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Cleveland Indians
Scouting Report
By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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The pitching-shy Indians will need a lot of help from the
precocious Wright to get back to the
Series.
(David Liam Kyle)
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To live
in Cleveland is to be optimistic. Pro football will return.
Don King will move away. The Indians will win a World
Series again. That's what they believe, those 40,000 folks
who show up at Jacobs Field every night.
Heck, last year we weren't all that good—and we still made
it to Game
7! In losing, Clevelanders found strength. The ballpark is
again virtually sold out for the entire year. Faith in
Cleveland is
thriving.
Especially in the office of the general manager, John Hart.
He's a hard-nosed guy. He knows that sentimentality makes
for lousy baseball, so nine of the players from last year's
World Series team are gone. But the biggest move he made
all winter, he
made with hope in his heart. He signed Dwight Gooden to a
two-year contract for $5,675,000 million. Talk about
running on
faith.
On its face, that may not sound like much. One pitcher, the
No. 3 pitcher in the rotation, accounting for 5% of the
team payroll—what's the big deal? But Doc is no ordinary
No. 3 pitcher. "He holds the key for us," Hart
says.
The Indians hope for 70 starts from their first two guys,
righthanders Charles Nagy and Jaret Wright. That leaves 92
games. If Gooden, at 33, can start 30 or so—something he
hasn't done since '92—and keep his club in two thirds of
those, the Indians
will play October baseball again. If he can't, the Indians may
well
struggle, even with their assembly line of big bats. Gooden
is the club's barometer. His whole career, his entire life,
is
about hope, about faith, about luck.
The Indians have had miserable luck with their pitchers.
Jack McDowell (now with the Angels) was sidelined most of
last season with an elbow injury. Projected starter John
Smiley will miss most of this year with a broken arm.
Projected No. 4 starter Ben
McDonald was sent back last week to the Brewers, who will
have to cope with his season-ending shoulder injury. Chad
Ogea is out until mid-May with a left-knee injury. Decent
starts from Gooden, one after another, will serve as a sign
that Cleveland's
luck is changing, that faith is being
rewarded.
People root for Gooden. In New York they rooted for him
when he was good, when he was awesome, when he was getting
shelled. They rooted for him through his drug and alcohol
rehabs. And through his arrests, his marital problems, his
injuries, his
father's illness. He's
likable.
Hart knows all this. He knew it when he coached against
Gooden when he was a high school pitcher in Tampa. He knew
it when he managed against Gooden's team in the minors. He
knew it the last two years, when Gooden pitched for the
Yankees. Gooden
owned Cleveland, won five games against the Indians, never lost,
had a 2.88
ERA.
Just as he did in New York, Gooden will receive bountiful
run support in Cleveland. All the pitchers should. The '98
team has more bash in it than even the '95 team, which won
100 games, all of them, it seemed, on three-run homers. But
when it comes to
arms, Hart has a commitment problem, and with the Indians'
recent history, his caution is understandable. Now if you
have a useful bat, Hart has something he'd like you to
sign. Leftfielder David Justice is under contract through
2002, and the club has
an option on 2003. Centerfielder Kenny Lofton, Cleveland's
prodigal son, has returned from a yearlong sojourn in
Atlanta and is signed through 2000. Rightfielder Manny
Ramirez, a
25-year-old with 59 homers and 200 RBIs over the past two
years, is signed through 1999, with a club option for 2000.
A stable and productive
outfield.
Hart is moved by
productivity. In the off-season, he went shopping for a
second baseman. Instead he found a shortstop with a career
.274 batting average, Shawon Dunston. Hart talked him into
playing second base. "I consider second base to be an
offensive position," the G.M. says. Hart considers
every position to be an offensive position. As for Dunston, he
had no desire to move from short. But what he wants more
than anything is to play in a World Series, something he
has never done in his 13 years in the game.
Gooden is saying the same thing. He went to the World
Series with the Mets in '86. Ten years later, when the
Yankees reached the Series, Gooden was left off the roster,
out of gas. He knows the end of the line is coming. In the
final years of his
career, he wants to be lucky
and good. He wants to go out a winner. That's his hope. Gooden
has a lot of Cleveland in
him.
—by Mark Bechtel
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