Transaction Analysis: August 6-8, 1999

Activated RHP Tim Belcher from the DL; optioned C Steve
Decker to Edmonton. [8/7]

Well, hand it to the Angels. They aren’t going to just give the fans a
warmed-over Jeff Huson. They probably saw that Fox In the Zone
feature on Dave Nilsson, and decided that what they needed was a nice
Aussie with merchandising potential. Better yet, an Aussie knockoff on
their own ill-fated Justin Baughman! Genius, I tell you! Dial me up some
Kangaroo Beanie Babies, and this team will yet have some sort of success,
yessireebob.

Durrington’s a blazer (59 steals in 75 attempts), but in his repeat year at
Double-A he’s hardly been dominant with the bat (.288/.379/.381). It is the
Eastern League, and he is only just about to turn 24…and c’mon, he’s
not Jeff Huson. Taking a two-month look-see isn’t the worst possible
thing in the world. The worst possible thing in the world now sits at the
end of the bench, wearing Jeff Huson’s uniform.

Tim Belcher is back, and the nicest things you can say are that he’ll
continue to fulfill his prophecy about how easy it is to score runs these
days (while he’s pitching, anyway), while being a much, much better pitcher
than Jeff Huson.

Steve Decker needed to be shipped off to the Edmonton gulag for not only
outplaying a nice guy like Matt Walbeck, but completely embarrassing Jeff
Huson by hitting the ball hard, getting on base and being good at other
baseball-related activities.

Simon loses his platoon job at first base for four days because John
Schuerholz won’t stare at himself in the mirror and say, "damn, Ozzie
Guillen is absolutely worthless". If he can’t bring himself to cut
loose his third-string shortstop, maybe the Braves should re-evaluate how
important it is to keep Bruce Chen in the pen for mop-up duty. As long as
the Braves are stuck with a 24-man roster for four days, they could do a
much better job of minimizing the damage than sending Simon down.

Scratch one bottom-of-the-barrel center fielder. The interesting
development here is that the Red Sox have made the wise choice, and decided
against just handing the job to Darren Lewis. They’re taking a look at
Donnie Sadler in center field. After enjoying a few good months at
Pawtucket (.291/.361/.424), Sadler’s a much better choice to play
regularly, while Lewis can be put to use as Sadler’s defensive replacement
and a pinch-runner.

With Martinez is limited to five or six innings, Saberhagen’s durability an
open question and Pat Rapp and Mark Portugal being who they are, an extra
long reliever isn’t a bad thing at all, even if it does mean the Sox are up
to twelve pitchers.

Forced to make a couple of moves by a doubleheader and Curtis Goodwin’s
persistent crumminess, the Cubs end up helping themselves out. Andrew
Lorraine finally got that big break he’s needed to move from solid Triple-A
rotation regular to major-league fifth starter. He’s had a better track
record than Dan Serafini, and Kyle Farnsworth needs to enjoy some measure
of success in the bullpen before he’ll be ready for any sort of consistency
as a starter.

This year at Iowa, Lorraine was being his sturdy self: a 3.71 ERA, with 149
hits and 16 home runs allowed in 143 innings pitched, and a 96-to-43 K/BB
ratio. While he isn’t going to continue having major successes like last
Friday’s three-hit shutout, he’s only just about to turn 27. If Jamie Moyer
can turn it around, I could see where Lorraine can, too.

As for calling up Chad Meyers, he should finally answer the Cubs’ age-old
leadoff problem. Between Double-A and Triple-A this year, he hit
.317/.414/.436, taking 55 walks in 481 plate appearances while swiping 39
bases in 53 attempts. The question is where he’ll play, both now and into
the future. After a week-long refresher at Iowa, he’s going back to his
college position in the outfield. With the Cubs and their thunder-footed
outfield, that means he’s going to center. Whether they’re giving up on the
attempt to turn him into a second baseman is an open question, probably to
be determined by whether or not Mickey Morandini re-signs.

If Morandini does return, and assuming Mark Grace does as well, that gives
the Cubs only two positions where they can do anything to help their weak
offense: third base and catcher. The best hope Cubs fans can take from that
is that with such a short laundry list, their team might actually get
something better than Benito Santiago or Gary Gaetti. Getting a good player
at either position? Hey, let’s not get greedy…

Pena brings the Sox to twelve pitchers, but as long as Scott Eyre’s
following in Bryan Ward’s footsteps as far as "contributions",
that may not last. Keep in mind, however, that the Sox are already having
problems making playing time for Brian Simmons and Liu Rodriguez. The point
is basically mooted by the need to bring up another starter for Friday
night’s doubleheader against the Rangers. It’s expected that Kip Wells will
get the call, for at least a one-start return engagement.

Pena’s a fun pitcher to watch by reputation, animated about the outs he
logs, while dialing up heat into the low 90s. He was having a good year at
Birmingham, putting up a 2.37 ERA while striking out 49 batters in 45 2/3
innings, allowing 49 baserunners. He’s the closest thing to a left-handed
setup guy in the organization, so he’s a good bet to stick.

Lofton’s strained hamstring can use the rest, so while the Tribe can kvetch
about their walking wounded, the fact of the matter is nobody else is going
to mount a challenge, and they have several solid fill-ins.

Unfortunately, their best choice for Lofton’s replacement was Cruz, who’s
lost for the year and has to hope for a Bruce Aven-like resurrection next
season. In both of their absences, the Tribe will hand center field over to
a platoon of career minor-leaguer Dave Roberts and utility man Cabrera. At
Buffalo this year, Roberts misplaced the stroke that caught people’s eyes
last year during a hot first half at Akron, having settled down to hit
.267/.346/.371 with 39 steals in 42 attempts. Again, as long as Lofton
heals in two weeks, there’s no real cause for concern. The Sox are
scuffling, and the fistfight over who gets to finish third is being won by
the Twins. Nobody’s going to sneak up on the Tribe if they have another
two-week stretch in which they win six or seven games.

Manager’s pet Abbott will go straight back into the lineup as the
semi-regular second baseman. Lenny Harris has that pinch-hitting record to
keep chasing, and Terry Shumpert has been much too effective to be allowed
to continue to play.

With Preston Wilson and Bruce Aven battling injuries, the Fish needed
someone who could actually play the outfield once in a while. If you’re a
Dunwoody fan, you might have hoped that the demotion would do him some
good, but his stint in Calgary didn’t help: he hit only .272/.304/.504,
while drawing a mere 10 walks in 260 plate appearances. In other words, he
isn’t going to run Wilson off, but he will get to time-share a spot start
or two every week with Danny Bautista.

A call-up forced by Friday’s doubleheader against the Cubs, in which
Bergman managed to re-convince everyone that Chris Holt, bad luck
notwithstanding, should still be the fifth starter. The important question
is whether Bergman can help the team as a middle reliever more than
Cabrera, which I doubt.

After all my railing about Jeff Huson, I suppose it shouldn’t surprise
anyone to find out that Jorge Velandia hurt himself swinging the bat,
something he’s equally ill-equipped to do. The A’s will have a tougher
choice ahead of them in a week, when they’ll want to reactivate Olmedo
Saenz. Then the question will be whether they’ll bump a twelfth pitcher
(Mike Oquist? A demotion for Jimmy Haynes? Worrell?), or option Scott
Spiezio or Jason McDonald out of town.

Losing Montgomery gives the Phillies an interest crew of desperadoes in the
bullpen of three righties and three lefties. The portsiders are all
rehabbed retreads: Brewer, fighting his way back from blowing his arm out
last year, plus greybeards Scott Aldred and Jim Poole. The righties have
one guy you’d call a prospect in proto-closer Wayne Gomes, one of the
league’s best scrapheap pickups in Amaury Telemaco, and the definitive
Triple-A veteran in Steve Schrenk.

It’s not a great pen, but it isn’t a major problem either. It’s an
interesting collection of guys–even without counting retreads Montgomery
or Joe Grahe–who turn represent an object lesson in how easy it can be to
cobble together an adequate pen.

Stephenson came up to pitch as a result of last weekend’s doubleheader, and
after giving up one run to the Pirates, is probably the Cards’ #2 starter
for at least another two weeks. Luebbers is another one of those Triple-A
vets who managed to crack the bigs this year instead of the expansion year,
and given how awful Kent Mercker has been, probably deserves to stick
around after four serviceable (as opposed to good) starts.

Guzman isn’t really up to play or anything, while Nathan could probably do
the team some good out of the pen. Heck, even Calvin Murray or Chris
Canizaro would be better to have around at the end of the bench as long as
Jeff Kent is down and Ellis Burks has two bad knees.

In keeping with Mt. Piniella’s latest diktat (bullpens must have veterans,
and rotations must have rookies), Williams is up after a brief one-game
stay at Tacoma. This followed a stint on Team USA in the Pan Am games,
which followed another season as Indianapolis’ closer. Outside of the Pan
Am Games, Williams has a 4.91 ERA, an eye-catching–if you’re Piniella–25
saves, and he’s old enough to have wrestled with problems like what to do
with unwanted ear hair. Best yet, if he flops, Piniella has plausible
deniability, because who could actually win anything with a guy like Todd
Williams?

Guillen managed to pop three home runs in nine games for Durham, so he’s
your D-Rays right fielder, just like that. If he’s supposed to have sorted
himself out already and shed his Pirates baggage, color me doubtful. He’s
going to end up swiping playing time from somebody who can put some runs on
the board, like Bubba Trammell, which doesn’t make me any more impressed by
the move.

With Alvarez’s return to the rotation, the Devil Fish now have a rotation
of one guy with a future (Ryan Rupe) and four guys who can give him all
sorts of advice (Alvarez, Rolando Arrojo, Bobby Witt and Dave Eiland).
Okay, so Eiland’s tips on where to eat and sleep in International League
cities might not be what the kid needs.

Sometimes a team’s capacity for stupidity cannot cease to amaze. Curtis
Goodwin might play a baseball player on TV, but neither he nor Jacob
Brumfield even remotely resembles a useful fourth outfielder, let alone a
regular center field platoon. Acknowledging that, Gord Ash picked up Brian
McRae on Monday, but that’s just picking up a bad, hurt center fielder,
when they already had a useful major league player on their hands in Cruz.

Everyone’s bitching about the strikeouts and the .228 batting average, but
Cruz is a guy who can do a decent job in the field, has poked 11 home runs,
taken 54 walks and even swiped 11 bases in 14 attempts. Is that an
All-Star? No. Is that less than what the Jays wanted? Certainly. Is it
useful? A far sight more than anything this team’s going to get out of two
scrubs and Brian McRae.

That cheering you hear is coming from Dan Duquette and Billy Beane. As long
as the Jays keep finding ways to hurt themselves, they’ll run out of season
before they figure out they could have played .600 ball and snagged the
wild card in the last two months.