Daily Archives: June 4, 2004

By Bruce Markusen

Regular Season Edition

From Pirate Parody to Lumber Company Revival

Daryle Ward is this generationís Willie Stargell. Jack Wilson is a combination of Gene Alley and Tim Foli, but with a better bat. Rob Mackowiak is Richie Hebner. Craig Wilson is the new Bob Robertson. And Jason Kendall is Manny Sanguillen, only with more talent.

Some of these statements are blatant exaggerations, while others are only slightly legitimate comparisons. The Pirates of 2004 are a far cry from Pittsburghís World Championship teams of 1971 and 1979, but for the first time in a long while, the Bucs are giving the city of Pittsburgh some real hope in the form of young, talented players who have futures in the game, unlike the Kevin Youngs and Raul Mondesis of the world.

To some extent, the comparisons of current-day players to Pirate stars of years gone by have some legitimacy, even if only through the images that the players create. Daryle Ward, like Willie Stargell, started his career as an outfielder before settling into a newfound role as the Piratesí everyday first baseman. Like Starg, Ward is big, left-handed, and powerful, with the same kind of intimidating frame that “Pops” featured during his latter years, when he also doubled as the teamís father figure. Ward will obviously never develop into the Hall of Fame player that Stargell became in the 1970s, but he was once a top-notch prospect who was considered the “next, great left-handed power hitter” for the Astros, something theyíd been searching for since John Mayberryís early days as a prospect. At 28, Ward is still young enough to have Mike Easlerís kind of career, and thereís nothing wrong with a team possessing that kind of building block in trying to assemble a championship contender.

At shortstop, Jack Wilsonís defensive play reminds more than a few Pirate historians of the days of Tim Foli and Gene Alley. Wilson is actually a better shortstop than Foli and might be a better defender than Alley in every way except for the ability to turn double plays. If Wilson can avoid the kind of back problems that derailed Alleyís career and maintain a batting average of .280 or better (no one really expects him to hit .350 all season long), the Pirates might actually have a finer all-around shortstop than Alley

“I don’t come to the ballpark every day to compete. I come to win.” Lee Mazzilli

Both the Yankees and the Orioles received good efforts from their starting pitchers yesterday. Gary Sheffield came up with the big hit–a two-out, 2 RBI double off B.J. Ryan in the seventh–as the Yanks swept the Birds for the second time in two weeks. Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams were given the day off (though Bernie appeared in the ninth as a fielder–don’t laugh), and Ruben Sierra started in right in place of Sheffield, who DH’d.

Although Flash Gordon and Mariano Rivera pitched once again, Javier Vazquez threw seven strong innings to give the rest of the bullpen a blow (trouble is, it’s Gordon and Rivera that are in need of a day or two off). Vazquez found himself in one tight spot all afternoon. Melvin Mora, Miggy Tejada, and Senior Palmeiro singled to start the fourth, loading the bases. After getting ahead of Javey Lopez, Vazquez plunked the Orioles’ DH forcing home a run. Vazquez cursed himself on the mound, and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre came out to settle him down. According to the Daily News:

“That’s all I was out there for,” Stottlemyre said. “I knew he’d be upset at himself. The ball got away from him and he was as upset as I’ve seen him all year. It was my job to stay out there until he cooled off. I told him I’d stay out there until he was ready to face the next hitter. It seemed to do the job. He was really upset, visibly, as I’m sure you saw.

“He’s generally relaxed and cool, but we all lose it momentarily sometimes. I just wanted to make sure there was no carryover.”

Vazquez got B.J. Surhoff to pop out, he struck out Luis Matos on a nasty change up, and Larry Bigbie grounded out sharply to Jeter to end the inning:

“Vazquez turned loose his fastball a little more to get out of the inning. He goosed it up there a little more,” Stottlemyre said. “It looked like it suddenly had more life on it. For me, that was the key to the ballgame, to have them just get one run there.”

The Orioles didn’t get another hit all afternoon. Alex Rodriguez had two hits, including a double and has now reached base in 41 straight games. Sheff had two hits too; Hideki Matsui followed Sheff’s game-breaking hit with an RBI single of his own.

What’s Next?

While the Yankees continue to solve Jose Contreras’ fragile noggin, the Times reports that the Mariners could be interested in the soporific Cuban:

The Mariners are in last place in the American League West and are open to making trades, said one baseball official with knowledge of their plans. The official said the Mariners remained interested in Contreras, depending on how much of his contract the Yankees would pay. Contreras is in the second year of a four-year, $32 million deal.

Unloading Contreras would be a coup for the Yankees, especially if they could get starter Freddy Garcia and the left-handed reliever Mike Myers in return. The

…Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said the Mariners had not told him of their interest. But Cashman said he expected teams to covet Contreras.

“There are people who feel the way we do, which is that this guy has a gigantic ceiling,” Cashman said. “Too many people have been at enough games and seen how exciting he is when he’s on.”

Work it, Cash, work it.

Drop off?

Pedro Martinez leads the AL in strike outs and has had some sterling outings this season, but he’s also been pounded at times too. Pedro’s main man at the Globe, Dan Shaughnessy weighs in on what the trouble could be. (Could it be the hair?)

The Sox are now two-and-a-half games behind New York. Boston will be in K.C. this weekend while the Rangers visit the Bronx. Ethan Coen’s favorite pitcher, the Gambler Kenny Rogers (who is having a fine season) will face Kevin Brown tonight.