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TRUMP CARDS
- Aces of diamonds- Pedro Martinez - Bob Gibson - Walter Johnson - Rick Ankiel - Aces discuss aces - Red Sox aces - Former aces
MORE STORIES
- Channel 25 at bat- Sold on pitchmen
ANALYSIS
- AL East- AL Central - AL West - NL East - NL Central - NL West
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This team doesn't know its place. Unlike baseball's other poor relations, the A's ignored the fact that they had the league's third-lowest payroll ($24 million) and finished 12 games over .500, pushing the Red Sox for a wild-card spot until late September. And they did it with a swagger and style that would have made Charlie Finley's colorful teams proud. The A's are unabashed bashers, but it's their willingness to take a walk (770 free passes, most since 1949) that made them a high-scoring team despite a low team batting average (.243). Their veteran castoffs (Matt Stairs, John Jaha, Randy Velarde) mesh beautifully with some of the game's best young talent (Jason Giambi, Ben Grieve, Eric Chavez). With former Royals ace Kevin Appier apparently healthy, their starting pitching (rookie Tim Hudson, veteran Omar Olivares, 13-game winner Gil Heredia) could be the strongest in the division. Former Sox replacement player Ron Mahay is a candidate for fifth starter, while ex-Met farmhand Terrence Long, who came in the Kenny Rogers deal, is making a strong bid for the center field job.
Take away the best player in the game, and what are you left with? In the case of the Seattle Mariners, who reluctantly bowed to Ken Griffey's wish to wind up in Cincinnati, how about a better team? New GM Pat Gillick signed a couple of native sons, 1B John Olerud and RHP Aaron Sele, reached over to the Pacific Rim for RHP Kazuhiro Sasaki, bagged LHP Arthur Rhodes from Baltimore, and added quality bench men in Stan Javier and Mark McLemore. SS Alex Rodriguez, who can walk as a free agent after the season, took a look around and decided it might to be fun to stick around for the summer, especially with a healthy Jay Buhner back to fill some of the power void left by Junior. The M's still need a left fielder, but their pitching from top to bottom is as strong as it has been this decade. If Sasaki and Rhodes prop up what has been a hideous bullpen, the Mariners, in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field, have as good a chance to be in postseason play as Griffey does.
Seldom has a team that won 95 games undergone a more dramatic facelift. The Rangers have sacrificed tremendous pop, not to mention a two-time MVP, in Juan Gonzalez while putting a lefthanded slant on their pitching staff. Gone, too, are 18-game winner Aaron Sele and leadoff man Tom Goodwin (39 steals). Losing 3B Todd Zeile (24 home runs) wasn't supposed to be part of the plan, but he opted to sign with the Mets as a free agent. The Rangers are putting great faith in their kids (CF Ruben Mateo, RF Gabe Kapler, 3B Tom Evans) while hoping that the addition of lefties Darren Oliver, Justin Thompson (hurt till May), and Kenny Rogers helps offset the lefthanded power of the A's, Mariners, and the team they can't beat in October, the Yankees. GM Doug Melvin insists the team isn't playing for the future, noting that his offense still includes All-Stars Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, and everybody's pick on the all-underrated team, Rusty Greer. The Rangers also added stylish 1B David Segui in a spring swap. The pressure will be on the kids.
After insisting two weeks before the start of the season that Jim Edmonds wasn't going anywhere, new GM Bill Stoneman bowed to the obvious and dealt his extra outfielder to the Cardinals for a front-of-the-rotation starter, Kent Bottenfield, and 2B Adam Kennedy, the Cardinals' minor league player of the year in 1999. Bottenfield, a lock on any all-bad-body team, was an 18-game winner for St. Louis and gives some hope to a rotation that was all injured wings (Ken Hill, Tim Belcher, Jason Dickson) and a prayer. Exciting rookie Ramon Ortiz, who was drawing some comparisons to Pedro Martinez, suffered a labrum tear in camp, and new manager Mike Scioscia can be expected to proceed cautiously with him. Mo Vaughn is healthy and says he's happy again, which should make for a clubhouse slightly more stable than the one that imploded last season, costing GM Bill Bavasi and manager Terry Collins their jobs. It also helps that some key pieces (Gary DiSarcina, Tim Salmon) are healthy again, though 1B Darin Erstad must rebound from an off year.