Buhner Dot Com Est. 2000, which is like 1947 in Internet years.

April Epilogue

Just an update here at the end of the month of players I talked about during the month.

Danny Bautista - Still retired.

Jonny Gomes - Gomes got called up April 22nd, and has made six starts in the last eight games, getting into the outfield rotation. Batting .263/.364/.474 with one home run during this run.

Joey Gathright - Called up when Sanchez failed his drug test. Batted .350/.409/.500 with 3 SB in six games in center field. Was then promptly sent down when Sanchez returned.

Alex Sanchez - Has since returned from his drug suspension and started 9 games in center field for Tampa. Batting .270/.289/.378 at the time of this writing, with one stolen base and one walk in 37 at-bats. Zero RBI. One fielding error.

Matt Diaz - Called up by Kansas City on April 22nd after sending down Calvin Pickering. 3 hits in 16 at-bats so far, good for a .188/.188/.250 line.

Barry Bonds - Still hasn't played, and optimistic reports have him returning around the all-star break.

Darin Erstad - Has started every game at first base for the Angels this season. Batting .267/.315/.426 during that time.

Casey Kotchman - Celebrating his demotion by batting .178/.341/.205 for AAA Salt Lake. Currently has more walks than hits.

Steve Finley - Off to a rough April, batting .157/.237/.337 over the first 23 games. Playing very good defense in center field.

Scott Elarton - Proving the critics right (and me wrong), going through April with a 0-1 record and an 8.05 ERA. Hasn't pitched past the 6th inning in any of his four starts so far. Scheduled to start Sunday - if he gets hammered, he might not be in an Indian uniform much longer.

Joe Mauer - Playing very good, 18 starts at catcher, only one at DH. .288/.392/.424 so far this season.

Corky Miller - Still on the Twins 25 man roster - the Twins sent down Terry Tiffee when Justin Morneau came off the DL. Batting .000/.000/.000 on the season. Made five appearances for the twins in April - 3 starts at catcher.

Mitch Jones - Still leading the Columbus Clippers in batting average (.366), on base percentage (.441), slugging percentage (.707), home runs (6), and strikeouts (25). Likely not to see a Yankees uniform any time soon, barring injury.

Colter Bean - Called up to the majors, where he made one appearance, pitching two innings and giving up one earned run, walking two and striking out two. Was promptly sent down due to the Yankees need to use the roster spot for Chien-Ming Wang, a starting pitcher, to take Jaret Wright's spot in the rotation. Has yet to pitch for Columbus upon his return.

Jay Witasick - Jay hasn't pitched yet for Colorado, but apparently Witasick's contract assured him of being called up or allowing him to seek employment elsewhere. More info on Witasick's contract is on the Rockie homepage here.

Oh, Colorado.

Poor Jay Witasick.

Witasick was called up by Colorado today to give them bullpen help. This normally wouldn't be that much of a big deal, but it got me thinking about pitchers and career choices.

Take Jay Witasick. Witasick's been a pretty ordinary right handed short reliever (or [finger quotes] set-up-man) during his career. Drafted originally by St. Louis, he was traded to Oakland for Todd Stottlemyre, getting a few cups of coffee with the A's before getting dealt to Kansas City, where he was in the rotation for a year and a half before eventually getting dealt off to San Diego, where he started for the Padres for the rest of 2000, before going into a relief role in 2001.

In 2001, Witasick settled into his relief role by keeping his ERA under 2 and striking out more than a batter an inning. This got the Yankees to go after him, dealing no-longer-necessary infield prospect D'Angelo Jimenez to the Pads to get him.

(Note to Yankee haters: Jimenez was a year removed from a horrible car accident where some thought he wouldn't play baseball ever again. He wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire in Columbus, and the Yankees had Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter blocking his way. He was expendable. San Diego didn't know what to do with him either, and he went through the Padres and the White Sox systems before finally finding a home in Cincinnati.)

Anyway, Witasick (or the Yankees) killed any of the momentum that he had once he got in pinstripes, looking like a typical middle reliever and getting his butt handed to him when the Yankees made the playoffs, including a delightful one and one third inning, eight run affair against Arizona in game 6. Witasick was dumped off to San Francisco during the offseason and would play for the Giants for a season before rejoining the Padres for two more seasons.

This past offseason, he was with Baltimore, who cut him at the end of Spring Training. Looking at a 32 year old (33 in August) right-handed reliever in the mirror, Witasick had to be wondering if he'd ever see the majors again. That's when Colorado came calling.

Now, here's the thing. You're holding onto the possibility of being a major league baseball player by a thread. Your previous season, not too bad (3.21 ERA in 61 2/3 IP, 26 BB, 57 K) albeit pitched in San Diego, you've got two choices - sign with Colorado, who wants you and probably gives you the quickest shot to get back to the majors again, or hope someone else contacts you.

What do you do? Signing on with Colorado (and pitching there) pretty much gives you a 75% chance that your ERA is going to look like a bus hit it after you're done there, and no team is going to be impressed by those numbers and give you a shot. Ugly numbers at Colorado pretty much end your career. Granted, every GM in the league knows that Colorado numbers are inflated (except for Jim Bowden and maybe Chuck LeMar), but pitching in Colorado does something to a pitcher's psyche.

Look at Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, and Darryl Kile - three pitchers who were good to very good pitchers before coming to Colorado. All three were torn apart by Coors Field, yes, but they pitched just as poorly on the road as well. Hampton and Kile ended up leaving Colorado and were able to save their careers, putting Colorado somewhat behind them, while Neagle got hurt, and was released from a minor league contract by Tampa this past offseason.

Hampton and Kile got opportunities because they were very good pitchers before they hit Colorado, but what of a Witasick? Right handed relief pitchers are a dime a dozen. And what's up with Colorado pitchers losing their ability to pitch even away from Coors? Can it be that damaging psychologically to have to watch your best stuff fly everywhere in Coors that when you pitch somewhere else, you forget how?

Signing on to pitch in Colorado is like making a deal with the devil - immediate reward, but after that's over, you can never go back and you're left wondering why you did it in the first place.

Good luck, Jay. You'll need it.

Defending Private Ryan

I went with that over "Saving Bob Ryan". They're both lame.

Anyway, Bob Ryan's getting ripped a new one over this article he wrote for the Boston Globe. For anyone that talks about it, one would assume that the article is pretty much just accusing Nomar Garciaparra of being on steroids.

Now, I'll be the first one to say that the whole "steroids" thing is McCarthyism at it's finest. It's easy to point a finger at someone and say "STEROIDS!", especially if they had an abnormal season or performed at a high level only to have injuries hamper their careers. It's not like these things haven't taken place before - there's just an explanation for them now. Jose Canseco made a fortune doing that exact thing. Now, sports journalists (who are a step above Canseco, but a step below "journalists") can make an easy story when they point a roundabout finger in someone's direction and say the word. Generally, people lash out. Todd Helton was accused by a former Rockies broadcaster - Helton immediately denied it, and the broadcaster quickly took the statement back. Canseco's comments in his book were pretty widely ignored by the players he accused, but not by outsiders, who seemed to take this book at Ball Four status and started up a federal investigation. So be it.

So the finger gets pointed to Nomar Garciaparra. Garciaparra would normally fit into the vague steroids definition - fit, very good offensive numbers, rash of injuries. If any other columnist had mentioned it in his column, maybe such a big deal wouldn't have been made of it.

But it's Bob Ryan. Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, talking about former Boston Red Sox player Nomar Garciaparra. Immediately Ryan is accused of taking a cheap shot at Nomar because Nomar's not on the team any more. He's now the enemy, and therefore we'll take every opportunity to take shots at him since he's no longer with us.

But there are flaws in that reasoning. First off, Nomar didn't choose to leave the Red Sox - he was traded to the Cubs at the 2004 trading deadline. One could point to the Red Sox as being the ones who cut ties with Nomar first, before Nomar had the opportunity to. Perhaps he would have re-signed with the Sox - doubtful, but possible - but the Red Sox made the preemptive strike, and in doing so, actually may have made the move that got them the World Series they desired for so long. If anything, Boston should be a bit thankful to Nomar just for being able to bring the Red Sox the players they needed to complete their championship run.

Secondly, look at the article again. Ryan's not a typical sportswriter - it's a well-written sports article, carefully dancing around an actual accusation than coming straight out and implying anything. Ryan's not dumb. He points to a change in physical appearance over one winter and Nomar's body "breaking down" over a period of six years. He never actually accuses Nomar of the steroid use, doesn't approach the libel that Canseco does when he talks about injecting teammates. He basically says "what if?"

Sportswriters do "what if?" all the time - that's what makes for news stories, especially in places like New York, Boston, and LA, where there is more than one newspaper on the market competing for your 50 cents. Look back at a few days ago with the Helton to Baltimore rumor. There was no rumor - a sportswriter put out a "what if?" article. She took two facts (Helton being shopped by Colorado, Baltimore lacking productivity out of the first base position) and made a story out of it. That's exactly what Ryan did.

Finally, look at who the article is coming from. This is Bob Ryan, someone quoted as saying he wanted to smack Jason Kidd's wife because he thought she was a media whore, and when given the opportunity to take back the comment when he said it, instead relished the moment. Ryan knows that by doing things like this, he gets his name out in the public. It keeps him on shows like The Sports Reporters and Around The Horn. It makes him marketable, so that when it comes time to renew his contract (I'm assuming he has a contract, but this could also be applicable to salary reviews and what I'm sure is the highest payroll on the Globe's sports department), Ryan can point to the fact that he's a pseudo-celebrity, appearing regularly on television, and that the Globe can market him and people buy the paper because of him, and if the Globe lost him, someone else would jump all over him.

Which is true - I'm sure plenty of people actually buy the Globe to read Ryan's articles, and I'm sure there has to be someone who watches The Sports Reporters (if you know of one, let me know.) But why rip Ryan from writing the article about Nomar just because it's Nomar? Is he not allowed to talk about ex-Red Sox in his columns? Surely he can't talk about current Red Sox in his columns - he'd never be able to walk into the Sox clubhouse and get another interview. Some have asked why, if Ryan had these questions about steroid use before, hadn't he put out this article last year, or perhaps the year before? That exact reason. Accusing a current player on your hometown team - especially one that was as popular as Nomar was - is suicide for a sportswriter. It might have gotten him recognition outside of Boston, but it'd get him a one-way ticket out of Boston as well.

So maybe Ryan has had these thoughts in the past. Maybe he doesn't say anything last season after the trade because that's considered piling on Nomar - kicking him in the ass as he's going out the door. Maybe he waits until this season, and maybe he doesn't say anything because he still doesn't feel sure of himself - it's only a possibility.

Then Nomar gets hurt again, seriously. It's an injury that might happen to a steroid user. Those thoughts in Ryan's head pop up again. The story is there. Why can't he write it? What does the team that the player is on have anything to do with whether the story should be written or not?

Exactly. Get off Ryan's case for writing the story about Nomar - if you have an issue, make it with Ryan for writing the story at all based on assumption. But don't rip on him for pointing the finger at Nomar.

Bean Update!

With Jaret Wright heading to the DL, it looks like we'll see a momentary glimpse of Bean. From ESPN.com:

Cashman said Triple-A prospect Chien-Ming Wang will probably start next Saturday against Toronto. In the meantime, reliever Colter Bean will likely be promoted from Columbus.

Of course, that's just an assumption on the writer's part. Wang's going into the rotation, but they're not going to need a 5th starter until Saturday, so Bean would make sense, although we likely won't see him that much.

A quick Clipper look

Being a Yankee fan, why not look at two guys tearing it up for AAA Columbus right now?

OF Mitch Jones - Jones seems to be more out of the "corner outfielder/first baseman" mold. He hit 39 home runs at AA Trenton last season. Why is he not on the prospect radar? Well, Jones is 27 years old, and those 39 home runs were sandwiched around a .246 batting average. Jones admittedly got a slow jump having spent time at Arizona State and not starting his pro career at the age of 22, despite having been drafted four times (Texas in '97, Baltimore in '98 and '99, and the Yankees in 2000).

Jones has never hit for average since leaving Arizona State, and spent part of three seasons in A ball until finally getting called up to AA Norwich in 2002, where he spent another three seasons (in Norwich and Trenton, where the Yankees moved their AA franchise). While Jones increased his home run total at Trenton from 23 to 39 last season, his strikeouts increased as well - from 131 to 152, an alarming number at AA. So far at AAA, Mitch is slugging an amazing .898 with six home runs in 15 games (to go with a .424 batting average), but the strikeouts are still there - 18.

P Colter Bean - Ok, Colter I don't understand. I know you don't generally draft players to be middle relievers. Most middle relievers or set-up-men (finger quotes) are converted starters who couldn't make it as a starter, whether it be that they were ineffective as a starter or that they didn't have the stamina to last. Mariano Rivera was a failed starter, so was Eric Gagne.

Colter only started two games during his four years at Arizona State. He's definitely a relief guy. That being said, he's already proven himself in the Yankees organization. He's old for a "prospect" (he's 28), but he's only spent 4 1/2 seasons in the minors (starting at 23 after four years at Auburn), and when you're dealing with relievers, "prospect" isn't really even a consideration. But what's to stop a team from playing him?

Here's Colter's statistics from last season: 9-3, 2.29 ERA, 82.2 IP, 61 H, 23 BB, 109 K
This season - no different: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 14 K

Boston plucked Bean (pun not intended) away from the Yankees via Rule 5 last season, but returned him. Since then, Bean has stayed in Columbus and pitched lights-out for the Clippers. He's not closing in Columbus, but that's pretty much the only concern someone might have (can he take pressure situations?)

The Yankees right handed bullpen looks like this: Tom Gordon, Steve Karsay, Paul Quantrill, Mariano Rivera, and Felix Rodriguez. One injury to any of these players could see Bean come up, but there is a strong enough investment in all of these players that the Yankees aren't going to cut one to bring up Bean. The 2006 season may be Bean's time, as all those pitchers (except Rivera) are in the final year of their contracts. Considering Gordon and Quantrill's ages and Karsay's injury history, there's sure to be a different looking bullpen in New York in 2006.

But that doesn't stop me from wanting to see Colter now. It's too enticing.