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Diamondbacks look to ice rest of NL
Posted: Thursday March 02, 2000 03:28 PM
In the latest installment of our continuing series of Spring Training updates from SI's baseball writers, CNNSI.com caught up with Lars Anderson in Tucson, where he's covering the Arizona Diamondbacks. CNNSI.com: Arizona rose from a last-place finish in 1998 to win 100 games last season. Were the '99 Diamondbacks a one-year fluke? With only two position players under age 30, appears to be an aging team. Lars Anderson: They don’t think so, obviously. And I think age in baseball is a little different in than it is in other sports. You can be an "older" player and still be pretty productive. Manager Buck Showalter likes to say that this team is "young at heart." I think he means they like to have a good time, which clearly they do.
Four or five guys had career years in 1999. Jay Bell hit 38 home runs. He had never hit more than 21 before. But, at the same, the Daimondbacks did suffer quite a few injuries last year. Showalter feels that if they can get healthy seasons from the entire lineup it will somewhat offset the "career year" phenomenon. They're still so clearly the class of the NL West, that even if there's slight dropoff in offensive production they'll still win the division. And they know it. CNNSI.com: Can Travis Lee play right field? Lars Anderson: That's a good question. I've been told that he's the most athletic guy in their entire system. He struggled last year at the plate, but Lee has a really nice stroke. There's no reason he can’t go back to being the player he was in 1998, when he hit .269 with 22 homers. They're using this spring training to see if Lee can get the job done playing in the outfield. Showalter certainly thinks he can. CNNSI.com: Can Tony Womack play shortstop? Or did the Pirates know what they were doing when they moved him to second in the minors? Lars Anderson: Womack has played shortstop his entire life -- throughout high school and minor league ball. He says he knows the position better than the outfield, and he feels more comfortable at shortstop than in the outfield. Obviously there's concern because the Pirates didn't think he could get the job done at short; they were concerned about his arm strength, that he couldn't make the throw from deep in the hole. But Womack put on some upper body weight over the winter; he's totally chiseled now. And I think Showalter is willing to sacrifice a little defense in order to get Womack's speed and offense in the lineup. What they want to do is make room for Lee, and put another bat in an already loaded lineup. CNNSI.com: Has Todd Stottlemyre recovered from the shoulder problems that nearly ended his 1999 season? Lars Anderson: Stottlemyre is going to be pitching the rest of his career with a slight tear in his right shoulder rotator cuff. I don't think anyone has ever pitched an entire season with a slight tear like that. But Stottlemyre has added about 20 pounds of weight in the off-season. He's completely beefed. Now it remains to be seen whether he holds up. He looks good, but the arm could go. And he's not the type of pitcher who's going to hold anything back. They have him penciled in as the No. 2 starter. CNNSI.com: How does the rest of the rotation look? Lars Anderson: The starting pitching is definitely the strength of this team. The Diamondbacks have the best starters in baseball, with Randy Johnson, Omar Daal, Brian Anderson and Armando Reynoso. They're deep. Reynoso could be a No. 2 starter on a lot of other teams. They consistently go seven innings, and then need only one inning from their set-up guys before they hand the ball to Matt Mantei. Mantei went 22 of 24 in save situations after he came over from the Marlins in mid-Julylast season. He was really the guy who turned the entire team around, because they were having bullpen problems before he arrived. Gregg Olsen blew 10 saves in the first half. If he hadn't done that, this team could have won 110 games last year. CNNSI.com: O.K., so the starting pitching is stellar, and Mantei consistently slams the door. What do they have in between? Lars Anderson: They acquired Russ Springer and Brad Clontz to be the righthanded set-up guys. The lefties will again be Greg Swindell and Dan Plesac. They're actually pretty good. These guys can give them an inning or two and then they can give the ball to Matt Mantei. CNNSI.com: Speaking of Mantei, why do they call him "Ice Man"? Lars Anderson: Mantei is a really interesting guy. They started calling him "Ice Man" when he was with the Marlins because he looks like Vanilla Ice. So of course I had to ask him if he listens to Vanilla Ice. He actually did own a Vanilla Ice tape a few years ago, and still totally digs him. Mantei's a pretty suave looking guy. A fan club of teenage girls started in Florida. They called themselves the "Ice Girls." Now there's an Ice Girls chapter Arizona. They come to the stadium early and hang out near the bullpen and talk to Mantei for the entire game. His teammates ride him really hard about being a teen idol. But he takes it all in stride. He was definitely one of the nicest guys I've talked to since I've been down here.
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