Winning at What Cost?

How strange that I should feel tongue-tied. George Steinbrenner is dead. The National League finally won an All-Star Game. The second half is starting in baseball, and Carlos Beltran, heretofore my favorite Mets player, is coming back.

So many thoughts go through my mind, some of them not even coherent, especially with respect to Steinbrenner and Beltran.

We’ve heard, over and over, “all George cared about was winning, he was all about winning,” while acknowledging that he was a sonova bitch, usually followed by a story about some anonymous contribution that everybody seems to know about. I’ve seen sportswriters wax poetic and get tearry-eyed because he remembered their name.

When Steinbrenner came into baseball, I thought he was a jerk. Most people did. He didn’t do anything unless it was stupid. Later on, when he finally stepped back a bit to let baseball people run his club, he made sure to get his face and name back in the papers, usually by doing something outlandish and petty, something brash and mean and arrogant.

I’m sorry the man died, I truly am, and sorrier still that he was apparently gravely ill before his heart finally gave way. But I never liked him. I was sorry Yogi and he got back together. And I don’t think he should be in the Hall of Fame, not that that’s even all that important.

If I were ever a Yankee fan, I’d probably feel much different. But I was never a Yankee fan. It goes against my nature. I’m one of those champions of the underdog…always have been. And that is why I became a Mets fan, after having been a Dodgers fan before that.

I don’t believe in winning at all costs. Yankee fans do. George Steinbrenner certainly did. His every action was self-serving, at least his public actions. And self-serving meant Yankee-serving by definition. So I can understand Yankee fans liking him, even loving him. And that may be the only thing I’ll ever understand about Yankee fans, that, and their win at all costs philosophy.

If George had bought the Mets, and ran the Mets the way he ran the Yankees, I’d have become another team’s fan, probably a team like the Phillies or Boston, but not the Cubs or Kansas City. My team would have to care passionately about winning, but not at all costs.

There are examples of the Yankee avarice too numerous to mention but the most recent and heinous example was their attempted acquisition of Cliff Lee. The Yanks have Sabathia, Pettitte, Burnett, Vazquez and Hughes. That’s five very fine starters. That should be enough.

For anyone who cares about competitiveness, the Yankees were already loaded. They didn’t need Cliff Lee. But the Yankees don’t care about the rest of baseball. They only care about the Yankees, their storied history, their hallowed stadium, their rings, their monuments and on and on.

The Yankees tried to guarantee their World Series win. It wasn’t enough to have Arod and Jeter and Teixeira and Cano, Posada and even Swisher, and all those pitchers. That wasn’t enough surety for the Evil Empire. For Yankee management and fans, what fun is there in watching a good baseball game?

All of that now brings me to Carlos Beltran. Carlos was out of the game for most of last season and most of this season with a bone bruise of the knee. Not that I don’t believe he was really hurt. I do. But I know there are probably contract issues that entered into the situation.

Beltran has it made in the shade, if he can find any of that in Flushing. The Mets are 4 games out, have a nice pitching staff, some good young players and, as he will still be considered as recovering, there are no outlandish expectations of him. As he always has been a great player though, we can expect that he will provide some big hits, make some nice catches, and, in most respects, be Carlos Beltran. But he won’t be expected to carry the club.

What annoys me most is that he’ll be playing at someone else’s expense. In every case, that someone else has been a key player for the Mets this year, whether it’s Francoeur, Pagan or Jason Bay.

Once again, that brings me to my point about winning at any cost. As good as Beltran has been, I’d like to see him earn his way back into the lineup. But that won’t happen, it can’t really happen, it probably shouldn’t happen, as winning certainly takes precedence over some bruised feelings.

But it doesn’t go down easy for me as a Mets fan. This Mets club seems well-knit as a team. So I worry about chemistry. But I also enjoy watching every one of those outfielders, especially Francoeur and Pagan. From my standpoint, I’d rather see Bay sit.

But, for the same reasons as Beltran must play, Bay must play. It’s that crazy but true axiom in baseball that says players eventually find their level. It’s very often true. As hard as it may be for me to believe right now, the axiom says that Jason Bay will get hot, or even torrid. And Carlos Beltran will eventually hit .300, drive in 100 runs and score a hundred times in a full season.

But it’s those exceptions to the rule that grate the most on a fan’s patience and compassion. David Wright had his worst year by far last year. His power just disappeared and never came back. Recall the lean times of Carlos Delgado in years past before he went absolutely crazy at the plate to carry the club seemingly all by himself for about six weeks.

Mets fans have to hope for the best, that a club that finishes 4 games out at the half, with Francoeur and Pagan, can finish first at season’s end with Carlos Beltran, all other things being equal (which in and of itself is saying a mouthful).

Go Carlos!!

Go Get 'Em Hank !!

I say kudos to Hank Steinbrenner for his blustery attack on the Yankees decision to keep Joba Chamberlain in a relief role. He sees his franchise going down the tubes this year, he knows who is leading his bunch of planning miscreants, and he doesn't like it. Not one little bit.

Even as a devout Yankee-hater, I cringe at the ridiculous mistakes made by Brian Cashman over the years. So it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that the voluble Hank should go after him. How could he not? Cashman passed on Johan Santana this year as part of his plan to develop his young pitchers.

For the sake of a plan, Cashman chose to go forward with a starting rotation of two old guys, two new guys and just one relatively no-risk starter. But Cashman's errors are legion, starting with ignoring erstwhile Boss George to select Nick Johnson over Big Papi himself, perennial MVP-candidate David Ortiz.

I look forward to quite a few more attacks on the smug Cashman from Hank's direction. And I love his tone. Especially the "idiot" part. That word surely fits the bill. I mean....Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth, Kei Igawa, LaTroy Hawkins, and going back some, Kevin Brown, Jay Witasik, Javier Vasquez, Jaret Wright, Steve Karsay...

And how about others he passed on....Curt Schilling, Hideki Okajima, Bernie Williams. How about trading Mike Lowell to the Marlins for three pitching prospects (in Brian's muddled mind) named Ed Yarnall, Todd Noel and Mark Johnson. Real household names are those three!

Without going into the tell-tale statistics, let's just review the current situation. The Yanks are 10-10. The Red Sox are 14-7. Kennedy and Hughes haven't panned out yet, and not only that, but they show not a hint of ever coming out of their funk. Mussina has been dreadful. Pettite has been very good, but how long can that continue?

All the Cashman apologists will point to the success of Joba in his setup role for Mariano Rivera. (Keeping Mariano is one of Cashman's good moves, to be fair). When the Yanks have held a lead going into the eighth inning, nobody can hold a candle to finishing up with Joba and Mariano. And you'll hear the yada yada yada as to how and why Joba will get injured in a transition.

But how many leads will they take into the eighth? Doesn't a contending team need at least three legitimate starters? Shouldn't there just be one day out of every five that the whole team will give up because they're down by seven? Not three out of five days, that's too much. Even for the Yanks lineup.

Let's look at the alternatives. For starting pitching, there are no good alternatives. In the relief area, there is one good one, at least at the current time. Brian Bruney has been impressive, showing every indication that he can handle that setup role.

Let's look at motivation. Joba wants to start. Just the fact that he wants to start would go a long way towards ensuring that he wouldn't injure himself on the way to stepping into his dream job. How hard is it anyway, this transition? Put Joba in a long relief role, a couple of innings, then three or four, then he's a five inning starter, then the sky's the limit. In a few weeks, he'd be a starter, and you wouldn't lose his services along the way.

Imagine Wang, Pettite, Chamberlain, Mussina, rookie. Four out of every five starts will be competitive, three out of five could be dominating starts. Good pitching four out of five days would go a long way towards motivating that Yankees batting juggernaut too.

Yes, the move makes sense. From a baseball and business standpoint. That the best pitcher in baseball went to the Mets doesn’t make things any easier for Cashman. That ticket prices will be going up in the new stadium doesn’t help his position either. What’s the first question you ask when thinking about attending a game? Who’s pitching? Kennedy? Um, I’ll pass. Santana? Sure, when do you want to leave?

<>And I think it’s quite possible that his master plan for developing young pitchers is founded on his rock-solid history of selecting bad ones. I also think Cashman had better start communicating with Hank, at least a little bit. It sounds as if he’s talking to George and Randy Levine a lot, but not with Hank. Big mistake, worse even than all his pitching snafu’s combined, if that’s even remotely possible.

The enormity of Cashman’s huge failures in the pitching department would be hard to exaggerate. Carl Pavano’s 4-year 40 million dollar contract would have to top the list as he went 4-6 in 2005, 1-0 in 2006, and then never pitched again. Kevin Brown comes close though. The Yanks picked up the remainder of Brown’s record 7-year 105 million dollar contract in 2004 and Brown went 10-6, then 4-7 in 2005.

<>Randy Johnson at 41 years of age was picked up for a mere $57 million for just two years, including the cost of dropping his no-trade clause. Jeff Weaver, another costly acquisition, though, did lose a Game 4 2003 World Series game to a walk-off home run by a light-hitting Alex Gonzalez. How about paying Clemens all that money last year on a start by start basis only to have him pitch badly and then be named in the Mitchell report?

More recently, of course, Kei Igawa signed for a relatively meager 5-year $20 million. He won a couple of games, lost a few more, and you just don’t hear too much about him anymore.

<>So.. is Hank allowed to question Cashman’s genius? It’s been suggested that Hank’s just a clone of his father, that because he inherited his Dad’s money, he should just shut up. I don’t think so.

I think he’s showing a bit of his Dad’s good instincts, as when his Dad suggested the Yanks acquire a guy named David Ortiz.