAA hoops, where would Ramírez have ranked on your list of guesses? But that was Manny, opening his home to teammates Gabe Kapler and Mike Lowell, and Twins players Torii Hunter and Luis Castillo.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.

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