Winning culture starts in minors
By Peter Gammons
Special to ESPN.com
DETROIT – The Yankees or Cubs probably could have had Mark Kotsay before he signed his extension, and filled a void for the next three years. But Brian Cashman and Jim Hendry never wavered and refused to trade their best young players -- including Eric Duncan, Philip Hughes, Felix Pie and Brian Dopirak.
The Red Sox might be able to get Billy Wagner if the Phillies decide to trade him by July 31, but don't look for them to trade Jon Papelbon, Jon Lester or Hanley Ramirez to get him. "Why have the Braves been one of the greatest dynasties in sports?" asked Theo Epstein. "They develop players, they keep the best and when they run into rough spots, they work through them, not panic and mortgage their future for the immediate."
"We have to get back to doing what made the Yankees so good for such a long period beginning in the '90s," said Cashman. "We're in the position we're in because we stopped developing our own young players. We can point to what's happened since we brought up Robinson Cano and Chien Wang."
"I always had a great deal of respect for Brian," says Epstein. "But I have more now than ever. Here he is without a contract, and he's putting the long-term good of the New York Yankees ahead of his own job security." Of course, Epstein doesn't have a contract past Oct. 1, either.
Cashman looks back at how the Yankees filtered young players in and complemented them with free agents and trades. Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. "Then we brought up Jorge Posada, broke him [in] under Joe Girardi, and eventually Jorge took over. Then Alfonso Soriano broke in. But for one reason or another, it broke down, and now we're at a point where we can't go any further in payroll. We have to get it down. That's why we had to draw the line on [Carlos] Beltran."
After Wang was forced up because of injuries and Cano was given the chance when the Yankees decided that Williams' extraordinary run in center field was near the end, this past week they decided to bring up Melky Cabrera, who won't be 21 until Aug. 11, when Tony Womack had one extra base hit after April. "As he moved up through our organization, everyone felt that he would not be fazed by coming to New York," says Cashman. "We're just asking for him to play defense and add to the players we have here."
What's interesting is that as Cano (.288, .773 OPS in 58 games) has played as if he could be a very good everyday player and Wang (6-3, 3.89 in 12 starts) leads the Yankee starters in earned run average, the notion that the Yankees had nothing in their farm system has been dispelled. When Cano first arrived, Womack went to center and a few things went awry; there were those who accused Cashman and Joe Torre of panicking. "All the players realized how good Cano can be," said Cashman, "and he was embraced."
Their acceptance reverted the clubhouse culture back to where it was in the '90s. "It changed the culture on a number of levels," Cashman said. "The first thing Cabrera did when Cano came up was thank him for giving everyone in the organization hope. People in the organization felt that it sent a breath of fresh air down through every level. We do have young players, good ones, and the players now know we're willing to give them opportunities if they perform."
Last winter, at the height of the Randy Johnson pursuit, the Diamondbacks, who got Brad Halsey and Dioneer Navarro (to pass on to the Dodgers), could have had Wang, Cano, Duncan and most anyone. Now, all those players are not available for the next Dale Murray. Especially Duncan, who they think can be a major power force in Yankee Stadium, and who has fought through an early-season slump to slowly build his résumé. If one understands what it takes to play in a New York, Boston or Philadelphia, one appreciates that a young player needs to have struggled on the minor-league level and overcome adversity before he gets onto the big league stage.
Buck Showalter was, along with Gene Michael, the architect of the Yankees team that had the great run from 1996 through 2001 (and since has lost in the postseason only to the eventual world champion) -- and he is doing the same building in Texas. "You have to build a culture where young players are embraced," says Showalter. "The transition has to be made easier by the veterans. The Angels are a great example of that. They have one of the best, if not the best, farm systems in baseball, and the manager, coaches and players embrace the players they bring out of their system." So, when Troy Glaus left, they embraced Dallas MacPherson. Kelvim Escobar went down, in came Ervin Santana. Whether it's Casey Kotchman or Jeff Mathis, Brandon Wood or Howie Kendrick, they know they will become Angels and that when they arrive Mike Scioscia and Darin Erstad will embrace them.
"One of the many great attributes of Bobby Cox is that he isn't afraid of young players," says Braves GM John Schuerholz. "He doesn't worry about what he doesn't have, he builds with what he has." So Danny Kolb struggles? Cox reconfigures his bullpen on the fly. So Mike Hampton, Tim Hudson and John Thomson are hurt? Try Kyle Davies, Roman Colon, Jorge Sosa. Wilson Betemit, Kelly Johnson, Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur and Andy Marte now give the Braves the foundation of another five years of excellence.
Boston's situation is different. The 2004 World Championship, won by a team built mostly from different organizations with a group of unique individuals, has in a sense, given the players a sense of entitlement in the shower of devotion from New England fans. Epstein saw that the "Idiots" concept is not one that will consistently win, which is why Jason Varitek was their offseason priority. Their starting pitchers at the All-Star break were second to the Angels in wins, their ERA is only slightly (4.59, 4.31) higher than 2004, and they lead the majors in runs. The difference is the bullpen.
Although some players disagreed with Curt Schilling's closing, that was the team's only alternative without Keith Foulke. If Schilling works, and once they've added Chad Bradford, they won't need to trade prospects for the likes of David Weathers or Ricky Bottalico or even Eddie Guardado. They could eventually move Jon Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen (and perhaps Craig Hansen) into the alignment in front of Schilling and Mike Timlin. "We're simply not trading certain prospects, period," says Epstein. "Eventually what we want to build is an organization where we have a couple of players coming to the big leagues every year, players who have come through our system as teammates, who are Red Sox. There's a culture that has to be developed to make that work and make the organization healthy and vibrant for a long period of time, and I'm not going to alter and make a dumb move."
Hence, as the Red Sox have focused on 2005 with the second highest payroll, they devoted a great deal of time and energy on the draft, since they had six of the first 57 picks. They have already built foundations in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, and this summer have expended resources and extraordinary energy in Asia.
Hendry also is under pressure, in Chicago, where Cubs fans have become less patient. "We want to win today, but there has to be a steady growth with young players," says Hendry, who turned to Double-A this week and brought up outfielders Matt Murton and Adam Greenberg; had he not been hurt, Felix Pie would have been up two weeks ago. "We haven't yet done a great job developing positional players," says Hendry. "But we hope we will. Do we have a list of players we won't trade? Absolutely. I wouldn't say them publicly [Pie, Dopirak at the top]. And we can be wrong, and five years look back and think how silly we were. But that's not the way to look at it. You want young blood coming in, and in terms of business, you'd better have it or there's no way you can survive financially."
"The success of teams like the Angels, Braves and Twins has changed the way a lot of owners look at things," says Showalter. "Sure, the Angels have spent money, but they blend free agents in with their own players. That's the way we're headed. Teams would rather go with their own than throw a ton of money at mediocre, high-risk free agents, especially pitchers."
Around the majors
• Colorado figures that with Kotsay's signing, the market for Preston Wilson should swell in the next two weeks, both in terms of the prospects the Rockies get back, and the amount of money the trading partner will take of the outfielder's contract. The Nationals, Rangers and Cubs are in the mix, although Hendry has indicated that he may not want to trade for a player whom he'll have only for the rest of the season (read: Austin Kearns). The Cubs need baserunners, as they're second to last in the NL in on-base percentage (.323) and last in walks. Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd will take offers for Jay Witasick -- suddenly throwing in the mid-90's, a la 2001 -- but insists he will not trade Brian Fuentes.
Mark Kotsay
Center fielder
Oakland Athletics
Profile
2005 SEASON STATISTICS
GM AB HR RBI OBP SLG
84 .286 8 48 .335 .413
• Billy Beane on Kotsay's signing: "Some players say they want to stay some place, but in reality only for top dollar. Mark talked the talk, and walked the walk. He sincerely wanted to stay, and probably took less to do so."
• Jay Payton will probably play less in Oakland than he did in Boston unless Eric Byrnes is dealt, but Beane has always liked Payton. So do the Yankees, who have tried to get Beane to flip him to New York.
• Bret Boone will clear waivers Tuesday, and thus far there haven't been a lot of takers. Minnesota is interested, but they may want him to play some third, and Boone is reluctant to move.
• Keith Foulke now admits that he refused to have his knee scoped at the beginning of spring training. And still gets paid in full, despite what it did to the Red Sox.
• The Giants had just four quality starts in June, which killed them, along with Jason Schmidt's battling to being average after being great. Injuries to Barry Bonds, Armando Benitez and Marquis Grissom haven't helped, either.
• The Cubs felt that the only way Corey Patterson will ever get himself straightened out is by going back to the minors and starting over. They were going to bring Pie up two weeks ago, but he hurt his ankle on a bizarre play at third. So they brought in Greenberg and Murton, who were so excited to be in the big leagues that they were at the Florida park at noon Friday, and stood in the batters box at 1:30. But Greenberg got beaned Saturday in his first at-bat. "Some players have memorable first at-bats with home runs or game-winning hits," says Greenberg, "but I'll be remembered for being beaned." He still had stitch marks in the back of his head hours after the game. "Murton's going to hit, everyone knows that now," says West Tennessee manager Bobby Dickerson. "But Greenberg can have 10 years in the big leagues because he can really play center, he can run, slap the ball and, most of all, he's a winning baseball player."
• After playing 18 games in 17 days, it was clear how worn out the Indians were during their series at Yankee Stadium.
• Houston is looking for a left-field bat. Easier said than done. The Astros would not part with Chad Qualls for Kevin Millar. And they won't do Chris Burke for Byrnes.
• Great ESPN research to ascertain that from break to break Albert Pujols (46), Derek Lee (46), Mark Teixeira (44) and Carlos Lee (44) led in homers; Roger Clemens (2.31) and Chris Carpenter (2.61) were 1-2 in the NL in ERA, with Johan Santana (2.72) and Rich Harden (3.10) in the AL; Roy Oswalt (24) had the most wins, over Bartolo Colon (23) and Santana (20); and Jason Isringhausen (50) and Joe Nathan (46) were tops in saves.
• How can Aaron Harang have nine quality starts and four wins?
• At the break last year, Barry Bonds had 71 intentional walks. Todd Helton is the 2005 leader with 14.
In memoriam
Johnny Pesky remains one of the most revered and liked people in the game, and one of the reasons for that is his great wife Ruth, who passed away last weekend. Everyone in baseball passes on deep sympathy to the man who received the greatest ovation the day the Red Sox were awarded their World Series rings.
