Contenders pack their Xmas stockings

It is the season of good will, and bad contracts. At times it has been the stuff of Dickens, the artful Dodger, the pick-pocketing of the slightest kind. It is a similar tale of the rich getting richer, the poor hoping to catch some low-budget magic, and Oakland GM Billy Beane doing his very best impression of Bob Cratchett. On Wednesday, the New York Yankees did a little more thieving of their own, on this occasion to the Dodgers of Los Angeles. And then were the winter meetings, usually a hive of trading activity, used this year as a mouthpiece for the clubs with both the money and the inclination to spend it. Around Christmas time, talk is big; but as we know, the checkbooks of baseballs’ biggest are infinitely bigger.

Like the sales pitch of the new GMC – “It’s no more than you need, it’s more than you’re used to” – Miguel Tejeda is off in search of richer pastures. He joins a two hundred strong contingent of GMs, players and agents looking for a match. In Miguel’s case he has been offered not a GMC, but a Hummer (plus a cool $10 million signing bonus) should he elect to join Baltimore. With another bunch of players being made available from Dec. 20th through non-tendering, as many as ten Major League ball clubs expanding payroll and a further ten moving it, some teams will be – and have been – getting good in a hurry. Throw in the considerable fortunes of, to name a few, the Cubs, the Phillies and the Angels, and it seems that for some fans and some players Christmas has well and truly come early.

In New York and Boston, snowmen aside, it most definitely has. Locked in a situation described by an anonymous GM as a “Russia-U.S nuclear thing,” we have seen that these two do not change the plan; they just change the payroll. At present the Yankees bullpen, at $37.5m, easily exceeds the entire budget ($32m) of the Milwaukee Brewers, while their pitching staff in its entirety ($81m) is greater than the collective sum of the Braves or the Giants. Meanwhile, the Red Sox rent-a-pitcher fund has topped the payroll of the World Champion Marlins ($64 versus around $60). In addition, baseball’s biggest spenders have shelled out a whopping $75 million for the contracts of Kevin Brown and Curt Schilling, whose combined age is 77. Now, were the blockbusting A-Rod for Manny Ramirez trade to be completed, the Red Sox could join their bitter rivals in the exorbitant annals of $150 million club. Come 2004, with their recent acquisitions, the behemoths of the AL East look all but invincible.

Away from the realm of fantasy payrolls, in San Francisco it is said that money is short, and timing is everything. A month ago, as of Nov. 14th, seasonal cheer for Giants fans has most likely come and gone. On this day, to the tune of How the Grinch stole Pierzynski, GM Brian Sabean swooped from the shadows to nab the Twin’s all-star catcher from under the noses of the newly competitive San Diego Padres. Sporting a career average of .311, a career road average of .328, and an OPS (on base% + slugging%) that reads .763, .773, .824 over the last three years, the 27 year old A.J.Pierzynski will add production, another left handed bat and just $2.5 million to the aging San Francisco line-up.

Unfortunately with Joe Nathan no longer around to play Santa Claus, and Rob Nenn’s little helper, Tim Worrell off to Philadelphia, the Giants need to acquire another right handed reliever. The bullpen that includes Jim Brower, Matt Herges, Felix Rodriguez, Scott Eyre and Jason Christiansen will be significantly bolstered by Nenn’s precarious return, but at $9 million, he diminishes the club’s spending options. Last season the seven Major League closers with at least 38 saves averaged a salary of $6.4 million; top man Eric Gagne, who only now has the leverage of arbitration, made a paltry $550,000. Should the Giants have extended the same privilege to Worrell, who was also a member of the 38 saves club, he would have easily doubled his $2 million salary and, consequently, priced himself well beyond the club’s limited means.

Next, the Giants will look to find a starting pitcher to shore up a rotation that looks a little thin after Jason Schmidt, Kirk Reuter and Jerome Williams. The memories of Kurt Ainsworth and his successor, Sidney Ponson, are vivid. Ploughing through the list of free agents, the brass have considered ex-Colorado southpaw Darren Oliver, Oakland favorite Cory Lidle, and San Francisco’s own, Shawn Estes, as potential candidates. Already gone is Giant slayer Miguel Batista, who would have been an excellent fit. Durable, consistent and experienced, he signed for the Blue Jays instead for the relatively modest price of $13 million over three years. The Giants were not involved in negotiations. Another possibility is Jeff Suppan, who dominated national league hitters last season, and has pitched over six hundred innings since 2001, should fetch around $3 million. As far as potential trades go, San Francisco is out of options; they have a handful of minor league position players, but they are more solid than spectacular. The organization is determined to hold onto the few pitching prospects they have left.
The club is also looking to improve its options at shortstop, described by Sabean as “a work in progress.” The incumbent is Neifi Perez; a defensive whiz, but an offensive pip-squeak. With only Barry Bonds tallying over 20 home runs in 2003, and would be sluggers Andres Galarraga (12) and Jose Cruz (20) discarded, the Giants are sorely in need of legitimate power. Despite his impressive 16 home runs and 48 RBIs in 232 at bats this year – the ratio of 14.7 at bats per home run was good enough for 7th place in the NL – it would be foolhardy to pin the offensive hopes of the Giants on the shoulders of Pedro Feliz. His poor judgment of the strike zone yielded a mediocre .278 on base percentage, and he was the only Major Leaguer to accumulate more homers than walks (10). Feliz however continues to show promise, particularly in clutch situations and against superior pitching.
Last week, to plug the gold-glove sized hole in right field – and provide Felipe Alou with a few more outfield options – the club signed two experienced players. It sounds exciting enough, but if you were to ask the Giant’s wily coach about Jeffrey Hammonds and Michael Tucker, he would probably say something that does not include the words “just what we were hoping for”. Last month in fact Barry Bonds, in the spirit of impunity that seems to follow him, said exactly what every shortsighted Giant fan wants to hear: “It’s time to put up.”
In response to his belligerent superstar slugger, Sabean issued a veiled you do your job, and I’ll do mine plea: “If he’s got a better way to do this – and I’m saying all this with all due respect – I’m open minded.” As always, Mr. Bonds is at his best at the plate, not in quotation marks. Indeed, before lambasting the establishment for its tightfistedness, he would do well do bear in mind that his princely $16.7 million represents almost a quarter of the club’s money-pot. Judging from his numbers (as well as his arms) that doesn’t necessarily seem unfair, but a modest pay-cut could go a long way toward ensuring a post-Bonds legacy at Pacific Bell Park. Until Bond’s retirement however, his is the only option the Giants can entertain.
Needless to say, asking sports stars to take pay cuts is implausible, some would say treasonous. It is Oliver Twist asking for more; it is what George Steinbrenner is to Ebenezer Scrooge.
The Giants will improve, whilst honoring their organizational pledge not to throw better money after good. Accepting that they won’t win the World Series next year, they are not going to be punished for not putting their hands in their pockets. There is method in this approach. In contrast to the go-getting attitudes of some GMs, like Theo Epstein, Ed Wade and Arte Moreno, Sabean believes that patience and restraint are the keys to off-season success:
“Time is going to be our best ally," he said. "We've been pretty good [at acquiring players] in January, and potentially it's a buyer's market. But…we won’t be the only attractive team guys will want to go to."

There are a multitude of choices available, which is causing concern among agents with mid-level players as the days roll by. Talk is plentiful, yet offers are few and most teams, like the Giants, are hoping to save by not overspending early. In reality, a handful of teams will not be spending at all, let alone early. The annual turning of the financial screw hits the smaller franchises hardest, as they see their most valuable assets prized from them at either sales prices or via free agency, which, other than saving dollars affords them no form of compensation. Thus Minnesota’s hallowed bullpen has been stripped of its firemen, Latroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado, to the delight of the Cubs and the Mariners respectively.

To accommodate the strain that winning a World Series places on a payroll (see last year’s Angels), The Marlins could only afford to keep one of the trio of Mike Lowell, Derek Lee (also to the Cubs) and Ivan Rodriguez. Next year Florida will also be devoid of the talents of Juan Encarnacion, Mark Redman and appropriately nicknamed Urgueth – “you get what you pay for” – Urbina. In fact, he is much more than the Marlins are used to paying. But a closer is unlike the GMC SUV, because everyone is used to having one. And you can never have too many closers in the bullpen – just ask Seattle, Philadelphia, even Boston. We all know of teams with dreams that died in September for lack of an ironclad ninth-inning presence. The Marlins meanwhile, closer or committee, will not be seeing October baseball in 2004, even if Josh Beckett wins 25 games.

Similarly in Oakland, the Athletics have little to shout about. With Ted Lilly and Ramon Hernandez long gone and both Tejeda and Keith Foulke already with an arm and a leg in the glitzy AL East, Billy Beane and his cronies will have to write more than a bestseller to get out of this jam. Following the imminent loss of their third closer in as many years, Beane will probably opt for a cheap, dependable veteran to close all deals. Oakland also needs a catcher with the experience to get the most out of the young and immensely gifted starting rotation.

Unsurprisingly, Montreal is in the off-season losing column after reluctantly parting with their two best players, Javier Vazquez and Vladimir Guerrero. There the market, with its abundance of free agent front line starting pitching, worked against Expos GM Omar Minaya, as potential suitors for Vazquez dried up. After being informed that his ace would not be resigning at the end of next season, and with the game’s elite starters frantically swapping seaboards, Minaya was forced to take the Yankees insufficient offer of Nick Johnson, cash, and minor league entourage.

Back in the NL West, the Giants are still waiting. Four of the division’s five teams are either downsizing or trimming payroll; it is neither necessary nor economical to chase elaborate upgrades. At the same time it is both ludicrous and satisfying that the biggest challenge to San Francisco in 2004 could come from retooling San Diego, who finished a colossal 36½ games off the pace in 2003. During last month – in what has become a critical move – the Padres aggressively pursued but failed to clinch a deal for Pierzynski. While they pondered their next move, the Giants moved in, adding an all-star caliber insult to San Diego’s injury, and tipping the 2004 scales more firmly in San Francisco’s favor. Sabean, at any rate, appears confident that his roster is competitive, and moving in the right direction:
“If we can tweak our starting pitching and keep our bullpen intact, with our defense, we’re as good as or better than last year’s ball club, believe or not, all around the diamond.”

Of the thirty Major League franchises this off-season, a third are adding payroll, a third are subtracting, and a third are maintaining their 2003 levels. In other words, some are adding, some are being divided, and some are subtracting in order to add. As for the Yankees and the Red Sox, with their multiples of payrolls, it is reminiscent of a certain episode of Itchy and Scratchy. The two enemies, facing off, take turns to draw ever bigger guns. Soon, the earth is eclipsed by the size of their weapons. Next season, with room for only one World Champion, who will pull the trigger? With so much as stake, it will all end in tears – presumably in Boston. In the meantime, I hope someone has told Tiny Tim that Keith won’t be coming home for Christmas. Come March, with his magic returning at first base, the people of San Francisco can at least say there was J.T.Snow in December.

It is the season of good will. But the season that never ends is baseball.