Lee Lowenfish

Thoughts on Baseball’s Adventurous AL East April + Notes on Noteworthy May Events

April proved a deliciously unpredictable month for Major League Baseball. The old saying remains very valid: “You cannot win a pennant in April but you sure can lose one.” Branch Rickey used to say that a win in April means two less you have to win in August and September.

The trendy AL East pick Toronto Blue Jays have already dug themselves a big hole. After being swept in four straight at Yankee Stadium to close out April, they languish eight games under .500. They have a lot of work to do to catch up with the high-flying Boston Red Sox and the surprisingly strong Yankees who swept the Jays though wracked by injuries. Good pitching and new life for veterans TRAVIS HAFNER, LYLE OVERBAY and VERNON WELLS will do that. Not to mention the return of MARIANO RIVERA.

Those expensive Toronto acquisitions from the downsizing Miami Marlins don’t look so good now. An awkward slide into second base by shortstop JOSE REYES led to a severely sprained ankle that will sideline him until July. Southpaw MARK BUEHRLE is showing his age and oft-injured righthander JOSH JOHNSON has already missed a start. Knuckleballing Cy Young award-winner R.A.DICKEY has been OK but not great and now he is complaining of assorted injuries.

Expensive free-agent acquisition MELKY CABRERA has been mediocre at best.
It may be too early to bestow the dubious Gary Matthews Jr Impetuous Bad Contract (hereafter cited as the GMJIBC) Award upon Melky but he better turn up his production soon.

What is the GMJIBC? Late in 2007 before the ink was dry on the [former U.S. Senator George] Mitchell Report that explained in detail PED abuse in baseball, Matthews Jr. was signed to a 4-year $50 million contract by the California Angels. He produced very little with that largesse.

This past off-season, the moment Melky became a free agent after the end of his 50-game suspension for PED abuse, the Blue Jays rushed to bestow upon him a 2-year $16 million contract. Let the buyer beware and yet another sign that all it takes is one owner to go bonkers in the free agent auctions.

On the plus side of the AL East, early returns from Boston indicate that new manager JOHN FARRELL, Bosox pitching coach in their recent glory years, has evidently worked wonders in reviving southpaw JON LESTER and righty CLAY BUCHHOLZ. Another nice story in Boston is the power of first baseman MIKE NAPOLI who always hit well at Fenway as a visiting player and is keeping it up in the home whites.

As someone who wishes more players were on one-year contracts so their determination to produce every day could not be questioned, I am pleased with Napoli’s year so far. He was set to sign a multi-year free agent contract when physical examinations revealed a chronic hip condition. After much negotiation, he and his agents settled on a one-year deal and so far so good for both sides.

My Orioles remain right in the mix as the two players who made all the difference late last season, 20-year-old third baseman MANNY MACHADO and 32-year-old left fielder NATE MCLOUTH, are picking up right where they left off.

The poise of Machado has astonished everyone in baseball except probably himself. He has responded to manager Buck Showalter’s installation of him as the number 2 batter in the lineup with consistently good at-bats and he continues to sparkle in the field.
Often hitting leadoff, McLouth is reminding people of the player who made the 2008 All-Star Game as a Pittsburgh Pirate.

The Orioles’ starting pitching remains a cause for concern. They have no ace but JASON HAMMEL and the Taiwanese southpaw WEI-YIN CHEN are generally reliable. The unsung MIGUEL GONZALEZ has been inconsistent this year though CHRIS TILLMAN is showing signs that he might emerge as a reliable starter. But when he loses his release point, it is not a bad idea to reach for the channel clicker.

JAKE ARRIETA, the Hamlet on the rubber, has pitched himself back to Triple-A yet again. Maybe he needs a change of scenery into another organization. Onetime major league stars, aging FREDDY GARCIA and the younger JAIR JURRJENS, are waiting in the wings at Norfolk. Gritty STEVE JOHNSON, a righthander with average stuff who gets the most out of his ability, could be up before any of them. Once-heralded southpaw ZACH BRITTON gets a chance tonight in Seattle to show he belongs in the bigs.

In spite of all these question marks which are already putting a strain on the Orioles’ vaunted bullpen, the O’s are watchable again after years and years in the wilderness far from contention. God Bless Showalter and general manager DAN DUQUETTE who is proving that his success in Montreal and Boston were no flukes.

No assessment of the AL East would be complete without a shout-out to the Tampa Bay Rays. Though they are still a couple of games under .500, they are fun to watch. And manager JOE MADDON knows how to loosen them up when he senses they are trying too hard.

Before successive games at home after a tough early season road trip, Maddon brought into the clubhouse a cockatoo, a DJ spinning hip contemporary records, and two penguins. It is a long season and no one knows better than Maddon how to keep an intense team from being too tense.

Though the Rays traded mound stalwarts JAMES SHIELDS and WADE DAVIS to KC (the young heralded outfielder WIL MYERS they received in return is still polishing his skills at Triple A), any team that can throw out a rotation of reigning AL Cy Young award-winner DAVID PRICE, JEREMY HELLICKSON, ALEX COBB and the youngest sensation MATT MOORE should ultimately contend.

NOTEWORTHY UPCOMING EVENTS OF MAY:
**On FSa May 3-4, Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame opens its “Diamond Mines” exhibit devoted to the life and work of baseball’s most underappreciated people, the scouts.
Among the notables attending will be Hall of Famer PAT GILLICK, the general manager who brought World Series championships to Toronto and Philadelphia and contending teams to Baltimore and Seattle, and Buck O’Neil Award winner ROLAND HEMOND, who has championed scouts throughout a career that now stretches over six decades.
Watch this space for a report about this celebration later this month.

**On SaSu May 4-5, Dartmouth invades Columbia for a best two-out-of-three series to determine the Ivy League entry into the NCAA baseball tournament starting later in May.
Both the Big Green and the Lions feature dominant pitching and timely hitting. They are beginning to send into pro baseball some of their stars - for example, shortstop JOE SCLAFANI from Dartmouth and outfielder DARIO PIZZANO formerly with the Lions.

I’m keeping an eye on the development of Columbia’s dh/cleanup hitter JOEY FALCONE. Nearly 27, Falcone is the oldest player in Division I. After high school in Louisiana, Falcone joined the Navy as a corpsman. He served with the Marines in two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He is the son of former major league southpaw PETE FALCONE.
His stats in 2013 - .303 AB, .525 SA, 5 HR 24 RBIs in only 101 at-bats - only scratch the surface of what might be ahead for this left-handed hitting slugger.

**Here’s notice of another fascinating exploration into international baseball.
In November 2013, a group of six American coaches and scouts are heading to Kenya to provide free clinics in baseball and softball for the boys and girls of that area who are interested in the sports but have limited access and resources.

The team is headed by White Sox scout JOHN TUMMINIA who has previously led
groups to Monte Plata, Dominican Republic, and the Pine Ridge, South Dakota Native American reservation. Among those joining him in the Kenyan trip will be the former major league pitcher ROB BELL, now working in the front office of the Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York-Penn League, and JEFF TAYLOR, special assistant to the Cincinnati Reds’ general manager.

The trips are guided by the Christian relief organizations, Bethlehem Tessema and the Bread and Water Foundation. Contributions are welcome to defray some of the travel expenses to Kenya. Please contact John Tumminia at jtumminia@chisox.com or call 845/742-8772

That’s all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it!  Read More 

I’ve been an Oriole fan for over 40 years and have suffered quietly if painfully during the last 15 years of the Birds’ under-.500 futility. The 2012 season has been a reawakening of hope in Baltimore and among the diaspora of intense fans like yours truly.

Universally picked for either last or the next-to-last rung of the tough AL East, these Birds managed by BUCK SHOWALTER have been over .500 all season, quite an accomplishment given their recent past. And they caught fire in early August and became a worthy contender when two unusual moves worked like a charm on the Orioles lineup and defense.

NATE MCLOUTH, a former All-Star outfielder with the Pirates whose career had nose-dived since 2009, was installed as the left fielder. And 20 year-old shortstop of the future MANNY MACHADO came up from Double A Bowie to become a rock-steady and often spectacular third baseman though he had only played two games at that position in the minor leagues. What had been a truly horrible Oriole defense became one of the best if not the best in the league.

Both McLouth and Machado contributed heavily with the bat, too. I was at Machado’s second home game at Camden Yards on August 9 and all he did was belt his first two home runs. Where once the chants of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie” for retired Hall of Fame slugger EDDIE MURRAY rang throughout Baltimore, now I could hear the beginning of a new chant for “Manny, Manny, Manny.” I even heard a fan in the bathroom singing the words “Manny, Manny” to the 1950s pop hit, “Volare.”

Speaking of Murray, the onetime reclusive first baseman was one of six retired Orioles, all Hall of Famers, to be honored with sculptures by local artist TOBY MENDEZ that will be permanently displayed beyond the center field fence at Camden Yards.

There is no doubt in my mind that the beginning of the long years of gloom in Birdland began when owner EDWARD BENNETT WILLIAMS insisted on the trade of Murray after the 1988 season. After the Orioles’ last World Series triumph in 1983, the “Oriole Way” of patient development through the minor leagues and discreet free agent acquistion was replaced by the Indiscriminate Free Agent Fix that never works but owners almost always succumb to.

Murray was not to blame for the decline in pitching and defense and intelligent hitting that afflicted Baltimore after the 1983 World Series year but the impatient Williams was battling a terminal cancer that would soon claim him. Though the Orioles surprisingly contended in 1989, the year after the Murray trade to the Dodgers for three less than memorable players, it was not a team made for durable consistency and it quickly fell back into mediocrity.

Murray did return near the end of his career to hit his 500th home run in Oriole garb but a great chance to have a team built around the solid play on both sides of the ball of Murray and CAL RIPKEN JR had been lost.

Happily, 2012 has been a year of both resurrection on the field and remembrance of past glory. Like Murray Cal Jr was honored with his statue this season as were FRANK ROBINSON (whose trade from Cincinnati after the 1965 season led directly to the Orioles first World Series championship in 1966), pitcher JIM PALMER, still an insightful broadcaster, manager EARL WEAVER, and last but least late in September BROOKS ROBINSON.

Brooks has not been in good health and his ceremony was delayed until the next-to-last day before the end of the home season in late September. I attended this event along with a capacity crowd that later watched the Orioles win the second game of their three-game sweep of the cellar-dwelling Red Sox.

Brooks looked very dapper and filled was with enthusiasm for the current Orioles. “How about dem Birds?” he chortled more than once. He was joined at the ceremony by all the other statue awardees as well as former teammates AL BUMBRY and MILT PAPPAS and former Baltimore Colt running back LENNY MOORE.

Brooks told many stories about his glory days, always with his trademark self-effacement. As the Associated Press sportswriter GORDON BEARD said when Brooks retired in 1977, “They might name candy bars after Reggie Jackson in New York but they name babies after Brooks in Baltimore.”

I write this post as the rain delay seems to be coming to an end in Baltimore. What would be an Oriole-Yankee series in Charm City WITHOUT a rain delay? As always in this most surprising season the Orioles are underdogs to the powerful Yankees with their nearly $200 million payroll.

But I think the men in Black and Orange have a fighting chance to move one step closer to their first league pennant since 1983. And to have hope in October is the greatest emotion for a baseball fan.

On Friday night October 5 Manager Showalter won his first playoff game since 1995 (when he was the skipper of the Yankees) as the Orioles dethroned the Texas Rangers 5-1 in the Winner Take All Wild Card Game. Unheralded southpaw JOE SAUNDERS
outpitched Texas' highly paid Japanese import YU DARVISH.

Right-hander JASON HAMMEL, another unheralded hurler discarded by both Tampa Bay and Colorado, was poised to go head-to-head with the Yankees' big time southpaw CC SABATHIA with other obscure pitchers following him in the rotation, the Taiwanese import southpaw WEI-YIN CHEN and Mexican League veteran MIGUEL GONZALEZ. With JIM JOHNSON anchoring an effective bullpen the Orioles have a chance to win every game though of course no guarantee it will happen.

To repeat, though, to have hope after years in the darkness is a wonderful feeling.
Stay tuned for further commentary on how this amazing year ultimately turns out.

In the meantime, always remember: Take it easy but take it!
 Read More