[MLB] Inside Pulse's 2006 Major League Baseball Preview, Part I

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While you wouldn’t know it from the international fan apathy surrounding the World Baseball Classic or the utter lack of controversy following Barry Bonds around this spring”¦believe it or not, baseball is almost back!

Opening sarcasm aside, the beginnings of this six-part series came together last month, when the IP Sports “Features Editor” (the same man who brought you this feature and this feature) asked the staff who wanted in on the next one. Have any of you actually heard the sound of indifference? Until then, I hadn’t either.

But, we still managed to pull together the biggest baseball fans on this site for a unique look at the new season. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be running 25 of the top questions heading into 2006 and attempt to answer them as only we know how. We’ll save our playoff predictions for the final part, while breaking up the queries into five apiece for the first five parts.

Joining us over the next two weeks will be:

Daniels: Yep”¦just “Daniels”. Officially, he’s IP’s head programmer and editor of our Music Zone. Other than ensuring that the Friday Music News Bootleg ended on HIS watch, he’s a lifelong Mets’ fan, but no fan of New York on any day when there’s a parade. Remember that episode of Seinfeld at the Puerto Rican Day parade? Of course you do.

Mike Hulse: Well, then”¦who knew we had blown our budget for “surprise guest star” so early in the fiscal year? Mike is an IP alumnus who contributed his New York Sports Rant column first on 411, then here on Inside Pulse. He knows him some baseball, but if he even thinks about dusting off those damn “rant” puns that used to pepper his columns (“I’m Macho Man Rant-y Savage”), we’ll kill him.

Aaron Cameron: Why, yes”¦retirement from The Bootleg does suck, but it allows me watch more sports and put together packages like these. I’m an Oakland A’s fan from Rickey Henderson’s second major league season, I gave my son the middle name “Henderson” in Rickey’s honor and the old man spent last summer in my adopted hometown of San Diego”¦as a “Surf Dawg”. Retirement has gotta be better than that, though.

Questions!

Q: What was the single biggest off-season move?

Aaron: The obvious answers include the Mets acquiring slugging 1B Carlos Delgado from Florida, the Red Sox trading for Josh Beckett and pretty much anything the Blue Jays did from November to January. So, I’ll try for the most obvious of them all and say it was the Yankees signing Johnny Damon. The Baseball Jesus won’t be worth $13 million a year by 2007, but I think he’ll perform better at the plate this year than many think, plus when you think the alternative for the Bombers was Bubba Crosby”¦ The only downside: even more contrived hype for the game’s most tired “rivalry”.

Daniels: Let’s see, take the most heated rivalry in baseball. Take the face of one of those two franchises, and put him on the other franchise. Oh, and while you’re at it, strip him of everything that made him the face of the franchise A and make him look like every other “baseballbot” on franchise B. At the end of last year, I told everyone who would listen that Caveman Johnny Damon would be Corporate Jonathan Damon by next spring. 1) Bernie was done, 2) The Red Sox expressed no interest in keeping Damon and 3) It was the smartest thing the Yankees could do to fill in Bernie’s spot because how it affected the Red Sox. While it doesn’t do anything to help the Yanks’ pitiful, thousand year old rotation, it gives them a solid lead off guy and will likely keep them toward the top of the AL East this year.

Hulse: With all due respect to both New York teams making big moves and the complete overhaul of the Toronto Blue Jays, the best move this offseason was made by the Chicago White Sox in trading for Jim Thome. Thome might be the best left-handed bat in baseball not named Bonds, and he’s being added to your current World Series Champs. Couple that with the fact that he’s replacing All Clubhouse Cancer team member Frank Thomas, and suddenly the champs have become that much better.

Q: Which team is the most improved from last year?

Aaron: Sorry, I just don’t buy into J.P. Ricciardi DiBiase’s “everybody has a price” lineup in Toronto. The Jays have too many of the same question marks as last year, with a worse defense now that 2B Orlando Hudson (most notably) is gone. I’ll go out on (an admittedly short) limb and say the Dodgers will rebound to win 90+ and the NL West. Former GM Paul DePodesta got a raw deal and was unfairly run out of town in the offseason. LA lost a ton of games to injuries in 2005, and if closer Eric Gagné and OF J.D. Drew are healthy, along with newly signed Rafael Furcal and the remains of Nomar, this could be a fun team to watch.

Daniels: For me this comes down to three teams: The Dodgers, the Blue Jays, and the Mets. All three of those team spent big money to bring in some top notch talent to fill gaping holes. However, at the end of the day, the middle of their lineup is Nomar Garciaparra, Kenny Lofton, and Jeff Kent. For the 60 or so games those guys play, they’ll have a pretty solid team. I really would like to vote for the Mets, but I also realized they did nothing to update their starting rotation and, arguably, hurt it by dumping Jae Seo off to the Dodgers for the equivalent of a used tire (We’ll leave Kris Benson discussion out of this, for now). Their top two starters are a combined 500 years old, they still have Victor Zambrano, and their five starter (assuming Heilman gets the nod) is unproven at best. By process of elimination, I present: the Blue Jays. Assuming their outfield and their DH can replicate their stats from last year, they plugged Lyle Overbay and Bengie Molina into their infield AND picked up some new pitching. While I don’t necessarily think they’re going to win the AL East this year, I think they are a solid contender for the wildcard.

Hulse: Over the last decade or so the American League East has been the Yankees, the Red Sox, and those other 3 teams. Well, you might just be able to add on the Toronto Blue Jays to the list. In the offseason they added AJ Burnett and his Cy Young caliber arm to a rotation that already included Roy Halladay and his Cy Young winning arm. They added BJ Ryan and his 36 saves from last season to the back of the bullpen. They added Bengie Molina, who’s among the top 5 catchers in baseball. They added Troy Glaus, who only hit 37 bombs and drove in 97 for a sub-par Arizona team last year. They added Lyle Overbay, who’s an absolute hitting machine even if nobody not named “Mrs. Overbay” could ever pick him out of a lineup. They were only 2 games under .500 last season, and the way things have shaped up in the east, they could be playing for a division come labor day.

Q: Which team is the least improved from last year?

Aaron: I’ll ignore the perennial bottom-feeders in outposts like Kansas City, Colorado and Pittsburgh for this one. So, how about a vote for the late Pat Gillick and the inertia in Philadelphia? The Phillies rightfully moved Jim Thome for a package of talent, but the best of batch was overrated OF Aaron Rowand. Other offseason moves included the inexplicable signings of “closer” Tom Gordon and such bastions of mediocrity as former Mariner starter Ryan Franklin. Hard to believe this squad finished just a game out of the playoffs last year and thought that several steps sideways was the best way to get better.

Daniels: When I originally pitched this column to Cam and Eugene, I suggested we put on an addendum of “Except for the Marlins” because, well, come on. Obviously no team has dumped as much talent as the Marlins. For all we know, they could have picked up a ton of talent in the process, but they sold off a playoff contention team to a team full of prospects. I think that’s the definition of “Least Improved.”

Hulse: The Florida Marlins decided it was high time to get rid of all that annoying young talent who had just won a world series in 2003, and they weren’t picky about what they got in return. Besides letting the aforementioned Burnett walk away, they traded Carlos Delgado and his bat of doom to the Mets for a box of baseballs and an autographed Doc Gooden coke straw. That could have been the worst move they made, until they traded Paul Lo Duca to the same Mets team for half a box of baseballs and an old Vince Coleman firecracker, unused. They traded leadoff hitter supreme Juan Pierre to Chicago, handing him a map on the way out. They also traded away Josh Beckett, Guillermo Mota, and Mike Lowell to Boston for less than anything else I mentioned thus far. Needless to say, ticket sales in Miami aren’t exactly hotcake-esque these days.

Q: Who was the best free agent acquisition during the offseason?

Aaron: Well, I suppose I shot my wad on this one when I answered the “biggest move of the offseason” question, but here’s another signing for your consideration: the Angels inking Jeff Weaver to a one-year deal. He’s three years removed from his Ed Whitson experience in New York and settled into a nice, league-average groove for the last two years in LA. Sure, the Halos grossly overpaid ($8.4M) for him and he gave up a ton of home runs last year and he’s struggled this spring, but 200 innings, 14 wins and an ERA around 4.00 will fit nicely in the Angels’ rotation.

Daniels: In the sense that plugged a gaping hole, I have to go with the Mets signing Billy Wagner. Did they overpay for him? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes. The Mets desperately needed a guy in the ninth inning who they could hand the ball to and know the game was over. Mets fans needed it, too. When the ball went to Braden Looper, fans held their breath. He was serviceable, but not lights out. In Wagner, they get a guy who will be lights out for at least the first two years of his contract, barring injury. Last year, if they had him and the bullpen they spent most of the offseason assembling, Pedro might have swung a 20-win season. It will also let Mets’ fans not be terrified when Looper comes out of the dugout.

Hulse: If we limit it to only Free Agents and not trades, then I have to go ahead, side with Satan’s favorite team, and say it’s The Yankees signing “Corporate Caveman” Jonathan Damon. Damon may have a rag arm… actually, check that, it’s bad enough that saying that will insult rag-armed people worldwide… but he can field, and is a nightmare at the plate. You put him in front of that lineup, and they may score more runs than any team in baseball history.

Q: Who was the worst free agent acquisition during the offseason?

Aaron: I eliminated any player who signed a one-year deal, since those contracts are generally low risk/low dollars. Scrolling down the alphabet of players who signed deals of two years or longer, I didn’t have to go very far to find my answer. Seriously, Houston”¦2 years and $7.5 million for Brad Ausmus?! Somehow, he’s averaged 460 plate appearances and put up the following line: .249 BA/.319 OBP/.315 SLG. I’ll do the math for you”¦that’s $3.75 million, this year and next, for a guy with a reputation as a good glove man and all-around nice guy.

Daniels: Later in this list of questions, we propose “What’s the maximum number of games the A’s new DH Frank Thomas will play this year?” Anytime you have to pose that question, it probably wasn’t a good pick-up”¦ even with the reasonable contract they offered.

Hulse: Frank Thomas and his charming disposition to Oakland. Sure it’s just one season, but the fact is he’s done nothing for the last 2 seasons in Chicago, yet somehow seems to believe he’s still a major force to be reckoned with, leads me to believe he won’t blend into the Oakland clubhouse full of kids who don’t look to be showering on a regular basis. But hey, I could be wrong.

Check back on Wednesday for Part II, as our intrepid trio reveals the most overrated/underrated teams, talks breakout players & are forced to choose which Baseball Tonight analyst to whack in the back of the head. Seriously