The Triumphant(!) Return Of Carl Pavano And Other Stories

• Yankees 5-Orioles 3:
  

It wasn't a David Cone/seven no-hit innings in a comeback from aneurysm surgery kind of performance for Carl Pavano, but all things being equal, it wasn't all that bad. Pavano's stuff wasn't great;

his control wasn't great; and he was lucky, but after four years of embarrassment on and off the field, a win is a win is a win. Before anyone gets all enthusiastic about a possible useful month from

Pavano, it has to be remembered that he acquitted himself well in his two starts in April of 2007 before going on the disabled list with Tommy John surgery, so it's a start-by-start thing with him and the Yankees should put him out on the mound as long as he says he's able and use him for whatever they can get out of him over the last month.
The thing that sticks out for me in this whole episode was revealed in the recap of the game in the New York Times----Story. Here's the relevant clip:

When the Yankees were courting Pavano in 2004 — taking him to “Mamma Mia!” on Broadway, with General Manager Brian Cashman dancing in the aisles — they never could have expected what would happen to their $39.95 million, and medical expenses.

They took him to see Mamma Mia!? And they used this as a selling point? And Brian

Cashman, the general manager of the New York Yankees, was dancing in the aisles? Say what you want about Pavano on the field, but off the field he's a guy's guy; he chases girls, drives fast cars and lives his life; I find it hard to believe he had any interest whatsoever in Mamma Mia! other than scouring the cast for potential dates. In fact, if the idea were suggested to me to go see the show as part of the free agent courting process, there's a pretty good chance I would've gone to see the show and afterwards dragged Cashman into an alley, beaten him up and taken his wallet.

• Angels 7-Twins 5; the importance of long relievers as game stabilizers:

The most unsung parts of any winning team are the long relievers who rarely receive attention unless they do something bad; don't make much money; don't accrue gaudy stats

and are unappreciated by the general public. Smart baseball people know how important it is to have a pitcher who's able to enter a game in the middle innings and calm things down because the only time these types of pitchers get into a game is when the starting pitcher is knocked out early. One of the ignored pieces of the Los Angeles Angels bullpen is veteran lefty Darren Oliver.
Oliver was a successful starter early in his career and has fashioned a new job for himself as a long man out of the bullpen. He was an important part of the 2006 Mets and is now imperative to the Angels because when one of their starters gets knocked around, it's Oliver who's called upon. Many times, the game is in danger of getting out of hand when the long man enters; usually his team ends up losing no matter how well or poorly he does; but it's when he comes into a game with his team behind and stabilizes things, giving his team a chance to come back, that his value is realized.
In last night's game against the Twins, the Angels built a 6-1 lead for starter Jon Garland before the Twins started pecking away and got to within 6-4 in the fifth inning with runners on second and third and one out; Garland was yanked in favor of Oliver. Oliver proceeded to get Justin Morneau to ground out to first, scoring one run to make it 6-5; Jason Kubel grounded to second to end the inning. Oliver pitched the sixth and seventh innings, allowing only an infield single before giving way to the glamorous (and better-paid) parts of the Angels

bullpen, set-up man Scot Shields and closer Francisco Rodriguez. Shields gets the eighth inning "hold"; Rodriguez gets the save; and Oliver gets the appreciation from his teammates for stopping the Twins rally and getting them to the money men.
Oliver's an understated type who doesn't want any publicity; and he's come close to retiring several times; first when he was cut by the Mets on the last day of spring training 2006, only to see the team change their minds and bring him back; and then before the Angels called with a job offer that was partially accepted because he wanted to be closer to his family if he was going to continue to play. There are many games that are getting out-of-hand when a pitcher like Oliver enters and no one notices if the team doesn't come back; but there are also many games like last night's win, which might not have happened if the Angels didn't have a guy like Oliver who can handle the pressure, throws strikes and does his job without complaint.

• Blue Jays 11-Red Sox 0; Vernon Wells pads his stats with a team not really in, but not completely out of contention:
  

I've called Vernon Wells a player making $100 million rather than a $100 million player because he's essentially done nothing since signing that big contract to forgo free agency and stay with the Blue Jays. The argument that injuries have curtailed his production doesn't account for his woeful 2007 season----Wells Stats----but now he's starting to heat up after missing a big chunk of this season. Yesterday, Wells homered twice and his numbers are looking pretty good; if he has a solid final month and stays healthy, he'll be close to 20 homers and 85 RBI, but injuries or not, is that a season worthy of a player with Wells's contract?
A player who is worth the money that Wells is making is not putting up these numbers once his team is out of contention. Where would the Cardinals be if Albert Pujols hadn't put off elbow surgery to play through the pain? There were many voices, credible and not, saying

that since the Cardinals looked to be so terrible in the spring that Pujols should just have the surgery immediately rather than trying to drag a rickety and unusable cart like the rest of the Cardinals roster on his back.
A guy like Wells with his superior talent should have been putting these numbers up early in the season when the Blue Jays were desperate for power, their front office was making decisions that were based on money rather than wins (releasing Frank Thomas), and they weren't scoring enough runs to support the solid work of their pitching staff. Wells has gotten hot now that the Blue Jays----67-62, two games behind the Yankees and not in any realistic contention barring an almost impossible Rockies-like hot streak----are playing out the string and trying to put up a respectable record to again save GM J.P. Ricciardi's job.
The reality of the situation would be obvious to people paying attention to the circumstances in which a player puts up his numbers, but given the way the Blue Jays ownership has been taken in by the bluster of Riccardi along with his embarrassing missteps, there's every possibility they're going to take Wells's hot streak as a portent for the future; if they do that, there's no reason to believe that they're going to take proper steps to fix their franchise, which ends every season with 80-some wins leading them to think that they're going to contend the next year, only to repeat the process again and again.

• Giants 4-Padres 3; the Padres should trade Jake Peavy:

A few weeks ago, I wondered whether a devoid franchise like the Padres should try to

recover as quickly as possible by trading their two most marketable quantities in Adrian Gonzalez and Jake Peavy; now I know they should trade Jake Peavy. The Padres (48-81), heading toward 100 losses and with an owner in the midst of a divorce and possibly cutting the team payroll down to $40 million, have no hope of contending in the near future. Peavy, with his brutally violent motion is a pitcher who's destined to get hurt, but he has a reasonable contract through 2012----contract----and many teams have the prospects and motivation to take a chance on Peavy.
I don't have any faith at all in the Padres front office; nor do I think they'd be able to extract an adequate haul for a former Cy Young Award winner with or without his terrible mechanics (these ain't the brilliantly smart and savvy Marlins we're talking about here), but if they're slashing salary, they'll be better-served to re-stock the organization as best they can and they can do that by putting Peavy out on the market to see who bites, because someone definitely will.

Yankees Acquire Xavier Nady And Damaso Marte

• Yankees acquire Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates for Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, Phil Coke and George Kontos:

Yankees GM Brian Cashman finally used some of that "organizational depth" he constantly

refers to and filled two gaping holes. In acquiring Xavier Nady, it's hard to believe that the Yankees are under any illusions about what they're going to get out of him. He's not the .330 hitter he's been this year and he's had a history of being injury prone and/or unlucky; that being said, he's a good guy in the clubhouse; handled New York before and got some big clutch hits with the Mets; is a decent enough outfielder and can play first base; and he also hits well enough to the opposite field that the short right field porch at Yankee Stadium will be put to good use. With Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada both out or hindered for extended periods, the Yankees needed to beef up their offense and Nady is just good enough to do that. He's going to make a lot of money in arbitration this winter given the year he's having, but the Yankees have a load of money coming off the books and if Nady plays well, they're not going to blink about paying him.
Damaso Marte is a former Yankees farmhand who's bounced around and found a home with the Pirates as more than just a lefty specialist. His numbers against righties are good

enough that he's no Mike Myers/Tony Fossas where leaving him in to pitch to a righty----any righty----is done so at their own risk. He was a workhorse with the White Sox before and during their championship season and pitched well for the Pirates as a set-up man and occasional closer. He has a $6 million team option for 2009, but the Yankees won't think twice about exercising that or extending it if Marte does well for them.
The Pirates had previously been asking for the moon for both Nady and Marte, but acquitted themselves well enough in this trade. They probably wouldn't have gotten more from any other interested team, so it was smart to take the Yankees deal when it was offered. Ross Ohlendorf struggled as a long-man/mop-up man for the Yankees this year

and they projected him as a reliever, but he showed potential as a starter in the minors and may be better off in that role as a potential innings-eater at the middle-to-back-end of the rotation. He's big enough (6'4" 235) to handle a heavy workload. George Kontos is a right-handed pitcher who's also big (6'3" 215) and has put up big strikeout numbers in the minors as a starter. (Presumably both Ohlendorf and Kontos are smart as the former went to Princeton and the latter went to Northwestern.) Phil Coke sounds like more of a project than prospect since he's already 26, but he's lefty and has put up promising strikeout numbers. The big part of the trade for the Pirates, other than stockpiling some power arms, is Jose Tabata.
Tabata was one of the Yankees "untouchable" prospects that they were reluctant to

include in any trades for veteran pitchers like Johan Santana (although I think Cashman was just trying to find excuses not to trade for Santana and then have to pay him as the Mets did). Tabata is still a baby as he's only going to be twenty next month; his walk totals imply plate discipline impressive in such a young player; he can run and will develop power as he matures; he's struggled a bit at Double A this year, but not enough to raise any questions about his future. If the Yankees make the playoffs and get what they need out of Nady and Marte and the Pirates get use from at least one of the pitchers and Tabata becomes a productive big leaguer, neither team is going to regret making this trade which had to be made from both ends. The Yankees couldn't afford not to improve both their bullpen and injury-ravaged outfield and the Pirates couldn't let their demands stand in the way of clearing salary for players they probably weren't going to keep past 2009 and who weren't going to be present when the Pirates become true contenders anyway.

• Now that you mention it, the Padres should trade Jake Peavy as well:

Joe at Statistician Magician commented on my last posting that if my logic that the Padres should trade Adrian Gonzalez is accurate, then they should also deal Jake Peavy, and he's right; more so, in fact. Peavy is Tommy John-surgery waiting to happen with that motion and if

the Padres are going to replenish their organization as quickly as possible, they should take advantage of Peavy's gaudy results to hypnotize another team into surrendering a big chunk of their farm system to get him and let them worry about when his arm is going to explode. The problem is that I have no faith in the Padres hierarchy to make a Marlins-like deal to extract slabs of another organization's best, blue chip prospects and develop them into stars; so as long as they still have the current management team, it's a big risk to do anything of consequence that would haunt the organization if it doesn't work.

• Mets 7-Cardinals 2:

Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen is going to get the credit for the development of Mike Pelfrey, but the hot streak started well before Warthen arrived and while Rick Peterson was

still there. Peterson's departure probably helped guys like Oliver Perez (who's a head case), but it doesn't diminish the good work he did with the Mets. I don't think anyone could've expected Pelfrey to mature and develop this fast and he has a chance to win 16 or 17 games if he keeps it up, and who would've predicted that?
I had to look back into my previous postings to make sure I never said anything too derogatory about Carlos Delgado and I didn't. While guys like Mike Francesa and the other "experts" at WFAN and in other places were saying that Delgado should be dumped or released----released!----my view was that as a veteran player who has lost bat speed, Delgado can't catch up to the fastballs of top-notch pitchers anymore, but since they had other holes and few alternatives, the Mets had little choice but to keep writing Delgado's name in the lineup and hope for a resurgence. Well, that hope has come true (for awhile at least) as Delgado has carried the Mets during this hot streak.
Looking at it objectively, Delgado's lack of production was considered age-related when it

may have been just a slump. If he were ten years younger, no one would've said a word about releasing him; they would have come up with other suggestions, but releasing him and saying that he's "finished" wouldn't have entered the conversation (or PEDs might have been suggested); but with a struggling veteran at age 36, in the age of testing for PEDs and, possibly more importantly, amphetamines, it's harder for such a veteran to regain the public confidence without a sustained streak like Delgado has had. That he's had it has made people like Francesa look foolish. And this isn't an indictment for the statements that were made; Delgado did look finished for much of the first half; my problem with these critics is that they have to come up with a justification for their statements and still try to weasel away from making the credibility-accruing admission: I was wrong. And if Delgado continues this hot streak, they still won't admit they were wrong; and I don't think they realize how such an attitude damages credibility, but if they haven't figured it out yet...

• Rockies 7-Reds 2; Dodgers 3-Nationals 2:

Don't look now, but the Rockies are only six games out of first place. Their position is so precarious that the next few days will determine whether they aggressively try to trade Matt Holliday, but after last year's comeback it's starting to look like they'll hang onto him at least

into the winter to see if they can come up with another hot streak.
I'm going to maintain my belief in Joe Torre and the Dodgers. They've been lucky that the Diamondbacks haven't taken control of the division and, with all their injuries and horrendous performances (see Jones, Andruw), they're still right there at the top of the division. By late August, they're going to start getting their injured veterans back; the cooling weather will rejuvenate guys like Jeff Kent and Nomar Garciaparra and they'll have a characteristic Torre-run to make the playoffs. The Wild Card, though unlikely, isn't completely out of the question for any of the three teams either.

• Braves 8-Phillies 2:

It doesn't look like that comeback against the Mets on Tuesday spurred anything in the

Phillies other than Jimmy Rollins's mouth and the benching of Rollins and his attitude could eventually become a problem within that clubhouse. Nor does it help that Brad Lidge got lit up for the first time this season last night against the Braves; it also came at a characteristically inopportune time for Lidge, who looked like he was returning to his Astros, "Lights Out" Lidge glory, but in important games, there has to be concern about his mental state and resulting performance.