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

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From the Mailbag”¦

I don’t know which one of you is “Aaron Cameron”, but f*ck off for calling the Mets overrated. You obviously know nothing about baseball. You give backhanded praise to David Wright, the most exciting young player in the game and Carlos Delgado who was great in a pitcher’s park in Florida, while completely disrespecting Pedro Martinez and not even mentioning Billy Wagner.

Anthony S.

Just so you know, Aaron’s the Black guy. And, he’s still pissed that former Met Anthony Young torpedoed his fantasy teams in 1992-93.

Did Daniels REALLY say the Blue Jays were “underrated”? Jesus Christ, outside of New York and Boston, no team has gotten more ink in the offseason than Toronto. If they do contend, it won’t be because they snuck up on anybody. I eagerly await part three, where Daniels tells about this “Albert Pujols kid” who really might be something, someday.

Andy C.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should let y’all know that I got this email in the midst of a phenomenally sh*tty day at the office”¦and the “Pujols” line was the equivalent of finding $5 in my jacket pocket.

Yo, AC”¦tell your boy Hulse that “breakout candidate” David Wright went for $32 in my fantasy draft last weekend. I live in Omaha, f*cking, Nebraska, where Major League Baseball is mostly a rumor and played only inside televisions. I think it’s safe to say he’s already “broken out”

Randall H.

And, that completes the trifecta of individual fan mail for another day!

Q: How will the recent steroid allegations affect Barry Bonds and, by extension, the Giants?

Aaron: The allegations won’t affect either Bonds or the Giants, unless Barry’s surgically repaired knee starts swelling up at the mere sight of a reporter this summer. Face it, Bonds has been living and playing by a separate set of rules for most of his career (media scourge, locker room curmudgeon) and has absolutely thrived in the role of designated bad guy. I mean, really, what are these latest performance-enhancement charges going to lead to”¦more booing? As long as Bud Selig doesn’t cave in to pressure from the obviously agenda-driven fans and media with a suspension of the future Hall of Famer, Bonds and the Giants should enjoy a season that features about 100 games, with 35 HRs and second place on the all time home run list. Take that, whitey.

Daniels: I don’t think they will affect him. Bonds has been dealing with these insinuations for three or four years solid now. While the new “proof” is the most damning, he’s still amazing. When he passes Babe Ruth in, oh, the second game of the year, the media will be all over him; but Barry’s been through enough that he’ll be able to tune it out and finish out the year. If Bonds plays the full year, the Giants probably make the NLDS. If he doesn’t, they won’t. That simple.

Hulse: Well the Giants go exactly how Bonds does. If he’s healthy and effective, they win a division. If he’s not, they’re a sub .500 team. As of today, Barry Bonds is being accused of using steroids. While the evidence against him is more incriminating than anything we’ve seen before, in the end, he’s not being arrested. The way Bud Selig has run his commissioner administration in the last decade, I have a feeling his “investigation” isn’t going to get Bonds into enough trouble to get him suspended. Bonds himself really doesn’t seem to give a crap if you like him or not, so I doubt the steroid heckling will get to him. In the end, I think we’re all talking about this because there’s not much else to talk about this spring. Come Memorial Day, barring injury, he’s gonna be dropping bombs into McCovey’s cove amidst throngs of cheers from the Giants faithful and we’ll all think he’s on the juice. And nothing will be any different.

Q: How many games into the season will it take for Red Sox OF Manny Ramirez to make his latest trade demand?

Aaron: As long as the Sox stay in the AL East race, Manny will play the part of good little soldier in ’06. This is an old, old team and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this was the last year in the Boston sun for some of this club’s more prominent personalities. One last run with what remains of the band is certainly conceivable in this division and the Sox will have a much better chance of playing in October if Manny’s on the same page with the rest of these idiots (note non-capitalized, non-adorable nickname use of the word). Hell, he’s gotta grow up sometime. Why not now, as he approaches his 50th birthday?

Daniels: This is a bold prediction, but I’m going to say Manny doesn’t make a trade demand this season. I think he may now realize no one really wants him or, rather, the teams that do want him aren’t willing to give up what the Red Sox want for him. That being said, if a trade with him does happen near the deadline, I think the Mets will be a solid contender for him if Cliff Floyd’s recent kidney troubles turn out to be serious.

Hulse: He’s just Manny being Manny. There’s no promises that he’s going to ask for a trade, but I’m guessing about a month before the deadline, it’ll go something like this:

Manny will go 0-4. A Bostonian idiot with no job who has seen every Sawks game since Fisk hit the homer in Game 6 of the ’75 series will boo. Manny, of course, will be very upset by the fact that all of Boston no longer loves him, because in his warped savant mind that one guy is all of Boston. He’ll say: if they don’t appreciate him, he wants to leave. Boston will say “ok” and field offers, and at the eleventh hour, Manny will again love Boston and the deadline will pass without a move. Just Manny being Manny.

Q: How many games will new A’s DH Frank Thomas play this season?

Aaron: 80. If used correctly, the Big Hurt will be on a schedule that puts Felipe Alou’s coddling of Barry Bonds to shame. Several people have made the point that Thomas wasn’t signed so much for what he might do in May, rather that what he could be capable of in October. He’ll definitely hit the DL a couple of times and his notoriously moody personality will be a fun little sociology experiment in the clubhouse, but this has the makings of one of those bizarrely effective 2001 Mark McGwire seasons with an average around .200, an OBP of .380 and plate appearances that end in either an out, a walk or a home run.

Daniels: You know, it always kills me when Frank Thomas gets hurt. Man’s a DH. Doesn’t even own a glove. I mean, I expect Frank to leisurely stroll to first in most cases. I’m setting the over/under at 75 and taking the under.

Hulse: I’ll give him maybe 65. He never plays with so much as a hangnail, and he’s enough of a prima donna that he’ll beg off of 10 games because Barry Zito’s horrible singing gave him a headache. Then he’ll be let go by the team in August when him and Milton Bradley get into an argument that leads to Thomas trying to club him with a bat. Meanwhile, the value of rare copies of Big Hurt Baseball for Super Nintendo will plummet.

Q: Will former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone make any difference on the Orioles woeful pitching staff?

Aaron: It’s safe to say that his 15-year track record in Atlanta pretty much speaks for itself. This is an incredibly intriguing, if uneven, collection of arms in Baltimore. 24-year-old Daniel Cabrera is being touted as a potential breakout candidate in some circles, while 27-year-old Erik Bedard still has time to capitalize on his one-time hot prospect status. For Mazzone, the real work will be in trying to squeeze one or two more decent seasons out of newly-acquired Kris Benson and perennial head-scratcher Bruce Chen. Mazzone is just one part of the puzzle, but it’s hard to imagine a more important one than him.

Daniels: This is, for me, the most interesting question in this feature, and the one I’ll be watching the most closely. How much of the Braves’ ongoing success was Bobby Cox’s and how much of it was Mazzone’s? At the end of the day, I think we’re going to find out that a lot of the Braves’ success was based on their management of their farm teams. The Braves manage all levels of their organization the same, so when someone on the big league team goes down, they can simply plug in a new player and have him execute. Last season was a perfect example of this as they managed to win the division (again) with about 3 veterans on the whole team. While Mazzone was an important cog in that machine (one that will be replaced with John Smoltz sooner or later) I don’t know that Mazzone will be able to bring a part of that machine to another team. Will he will likely be able to help some of the more talented pitchers with their deliveries? Yes, probably. Will he turn the Orioles starters into the lights-out machine of the Braves? Probably not.

Hulse: Leo Mazzone coached the greatest pitching rotation of my lifetime in the deadly Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine trio of the 90’s. Steve Avery was on par with those guys for a few years. He turned Mike Hampton from the biggest waste of money in baseball back into a damn fine starter. He made Jaret Wright back into a player good enough for the Yankees to dramatically overpay for him, because that’s how they roll. His greatest achievement, however, was John Burkett. Burkett has a lifetime ERA of 4.31. He was, at best, serviceable at one point. When the Braves got him in 2000, it was an afterthought a best. Then”¦ 2001. 12 wins. A 3.04 ERA. And he STARTED THE ALL STAR GAME!!! Read that again. Now, with that, I think he makes a difference, not only because he’s apparently showing up to the ballpark with a magic potion for location, but because the O’s have a couple good young pitchers, Erik Bedard shows flashes of ability, and Daniel Cabrera is a strikeout machine in the making. Don’t be shocked if the O’s pitching actually helps them make a little noise in a suddenly loaded AL East.

Q: Who will finish with a better overall season: former Red Sox OF Johnny Damon or his replacement, Coco Crisp?

Aaron: Over the lifetime of Damon’s overindulgent contract, Crisp will be the better player. In 2006, Damon will likely be one of the best leadoff men in the league, with Crisp not that far behind, but not quite ready to assume the mantle of Johnny. Coco will put up a few more stolen bases and possibly a better average, while Damon will still have the edge in more important categories like OBP, SLG and home runs. To say nothing of the inherent edge that Damon will have in boos when the two teams meet on the other’s home turn in 2006. Don’t you know that Johnny Damon was the first player to ever leave one team for another team that offered him more money?

Daniels: I think it’s next to impossible for a leadoff guy to have a crappy season playing in the Bronx with their lineup. Then again, I think it’s nearly impossible to not get a similar number of runs with Manny and Shrek Ortiz batting behind you. That being said, I think Crisp has a better defensive year (center field gold glove in the AL maybe? Ok, maybe I’m over-reaching, but better than Damon certainly) but I think it’s nearly impossible for Damon to not have better offensive year.

Hulse: That depends on how you define a better season. Damon will most likely have better looking stats. He has more power and there’s so many bats behind him that he’ll probably score more runs. However, Crisp will run more, probably be as good if not better in the field, and the fact that he’s named COCO CRISP will undoubtedly make him more popular in Boston than Damon could be in NY. After all, Yankee fans will, at best, grudgingly accept a former Red Sox star, especially if he doesn’t get off to a white-hot start. Damon will be better statistically, but Crisp may be the more important player to his team.

Check back on Tuesday for Part IV, as our intrepid trio discuss Roger Clemens’ next job, along with big market losers and small market winners!