YEAR 2003
PLAYER RANKINGS
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Welcome to the 2003 Player Rankings. Actually, they are more like Team Rankings, the best at each position in each league. This is the second year that I have tried this, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I like to write about baseball players, and I like to make up lists, and here I get to do both. I admit that it is all entirely subjective; I haven't used any system for coming up with the rankings. As such, I don't claim that they are 100% correct. I hope you enjoy them as well. If you are interested in reading the 2002 Player Rankings, CLICK HERE. If you are interested in reading player comments from 2001, CLICK HERE. (The format is different and looks kinda primitive, but there are some good ones. Whatever happened to Gookie Dawkins?) If you are interested in comments from 2000, CLICK HERE. (The first player comments I ever wrote! See how wrong I was about Luis Gonzalez!) 2003 Team Previews: The Red Sox finished in second place, again, behind the Yankees in their division. They were followed by Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa Bay, the same order those teams have finished in each year since 1998. And there's no good reason to think it will change this season; Tampa might pass Baltimore but I don't think so; Toronto is probably stuck where they are. But I am going to predict that the Red Sox will not only win the division, but the pennant as well. True, any idiot can predict that the Red Sox will win the pennant, but it does happen every 15 years or so. The Sox have a brand new GM whom no one really thinks can do the job, but what the heck, no one knew who Dick Williams was when he took over as manager of the Sox in 1967. They are eschewing common wisdom and trying a bullpen-by-committee, which no thinks will work except that the 1986 Sox won the pennant with Bob Stanley, Joe Sambito and Calvin Schiraldi sharing closing duties. Great Red Sox usually win at least one pennant. Ted Williams managed the feat in 1946. Carl Yastrzemski was the hero of the 1967 team; the 1975 squad was led by Lynn, Rice and Evans. The 1986 team had Rocket and Boggs. The current team has some truly great players — Pedro, Nomar, Ramirez — who should be good for at least one trip to the World Series. Besides, the Yankees just have a beatable look about them this spring, so I'm putting my faith with the Sox. The Yankees won 103 games in 2002, leading the league in wins. Though they are the best team in the division, they are also the most active; they signed Japanese superstar Hideki Matsui and Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras, and George Steinbrenner chewed out Derek Jeter in the papers, accusing his shortstop of having too many late nights. Boomer Wells wrote a book. Any team with Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams can win the World Series, and the Yankees may do it again. But I just have a bad feeling about the Bronx Circus that is developing around the team, whether it is Steinbrenner's trampoline act or Boomer's unicycle act or the horde of Japanese journalists wearing big red shoes. Throw in a pitching staff that is old and fragile, and you have a situation that may spiral out of control very quickly. Early last season, the Blue Jays fired manager Buck Martinez after a dismal start, and replaced him with rookie manager Carlos Tosca. The Jays had a winning record in the 109 games that Tosca managed, so you can't complain too much about his record. However, it is fair to say that he had some luck; the Jays acquired some new pitchers after Tosca was hired, and got some others back off of the disabled list. They called up some good young players (Josh Phelps, Orlando Hudson); they also had a ridiculously easy schedule the second half of the season, playing almost all of their games against Tampa and Baltimore after the break. Near the end of the season, Tosca said that rookie Phelps had spent "just the right amount of time in the minor leagues". Sure; after Tosca was hired in early June, Phelps was called up and drove in 58 runs in 74 games. That's great timing from Tosca's perspective. In any case, Tosca can't waste any time getting this year's squad ready to play; their first 20 games are against the Yankees, Red Sox and Twins. Those first three weeks can signal that the Jays are going to be competitive, or they could wreck the entire season. The Jays should do better than last year, probably play .500 ball or finish a couple of games over; it's unlikely that they will move up or down in the standings. The Orioles were looking just fine in mid-August of last season; they were playing .500 ball, and looked like they had a chance at their first winning season under Mike Hargrove. Instead, they went 4-32 in the last 36 games and finished with 95 losses. If you are an Orioles fan, then perhaps you can comfort yourself by saying that the team was almost good, that if they can just figure out what went wrong and not do it again, they will be OK. If you are Mike Hargrove, on the other hand, you have to be worried about the fact that you don't have any good players nor any good prospects, either. The pitching staff is OK, good enough to keep the team ahead of Tampa Bay. There is also the death of Steve Bechler to consider; Bechler was not going to make a significant contribution on the field this year, but the psychological effect of his loss on his teammates is incalculable. The Devil Rays are just awful, and aren't going to get better. I could applaud them for going out and getting a real manager in Lou Pinella, but then they went out and signed expensive turkeys Rey Ordonez and Travis Lee. I presume that at some point, Pinella will put pressure on the front office to both acquire and develop some good players, but obviously that's not going to happen right away. Last year I thought that the White Sox would win their division; instead, they were blown away by the Minnesota Twins. So this year I'm predicting that the White Sox... will win their division! Why? Well, they should win; they have more good hitters than the Twins and also some good pitchers. They have a nice balance of youth and experience. They shot themselves in the foot last year and didn't win as many games as they should have, and will probably rebound this season. Admittedly, they are a little weak up the middle catcher, second base, shortstop and centre field are all kind of shaky but the rest of the team is solid. The addition of Bartolo Colon and the emergence of Joe Crede are real, tangible improvements, plus guys like Brian Daubach and Rick White give them added depth, something the Twins are noticeably lacking. I'm going out on a limb and picking two Sox teams to make the playoffs, something that has never happened before. The Twins won their division easily, then won a playoff round before they were eliminated by the World Champions. And there is some logic that suggests they will be even better this year than last. They don't have any aging players in their lineup who are about to decline; they do have lots of young players who should get better, including Bobby Kielty, Cristian Guzman, Mike Cuddyer, Luis Rivas and others. The pitching is good but could be shaky. Betters seasons from Joe Mays and Brad Radke are good bets, but Eric Milton is gone after having knee surgery. Kenny Rogers has been brought in to the rescue; Rogers and Rick Reed are both good but also kinda old; at the end of their rotation, the Twins have a good young pitcher in Kyle Lohse and a spectacular young pitcher in Johan Santana. Top to bottom, they still have the best starting rotation in the division. The bullpen is also good, but at least two key players (Guardado, Hawkins) were surely having career seasons. The Twinkies will decline this year. Not by a huge amount, but they will likely win 85-90 games. One, they really overachieved last year, and probably hit the ceiling with 94 wins. Two, even though you have to like their young players and pitchers, this is still a team that didn't add a single impact player to their roster. They're not old, but they do have overachievers (Jacques Jones, Guardado, even Torii Hunter). They're OK, and they're blessed to be in a division with some truly horrible teams, but they are really going to need another young player to take a dramatic step forward. The Indians have picked a bad time to start rebuilding. With the White Sox underperforming, and the Twins refusing to spend any money on extra players, the AL Central is a very winnable division. But the Indians have no players and no pitchers; their starting outfield is Shane Spencer, Coco Crisp and Karim Garcia, their starting rotation is depending on Brian Anderson and Jason Bere, their closer is... I don't know, Mark Wohlers or somebody. It is hard to imagine that the Indians could contend for the playoffs this season, even playing in baseball's worst division. And then you have the Ragamuffins. The big news in Detroit is that the team is bringing in the left field fences at Comerica Park. The left field power alley, formerly 395 feet from home plate, will now be 370 feet. Of course, none of this changes the fact that the Ragamuffins are a dreadful team. They have had nine straight losing seasons and last year lost 106 games. Their pitchers and their hitters and their fielders are all terrible. They will hit a few more home runs, yes, but presumably their pitchers will give up a few more as well. Such is life. The Royals have also had nine straight losing seasons, and their franchise record has dropped below .500. And by the looks of it, things aren't going to improve this year. The sad thing is that the Royals do produce terrific players; they just can't mold them into a successful ballclub. The last three generations of young Royals have all come up short of expectations. Go back to the 1988 team, three years after the World Series victory. That team featured Kevin Seitzer, Bo Jackson, Danny Tartabull, Kurt Stillwell, Mike Macfarlane, Mark Gubicza, Bret Saberhagen and Jeff Montgomery. Their ages ranged from 23 to 26. Seitzer was almost Rookie of the Year in 1987; Bo Jackson was the most famous athlete in America. Saberhagen was still only 24 years old. This team finished second in 1989, but never again came close to the playoffs. The second group in 1994 was less impressive. It featured Bob Hamelin, Brent Mayne, Terry Shumpert, Brian McRae, Tom Goodwin, Kevin Appier, Tom Gordon. Their ages ranged from 25 to 27; all of those guys except for Hamelin are still playing. They should have been good for at least one winning season. Hamelin was rookie of the year in 1994 but never had another good season. Fast forward five years to 1999. Carlos Beltran, Mike Sweeney, Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, Carlos Febles, Jeremy Giambi, Mark Quinn, Jeff Suppan, Jose Rosado, Jay Witasick. A very good group, their ages ranged from 22 to 25. Beltran was Rookie of the Year, Sweeney and Dye drove in 100 RBI. Rosada was outstanding. But under Tony Muser's direction, they never came close to a winning season. Now, Royals fans have to wait for the next wave of young players; one of Beltran or Sweeney will likely be dealt this year, maybe both. A pair of long managerial tenures came to an end on the West Coast this winter. One was Art Howe's in Oakland. Howe managed the Athletics for seven years; the first three years were unexceptional, but the last four have been something else. Four winning seasons, with one of the lowest budgets in baseball. Oakland won 102 games in 2001, a remarkable accomplishment; after losing MVP Jason Giambi to free agency, they went out and won 103 games last year! But there were also the dramatic folds in the playoffs. The Athletics under Howe never won a playoff series; they coughed up the 2001 series to the Yankees, then did the same last year with the Twins. So once again, it was time for Howe to go. New manager Ken Macha(velli) has a real opportunity to do what Bob Brenly did, lead a disappointing team to the promised land in his first year on the job. After ten years, Lou Pinella's tenure with the Mariners has come to an end. It was, without doubt, an amazing decade of baseball in Seattle, with more than its share of highs and lows. The highs include seven winning seasons, four trips to the postseason, and a thrilling victory over the Yankees in the 1995 playoffs. In 2001, they set a major league record by winning 116 games. The M's had two players (Ken Griffey, Alex Rodriguez) who many considered the best in the game, and a pitcher (Randy Johnson) who likewise ranked among the very best. They also had Edgar Martinez, in his prime perhaps the best hitter in the game, and of course Ichiro. The lows... well, despite having all of these magnificent players, the Mariners never made it to the World Series. Yes, they beat the Yankees in 1995, but got their comeuppance in 2001 when their 116-win season was extinguished by the Bombers. Griffey and Johnson were traded, Rodriguez left for more cash. And the bullpen... the pre-Sasaki bullpen was the stuff of nightmares. It was time for Pinella to leave. After the team folded up and threw in the towel sometime in August, it was time to make a change. New manager Bob Melvin inherits a talented team that will be hard pressed to keep pace in a tough division. They will have a winning season, but to reach the playoffs they will depend on arms that are both very young (Pineiro) and old (Moyer). In last year's MVP debate, one of the anti-ARod comments I read argued that the Rangers had sunk so much cash into Rodriguez' contract that they were unable to sign other good players. Thus, Rodriguez was hurting his team by making too much money. I'm not sure exactly when the MVP Award became a measure of executive competence, but never mind; what really matters is that the basic assumption is false. The Rangers are not a one-player team; they can afford other good players. At least 40% of their starting lineup from 2002 will probably go into the Hall Of Fame (ARod, Pudge, Palmeiro, Gonzalez); how many teams can make that claim? Of course, Pudge and Gonzalez both missed time with injury, as did Rusty Greer and Frank Catalanotto, who are also terrific players. And Carl Everett, who I think most people would agree is a brilliant player when he feels like it, didn't show up to play. Chan Ho Park is an outstanding pitcher and so is Kenny Rogers and Jeff Zimmerman and even John Rocker. But Park was hurt and Zimmerman was hurt bad and Rocker imploded and the rest of the staff followed suit. A bad team is a bad team, but at least we should be able to distinguish between a team that has bad players, and a team with lots of good players who are either hurt or half-insane. Entering 2003, the Rangers have lost Pudge and Rogers, but have gained a real closer (Urbina) and a manager who usually wins (Showalter). They are stuck in baseball's toughest division, but are an interesting mix of talent and an extremely dangerous team who should be able to at least play .500 ball. The Angels started the year 6-14, then kicked butt the rest of the season and won the World Series. I picked them to finish third in their division, and of course I now kick myself for my inability to think outside the box... so this year, I'm going to predict that they will falter, if only because they're in almost the exact same position they were in last year. In fact, they might be weaker. The Angels last season were looking for big comeback seasons from Erstad, Glaus and Salmon. Salmon delivered, the other two didn't. The Angels didn't win because of MVP-type seasons from their stars (even their best players, Salmon and Garret Anderson, were not among the ten best players in the league); they won because they were strong across the board, and did not have any glaring holes on their roster. They were healthy, and everyone from Eckstein to Kennedy to Fullmer to Ortiz to Weber delivered with a solid season. That's a hard thing to do two years in a row. The Angels did not add any players during the off-season, so... they're once again looking for Salmon and Percival and Ortiz to stay healthy; they need Glaus to get his power stroke back and Erstad to get his average over .320; they need to squeeze another season out of Appier and they need Spiezio to keep his production up. Kennedy and Eckstein have to prove their durability up the middle. Francisco Rodriguez has to prove that he was not just a three-week wonder. This team has the same weaknesses and question marks that it did last year, and few added strengths (K-Rod, having learned to win as a team). This Angels team reminds me a little of the 1990 Reds, a team that won the World Series then followed up with the a disastrous 88-loss season. The Reds were made up of guys like Joe Oliver and Todd Benzinger and Jack Armstrong and Billy Hatcher, and though they won a championship there was really a lot less talent there then it first seemed. These Angels won't fall so badly, but the Athletics and Mariners both have more talent. The Mariners will rebound after a disappointing season; it will take a Herculean effort on the part of the Angels to avoid slipping back. A lot of people are picking the Phillies to win their division. I should show a modicum of independent thought and pick the Braves or the Mets... but I'll take the Phillies as well, if only because I like Randy Wolf and Kevin Millwood and Bobby Abreu so much. The Phillies also signed Jim Thome to a huge contract, supposedly so they could boost fan interest before the team moves to a new park in 2004. Partly by accident, however, the team is in a position to win in 2003. The Phillies have more good players than any other team in the NL East; they should be the ones to end the Braves' dynasty. Speaking of the Braves, over their past 11 full seasons they have averaged 98 wins per year. That's a pretty astonishing run of success, but there are two major problems. (1) The team can't win the World Series, and (2) the fans are bored. GM John Schuerholz has, I think, made things a little more interesting this season. his competitors in the East Division have been mostly unable to improve themselves, so Schuerholz gave them a boost by giving away Kevin Millwood to Philadelphia and letting Tom Glavine sign with the Mets. Not only is Glavine gone, but he has been replaced by master of disaster Mike Hampton in the rotation. So winning won't be so easy this year; trouble is, they still have to win. Win ugly. Win by the skin of their teeth, but still win. I believe that as long as Greg Maddux can stand on two legs the Braves will be competitive. Mets General Manager Steve Phillips, undaunted by his disastrous signings of veterans Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz and Mo Vaughn, has gone out and acquired Tom Glavine, Mike Stanton, Jay Bell, David Cone and Early Wynn. The good news for Mets fans is that Alomar will have a better year, the addition of Cliff Floyd will help, the loss of Rey Ordonez will help, Glavine should be good for another quality season, and they have a couple of kids who can play (Wigginton, Reyes). The bad news is that Vaughn is done, Edgardo Alfonzo is gone, Leiter, Glavine and Astacio are old and/or broken down, Piazza is old and breaking down, and Wigginton, while a nice young player, is not the next Scott Rolen. The East should be a winnable division, but I think the Mets still have more ifs than either the Braves or Phillies. IF their old pitching staff can remain in top form, and IF Alomar and Piazza and Floyd can avoid injuries and play at their best, and IF they can get some sort of contribution out of Mo Vaughn and Roger Cedeno, then maybe they have a shot at keeping pace. They're going to miss Alfonzo more than they think. The Expos had a winning season, ending a string of ugly losing seasons and barely avoiding being contracted out of existence. Teams that take a big leap forward (in Montreal's case, 15 games), usually take a step back the next year. Otherwise, there is no obvious reason why the team can't continue to compete. The only significant player that they lost off of their roster was Bartolo Colon, but they also added a couple of major league arms. Their aces, Vazquez and Armas, should be better. They have one of the most exciting players in baseball in Vladimir Guerrero, they have a crochety old manager who apparently still knows how to manage, and they will be playing 22 games in Puerto Rico. I wonder if there are any budding authors on the Expos' roster? This team could be a curiousity for the ages, sort of like the 1969 Seattle Pilots; a first-person account could be a valuable piece of history for future generations, especially with Guerrero and El Duque on the roster. The Marlins are blessed with two of the most exciting young arms in baseball (Burnett, Beckett), and are blessed to be playing in a division where the elite (Braves) are ready for a fall. They had a nice little off-season, picking up Pudge Rodriguez and Mark Redman and Tim Spooneybarger. This team could, I think, easily play .500 ball in this division, if the young arms hold up. On the other hand, they are still owned by Jeffrey Loria, they have nothing but lightweights in their outfield... huh, I guess I'm not a believer yet. Not until B&B put together healthy seasons; I'm guessing that the Marlins will probably win between 70-80 games again. It has been twenty years since the Cardinals last won a World Series. This is not too long compared to some other baseball teams, but for the Cardinals it is a sizable gap. The Cards won their first championship in 1926, 23 years after the first World Series; they also had an 18-year gap between 1946 and 1964. The Cardinals have won nine World Series, and are trying to become the second team to reach double digits. They have come close. Three straight division titles, plus they've also managed to win a couple of playoff series. Entering 2003, they appear to have as good a chance as anybody of winning the pennant this year. They are building around the best young player in the league (Pujols), and are strong in almost every department. The starting rotation is a little shaky, but then, Atlanta's starting pitching is a little shaky, so with some luck they should be able to hold their own with anybody. There are a lot of baseball fans, including myself, who are enthused about the potential of the Reds' outfield. They have a superstar, Ken Griffey Jr., a future superstar, Adam Dunn, and one of last year's best rookies, Austin Kearns. The Reds themselves aren't so impressed; they have already tried to deal Griffey once to San Diego, and there are reports that they might have a buyer in Baltimore. Anyways, if Griffey stays healthy and the others improve like they should, then it will be an awesome outfield. The infield's not too shabby, either, and the bullpen is good. The starting rotation has been Cincy's achilles heel the past few years, and that is still the case. Putting Danny Graves in the rotation is a risky experiment, and it's hard to know what to expect out of Ryan Dempster. On the other hand, the Astros and Cardinals aren't much better off in the pitching department. If the Reds can get a couple of solid years of out their starting rotation, then this team could, and probably should, contend for the playoffs. I'm a big Jimy Williams fan, but it was a little disappointing that he was unable to bridge the gap between the Astros' formidable front-line talent and the rest of the roster. Berkman, Bagwell, Oswalt, Miller, Wagner and Dotel are spectacular, but the rest of the team wasn't so hot. They've added another front-line player in Jeff Kent... but to get past the Cardinals they're going to have to get something out of Hidalgo or Lugo or Reynolds or Redding or whoever. If you were to grade the Astros there would be lots of A's and lots of D's and not much in between. The Cubs are five years away from the centennial of their last World Series victory. That 1908 team had four Hall-Of-Famers: Tinker, Evers and Chance, and Three-Fingered Brown, who won 29 games that year. 1908 was also the year of the Merkle Boner and the Cubs' famous pennant race with the Giants. The current Cubs team has some nice young players, but after a 97-loss season it would be hard to argue that they are close to being a serious contender. The closest that the folks at Wrigley will likely come to a championship in the near future is "Merkle's Boner", a movie that is the works about those 1908 Cubbies. I think it might be a musical as well. It should be great fun; too bad it is being filmed in Toronto. The Pittsburgh Pirates went through free agent purgatory a couple of years ago when they spent zoodles of money on David Bell and Pat Meares and other undesirables. New GM Dave Littlefield promised to turn things around, and got off to a good start last year when he turned Todd Ritchie into Kip Wells and Josh Fogg. So this year, Littlefield dips into the free agent market, and signs... Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders? Both played in the World Series last year; neither were very good, but then, you don't have to be when you play with Barry Bonds. They're better than Bell and Meares, and neither is making much money... but do Pirates fans really want to watch tired old outfielders with little or nothing left? Other exciting acquisitions include Randall Simon, Jeff Suppan, Matt Stairs, Julian Tavarez and Rolando Arrojo. The Pirates lost 96 games last year, and these moves suggest to me they really have no idea how they are going to do better than that this season. The Milwaukee Brewers were the first team to ban ephedra from their clubhouse. They also acknowledged that they cannot enforce the ban, which raises the question about why you would create an unenforceable rule, but then, that's why they're the Brewers. The Giants came within five outs of the World Series, booted the opportunity, and now... well, it's tough for any team to get back to the Show, but the Giants are faced with an exceptionally tough task. Their best player will be 38 years old, their other superstar (Kent) is gone, their manager has decided he would rather lose some games with the Cubs. If nothing else, GM Brian Sabean has made some bold, unexpected moves that give the team a much different look for 2003. He has brought in a very old manager (Felipe Alou) who was brilliant ten years ago, but it's also been that long since he's helmed a team that actually had a chance to win. Gone are Kent and David Bell, replaced by Edgardo Alfonzo and Ray Durham. Alfonzo and Durham are both outstanding players, and are both in their prime; they should add some real vitality to the lineup. Reggie Sanders is also gone, replaced by the younger Jose Cruz Jr. Sabean also traded ace Russ Ortiz for Damian Moss, a salary dump; it's hard to imagine how that deal could help the club, but... Moss is a nasty left-hander who pitched pretty well last year. They have some brilliant pitching prospects who could make an impact. This is a much different team that is in good position to win their division; even if Bonds makes a trip to the DL, this team has enough talent to stay afloat. The Dodgers haven't made the playoffs since 1996; if you have forgotten, Mike Piazza was still the catcher, and Tommy Lasorda was replaced in midseason by Bill Russell. Lots of nice things are being written about Jim Tracy these days, and perhaps they are deserved; the team won 92 games last year, and you have to give Tracy credit for making a closer out of Gagne and for putting Dave Roberts in centre field. On the other hand, he also batted Cesar Izturis 250 times at the top of the order; I guess he doesn't pay too much attention to percentages. The Dodgers will be hard pressed to improve on last season's 92 wins. Gagne will be good but not as great as last year; Omar Daal gave them some quality innings last year, and I doubt that Darren Dreifort is going to step in and replace him. Brown's health is unlikely to improve. The centre fielder's are unlikely to repeat their performance from last season. The only opportunity I can see for significant improvement is at third base, where the Dodgers are still waiting for Beltre to arrive. The Diamandbacks led the NL in runs scored last year, which is remarkable for a team that is known less for its hitting and more for its top two starting pitchers. They had no MVP candidates, but Junior Spivey and Luis Gonzalez were outstanding, as was Steve Finley. Quinton McCracken was a dynamic surprise in the outfield. Erubiel Durazo didn't get many at bats but put a huge number of runs on the board when he did; likewise, Greg Colbrunn was a monster when he came to the plate. Oh wait, don't look now, but the Dbacks have signed Carlos Baerga. If they can revive the careers of Gonzalez, McCracken, Bautista and others, what can they do with Baerga? Last season for the Padres was all about pitchers. A record number of pitchers took the mound for San Diego, though none of them could prevent the team from losing 96 games. This year, the story will again be on pitching, though with the focus not on the number of pitchers used, but on the development of the good ones. Their young arms range from moderately exciting to sensational; Perez, Peavy and Lawrence will all be expected to shine, while someone else will have to fill injured Trevor Hoffman as the closer. The offense probably won't help much. The Padres, to their credit, tried to give themselves a boost by trading Phil Nevin for Ken Griffey Jr. But dumb 'ol Phil vetoed the deal, then discolated his shoulder and will miss the season. Some teams have all the luck. The Rockies believe that they can win by stocking their lineup with mediocre hitters; recent additions include Jay Payton, Gabe Kapler, Charles Johnson and Chris Richard. To their credit, they also added Preston Wilson and Jose Hernandez; in fact, Hernandez (who struck out 188 times last year) may be the best hitter they have added to their lineup since Larry Walker in 1996. Run scoring at Coors last season was down a little bit, which may have been a result of the humidor experiment, or maybe not, time will tell. Even still, Coors still boosts run scoring by more than 40%; to have any chance at winnng, the Rockies must lead the league in runs scored, and by a wide margin. The Rockies last year were fourth in the league in scoring, which is just abysmal. They have replaced Juan Pierre with Preston Wilson, and Ben Petrick with Charles Johnson, and Todd Zeile with Jose Hernandez, and those moves will help put a few more runs on the board. Todd Helton might be healthier, but then, Larry Walker could easily break down. The Rockies really need a couple of guys to go goofy at Coors, the same way that Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla used to do. They need Gabe Kapler and Preston Wilson to each hit 45 home runs or something like that. That is something that hasn't happened in recent years, mostly because there is only so much you can get out of Tom Goodwin, Greg Norton, Kirt Manwaring, Kurt Abbott, Darryl Hamilton, Lenny Harris, Mike Lansing, Terry Shumpert and Benny Agbayani. As soon as this team gets back to acquiring Coors Hitters — guys who can crush a fastball, if nothing else — it will make things easier for the beleaguered pitching staff. American League: MVP: Magglio Ordonez CY: Joel Pineiro Pennant: Boston Red Sox Dark Horses: Carl Everett, Jeff Weaver, Chicago White Sox National League: MVP: Albert Pujols CY: Matt Morris Pennant: St. Louis Cardinals Dark Horses: Edgardo Alfonzo, Byung Hyun-Kim, Cincinnati Reds World Series: Cardinals over Red Sox in seven games. |
