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Dodger glue Despite several key injuries, Tracy managing just fine
Updated: Sunday August 12, 2001 2:11 AM
Kevin Brown has made one start since the All-Star break. Darren Dreifort is out for the year. So is Andy Ashby . That's a combined $182.5 million in long-term pitching commitments on the shelf, if you're scoring. Now impressive rookie Luke Prokopec (blister) becomes their fourth starting pitcher on the disabled list, placing even more burden on the likes of Terry Adams, Eric Gagne and Giovanni Carrara. The offense is ranked eighth in the National League in runs scored. The leadoff hitters have a combined .321 on-base percentage. Just four NL teams have made more errors. So, what exactly were the Los Angeles Dodgers doing in first place? "I don't know how they're doing it," one rival pitcher said. "But when they get Brownie back [later this month], they're going to be scary." The Dodgers haven't been 15 games over .500 this late in the season since September 1997. "Unbelievable," one front-office man said. "They've got the team concept going. Their pitchers are battling. [Gary] Sheffield and [Shawn] Green have been very hot, but please explain [catcher] Paul Lo Duca to me." The key to the whole effort has been rookie manager Jim Tracy. He was handed a powder keg this spring, what with the Sheffield contract controversy and the impending implosion of general manager Kevin Malone. Thanks to Tracy's steady hand, the Dodgers not only survived that mess, they have come through it stronger. Maybe those Walter Alston comparisons weren't so ridiculous after all. "I think Jim Tracy has done one heck of a job," the front-office man said. "Even early in the year, they were playing like they should play, moving runners, that kind of thing. It could have been ugly there with all the stuff out of spring training, but Tracy has held that team together. It's nice to see. He's put in his time. He's done it at every level. He's done winter ball. People haven't heard of him because he's not a self-promoter, but the guy can manage."
No meltdown in SeattleAdmit it. When the Seattle Mariners coughed up a 12-run lead to lose Sunday night in Cleveland, doing something that hadn't been done in 76 years, you were telling yourself, "OK, here comes a losing streak." The potential for letdown was tremendous. The bullpen was exhausted. Minds had to be fried. It only would have been natural to take a few days of mental vacation, maybe even suffer that first three-game losing streak of the season. Not the Mariners. Instead, they come out and win their next three games. Then they nearly steal another win Thursday with a ninth-inning rally against Toronto closer Billy Koch. Ichiro, going hard all the way, beat out a routine grounder to second to keep the inning alive. These Mariners have lost so much as consecutive games just eight times all year and just once in the past five weeks. Incredible. Through 115 games, they had fallen three games off the pace of the 1998 Yankees, who set the American League record with 114 regular-season wins. Entering the weekend, though, the Mariners were set to face winning teams in just 12 of their next 35 games. Can another long hot streak be far away? "The best part is we don't quit, we don't give up," said Mariners reliever Jeff Nelson, who was a member of those '98 Yankees. "If we are behind, we still play hard until the last out. A lot of times we've come back and won games because of not giving in. We make the other teams battle. If we keep that up the rest of the year, anything's attainable."
Here's the dealWhat made the recent trades of Turk Wendell and Rick Reed somewhat surprising? Just that both pitchers, having signed three-year deals last winter, can demand a trade at season's end, as per the Basic Agreement. That's why you so rarely see players traded when they have at least another year remaining on a multi-year contract. If Wendell, for instance, exercises his option to demand a trade during a two-week window after the World Series, the Phillies have until March 15 to move him, at which point he could become a free agent. Players must have at least five years of service time to qualify for this rarely exercised right. They also are allowed to retract their trade request at any point before the March deadline if they have a change of heart. The tradeoff? If you wind up forcing a trade, you give up your free-agency repeater rights for three more years. If your current contract runs out before that window expires, you go to arbitration instead. Moreover, if your contract is at or above perceived market value, there is little incentive to rip it up and start fresh. That could be disastrous. Usually, teams just wind up tacking another year or two onto the player's contract. That's what the Dodgers did after they got Jeff Shaw from the Reds in 1998. (Then-Dodgers GM Tommy Lasorda was unaware of the rule when he dealt for Shaw, who had signed a below-market contract with the hometown Reds.) The Astros did the same thing after acquiring Moises Alou from the Marlins. The Yankees went through a similar situation with Cecil Fielder in 1996. "It's generally used more as a threat by the players than anything else," one club official said. "You rarely see the right fully exercised. And the club has protection, too. If a player hits the market in the middle of March, it could be pretty tough to get the same kind of money from some other club. Most clubs are locked into their budgets by that point. The hammer works both ways." Others who can demand trades after this season after being moved at the deadline: Mike Trombley, Terry Mulholland, Mike Fetters and John Vander Wal. Mike Berardino covers the baseball beat for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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