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Patience pays off for Mariners
Posted: Wednesday May 03, 2000 04:02 PM
To send a question to Tom Verducci's Mailbag, click here. Believe it or not, Seattle has become a much more dynamic offensive team since the departure of Ken Griffey Jr. The Mariners have copied the success of the Yankees by drawing more walks. The M's are on pace to shatter their team record for walks and even challenge the American League record of 835 by the 1949 Boston Red Sox.
The patience of free agents Mark McLemore, Stan Javier and John Olerud has helped. But the biggest adjustment has been made by Alex Rodriguez. With Griffey in the lineup, A-Rod never walked more than 59 times in a season. But now he's accepted the fact that teams are more likely to pitch around him. A-Rod took a league-high 24 walks in his first 23 games. It's been 82 years since a shortstop led the AL in walks.
Going for brokeAnd speaking of Griffey, he's become such a dead-pull power hitter that more teams prefer to use a defensive shift against him. Since June 1 -- a span of 509 at-bats -- Griffey has batted only .259. Griffey's career is starting to parallel that of Hank Aaron.
The Hammer batted .300 or better 10 times in his first 12 seasons, all of them in Milwaukee. Montreal manager Felipe Alou, a former Aaron teammate, said that once the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966, "He made up his mind to go for home runs." Aaron was 32 at the time. He had only four more .300 seasons in the final 11 years of his career. Griffey was a career .302 hitter through the 1997 season, after which he turned 28. But in 1,331 at-bats since then, through Monday, Griffey has batted only .280.
Rocket fizzling?The Yankees are encouraged that Roger Clemens went back to his fastball to get out of jams in his start against Toronto on Sunday, rather than trying to trick people with his breaking stuff. Still, Clemens hasn't been able to bury hitters the way he used to. He hasn't struck out 10 batters in a game in 25 consecutive starts, a career-worst streak. In that same span Randy Johnson has 19 10 K games.Speaking of the Yankees, sources say George Steinbrenner has been bashing his GM, Brian Cashman, more than usual these days with every base hit by Jim Edmonds. It was Cashman who recommended to Steinbrenner in spring training to have patience with Ricky Ledee and Shane Spencer rather than trade for Edmonds, who is tearing up the NL with St. Louis.
Real Americans?The Diamondbacks finally have given up any hope of avoiding a move to the AL West next year, and that means they'll likely hold on to Travis Lee. They plan to move Lee back to first base while using Erubiel Durazo as the DH.Look for Arizona also to be a major player in the bidding for Rodriguez on the free agent market, though even with about $12 million coming off their payroll after this season, the D'backs don't have the resources to be the highest bidder in the field.
Arms raceWho has the strongest outfield arm in the NL? One veteran third base coach says it's clearly Vladimir Guerrero of the Expos. But the coach said he won't hesitate to take chances against Guerrero, who is not always accurate and doesn't charge the ball well. The outfielder with the best throwing arm, who commands the most respect from third-base coaches, is Larry Walker of the Rockies.Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and writes a column for CNNSI.com every Tuesday. Click here to send a question to his mailbag. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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