Crooked Numbers: Wild Wild West

We’re going to take things on the lighter side here at Crooked
Numbers this
week, dropping the math and leaving things just Crooked. I’m down in
Arizona
taking in the Cactus League action, having seen the Diamondbacks, A’s,
Rangers,
Angels, Royals, Cubs, and Padres so far. For those of you who haven’t
been here
before, the Cactus League is a little more fan friendly than the
Grapefruit League,
with nine of the 12 teams packed into the greater Phoenix area and
several sharing
stadiums. There are always several games within a few miles driving
distance and
rainouts are as rare as worthwhile souvenirs.

Doing my best to read some chicken scratch from notes in my
programs, let’s get
right to it:

• First off, the parks are big. Phoenix Municipal Stadium, the A’s
  park, is 345
  down both lines and 410 to dead center. Tempe Diablo, where the Angels
  play, is
  enormous: 340 to left, 360 to right, and 420 to deep center. The Cubs
  play in
  HoHoKam where it’s 340, 350, and 410. Dan Johnson,
  Kevin
  Mench, Mark DeRosa, and Jeff
  Mathis all
  hit balls well over 400 feet only to see them fall harmlessly into the
  leather.
  Thus far in three games, only Eric Byrnes has managed
  to clear the
  fences.

• At both A’s games, Daric Barton, #9 on our Top
  50 Prospects
  list came into the game at first. As expected for a kid who has been a
  catcher
  since high school, he looked like he was still learning the position, a
  little
  hesitant at times. With backstops Kurt Suzuki and Landon Powell ahead
  of him for
  now, it’s clear the A’s are grooming him for a career at first. In
  three at bats,
  he has a single and a pair of groundouts. Barton has a compact frame,
  but a long
  swing and follow-through, giving hints of power to come. He’s survived
  the first
  round of cuts this week, but don’t expect him in the majors for a
  couple more
  seasons.

• Both Shawn Estes and Chan Ho
  Park
  inexplicably pitched very well, with Park facing the minimum over four
  and Estes
  throwing five shutout innings – or at least he would have if
  Quinton
  McCracken hadn’t let the last out of the fifth hit him in the
  chest
  instead of the glove. Perfect through the first three and bolstered by
  several
  excellent defensive plays by new shortstop Royce
  Clayton, Estes
  took advantage of his defense and the A’s surprising propensity to
  swing at the
  first pitch. Park allowed only a bunt single to Josh
  Paul, doing
  his best Ben Davis to break up the perfect game in the
  third.
  Also like Estes, the key to his performance was keeping the ball on the
  ground,
  getting eight groundball outs and two strikeouts. If he can repeat any
  semblance
  of this performance in the regular season, maybe that last $29 million
  on his
  contract won’t be completely misspent.

• With Chris Truby out with a broken wrist,
  Mark
  Teahen looks to have the inside track on the starting
  third base job. In
  the one game I saw, Teahen was 0-2 with a walk and didn’t record a
  putout in the
  field, a line that already makes him one of the Royal’s best hitters
  and fielders.

• Dan Haren, despite a little wildness in the
  first inning of
  his outing, was very solid through four scoreless innings. Largely
  relying on a
  heavy fastball, Haren kept everything down in the zone or in the dirt.
  He was
  efficient enough to have to hit the bullpen after his outing to get his
  pitch count
  up. His motion looked a little more violent working in the pen, but
  while in the
  game, he was very smooth and consistent. The A’s have publicly voiced
  him as the
  third starter for some time now and considering the shaky performances
  from
  Joe Blanton and Dan Meyer this
  spring, he seems
  to be right on track.

• The Cubs provided one of the worst programs so far. Not only
  was a list of
  NRIs – both Cubs and otherwise – completely absent, but the provided
  scorecard
  lacked a pitching section. We all know the Cubs pitching staff is
  having injury
  problems, but is it so bad that they just want us to forget that
  there’s a guy
  throwing a ball towards the plate? I nabbed a copy of the supplemental
  Vine Line
  Guide off the seat next to me; it attempted to improve on those
  shortcomings with a
  list of players grouped into Roster Locks, On the Bubble, Long Shots,
  and Not Ready
  Yet. Among the interesting notes: closer Joe Borowski
  is “On the
  Bubble” to make the major league roster and “Long Shot” Peter
  Bergeron “can’t hit big-league pitching.” Considering
  Neifi
  Perez is a “Roster Lock,” apparently that’s not a prerequisite
  for a job.

• Darrell May struggled badly against the A’s
  yesterday,
  walking four and giving up five runs in 3.2 innings. May seems to have
  added a
  slight pause in his delivery, not quite Robb Nen‘s
  toe-tap, but a
  bit of a hover letting his body catch up before he plants his foot.
  I’m not sure
  if it’s completely new, but it certainly wasn’t working today. The A’s
  have been
  hacking at more early pitches than their preached patience would
  dictate, so
  walking four requires even more wildness.

• Latest in the line of super college relievers taken high in the
  draft,
  Huston Street finished the ninth inning. When
  pitching from the
  windup, Street nearly steps off the mound with his left foot before
  resetting his
  right on the extreme firstbase side of the rubber and delivering. He
  walked his
  first batter, so he switched to the stretch and there was little chance
  of him
  falling onto first base for the rest of the inning. He certainly worked
  slowly,
  taking a full 15 minutes to finish the top of the ninth, wrapping up
  the game in
  1:57. It’s amazing what a lack of television breaks between innings
  does for game
  length.

• Twice I’ve overheard fans grumbling “We’re going to be seeing a
  lot of
  that.” The first time was after a Jeromy Burnitz
  strikeout. The
  other was when Ryan Klesko started complaining, this
  time about
  balls and strikes.

• With injury questions swarming around Mark
  Prior and
  Kerry Wood like Cubs fans around a beer vendor,
  Sergio
  Mitre solidified his claim on a spot in the rotation with
  three decent
  innings. Rumors that Dusty Baker sent him to the bullpen to reach his
  150
  scheduled pitches could not be confirmed.

• The Ranger lineup again gave hints of how deadly they can be
  against
  righthanded pitchers this season. With switch hitters Gary
  Matthews
  Jr. and Mark Teixeira complementing lefties
  Hank
  Blalock and once-and-future super-prospect Adrian
  Gonzalez filling out four of the top five spots in the lineup,
  the top of
  the Rangers order knocked around Paul Byrd and
  Joel
  Peralta for five innings, notching four runs and several “just
  missed”
  home runs.

• With Scott Hatteberg on the away squad of a
  split squad
  game, the A’s elected to play Erubiel Durazo at first
  base while
  Dan Johnson played DH. Durazo looked as inadequate as
  ever in the
  field and while Johnson’s no Keith Hernandez, he’s also no Durazo.
  Johnson should
  be in the mix in 2006, but hopefully he and Durazo’s defensive
  positions will be
  switched by then.

• The Rangers’ top hitting prospect and #21 on our list,
  Ian
  Kinsler, entered the game late on Monday, playing second
  instead of his
  usual shortstop. He’s been compared to current shortstop
  Michael
  Young and it’s easy to see the similarity. He wasn’t
  challenged in the
  field and managed only two fly balls to left in his two at bats, but he
  looked
  about as good as you can when getting out twice and standing around the
  dirt. With
  the infield already set for 2005, the Rangers will let him work in
  Triple-A for
  this season.

• When he was part of a group of top pitching prospects in the
  Oakland system
  a few seasons ago, the biggest knock against Mike Wood
  was that he
  didn’t strike out enough batters. He struck out five in three innings
  of shutout
  ball against the full Cubs lineup before leaving to allow Chris
  George – who had already been having a terrible spring – to
  yield six runs
  (five earned) in a third of an inning. If the Royals hadn’t nabbed
  Todd
  Walker at the plate, George’s ERA for the outing would have
  been infinite.
  Instead it was merely 135.00.

While it’s nice to catch the top prospects like Barton and Kinsler,
sometimes it
can get a little tedious constantly looking up players with numbers
higher than the
temperature. But today’s Rich Harden–Greg
Maddux
matchup at the A’s game should prove to be one of the best of the
spring. More on
that next time.