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The second-guessing game

Regrets? These teams have had a few...

By Nick Cafardo
Globe Staff / May 3, 2009
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The first month of the season is gone, and often this is when teams reflect on the coulda-woulda-shoulda of the offseason, perhaps on how they did not - or could not, because of budgets - build for the long haul.

Here are a few things teams might regret.

  • Mets sign Oliver Perez instead of Derek Lowe: The market for Lowe was in the three-year, $36 million-$38 million area until the Red Sox signed John Smoltz. The Braves took a public lashing for that, and stepped up their efforts to land Lowe. In the end, according to one major league official, "The Red Sox, indirectly, might have increased Lowe's salary by about $25 million." Lowe could have stabilized the Mets' rotation behind Johan Santana instead of the erratic Perez, who is off to a poor start.

  • Giants pass on Manny Ramírez: Budget was involved here, but it was one of those "got to spend money to make money" moves. Ramírez, who stayed with the rival Dodgers, has been great for attendance, just as he would have for the Giants in place of Barry Bonds. For a team that has a decent young pitching staff but is short on offense, he could have been a nice centerpiece.

  • Cubs trade Mark DeRosa to Indians for pitchers Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer, and John Gaub: Time will tell, but the Cubs dealt a winning ballplayer who does all the little things - and some big things - to win games. They replaced his bat with Milton Bradley, who is an excellent hitter but high-maintenance. The Cubs also passed on Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn, and Raul Ibanez to sign Bradley.

  • Royals sign Kyle Farnsworth for two years at $9 million: I'm sure they'd love to have Ramon Ramirez back, but they're happy with leadoff man Coco Crisp. In an attempt to offset the losses of Ramirez and Juan Cruz, they may have misidentified and certainly overpaid the hard-throwing Farnsworth as a replacement. On an up-and-coming team with an excellent starter in Zack Greinke, it's tough to have an arsonist in the bullpen. Still, Farnsworth has smoothed out in the past and may again.

  • White Sox fail to land a leadoff hitter/center fielder: Crisp seemed to be the prize for this spot, and while Kansas City paid royally for him (in Ramirez), the White Sox elected to stay in-house. It has been a glaring weakness so far.

  • Red Sox fail to sign Mark Teixeira: The move hasn't hurt their offense to this point, with Mike Lowell, the man who would have been supplanted, off to a very good start. But there are those in the organization who still regret not landing Teixeira. It will hurt more when Teixeira starts playing better. He was a big bat they could have kept from the Yankees and one they could have built around for years.

  • Yankees do not re-sign Abreu: Their outfield situation is jumbled, and Abreu was a steady 100-RBI producer. His defense has declined, but he can still run and is a tremendously patient hitter who runs up pitch counts.

  • Rays trade Edwin Jackson to Tigers for Matt Joyce: Tampa has a good rotation, but the feeling is that Jackson could have been incorporated into the bullpen. It was a move similar to the Red Sox dealing Bronson Arroyo for Wily Mo Peña - you think you have extra pitching, so you take a chance on an outfielder with upside. Note that the Sox have not made such a move since then.

  • Marlins non-tender reliever Joe Nelson: They have a potent offense and an emerging rotation, but they are vulnerable, like most teams, in the bullpen. The decision not to keep Nelson amounted to a $50,000 discrepancy.

  • Twins fail to sign a setup man: They had a chance to sign Cruz to shore up their bullpen, with Pat Neshek and Boof Bonser out for the year and Jesse Crain on the DL, but they were reluctant to give up a draft pick. They also could have signed Casey Blake but wouldn't give him a third guaranteed season. Signing free agent Joe Crede may bail them out.

  • Diamondbacks do not bring back Brandon Lyon or Cruz: Arizona finished April with a 5.64 ERA, worst in the National League. The D-backs had a good thing in Lyon and Cruz but let them walk for budgetary reasons and because they would receive compensation.

  • Reds can't pull off a Jermaine Dye deal: He keeps on ticking, off to another great start in a very good career. A deal could have been made by sending pitching prospect Homer Bailey to the White Sox, but it got hung up because the Reds wanted Chicago to pay some of Dye's $12 million salary. The Reds don't have a regular left fielder to speak of.

  • Green saw no red flags

    A few questions about Alex Rodriguez for Red Sox shortstop Nick Green, who was with the Yankees in 2006:

    What was your relationship with A-Rod?

    NG: "I consider him a friend. When I came up to the team, he took me under his wing. I lived with him in his apartment in Manhattan for a couple of months and in the offseason I was with him down in Miami. At the time, his wife and his baby were living there and everything seemed great. The whole Rodriguez family was so kind to me."

    You always hear whispers about other players saying nasty things about him. Ever hear any of those things?

    NG: "People are always trying to get me to say something bad about the guy, but there's nothing bad to say. He was a great teammate as far as I could see. I know that he really helped younger guys all the time, especially Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera. He spent a lot of time with those guys, teaching them the game and showing them the right way to do things, just as he did with me. I think we all appreciated what he did for us.

    What was the offseason like in Miami?

    NG: "We'd work out and we'd go hitting. I'd be there in the batting cage taking my swings and I thought I was swinging the bat so well, and then he gets in there and you see him do his thing and it's just at a level you can't possibly imagine. Hitting a baseball sounds a lot different when he does it than when anybody else does it. It's amazing to watch him. It's not something you can really describe to people, but as a professional baseball player, I'm in awe of what he does."

    What do you think about all the things that have come out about him?

    NG: "He certainly admitted to what he admitted to, and I'm sure that was hard to do. Those are things he has to deal with, given who he is, and they're much more magnified because of who he is. He's a strong person, a great talent, and I think he just wants to get back out on the field and play baseball."

    Opinions don't seem to be tipping in book's favor

    Allegations made in the book "A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez," to be released tomorrow, that Rodriguez had a reciprocal pitch-tipping scheme going with other players to guard against prolonged slumps do not seem plausible to several baseball veterans we asked.

    The story goes that Rodriguez, in games that were out of hand, would relay the catcher's signal to an opposing hitter, and A-Rod would get tipped off when he came to the plate.

    Red Sox third base coach DeMarlo Hale, who coached Rodriguez with the Rangers, was dumbfounded by the allegations.

    "I must have been looking at a different game if that was happening," said Hale. "What I'll say about Alex is this: He was one of the hardest-working players I ever coached or managed. Alex was a guy who really cared about winning. That's what was in his heart."

    Former Blue Jays manager Buck Martinez also said he had a tough time believing it. His point was that so many players would have to be involved, how could it not have gotten out by now?

    About a dozen scouts covering the Red Sox-Rays series in Tampa also were skeptical, many believing that Rodriguez has become an easy target, given the steroid admissions and some of his social habits.

    Said a coach familiar with Rodriguez, "I hope that's not true because I don't know how he could pull that off without other people on our team knowing about it. He definitely ran our defense and he gave signs on the field to adjust. If someone mistook those signals for tipping off batters? I don't know. Doesn't make much sense to me."

    The Commissioner's Office will likely look into the matter anyway.

    About a dozen baseball people asked about the allegations rolled their eyes and brought up several issues.

    "I can barely see the signals from third base," said Mike Lowell. "I don't know how that would work. I've never heard anything like this."

    Etc.

    Touching the bases
    Apropos of nothing: 1. The Mets removed New York newspapers from the clubhouse to get rid of negative vibes; 2. Former Lynn Item sports editor Rich Fahey reminds me that MLB Network analysts Dave Valle and Harold Reynolds were once Lynn Sailors; 3. Next employer for Nationals president Stan Kasten: Blue Jays or Cubs?; 4. Have never seen a manager do more interviews than Joe Maddon; 5. Jason Varitek is holding off the Grim Reaper.

    Updates on nine . . .
    1. Josh Beckett, RHP, Red Sox - Scouts who watched him in Thursday's 13-0 loss at Tropicana Field had some interesting theories on his struggles. One is that Beckett's recent suspension for throwing at Bobby Abreu's head might have messed him up because "he needs to get in tight and knock someone down so the batter isn't so comfortable up there." Another scout thought Beckett was too "curveball-happy," while another thought he was "not moving his fastball to different parts of the plate." Yet another said Beckett's release point on his curveball was lower this season.

    2. Pat Burrell, DH, Rays - The Rays brought in Burrell and Gabe Kapler to improve their performance against lefthanded starters. Unfortunately, the Rays started 1-8 vs. lefties.

    3. Six-shooters: The Angels and Jays both have six pitchers on the disabled list, but they will get a majority of them back. So if both teams hang in for a while, they could be big factors in the AL race. For Los Angeles, John Lackey (strained forearm), Ervin Santana (shoulder), Dustin Mosely (elbow irritation), Darren Oliver (strained triceps), Kevin Jepsen (lower back spasms), and Kelvim Escobar (shoulder surgery) will likely all be back between next week and June. The Jays are missing B.J. Ryan (left trapezius tightness), Ricky Romero (strained right oblique), Shaun Marcum (Tommy John surgery), Dustin McGowan (shoulder), Jesse Litsch (forearm), and Casey Janssen (shoulder). Romero, Litsch, and Janssen should be ready in mid May, while McGowan could return in mid June. Ryan has a bit of inflammation and Romero says he feels fine. The only one we may not see this season is Marcum. The Angels have resisted bringing in a veteran such as Pedro Martinez and Mark Mulder, and the Jays don't have the money to consider it.

    4. Cito Gaston, manager, Blue Jays - Gaston has done a terrific job keeping the Jays ready to play. Said an AL scout assigned to the Jays, "Everybody on that team was prepared to play by the end of spring training." It's only been a month, but Gaston has managed to win even with a depleted pitching staff. His hitting coach, Gene Tenace, has done an excellent job keeping hitters aggressive and attacking.

    5. Outfielders Jason Bay, Red Sox, and Matt Holliday, A's - It's not a competition, but as two of the premier free agent-to-be outfielders, it'll be interesting to see which ends up with the better deal. Bay is off to a much better start than Holliday, who finished April with one homer ("the worst start of my major league career"). But Holliday will be a factor; he always is. Bay is the better defensive outfielder, but Holliday is a better pure hitter. If Bay has a 30-homer, 100-RBI year again, does he get three years and $36 million? Or has the market run dry, meaning he'll have to settle for three years and $30 million?

    6. Barry Bonds, OF, free agent: He sat in his seats at AT&T Park with the Giants brass last week. He insists he's still not retired. He also has a 10-year personal services contract with the team that won't be executed until after his perjury trial. Bonds had this quote on Manny Ramírez on Giants radio: "I wish we got him over here in the Giants organization, because these people would be going crazy."

    7. Joba Chamberlain, RHP, Yankees - The Elias Sports Bureau told the New York Post that the last time the Yankees had pitchers in the rotation as young as Chamberlain, 23, and Phil Hughes, 22, was 1982, with 23-year-old Dave Righetti and 22-year-old Mike Morgan. How long they'll stay together remains the question. The Yankees are resisting any talk of Chamberlain going to the bullpen. The key appears to be whether hard-throwing righty Mark Melancon, 24, can be effective in middle relief. If he is, Chamberlain may enjoy a long run as a starter.

    8. DeMarlo Hale, coach, Red Sox - Don't be surprised if Hale emerges as a managerial candidate this offseason. Hale has had interviews in the past, but his association with a successful manager (Terry Francona) and his reputation as a positive influence on players is improving his stock around the league.

    9. Daniel Bard, reliever, Pawtucket - The Red Sox are receiving high marks for the way they've handled Bard. "I think what they've done is handled him in such a way where his confidence is rising sky-high," said a scout who has watched Bard quite a bit this season. "They're easing him into closing situations and little by little they'll find a way to bring him in more games with runners on base. This kid isn't far away from being a dominant closer in the big leagues."

    Short hops
    From the Bill Chuck files: "Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo homered to hit and pitch Milwaukee to a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh. This was the fourth time a pitcher has won a 1-0 game by homering, although it has never happened in the AL and it's highly unlikely it ever will." Also, "Too frequently we hear the phrase, 'He fell a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.' Well, hitting for the cycle is a hard thing to do because of the triple. Here are the 2008 cyclists, with 2008 triple totals: Carlos Gomez (7), Mark Kotsay (1), Cristian Guzman (5), Adrian Beltre (1), Stephen Drew (11)." . . . Wish Eddie Bressoud a belated 77th birthday (it was yesterday).

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