Daily Archives: April 1, 2003

NOW, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN BOUT

During the course of the afternoon today, I came to grips with the fact that the Yankees will likely play the entire season without the services of one Derek Jeter. Erick Almonte and Enrique Wilson are all good and fine in a pinch, but this is George Steinbrenner’s universe, and they are not the type of players who start for a long stretch of time—like a full season, for this kind of Yankee team. This is not Horace Clarke’s Yankees.

Who is out there? Freakin’ Rey Sanchez is playing in Queens for cryin out loud. Mike Bordick? Gulp. Melvin Mora? It would be the end for my cousin Gabe. Nah, fuck all that shit, what about Omar Vizquel? He’s the last man standing in Cleveland, and his contract is up next year.

Wouldn’t Vizquel be the perfect fit?

I called my cousin Gabe and told him what I was thinking.

“You Yankee fans have to learn how to control your id somehow,” he said.

But that’s the thing about being a Yankee fan. We do live in a universe where we know the owner to going to spend the money and grab the ‘name’ player; it’s only natural when our fantasies are greedy too. We know they can come true. You can’t help being greedy. (You just have to balance it out with humility and respect.)

So why not Vizquel?

I wasn’t the only guy thinking about the Tribe’s most controversial author/player today either. I wrote to Aaron Gleeman, and asked him if he had John Sickels’ scouting report on Erick Almonte. I also asked him what he made of Almonte.

Here is Gleeman’s repsonse:

I got my Sickels book out and was all set to tell you what Sickels said about Almonte when I realized that Almonte isn’t in the book! Which should tell you all you need to know about him (there are like 800+ guys in the book).

As for my take…

He’s young (25 in Feb) and I actually think he could be a decent starting shortstop. However, he isn’t the type of guy that could start for the Yankees and keep his job for very long. I’d say his true level of performance in the majors, in a good year, would be something like .260/.315/.410, which would put him as a pretty much “average” shortstop (shortstops hit .265/.324/.398 as a group last year).

I really think the best fit would be Vizquel, who would make a nice 1 year replacement and who the Indians are almost certainly willing to give up pretty cheaply.

See ya
Aaron

If the Yankees improve defensively at short with Jeter out—which is entirely likely, they will be hard pressed to duplicate Jeter’s offense. The man from Cleveland is as good a fit as you can imagine. The Yankees need a defensive short stop more than they need an offensive one. The Yankees offense can take the hit. But Omar has a little bit of O and a whole lot of D…

Boy, Jeter is going to drive himself mad rehabing all summer. He’s never had to deal with anything remotely like this before. In a couple of days, when he knows for sure what’s going to happen, some of his fear will subside and then that kid is going to start getting pissed. And he’s going to be pissed all summer too. Yeeeesh.

MIGGY SIGNS EXTENSION WITH A’S

According to Baseball Prospectus, the Oakland A’s have reportedly signed short stop Miguel Tejada to a 5-year extension worth $58.5 million.

A’s General Manager Billy Beane announced today that the Oakland Athletics have signed AL MVP Miguel Tejada to an extension through the 2008 season.

“We’re very pleased to have gotten this done,” said Beane, “and it’s a tremendous load off my mind to know that we’ll have Miguel in Oakland for many years to come. It’s important to the success of the A’s and for our fans. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

The terms of Tejada’s deal include a $3.5 million signing bonus, and escalating salaries through the 2008 season averaging $11 million annually.

WHAT’S UP DOC?

Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus weighs in on the Jeter injury in his “Under the Knife” column today. The prognosis doesn’t look good for Jeter or the Yanks:

Traumatic injuries are one thing that a team cannot plan for explicitly. However, even if it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” type player, everyone has a Plan B. The question is: Does Plan B prevent you from executing the rest of your strategy to win? In the case of the Yankees, one place they have almost no depth is shortstop. With Derek Jeter’s health never a problem, this was an area where Brian Cashman and crew skimped a bit.
One play changes everything.

On a brutal, but legal and well-done play by Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby, Derek Jeter took the point of Huckaby’s knee (covered in high-impact plastic) to the shoulder. Even with TiVo, I was going back and forth. It appeared from most angles that Jeter’s initial move was to grab at the area that would indicate a broken collarbone. From a later angle out of the center-field camera, Jeter’s hand appeared to go to the shoulder. As teammates surrounded him, an ESPN camera got a good shot of Jeter saying: “It popped out.” Mat Olkin saw the same thing–I should take a course on lip-reading–and when Jeter finally got up, the way they held the arm told a lot. Had it been a collarbone, the arm would have been held across the body, much like where it would be in a sling.

The official diagnosis is dislocated left shoulder. Where have we heard this before? Phil Nevin, of course. Digging through the list of injuries, there are some frightening comparables. Nevin is clearly negative, as is Danny Bautista. The best comparables however are other shortstops–Alex Gonzalez (Florida version) and Rafael Furcal. Neither of these play in the same way nor have the body type of Jeter, but they’ll do for our purposes. Furcal is a switch hitter, but all three players injured the left (non-throwing) shoulder. Both Gonzalez and Furcal were forced to have surgery after having previous problems with lax shoulder capsules. Jeter had some problems in his acromioclavicular joint in late 2001. Where Jeter’s injury differs is in the mechanism; Jeter absorbed a football-type collision, while both Gonzalez and Furcal had the injuries occur during dives.

The outlook is not good. I cannot find a situation where a player was able to come back in-season from this type of injury. Furcal’s injury happened pretty late in the season, so that makes timing this pretty difficult, but looking at the others, things can’t be stated positively. The best-case scenario is that after reduction (having the dislocated bone “popped back in”), there would be no ligament or labrum damage. In this case, it’s possible that Jeter could be back in as little as four weeks. The worst case, of course, is similar to Nevin or Gonzalez, where Jeter would be done for the season. What the most likely case is won’t be known until the results of imaging are in some time Tuesday. Brian Cashman will have to trust Enrique Wilson, commit to Erick Almonte, or hit the phones quickly. (“Hello, Billy? Yeah, yeah, you’re the best-looking GM in the game. About that Tejada kid…”)

Expect Cash to hit the phones and hit ’em hard.

TOUGH OPENER FOR METS, BOSOX

Tom Glavine was roughed up in his debut for the Mets, who took it on the chin, losing the home opener to the Cubs 15-3.

The Red Sox got a good outing from Pedro Martinez, but their bullpen lost the lead in the 9th, as Carl Crawford hit a dramatic, game-ending 3-run homer off Chad Fox to win Lou Pinella’s first game as manager of the Devil Rays.

While the alarm is sure to sound in Boston, Pedro remained calm:

”It’s only the first game,” he said. ”That’s all I can say to the Boston fans. Please keep the faith because we’re going to battle hard tomorrow and hopefully we’ll win some games and be OK by the time we get home.”

Ed Cossette, who runs Bambino’s Curse, didn’t panic either, though I’m sure his digestion took a hit last night.

NO FOOLIN: YES-CABLEVISION REACH DEAL; YANKS WIN OPENER; JETER HURT

The Yankees and Cablevision agreed to a one-year deal minutes before game time last night. For those of you who believe in karma, the Yanks were punished for screwing with their fans for so long, as the Bombers suffered an unexpected and startling injury. The Yanks defeated the host Blue Jays, 8-4. led by Roger Clemens, and Alfonso Soriano, but lost Derek Jeter in the top of the 3rd inning. Jeter dislocated his left-shoulder in a collision with catcher Ken Huckaby. It was the kind of heads-up hustle play that we’ve come to expect from Jeter:

Jeter sustained the injury on an unusual play in the third inning after drawing a one-out walk. With Jason Giambi, a pull hitter, batting, the Blue Jays shifted their infielders to the right side, leaving third base uncovered.

Giambi bounced softly to the pitcher, Roy Halladay, who threw to first baseman Carlos Delgado for an out. Jeter crossed second and kept running, expecting no fielder to cover third.

The strategy worked for Jeter in a game here last August, but the Blue Jays were prepared this time. Huckaby raced down the third base line as Delgado fired across the infield. Huckaby caught the ball just as Jeter slid headfirst, and the umpire Paul Emmel signaled safe.

But Huckaby could not stop his momentum. After catching the high throw, he careered into Jeter with his knees, his shinguards crashing into Jeter’s left shoulder. Jeter’s helmet flew off and he instantly grabbed his shoulder. He was knocked off the base and Huckaby tagged him, ending the inning.

Asked if Huckaby’s play was dirty, Jeter said: “I don’t know, it’s tough. He was running full speed trying to get to third base.”

Huckaby called Jeter during the game and left a message in the Yankees’ clubhouse. He said he intended no harm.

“The pitcher is supposed to cover on a ground ball to the infield, but the ball was hit back to him, so he couldn’t get there,” Huckaby said. “Derek did that to us last year, where he went from first to third with Giambi up on a ground ball, and I just reacted and took off for third base.

“When I caught the ball, the only way I could stop my momentum was to go down to my knees. I wasn’t trying to block the base. I was just trying to go down and stop, so I could put the tag down. I was hoping I’d fall short, but I landed right on top of him.”

I saw the play live, and it was immediately clear that Jeter was seriously hurt. It was a clean play by Huckaby, but a violent one all the same, just the kind to bring your blood to a boil if you are a Yankee fan. Especially when the catcher seemed to lay on top of Jeter for an extra second. But as Jeter continued to lay on the ground, the second-year catcher was clearly rattled:

“The longer he laid down the more I felt that (the Yankees) would think it was a cheap shot and I felt horrible for what happened,” Huckaby said. “It wasn’t a cheap shot at all. It was one of those fluke plays. How many times do you see a catcher covering third base on a throw to third? It never happens. For me, I was in a place where I didn’t belong normally in a game.”

…”I didn’t know where the base was and I was going full speed,” Huckaby said. “The only way I could stop was to go down on my knees or else I’d over run the base. I wasn’t trying to block the base. And I didn’t want to go down like that at all…I’m not looking for anyone to get hurt,” he said. “I felt real bad about it. If I could not put his arm there I would.”

According to the Post, Jeter is likely to miss 2-4 months:

“There are two options,” the former Jets and Islander orthopedic surgeon and the director of the Nicholas Sports Medicine division at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital told The Post last night. “One, you put it in a sling for a short period of time, let it heal and rehab it. That takes a couple of months. The other option is arthroscopic surgery in which you sew the ligaments back to the shoulder. Usually you allow the athlete four months before returning to his activity.”

Nicholas said that the shoulder is a ball and socket joint and when it’s dislocated the ball is no longer on top of the socket when it slides out of the joint.

“When athletes are involved in injuries you can push [the recovery time] but it’s at least six to eight weeks with this,” Nicholas said.

All considering, if the Yankees can get Jeter back for the second half of the season, healthy for the stretch run, they should consider themselves fortunate. They could lose him for the entire year. I sent an e-mail to Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, the injury-guru, and asked him what we can expect. When I hear back from him, I’ll post his response asap.

In the meantime, it looks as if Erick Almonte will be called up to play short. Almonte was once a highly regarded prospect. Apparently he can hit, but isn’t much of a fielder. Ralph Wiley thinks he’s the Yankees secret weapon. I’m not so sure.
Look for Boss George to make a trade sometime soon.

It will be interesting to see how the Yankees recover without their team leader. They have enough fire-power to play well without Jeter, but they will certainly miss him.

David Pinto considered what Joe Torre will do with his line-up before the game was over last night.

Aaron Gleeman was sad to see Jeter go down, however:

I did think it was funny that Karl Ravech (on Baseball Tonight following the game) said, “Our thoughts will be with Derek Jeter tonight.” I think that is just a tad over the top. I mean, the guy hurt his shoulder, he didn’t get paralyzed or anything. And since when is Jeter the first guy ever to suffer a semi-serious injury? Do you think Karl Ravech would have said the same thing if Nomar had separated his should yesterday against the D-Rays? I doubt it and I think that is why a lot of people aren’t the biggest Derek Jeter fans.

Seconds after Ravech said that, Peter Gammons said the following: “A lot of people come up with stats saying how Jeter isn’t a great player, but none of that matters, he is one.” I have one question…what stat is there that says he isn’t a great player? People need to learn that a player can simultaneously be great and overrated at the same time. Or even more importantly, can be great and still have major flaws (for example, defense).