CNN/SI Preview: New York Yankees
Posted: Wednesday March 03, 1999 03:21 PM
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Despite his megacontract, Williams has never hit more than 29 homers in a season. Al Bello/Allsport |
By James Quintong, CNN/SI
He's played his entire eight-year career under the intense media spotlight
of New York, yet Bernie Williams seems to be one of baseball's most
anonymous superstars.
He has all the tools of a great player -- good power, quick bat, speedy
feet, great glove. Over the past three years, he's averaged 25 homers, 100
RBIs and a .323 average. He is the reigning AL batting champ, winning the
crown with a .339 average last year. However, he is hardly considered the
best player in the game -- or even on his team. Derek Jeter has
taken the spotlight as the Yankees' marquee player.
Williams finally got plenty of notoriety this offseason as one of the top
free agents on the market. He seriously considered a possible $100 million
deal to join former manager Buck Showalter in Arizona. But George
Steinbrenner intervened and convinced Williams to stay in pinstripes,
thanks to a seven-year, $87.5 million contract signed just before
Thanksgiving. However, in true Bernie Williams style, he had to share the
spotlight with Mo
Vaughn, who inked a six-year, $80 million deal with Anaheim that same
day.
Now that Williams has cashed in on his slow-building success, he will be
counted upon as the Yankees' franchise player to justify the money spent on
him. Is Williams one of the best players in baseball, as his contract
suggests? Probably not yet. He put up impressive numbers in both 1997 and
1998 but missed considerable time each year with injuries. However, the
Yankees didn't really miss a beat in his absence, although they would like
him in the lineup every day. Thus, Williams will need to perform well,
primarily to appease the New York fans and media -- as tough a task as
there is in all of baseball. Starting now, it will be much harder for
Bernie to shy away from the spotlight and scrutiny.
1998 Recap (114-48, 1st place AL East)
The Yankees stumbled out of the blocks, losing four out of their first
five. Then they went on to put up the greatest season in AL history,
winning a record 114 games and then walloping the competition in the
playoffs en route to their 24th World Series crown.
It seemed like every player on the Yankees had a career year in 1998,
especially David
Wells (who hurled a perfect game among his 18 wins) and Scott Brosius
(who drove in nearly 100 runs primarily from the No. 8 or 9 spot in the
lineup).
The Yankees were also extraordinarily deep. The Bronx Bombers hit 207
homers, but no player hit more than 30. Instead, 10 players hit at least
10. However, Joe Torre relied more on a National League-style game --
pitching, clutch hitting, speed, defense -- to tear through the league. No
matter what they did, the Yankees appeared to be unstoppable all year long.
1999 Outlook
Coming into spring training, the Yankees looked unstoppable after opening
up the checkbook to retain Williams, David Cone,
Brosius and Joe
Girardi. How could they get better after those moves? Well, just by
acquiring five-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens
for David Wells, Graeme Lloyd
and Homer
Bush. A stellar pitching rotation just got better, if that's possible.
They only major question mark entering camp is in left field. There is a
major race shaping up in spring training with Ricky Ledee, Chad Curtis, Shane Spencer
and Darryl
Strawberry all in the hunt. Ledee appears to be the front-runner but
many will be pushing for Strawberry, who is returning after undergoing
colon cancer surgery in October.
| Roster roundup |
Who's
new
P Roger Clemens, P Dan Naulty
Who's gone
P David Wells, P Graeme Lloyd, OF Tim Raines, 2B
Homer Bush, 3B Mike Lowell | |
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The rest of the lineup returns and hopes to repeat their heroics of '98.
Williams, Paul
O'Neill, Derek Jeter and Tino Martinez
should be able to match their big numbers of recent years. In his first
year in New York, second baseman Chuck
Knoblauch struggled in relation to his teammates yet still slugged a
career-high 17 homers. Jorge Posada
adds a little more punch from the catcher's spot. There's plenty of balance
in the lineup, which makes it one of the most dangerous in baseball.
Even with Clemens in the fold, the Yankees' pitching staff (one of the
best in the game) still has many questions. Which Clemens will pitch in New
York -- the one who won two Cy Youngs the past two years in Toronto or the
one who was considered over the hill in his last years in Boston? How much
does David Cone have left in the tank? He may be one of the best big-game
pitchers left but years of overuse may have taken its toll. Can Andy Pettitte
eventually take over the ace's role? He was one of the most mediocre
pitchers to win 16 games in recent history. Is Orlando Hernandez really
that good or will he suffer the sophomore jinx? What becomes of the
enigmatic Hideki
Irabu or promising star Ramiro
Mendoza? The one known quantity is Mariano
Rivera, already one of baseball's most dominating closers.
It seems like too much to expect the Yankees to repeat their 114-win
regular season but it's also very possible, considering their only major
change was replacing Wells with Clemens. However, the Yankees could
experience a tad of a letdown, and the performances from such players as
Brosius, Hernandez and Ledee could prove to be flukes. Even so, they seem
headed for another 100-win season and yet another playoff berth.
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