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Damaged goods? Blue Jays may seek compensation if Sirotka is injured
The Toronto Blue Jays may petition the commissioner's office for further compensation in their trade with the Chicago White Sox if they find that left-handed pitcher Mike Sirotka was damaged goods when the deal -- which sent 20-game winner David Wells to Chicago as part of a six-player exchange -- was made last Sunday. Sirotka is to be examined Friday by Blue Jays doctors in Dunedin, Fla. Toronto is worried about reports of discomfort in Sirotka's left shoulder. "It's not a conditional trade, but we need to get safeguards we don't have right now and there may be an opportunity to re-visit [the trade] with the commissioner's office,'' said Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash Thursday. The Blue Jays knew Sirotka (15-10, 3.79 in 2000) had problems with his left elbow last September. Sirotka lost Game 2 of the Division Series against Seattle 5-2. He allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings. Sirotka did participate in a Major League Baseball tour of Japan after the postseason. Blue Jays coach Cito Gaston, who accompanied the all-star team on the tour, told Toronto officials that Sirotka appeared to be healthy on that trip. The Blue Jays were engaged in trade talks about Wells with the New York Mets earlier this month, with left-hander Glendon Rusch as the centerpiece. The White Sox, however, stepped in with a deal Ash liked better, especially with reliever Kevin Beirne and outfielder Brian Simmons included with Sirotka in the trade. The White Sox, Ash said, had examined Sirotka "10 days before the trade, and said they found no problems.'' If the Blue Jays find that Sirotka's shoulder is a serious medical problem, they could ask the commissioner's office to intervene. The Jays could argue that the White Sox should have known about a pre-existing medical condition. The commissioner's office would then likely launch its own investigation and, depending on the results, could order the two teams to agree on further compensation for Toronto. Drafting solutionsNot every major league owner is thrilled with the competitive balance draft proposal that was given the green light in Arizona this week. Some believe you should not penalize teams for success. (The teams with the eight best winning percentages over the preceding three years each will lose one player to the worst eight). Other owners believed the system should be based on revenues, not winning percentages. The overriding sentiment, though, was that the competitive imbalance problem should be addressed with many potential solutions, not one magic bullet. The draft is just one part of addressing the problem. It makes sense because the real currency of baseball is talent, not dollars. (See Athletics, Oakland.) Forking over money to the Twins and Expos isn't enough, especially when they're using chunks of that money for operating income, and not payroll. If they're smart enough to find the next Vinny Castilla, Tony Batista or Trevor Hoffman, all of whom were plucked from expansion drafts, more power to them. The NFL penalizes teams for success and rewards losers for failure -- it's called the schedule, which they gerrymander every year so that poor teams play more games against one other. Nobody screams about that. The competitive balance draft has the same theory in mind. The draft also would provoke more trades. The Yankees, for instance, have a backlog of promising shortstops in their system behind Derek Jeter. Instead of losing one of them in a draft, they might be inclined to trade one of those prospects and get something in return as a preemptive strike. Finally, the draft gives the lesser teams an arena in which to generate interest in the offseason, something they don't have now. It's hard to tell the Twins are actually in business from November to January, unless they're cutting a player because he makes too much money. The draft creates interest in and debate about all teams. Who should we draft? Who should we place on our 25-man protected list? Who got the better of the draft? Do we take a high-salaried player and turn around and trade him? All that talk is good for the game. Will the draft turn the Expos into contenders? Not by itself. But it's just one worthwhile attempt toward at least slowing down the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots. An exception, but not exceptionalDon't tell the 2000 Boston Red Sox that pitching wins championships. They are the only AL team out of the past eight that finished first or second in ERA not to make the playoffs. That tells you how pathetic their offense was. Only Tampa Bay and Minnesota scored fewer runs. It is rare to find a championship team that doesn't pitch well. To find the last team that won the World Series with a poor pitching staff you have to go back to the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays. That year marked the last time the AL ERA leader (Milwaukee) and the runner-up (Boston) didn't make the playoffs. The '92 Blue Jays did exactly what the Texas Rangers are trying to do this year: slug their way to a title. The '92 Jays led the league in slugging and were second in runs. But their pitching staff finished a distant ninth in ERA. Oddly, to look at the Blue Jays' staff in hindsight is to wonder how in the world they finished so far down in the pack in ERA. Certainly the names look much better on paper than Texas' current staff. In the 1992 postseason they used a rotation of David Cone, Jack Morris, Jimmy Key and Juan Guzman. In their bullpen were Mark Eichhorn, Tom Henke, Pat Hentgen, Todd Stottlemyre, Mike Timlin, Duane Ward and Wells, with Al Leiter and David Weathers left off the roster. Sounds like they were loaded. They weren't. Right place, right timeIn case you missed it, the Blue Jays traded reserve outfielder Chad Mottola earlier this month. And where can you now find this swinging Chad? Florida, of course. Perfect. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat
for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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