Baseball Guru
03-02-2002, 09:24 AM
By Jerry Green / The Detroit News
DETROIT - Jack Morris, Dan Petry, Milt Wilcox and Willie Hernandez, they ain't!
Mickey Lolich, Denny McLain and Earl Wilson, they never will be.
But Jeff Weaver, Steve Sparks, Jose Lima and Matt Anderson can be the guts of a pitching staff that could - SHOULD - restore some of the interest in baseball in Detroit.
Indeed, memorize these standings for the American League's Central Division that COULD appear in your favorite reading material on
Sept. 30, 2002: W L GB
DETROIT 82 80 --
Chicago 81 81 1
Minnesota 80 82 2
Cleveland 79 88 3
Kansas City 69 93 13
Every 15 years or so, I suffer spring training hallucinations. It is more than just the normal every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining syndrome that occurs during spring training. It is more a case of being struck in the head by the bizarre.
This is the 15th year -- a decade-and-a-half -- since the Tigers most recently finished in first place.
Phil Garner, according to reports drifting back from the Tigers' grooming base in Lakeland, wants his team to be competitive this season. The avowed aim is a .500 record - 81 victories, 81 defeats.
But why not shoot for first place?
There will not be one of the great races this season in the AL Central. The division is crummy. The division is the crummiest in Bud Selig's convoluted domain.
Not one of the clubs in it is above mediocre. The Tigers' objective is rise to mediocrity. And it should be to become the most successful of the mediocre.
I shan't predict that the Tigers are going to finish first in the AL Central. I shinnied up the tree trunk, but I'll be darned if I'll climb out on that limb.
I saw what happened the other day when the weather-guessers predicted a raging winter storm for this corner of Michigan. Six to eight inches, they guessed. We got an inch in our neighborhood.
At least, I have the Tigers' maturing, improving pitching staff going for me.
And the Tigers, bless those boys, have now started making some financial commitments to the future of baseball in Detroit.
Weaver and Anderson recently have been signed long term for many of Mike Illitch's millions. Dmitri Young, the new first baseman-third baseman-outfielder, signed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract and said Detroit was his dream baseball town.
And the clubhouse at Lakeland, according to words being flashed back here, has been Tranquility Base. No clubhouse civil war, serious troubles the first two years of Garner's regime.
Weaver should now be wise enough and controlled enough to be the best starting pitcher in the division.
Anderson already has become the best closer in the division, one of the best in baseball.
And for some obscure reason, knuckleball pitchers tend to improve with age. Sparks was the Tigers' most productive pitcher last season after a so-so career. Sparks is just 36 now - knuckleball adolescence for players such as Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro.
After Weaver, Anderson and Sparks, the Tigers need some intervention of luck. Lima has to regain some of his skills. Mark Redman has to be fit. Nate Cornejo has to be able to pitch at a major-league level, though in truth, he belongs in Toledo this season.
And the Tigers have to get Brian Moehler back sometime during the season.
If the Tigers were to support my hallucination, it would be because of the development of the promising pitching staff. I say this because the pitchers will be working with a utility infielder, Jose Macias, playing center field, a reserve catcher, Robert Fick, playing right field, and another utility infielder, Shane Halter, playing daily at shortstop.
There will be some comical adventures in the outfield at Comerica Park this summer. But then the entire AL Central will be a slapstick act.
The Indians have basically surrendered after of years of first-place finishes and huge attendances - and failures to win a World Series. They unbelievably traded away Roberto Alomar, a wondrous second baseman who fit so well with Omar Vizquel, a wondrous shortstop. They let the real Juan Gonzalez - who had a productively awesome season in '01 - get away as part of their tighter cash program.
And the Cleveland pitching staff might not -- again, MIGHT not -- match the Tigers' pitching in quality.
The baseball seers figure the White Sox to become the strongest team in the Central this year. The White Sox don't especially impress me. Again, their pitching is inferior to the Tigers' staff.
Commissioner Selig, in his efforts to squeeze the soul out of baseball, tried to eliminate the Twins this year. His madcap scheme was halted -- forever, I hope -- by the courts. So the Twins continue onward in competition with a fine, mature, deep pitching staff. But they lack a closer of stature.
The Twins were last year's aberrations. This year's aberrations? Well, in March it's OK to hallucinate, at least once every 15 years.
DETROIT - Jack Morris, Dan Petry, Milt Wilcox and Willie Hernandez, they ain't!
Mickey Lolich, Denny McLain and Earl Wilson, they never will be.
But Jeff Weaver, Steve Sparks, Jose Lima and Matt Anderson can be the guts of a pitching staff that could - SHOULD - restore some of the interest in baseball in Detroit.
Indeed, memorize these standings for the American League's Central Division that COULD appear in your favorite reading material on
Sept. 30, 2002: W L GB
DETROIT 82 80 --
Chicago 81 81 1
Minnesota 80 82 2
Cleveland 79 88 3
Kansas City 69 93 13
Every 15 years or so, I suffer spring training hallucinations. It is more than just the normal every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining syndrome that occurs during spring training. It is more a case of being struck in the head by the bizarre.
This is the 15th year -- a decade-and-a-half -- since the Tigers most recently finished in first place.
Phil Garner, according to reports drifting back from the Tigers' grooming base in Lakeland, wants his team to be competitive this season. The avowed aim is a .500 record - 81 victories, 81 defeats.
But why not shoot for first place?
There will not be one of the great races this season in the AL Central. The division is crummy. The division is the crummiest in Bud Selig's convoluted domain.
Not one of the clubs in it is above mediocre. The Tigers' objective is rise to mediocrity. And it should be to become the most successful of the mediocre.
I shan't predict that the Tigers are going to finish first in the AL Central. I shinnied up the tree trunk, but I'll be darned if I'll climb out on that limb.
I saw what happened the other day when the weather-guessers predicted a raging winter storm for this corner of Michigan. Six to eight inches, they guessed. We got an inch in our neighborhood.
At least, I have the Tigers' maturing, improving pitching staff going for me.
And the Tigers, bless those boys, have now started making some financial commitments to the future of baseball in Detroit.
Weaver and Anderson recently have been signed long term for many of Mike Illitch's millions. Dmitri Young, the new first baseman-third baseman-outfielder, signed a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract and said Detroit was his dream baseball town.
And the clubhouse at Lakeland, according to words being flashed back here, has been Tranquility Base. No clubhouse civil war, serious troubles the first two years of Garner's regime.
Weaver should now be wise enough and controlled enough to be the best starting pitcher in the division.
Anderson already has become the best closer in the division, one of the best in baseball.
And for some obscure reason, knuckleball pitchers tend to improve with age. Sparks was the Tigers' most productive pitcher last season after a so-so career. Sparks is just 36 now - knuckleball adolescence for players such as Hoyt Wilhelm and Phil Niekro.
After Weaver, Anderson and Sparks, the Tigers need some intervention of luck. Lima has to regain some of his skills. Mark Redman has to be fit. Nate Cornejo has to be able to pitch at a major-league level, though in truth, he belongs in Toledo this season.
And the Tigers have to get Brian Moehler back sometime during the season.
If the Tigers were to support my hallucination, it would be because of the development of the promising pitching staff. I say this because the pitchers will be working with a utility infielder, Jose Macias, playing center field, a reserve catcher, Robert Fick, playing right field, and another utility infielder, Shane Halter, playing daily at shortstop.
There will be some comical adventures in the outfield at Comerica Park this summer. But then the entire AL Central will be a slapstick act.
The Indians have basically surrendered after of years of first-place finishes and huge attendances - and failures to win a World Series. They unbelievably traded away Roberto Alomar, a wondrous second baseman who fit so well with Omar Vizquel, a wondrous shortstop. They let the real Juan Gonzalez - who had a productively awesome season in '01 - get away as part of their tighter cash program.
And the Cleveland pitching staff might not -- again, MIGHT not -- match the Tigers' pitching in quality.
The baseball seers figure the White Sox to become the strongest team in the Central this year. The White Sox don't especially impress me. Again, their pitching is inferior to the Tigers' staff.
Commissioner Selig, in his efforts to squeeze the soul out of baseball, tried to eliminate the Twins this year. His madcap scheme was halted -- forever, I hope -- by the courts. So the Twins continue onward in competition with a fine, mature, deep pitching staff. But they lack a closer of stature.
The Twins were last year's aberrations. This year's aberrations? Well, in March it's OK to hallucinate, at least once every 15 years.