UCSON - Every player here has a number. It's not the kind of number that is stitched to the back of a Colorado Rockies uniform, nor is it a bloated number on a new multiyear contract.
We're talking pageantry. We're talking a scale from 2 to 8, with 8 being the pinnacle, the mythical baseball salon where the A-Rods and Nomars and Heltons and Pedros go to socialize. As for the 2s? If you're a 2 at Hi Corbett Field, spring home of the Rockies, chances are you won't make it to Coors Field in Denver. And if you do make it that far, be advised that management is probably calling you names (such as ''Mendoza'') behind your back.
This is the system Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd has put in place so he can better understand what he has and what he needs. Gratuitous baseball beauty isn't everything, you know.
A team with three 8s in the lineup and none in the rotation won't win. You have to use your numbers wisely. Spread them out. Buy some 6s, 7s, and 8s to replace some of your 3s and 4s. Mix and match. Add to your wardrobe. Live a little!
That's what O'Dowd did in the offseason and, because of it, look who is coming down the runway:
Mike Hampton, a starting pitcher who went 22-4 in 1999 and finished second in the Cy Young voting.
Todd Helton, a first baseman who batted .372 last season and hit 42 home runs. Only three other players in history displayed similar power and average in the same season: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Rogers Hornsby.
Larry Walker, a right fielder who hit 47 home runs in '97 and flirted with a .400 average in '99 before finishing at .379.
Granted, beauty is subjective. But when that trio is at its best, it is an 8 from side to side and top to bottom. It's hard to find anything comparable in baseball. There are teams with credible Cy Young candidates, batting champions, and RBI champions. There aren't many teams with all three. In fact, there is only one team in each league that has accomplished - or come close to accomplishing - such a threesome.
The Red Sox have Nomar Garciaparra (batting champion), Pedro (Cy) Martinez, and Manny (RBIs) Ramirez. But because of Garciaparra's wrist surgery, it may be late summer before all three are seen together. With the flick of a wrist, the master plan can go awry.
The Rockies have Helton, Hampton, and Walker. They also added a 6ish kind of guy in lefthander Denny Neagle and an immeasurable, good-for-the-clubhouse type in outfielder Ron Gant. But as quickly as the Sox' fortunes turned, so, too, could it happen in Colorado; the injury-prone Walker (who played in only 87 games last year) is just a misstep away from the disabled list. It all looks nice, but does it translate to winning?
Look at the Yankees. They aren't built in an award-winning way, yet they have gone home with the ultimate team award four of the last five Octobers. Question is, does the three-star formula mean that a championship is soon to come?
''This is how we look at it: You have to have three guys in your rotation who are a `6' or above,'' O'Dowd said. ''If you don't have that, you are going to struggle. Your club should always start with starting pitching, and then next on the list is the middle of the diamond.''
The Yankees can check off both categories. Last season, the Rockies couldn't. They now have Hampton and Neagle at the top of their rotation, pushing the solid Pedro Astacio to third. In Hampton, the Rockies have a ground-ball pitcher with a career ERA of 3.44. In Coors Field, the Rockies have a park in which the man on the mound is frequently turning around, watching a home run trot, and then disgustedly asking the plate ump for a new ball.
How can you ask a pitcher to perfect his craft in Denver?
''We think that good pitching is good pitching, no matter where you are,'' O'Dowd said. ''It does wonders for the psyche of a club knowing that there is a No. 1 guy on your side.
''Look at the Red Sox with Pedro. With him, they know they are going to start the season either 10 or 15 games over .500. That's how good he is. If they can get their other starters to be five games over .500, that's 90 wins and probably a playoff season. That's where an ace of that magnitude helps you. I'm not sure you can say that about any other ace in the game.''
(Full disclosure, Sox fans: O'Dowd also mentioned that if Garciaparra - ''an 8, definitely'' - is out for the season, the Sox would be wise to start thinking about 2002.)
O'Dowd didn't notice his thin-air pun when he said of his new pitchers, ''Hampton and Neagle change our entire atmosphere.'' He continued to go through his list. He talked about the bullpen being the third-most important area for a team to strengthen and, after that, the corner positions.
Overall, O'Dowd had a fine corner team in 2000. The injury-prone Walker wasn't himself, and still hit .309.
It was different with Helton. He didn't win the NL's Most Valuable Player award, but the numbers suggest he should have:
216 hits.
405 total bases.
.698 slugging percentage.
59 doubles.
Wonderful numbers, numbers that had historians going back to the 1920s and '30s to find matches. But there were no playoffs in the mountains last season, which inspired O'Dowd to go on his shopping trip.
''One thing we're still missing is that middle-of-the-diamond superstar,'' O'Dowd said. ''We have to make sure that in other categories, we have players who are 6s.''
The GM went on to talk about Ramirez (''the best natural hitter ... the most talented young hitter I've ever seen. He's got a Hall of Fame bat''). He spoke of his team, too, beyond the numbers. He said he likes to surround himself with good people, which is why he had tears in his eyes when reliever Jerry DiPoto had to retire because of a neck injury.
It is good people who make the stats mean something tangible. In the next five months, Rockies fans will want to see if this baseball-by-the-numbers approach works.
''It should,'' Gant said. ''Yeah, you still have to play the game. But when you have guys like Hampton, Walker, and Helton on the same team, that's hard to beat.''
The best team Gant said he ever played on, the 1992 Atlanta Braves, lacked an 8 in the lineup. That team's postseason highlight was of a slow first baseman, Sid Bream, hustling around the bases in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. A guy named Francisco Cabrera had delivered a hit, and it was up to Bream to beat a Barry Bonds throw to the plate. He did. Braves win and advance to the Series to meet the Blue Jays.
Bream was far from an 8, even in his prime.
Cabrera was, what, a 3?
Sometimes the rankings are true. Sometimes they are loopy. The Rockies aren't just hoping that O'Dowd's ranking system works. They are counting on it.
