A Royal Opportunity Lost

Is anyone home in Kansas City?

Last year for financial reasons the Royals decided to trade Johnny Damon. This year it was Jermaine Dye who had to go. But at least dealing the two players gave Kansas City the opportunity to rebuild a once proud franchise. So what did the Royals get in return for the two fine, young outfielders? A closer (the last piece of the puzzle for a rebuilding team) on the wrong side of the hill in Roberto Hernandez, a lousy not even backup quality catcher in A.J. Hinch and a shortstop in Neifi Perez who this year is hitting .230 with 0 homers and 11 RBI away from Coors Field.

How could Kansas City trade those two players without getting at least one stud pitcher to go with super prospect Chris George?

Meanwhile, many in the media have acted as though the A’s pulled off the heist of the century in acquiring Dye. But a closer examination of the deal reveals that the A’s gave up two of their best prospects in Jose Ortiz and Mario Encarnacion for a guy who is hitting a very mediocre .273 with 14 homers and 51 RBI.

After all, the back from the dead Ruben Sierra has put up similar numbers in 184 less at bats. Ruben, like almost the entire Texas organization, is likely available at any price. And Ortiz was touted before the season as a favorite for Rookie of the Year.

While he is far from a sure thing, the Yankees did a good job picking up Sterling Hitchcock for next to nothing. Hitchcock will not win the pennant for New York, but he does improve the four spot in their rotation. One wonders if this move has any relation to Roger Clemens’ recent groin injury or El Duque’s future. Of course, the Yankees probably just want to get Randy Keisler and Ted Lilly out of the rotation.

Credit Steve Phillips for recognizing that this is not the Mets’ year and picking up a solid, young starting pitcher in Bruce Chen in exchange for two veteran relievers, Dennis Cook and Turk Wendell. This trade also makes sense for the Phillies as well, even though Wendell promptly gave up a walkoff homer to Robin Ventura in his first Philadelphia appearance.

Nice to see the Crime Dog show up in Chicago. As was predicted in this space, it just took a little restructuring of his contract to allow McGriff to overcome missing his family in Tampa.

Detroit is to be commended for picking up Mark Redman for the beleaguered Todd Jones. Closers do not adjust well to set up roles, and the Tigers traded a guy they didn’t want for a young lefty who will be their number two starter next year once he is healthy.

Assuming Pedro Martinez will be back by late August, which is hardly a given, the Red Sox greatest need in the trade market is another reliever. Boston will not be able to make the playoffs trotting out Rich Garces, Rod Beck and Derek Lowe every night. Those guys are already overworked and are on the verge of burning out.

Meanwhile Beck was quoted as saying that if the Sox decide to replace Lowe as their closer, he should get the call and that he would be angry if Boston traded for a closer. What Beck doesn’t understand is that relievers with 85 mile per hour fastballs and hanging breaking stuff do not make good closer material.

Then there was Bryce Florie ripping Boston on the way out of town when he was designated for assignment. It goes without saying that his injury was horrific and his comeback was inspiring. But Florie was a mediocre pitcher before he got hurt. Thanks to Dan Duquette’s temporary insanity, he is a multimillionaire. The Red Sox are trying to make the playoffs, not play sympathy cases. This is not little league, where everyone who shows up is guaranteed playing time. From a talent standpoint, Florie does not deserve to be on the roster. He should be thanking the Red Sox instead of ripping them.

So far there has been no flood of teams tripping over themselves to acquire Florie. If Florie feels he was shafted, he should go to the minors and prove he can throw inside. With the shortage of pitching in baseball, if Florie deserves a big league job, he will get one.

Who cares that Deion Sanders retired? He was a mediocre baseball player and incredibly tiresome. Sure three years ago he was a great corner, even though he never tackled anyone, but his talent was not worth having to hear the press (and himself) fawn all over him.

When you think about it, Sanders was football’s somewhat better behaved answer to Dennis Rodman.

MLB’s directive, through Sandy Alderson, to the umpires to call more strikes was just another example of how the leaders of the game just don’t get it. The umpires should call strikes according to the rule book, not bend over backwards to “find strikes” as Alderson put it.

Why are baseball and the media so infatuated with shortening the games? Real fans, especially those attending the games, are happy to be at the ballpark and watch the action.

The Tour de Lance

How incredible is Lance Armstrong? The man and his story are almost too good to be true.

However the Critic can never understand how with days and hundreds of miles to go in the Tour, it is a fait accompli that the leader is going to win the race. When Armstrong took a five-minute lead, one might have thought that he was a full country ahead. Why is it impossible for a rider to chop a minute or two off the lead per day and eventually catch up?

If the British Open were the Tour de France, the field would have conceded the tournament to Colin Montgomerie after the first day.

Random Musings

David Duval’s breakthrough performance at the British was spectacular. Incredibly, some criticized him for not being more emotional when he won. It is a sad commentary on the state of sports when a superb victory is not enough, one must showboat to be a true superstar. That’s why Deion Sanders is a household name and Darrell Green is not.

The latest Robert De Niro vehicle, The Score, is a good watch. The script rates a B+, but De Niro and Edward Norton are excellent, as is Marlon Brando. The ending of the movie is exciting and clever. One wonders why the makers of the movie bothered casting and paying for a fine actress like Angela Bassett in what amounted to a throw away role as De Niro’s love interest.

The Critic will take the Feds minus the points in the Michael Irvin trial.

What a shocker that former ESPN nitwit Fred Edelstein turned out to be a fraud. Anyone who saw that idiot on cable had to know that guy was making it up as he went along.

Hoping to find a calming veteran influence for problem child Rasheed Wallace, the Trail Blazers turned to convicted sex offender Ruben Patterson. Patterson will be the only Portland player who will not only have to check in at the scorer’s table, he will also have to check in with the Oregon sex offender’s registry.

Additional testimony at the Gold Club trial revealed Braves centerfielder Andruw Jones has given a new meaning to the baseball term “double play.”

And considering how much Patrick Ewing sweats on the court, we can assume with a great deal of certainty that the girls at the Gold Club earned their money when they serviced Pat.

When Ewing went to the Gold Club, it was the first time he had been double-teamed in five years.

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By: Scott Shuster