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 Inside Baseball
Posted: Tuesday September 28, 1999 04:51 PM Indians Need a Fourth | The Hot Corner The Orioles finally click with a younger, faster, lower-paid lineup By Stephen Cannella
In the fifth inning of the Orioles' 1-0 win over the Red Sox last Friday, Baltimore third baseman Ryan Minor ranged far to his left to snare a roller hit by Boston's Mike Stanley. Too far, in fact: Minor cut off shortstop Mike Bordick, who had an easier play, and Stanley was safe at first when Minor's off-balance throw went wide of the bag. The play -- and the game -- meant little for the Orioles (77-78 through Sunday), who had long been eliminated from contention.
As a result of their free-agent spree last winter, the Orioles have veterans at all but one position signed to pricey contracts through at least 2000, but several young players have ensured that there will be competition for jobs next spring. Baltimore's turnaround coincided with the steadying of a bullpen that blew 20 save opportunities and had a 5.89 ERA before the All-Star break. Through Sunday the Orioles' pen -- buoyed by the arrivals of righthanders Gabe Molina, 24, and Al Reyes, 28, and lefties Doug Johns, 31, and B.J. Ryan, 23, through trades or call-ups -- had a 3.62 ERA after the break and had blown only five save opportunities. With Ripken in and out of the lineup all year -- he finally underwent season-ending back surgery last Thursday -- the 25-year-old Minor had appeared in 40 games at third base through Sunday and made only one error there. Rookie Jerry Hairston Jr., 23, had been been flawless in 42 starts at second in place of DeShields. Neither has dazzled at the plate -- Minor was hitting .183, Hairston .248 -- but they'd brought some flexibility to the lineup. "We added a little speed and have been able to steal bases and create runs," says manager Ray Miller, who, despite his club's surge, is likely to be out of a job after the season. "The first part of the year we couldn't do that." Adds Manno, "We're not committing jobs to anybody, but certainly the performances of those kids have made us comfortable about giving them an opportunity next year."
Red Sox Rotation: In the final phase of a long rehabilitation from rotator cuff surgery, Ramon Martinez has spent the last month with the Red Sox building up his arm and hoping to resume his career. Now it appears he will join his little brother Pedro, baseball's best pitcher, in Boston's postseason rotation. The righthanded Ramon, an All-Star with the Dodgers in 1990 and '91, got his first win in more than 15 months by limiting the visiting Orioles to four hits in seven innings last Saturday. The 4-1 victory ended a three-game Red Sox losing streak and reduced Boston's magic number to three in the wild-card race against the A's. The Red Sox couldn't count on such a quick return when they signed the 31-year-old Ramon as a free agent in March, nine months after his surgery. His rehabilitation might have easily lasted through the 1999 season. Instead he made his debut on Sept. 2, giving up four runs, three of them earned, in three innings against the Royals and taking the loss. With the Red Sox in the race for the American League East title as well as the wild card at that point, manager Jimy Williams told Ramon he might not receive another opportunity this season. Then, during a trip to Oakland the following week, Williams noticed Ramon working harder than ever in the bullpen. "That told me he was determined to be out there," says Williams, who was so impressed by Ramon's tenacity that he gave him another turn in the rotation. In his two most recent starts through Sunday, Ramon went 1-0 with a 3.09 ERA. He was due to make one more start before the playoffs. The Red Sox are now contemplating a postseason rotation of the brothers Martinez, righthander Bret Saberhagen and lefty Kent Mercker -- a group with intimidating credentials and imposing medical histories. Saberhagen, who plans to undergo minor off-season surgery on his own rebuilt pitching shoulder, concedes that he would have shut himself down in early September had Boston been out of contention. There's no telling how long his shoulder will last in the cold of October. Though Pedro (22-4, 2.11 ERA through Sunday) has the American League Cy Young Award wrapped up, he says that his shoulder has continued to bother him since soreness caused him to miss two starts after the All-Star Game. "I think my arm was in better shape last year," says Pedro, who lost three of four decisions going into the playoffs last year. "I wasn't as sore as I get now." The Red Sox might have felt pressure to squeeze an extra start out of their ace in the postseason. By pitching effectively earlier than expected, Ramon may have come to his brother's rescue. —Ian Thomsen
Indians Need a Fourth: As a 21-year-old rookie in 1997, righthander Jaret Wright knocked off the Yankees twice in the American League Division Series, went 3-0 in five postseason starts and carried Cleveland to the brink of a World Series title. Two years later the Indians are still looking for an ace to carry them through the playoffs, but they would settle for a few decent outings from Wright, a tempestuous fireballer. After a confidence-shaking season in which he was reprimanded by the league for headhunting and made two trips to the disabled list with a strained muscle in his pitching shoulder, Wright (8-9, 5.98 ERA) was still being counted on to fill the fourth spot in the playoff rotation behind righthanders Bartolo Colon, Charles Nagy and Dave Burba. The first step toward getting Wright to fill that role would be to persuade him to relax and keep his composure on the mound -- something he couldn't do against the Yankees on Sept. 17, when he was hammered for seven runs and seven walks in 3 2/3 innings and then doffed his cap in a mock salute to the booing Jacobs Field crowd. In his next start, however, against the Tigers on Sept. 22, Wright settled down and got his first win since July 6. The key was staying low-key before he took the mound. At the behest of pitching coach Phil Regan, Wright altered his pregame routine: Instead of throwing roughly 40 pitches, cranking his fastball up to 97 mph, Wright threw 70 warmup pitches at a more subdued pace. The approach worked. Wright surrendered two hits, a walk and one unearned run and struck out eight in seven innings against Detroit. He also quelled his habit of trying to escape trouble by outmuscling hitters, instead changing speeds effectively and throwing his changeup and curveball for strikes even when behind in the count. "I had to learn that for a power guy, sometimes less is more," says Wright. It was only one outing (Wright was scheduled to make at least one more regular-season start, against the Royals on Tuesday), and a September game with the division title wrapped up is a far cry from a playoff pressure cooker. Still, it was the first sign the Indians have seen this year that Wright may not be a hindrance to their World Series hopes -- and might even be a help. How bad have the Cubs been? Their ERA of 5.31 through Sunday was the worst in club history by more than half a run. ... New Rockies G.M. Dan O'Dowd received permission from the Reds to interview their director of player development, Buddy Bell , for Colorado's vacant managerial spot, but Cincinnati G.M. Jim Bowden wouldn't clear Bell to leave. "As long as our manager [ Jack McKeon ] is unsigned, I'm not going to give permission for Buddy to be hired," says Bowden. "[If McKeon isn't signed,] Buddy would be a candidate for that job." McKeon wants a multiyear contract and is expected to talk about a new deal after Oct. 1. ... The Angels, who refused to part with lefthander Chuck Finley at the trade deadline, still hadn't extended his contract beyond this season, fueling speculation that they'll let him test the free-agent market. After a 5-10, 5.76 start, Finley was 7-1 with a 1.88 ERA and 74 strikeouts in his last 10 starts.
Issue date: October 4, 1999
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