Don't look now, but here come the A's
Once again, Beane's moves paying off as Oakland makes playoff run
Charlie Riedel / APNewcomers Frank Thomas and Milton Bradley have had positive impacts on the A's this season.
Q: Tony, if you were Lance Williams or Mark Fainaru-Wada, would you go to jail to protect your anonymous source who leaked the BALCO grand jury testimony? What do you think they should do?
— Beanie, San Francisco
A: Not your usual baseball question, Beanie, but I’ll take a shot at it. If it’s me, there’s no way I’m going to jail over this. Williams and Fainaru-Wada say they will, and that is the journalistic code, but I ask why? This isn’t a matter of national security. This isn’t Watergate. This is two journalists simply writing the truth about a baseball cheater. Don’t you find it absurd that Bonds’ trainer has gone to jail and could be facing more time, the two writers who exposed him also could be locked up, and meanwhile, Bonds continues to wear a Giants uniform? I’m sorry, but if I’m them, I reveal the source if asked to during testimony. I guess that’s why I’m a baseball writer, and not an investigative reporter. But in my mind, Bonds isn’t worth going to jail over, and odds are, the source eventually will be revealed anyway.
Q: Tony, what are your thoughts on Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang? And would you rate him ahead of Randy Johnson and behind Mike Mussina in the starting three?
— Richard Lin, White Plains, N.Y.
A: Back in my spring team previews, I picked Wang as the Yankees’ breakout player, and that’s what has happened. I can’t say I expected a 15-5 record at this point, but with his combination of a wicked, 95-mph sinking fastball, control and poise, you had to figure he was going to improve greatly on his 2005 rookie season — 8-5, 4.02 in 18 games. At 26, and supported by arguably the game’s most-potent offense, I believe Wang could be at the beginning of a long run of winning seasons. As for where I rate him in the Yankees’ rotation, I really don’t think it matters all that much. When it comes to October, Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson and Wang are going to be the Yankees’ three primary starting pitchers (with an occasional start from Cory Lidle or Jaret Wright), and everybody will be counted upon equally.
Q: Who do you think will win the home-run chase this season, David Ortiz or Ryan Howard?
— Frankie Johnson, Philadelphia
A: That’s a tough call, Frankie. They are quite similar, actually, in approach at the plate and swings. Both also play in great hitters’ ballparks. As I write, Ortiz is two ahead of Howard, 45 to 43. As far as producing in the clutch — and that’s what September baseball is all about — you would have to give the edge to Ortiz. But then again, teams may avoid pitching to him enough where Howard could hit more homers in the final month. That said, I’ll put my money on Big Papi. He’s having an extraordinary year.
Q: What exactly happens when a player is put on the waiver wire? What penalty do the teams get for taking a player, and what benefit does the team putting the player on waivers get?
— John Mewes, Lakewood, Colo.
A: Trying to explain the waiver process in a couple of paragraphs just isn’t possible, John. But I will give a recent example that could help shed some light on the convoluted process. The Nationals recently placed Alfonso Soriano on waivers, and the Houston Astros put in a claim for him. That set up a couple of different possibilities: 1) The Nationals had to either pull Soriano back off waivers (which is what they did), or risk losing him. 2) If the Nationals didn’t pull Soriano back, the Astros would have gotten Soriano — and been responsible for the rest of his $10-million salary. The other possibility is working out a trade, but that didn’t happen, either, making it a situation where the result was as if nothing happened.
One other notable example was reliever Randy Myers in August of 1998. Toronto put him on waivers, and San Diego put in a claim for him in effect to keep him from being claimed by the Atlanta Braves. But Toronto didn’t pull Myers back off waivers, and forced the Padres to take him (working out a trade for a minor-leaguer). Myers helped the Padres win the pennant, but never pitched again, leaving the Padres on the hook for the final two years of his contract, or about $13.5 million.
Tony DeMarco is a contributor to MSNBC.com and a free-lance writer based in Denver.
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NEW YORK (AP) - Will Venable hit a pair of RBI doubles and Cameron Maybin had two run-scoring singles as the San Diego Padres broke out the offense after a long rain delay and beat the New York Mets 11-5 Thursday night.
