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Call to arms Young starters fizzle, so Jays look to veterans
The Blue Jays expected to make a run for the playoffs this season on the strength of their young pitching -- Kelvim Escobar, 24, Roy Halladay, 23, and Chris Carpenter, 25 -- behind ace David Wells. But as it clings to its wild-card hopes with five weeks remaining, Toronto has put its trust in veteran pitchers instead. Now Esteban Loaiza, 28, Steve Trachsel, 29, Joey Hamilton, 29, and, when he comes off the disabled list, Frank Castillo, 31, will start the big games behind Wells, 37. Carpenter and Escobar have pitched their way out of the rotation and into the bullpen and Halladay has landed back in Class AAA. Their lack of development this season cost the former pitching coach Rick Langford his job. He was replaced in late July by Dave Stewart. The lesson is worth noting. Nearly every year it seems we hear another club tout its homegrown young pitchers as the next coming of the Steve Avery-Tom Glavine-John Smoltz troika of 1991. The White Sox figured to dominate the 1990s with Jason Bere, Alex Fernandez and Jack McDowell. The Mets thought they were set with Jason Isringhausen, Paul Wilson and Bill Pulsipher. The Tigers thought they could build a big ballpark to suit Justin Thompson, Brian Moehler and Seth Greisinger. Now the Athletics believe they are developing the nouveau Braves with Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder developing. Next up: the Mariners' trio of Ryan Anderson, Joel Pineiro and Gil Meche. The fact is ever since the Braves' threesome turned around the Atlanta franchise there has been no "next Braves." The 2000 demise of Escobar, Carpenter and Halladay are further proof of that, though all continue to have high ceilings and can be big winners in the big leagues. The idea that they would blossom simultaneously, as did Glavine, Smoltz and Avery, is the exception. It is a credit to Toronto general manager Gord Ash that he has been able to find decent starting pitching to cover the lack of development by his young starters. If a weekend series against Minnesota is any indication -- and the Twins aren't much of a barometer -- the Jays might be in decent shape down the stretch. Loaiza pitched his best game as a Jay last Friday, throwing 7 2/3 shutout innings. Hamilton came off the disabled list Saturday to give Toronto six more scoreless innings in his first start of the season. And Wells pitched his best in a month, a complete game win in which he allowed two unearned runs. That's 22 2/3 innings from Toronto's starters in which they allowed just two unearned runs. Loaiza and Hamilton did a particularly fine job of changing speeds, often using changeups as a strikeout pitch. "My velocity is not where I'd like it yet," Hamilton said "I'm throwing 93-95 when healthy, but just to get back up to 90-91 is comforting. I'm happy where I'm at right now.'' Wells battled through what manager Jim Fregosi called a "dead arm" period as well as a troublesome back. He threw 111 pitches Sunday in his win. The victory was his 18th, tying a career high and setting the franchise record for wins by a lefthander. "Oh, well," he said grumpily when informed of the milestones. "To me, it don't matter. We're in a pennant race and we have to stay close to the teams ahead of us.'' Actually, Fregosi presented him with the lineup card to commemorate the milestones. Wells gladly accepted. The ace is now 13-2 when he pitches after a Toronto loss. With two more victories, he will become the oldest pitcher ever to win 20 games for the first time. The Jays will probably need those wins and two or three more from their ace. This is a team that wins via the long ball -- Toronto has won only six games all season in which it did not homer. With Raul Mondesi lost for the year (and postseason) following elbow surgery, the Jays will need to pitch better than they have over the first five months if they expect to be playing in October. Stewart, whose presence in the dugout was not embraced by Fregosi, seems to be making a difference with his veteran starters. He is particularly fond of Hamilton, whom he convinced the Jays to obtain from San Diego -- where Stewart was the pitching coach in 1998 -- and then give him $19 million over three years. Under Langford, the Jays were 53-47 with a 5.47 ERA. Since Stewart took over July 25, they have gone 11-14 with a 5.10 ERA (through Monday). Meanwhile, the futures of Carpenter, Halladay and, to a lesser degree, Escobar still seem to firmly be as starting pitchers. But with precious few games left in the season, the Blue Jays cannot trust them. They will cast their lot with Loaiza, Trachsel, Hamilton and Castillo. "The Igniter" is readyMemo to the many general managers out there who will be deciding on managerial changes after this season: Paul Molitor is ready to manage. "Yes, it's something that I would seriously consider," said the Minnesota Twins bench coach, who was one of the smartest players in the game. "I'd have to look at the situation and see if it was the right one." With "The Igniter's" baseball smarts, impressive playing record and media awareness, Molitor could step in without prior experience and command respect and succeed quickly the way Dusty Baker and Lou Piniella did. The Blue Jays tried to hire Molitor as a bench coach for Tim Johnson in 1998 as a way of grooming him for the manager's job. Pat Gillick, then the GM in Baltimore, wanted Molitor to play for the Orioles that season and also considered him to be future managerial material. Molitor decided to play a final season in Minnesota, then moved to the broadcast booth with the Twins in 1999. He has served as manager Tom Kelly's bench coach this year. "It's gone by fast, so I guess that's a good sign," Molitor said of his first year back in uniform. "I'm really enjoying it. I'd like the manage someday, but it would have to be the right spot." Among the managers whose contracts expire with this season are Fregosi in Toronto, Kelly in Minnesota, Gene Lamont in Pittsburgh, Jack McKeon in Cincinnati, Piniella in Seattle and Bobby Valentine in New York. In addition, Felipe Alou in Montreal, Terry Francona in Philadelphia, Davey Johnson in Los Angeles, Larry Rothschild in Tampa Bay and Buck Showalter in Arizona all are under evaluation by their respective owners. Molitor would appear to be better suited for the American League because of his career-long experience there. Molitor would figure to draw interest from Gillick, now the Seattle GM, if Piniella leaves to be closer to his Tampa home. Molitor also would have appeal to the Blue Jays, who are likely to be sold before the end of the season to a local ownership group that would want to put its own people in place, and to the Twins, in the unlikely event that their new president wanted to dismiss Kelly, who has been criticized by young players for a lack of patience. Going SouthMajor League Baseball plans to play at least one regular-season game next year in Latin America, according to one American League source. Tentative 2001 schedules have the Texas Rangers opening against the Toronto Blue Jays in Puerto Rico. The teams would play at least one exhibition game there before their Opening Day game. The game would be a homecoming for the biggest stars of each team: Texas catcher Ivan Rodriguez and Toronto first baseman Carlos Delgado, who are both from Puerto Rico. The game in Puerto Rico is part of baseball's continuing effort to grow the game beyond the shores of continental North America. Last year the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs played their first two games in Japan. Major League Baseball would like the offshore games to be annual events, venturing into places such as the Dominican Republic and Italy. The 2001 schedule also features an unbalanced schedule in which division rivals will play each other between 17 and 20 times. That adds integrity and excitement to division races and returns the intensity of rivalries such as Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Giants and Cardinals-Cubs, which have been watered down by more balanced schedules in recent years. The only downside to this format -- a price worth paying -- is that wild-card positions could be decided by teams playing much softer schedules than those they are competing against. For instance, the Blue Jays and Indians are competing for the wild card this season while playing very similar schedules, except for interleague games. Next season, in addition to the disparity in interleague games, the Blue Jays will play 19 games each against the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Devil Rays (for a total of 76 games, almost half their schedule). The Indians play those teams between six and nine teams each, while getting the White Sox, Twins, Royals and Tigers 19 times each. Be prepared to hear some critics call that an injustice. Baloney. It happens all the time in the NFL. And there must be some tradeoff to restoring rivalries and the integrity of division races. This year, for instance, the Yankees play the Red Sox only three times in the second half of the season. They have more games in September against the Royals and the Tigers than they do against the Red Sox. That kind of travesty will end with the 2001 schedule. Griffey's effectWhen the Reds traded for Ken Griffey Jr. they talked about a "Griffey Effect" on their bottom line -- the man helps pay for his own salary by drawing scads more people to ballparks than would otherwise come -- and compared it to the McGwire Effect in St. Louis. Now there is tangible proof Griffey is everything the Reds thought he would be: one of the greatest drawing cards in the game. Only the Giants and Tigers, who have opened new ballparks, have generated a greater attendance increase than the Reds. Cincinnati is drawing about 8,700 more people this year with Griffey than it did last season without him. (The Reds' 95 wins last season also helped sell tickets for this year.) That translates into an extra $8.45 million in revenue. Moreover, Griffey's first full tour of National League cities has helped make money all over the league. Despite languishing around .500, Cincinnati is the No. 1 draw in baseball, according to average road attendance. The Reds have been a better gate attraction on the road than even the Yankees. Making their markOne theory about why home run rates have dropped in the second half of the season: umpires are finally calling a larger strike zone. The inside strike has returned, and umpires are also calling strikes on pitches slightly above belt-high. Chalk it up to the wave of young umpires who have infiltrated the game because of the fallout of the Richie Phillips Mass Resignation Fiasco from last year. Less set in their ways than the umpires from the "Supreme Court days" (when umpires were seemingly appointed for life), these guys are calling a more generous zone.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for the magazine and writes a weekly baseball column for CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his mailbag.
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