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The Piazza party is over Mets slugger is a man without a positionPosted: Wednesday May 07, 2003 12:54 PM
Click here to send a question to Tom Verducci's Mailbag. How would you fix the New York Mess? The Metropolitans are an old team with bad contracts and almost no trading chips. In short, Mets fans, you're stuck with this club. I might bring up shortstop Jose Reyes now just to inject some excitement into a horrid, slow team and live with his rookie mistakes. What would you do? With Mo Vaughn on the shelf, isn't this the perfect time for the Mets to get Mike Piazza some time at first base? Has Piazza refused to play first? If so, doesn't that taint his "great guy" image? Also, why isn't more being made of Piazza's inability to reach second base? I've seen catchers struggle to throw out runners, but I've never seen a catcher who can't reach second base. Have you?
Hey, maybe Tony Clark deserves a run at first base -- even if Vaughn isn't hurt. Here's the deal on Piazza: he could actually turn out to be a worse first baseman than catcher. He's not a great athlete, and I'd especially hesitate to put him at first without the benefit of a full spring training with, say, Keith Hernandez tutoring him. Piazza knows this, and doesn't want to embarrass himself with a midseason position switch for which he is not prepared. And no, I've never seen a big league catcher with worse throwing skills than Piazza.m At the beginning of the season Athletics owner Steve Schott announced that Oakland would not meet the contract demands of Miguel Tejada. Since then Tejada has gone into a tailspin. If he continues to struggle for the rest of the season, would his value on the free-agent market be affected? Is it possible that his value could drop to the point where the A's are able to re-sign him, or will his past numbers and ability still demand a monster contract?
Tejada will still get a huge contract. In the upcoming offseason the Mets, Padres, Dodgers, Mariners, Rockies and maybe some other clubs will be shopping for the services of Tejada and Kaz Matsui of Japan. The competition will keep Tejada's price extremely high. By the way, I don't expect the Oakland shortstop to hit .150 for six months. He'll wind up with something close to his usual numbers. I really enjoyed this week's column comparing the use of Barry Zito and A.J. Burnett. Do you think major league starters could pitch more innings if they developed that habit in their earlier years, for instance in Legion, high school, college or minor league ball?
Yes, I do think that given the advancements in training, nutrition and sports medicine -- not to mention the general growth in size among the human population -- today's pitchers could throw 300 innings if they were trained to do so in the minors. (Jack Morris told me he threw complete games in spring training!) But with the modern bullpen -- what we know about injury risks and multi-million dollar contracts -- pitchers won't get the chance to rack up a high number of innings. Ah, the Cubs. They are out of first place. It took them a bit longer than usual, but they never disappoint. I don't think it's because other teams are better. It's because the Cubs don't want to win. Sammy Sosa has struggled since getting beaned on April 20. Do you think getting hit has affected Sosa? Is it something else? Regardless, with the Cubs' improved pitching, there is no excuse for their recent performance. Do you think Dusty Baker can motivate this club?
Sammy and the Cubs will be fine. I expect them to hang around St. Louis atop the NL Central for most of the year. My big question about Chicago is how its young pitchers will hold up over the summer as they all approach 200 innings. What did you think of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior demanding the inside of the plate when they pitched to Barry Bonds last week? Was this aggressive approach an indication of the attitude of two dominant pitchers of the future, or was it just Dusty Baker's strategy? Although Bonds was on base a lot in the series, the Cubs came away with two wins. What do you see happening the next time we see these players matchup?
I love to see any pitcher come inside (and, by the way, at least one of those pitches that hit Bonds was a breaking ball.) Throwing inside is done so rarely in the game that hitters take it as a personal affront. And Bonds has no right to complain if he's going to wear body armor at the plate -- not unless the pitches come head-high, which I didn't see. This should make for a great rivalry this year. I'm sure it's not over. Who will be the Detroit Tigers' All-Star Game representative this season?
I can't come up with anybody deserving. All the more reason to get rid of the rule that requires at least one player from each team to be selected. Though Nick Johnson of the Yankees has flourished in the No. 2 spot, has Derek Jeter's absence hurt Jason Giambi's performance?
No. Johnson is among the league leaders in on-base percentage. Giambi is just an absolute mess right now, getting advice from many different people and taking pitches he normally hits. It's definitely become a mental thing for him, with or without Jeter. When will White Sox management realize that the team has been underachieving for the last three years because of Jerry Manuel? He doesn't have a clue how to motivate an obviously flat team. The Sox cannot get in an offensive grove because Manuel toys with the lineup every single night, and his use of the bullpen for the last three years is akin to arson. Is there any end in sight to this mess?
You might not have to wait too long. Manuel's handling of pitchers and lack of fire may lead to his undoing, even though I thought from the start that this was a flawed contender, with no strength up the middle. The Sox might actually be a good fit for Bobby Valentine. The Astros, Twins, Angels and Diamondbacks were all expected to compete in their respective divisions, but each has struggled. Which of these clubs do you think will turn it around and which do you think will struggle all year long?
I like the Twins to bounce back because there isn't a strong team in their division. I still think Arizona has a big run in it once Randy Johnson gets healthy. The Angels are in a brutally tough division and all the bloop hits they got last year aren't falling for them this season. I recently read your article in the March 31 issue of Sports Illustrated on Jack Morris being "The Ultimate Gamer". You wrote that some owners and teams did not like Morris' demeanor and attitude and shied away from signing him when he was a free agent. Do you think these same issues are affecting his Hall of Fame candidacy? If I were a manager and had to give the ball to someone in a Game 7, Black Jack would have been one of the two or three pitchers I would have chosen. What is he missing to be a Hall of Famer?
A few voters I spoke with are bothered by Morris' high ERA (.3.90) and few top finishes in Cy Young balloting. And when also you look at the lousy support for Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Lance Parrish and Kirk Gibson, you can see that the Tigers' decade-long losing streak has dulled the luster of the franchise. I honestly don't believe Morris' prickly personality as a player has anything to do with him not being in the Hall. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers baseball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Click here to send a question to his Mailbag.
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