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N.L. sellers impact A.L. pennant races |
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Monday, 04 August 2008 |
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By TERRY NAU Sports editor The Manny Ramirez trade offered a true glimpse into the depth of Boston’s farm system and the imbalance that exists in major league baseball in the first decade of a new century.
We witnessed a great example of these two premises right here in Pawtucket after the news of Ramirez’s trade filtered down to the minor league level last Thursday afternoon. PawSox left fielder Brandon Moss went from Pawtucket’s outfield to batting sixth and playing left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the span of 20 hours.
That’s a dream come true for most Triple-A players. On every AAA squad, there are one or two players who are “blocked” from the big leagues. A guy like Moss – who had performed successfully in two stints with Boston this season – hits the lottery and get traded. Others just bide their time, helpless to do anything but keep working and play the game.
The PawSox have at least two pitchers who could pitch for approximately 10 MLB teams right now – Charlie Zink and David Pauley, They remain valued pieces in Boston’s organization because the Red Sox still “control” their contracts. Reliever David Aarsdma is another big leaguer performing in a PawSox uniform this month, although he has spent a good portion of this season in Boston and should return there soon.
The Ramirez trade also points to the disparity between the haves and the have-nots in the big leagues. The Pirates sent away arguably the best three players on their 25-man roster – Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte – in two trades that fed the money-rich Red Sox and Yankees. In return, Pittsburgh received a boatload of minor leaguers while Pirate fans expressed their dismay and asked team management why they should even bother attending games the rest of this season.
Bay and Nady have made major impacts on their new teams. The Pirates got a slight boost with six innings of shutout pitching on Friday from Yankee castoff Jeff Karstens.
Small-market teams like Pittsburgh continually trade their established players for top prospects because their owners either refuse to spend money to support a competitive payroll or their baseball operations department makes enough dumb moves to submarine the team’s chances before the season even begins.
The Pirates entered the 2008 season with a payroll of nearly $49 million, which is enough money for an astute organization like the Minnesota Twins to contend with every year. But Pittsburgh hasn’t spent its money well in recent years and is working with a new general manager – Neil Huntington – this season.
By comparison, the Florida Marlins are strong contenders in the National League East this season while hoarding the owner’s money and spending only $22M on team payroll. And when the Red Sox offered to give Florida Manny Ramirez free of charge last week, the Marlins said they would need an extra two million bucks on top of that to even consider giving up a prospect or two.
Mind you, low-budget teams like the Marlins collect lucrative luxury-tax bonuses every year, in large part underwritten by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whose team is always way over the salary cap. Even the money-smart Red Sox contribute a few million to the beggars each year.
This is what major league baseball has become since free agency came into existence in the mid-1970s. The rich teams get richer, they stow away players in their farm systems, and then they trade for replacement parts while dealing away some of their top prospects.
In another disturbing trend, many elite players have become adept at forcing their way out of contracts and signing richer deals as a result. This didn’t start with Manny Ramirez, nor is it confined to baseball. Athletes are “shooting their way out of town” all over professional sports.
Remember when Roger Clemens left Boston and signed a lucrative deal with Toronto after the 1996 season ended? By the spring of 1999, Roger announced he couldn’t play in Toronto anymore and maneuvered himself into Yankee pinstripes and an eventual contract extension that added a few more million dollars to his bank account?
Curt Schilling did the same thing to the Phillies in 1997, alienating hometown fans with his thinly-veiled campaign in search of greener pastures. Schilling ended up winning a World Series with Arizona in 2001. When Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo dismantled that team in an attempt to head off bankruptcy, Schilling negotiated a new deal with the Red Sox.
Every July 31 trading deadline produces a few new examples of franchises that give up on their seasons and trade productive players away, in the process angering their fans and making cynics of young children who see their favorite athletes removed from the lineup and deposited into another uniform within two days.
Look at how the Atlanta Braves unloaded Mark Teixeira last week, knowing they couldn’t sign the pending free agent after the season ended. That happens all the time in major league baseball. What kind of message are the sellers giving their fans?
One thing we do know is that three National League franchises intent on making a profit this season traded away at least four players who already made impacted the American League pennant race. No wonder the N.L. loses the All-Star game every summer. It’s just another farm system for American League contenders to pillage at the July 31 trade deadline.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 August 2008 )
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