This is from my friend Mike, who's the biggest Cubs fan I know...and not just in gerth...
Sammy Sosa is expected to report to Spring Training late. If this sounds like a recording, well, that's because Sosa's scheduled tardiness has become as much a part of spring as Duke University's men's basketball team making the NCAA Final Four. Since the time that Sosa has achieved his status of el grande enchilada with the Cubs, circa 1997, he has felt the need to demonstrate his rock-star status by annually arriving several days after the rest of his team, allowing himself a grand entrance, bright lights and all, becoming of an Oscar nominee. No doubt Sammy had witnessed the heights reached by Michael Jordan in Chicago, and he fancies himself as Jordan's heir apparent on the sports scene. One problem with that thinking. Michael Jordan earned his status by leaving his game so all-around complete and dominant, that nobody, not even his harshest critics, could find fault with him as a player. He earned that ticket. Jordan figured out that if you basked in the glory, and were anything less than the best, less than complete, then you were a fraud and your glory was fake. Hence, at Jordan's peak, he was more than just a naturally gifted athlete. He had developed a dangerous jump shot, he played defense better than anybody in the NBA, and he wasn't afraid to get his nose dirty and grab a rebound. Hence, at the end of the day, Jordan knew that he had earned, through his tireless work, the privilege of acting like the superstar that he was. Remember those people (players, writers etc.) who described Bulls practices as being more rigorous than games? That's how MJ wanted it. You didn't see him rolling into the Berto Center a half-hour before practice ended.
This is where Sammy, in his rush to bask in the same type of unadulterated glory, doesn't get it.
True, Sammy Sosa HAS become an all around great hitter. As a hitter, the raw skinny, twenty year old Dominican whose first major league home run came off of Roger Clemens in 1989 is indistinguishable from the beefy, muscular Americanized superstar that we see today. In between those years, Sosa has gone from a swing-from-the heels, pitcher-must-throw-the-ball-into-the-upper-deck-to-walk-him hitter to a more assured, confident, and DANGEROUS hitter. True, Sammy still garners his lion's share of strikeouts but, in one of the most telling examples of his evolution as a hitter, his walk totals, and corresponding On Base Percentage (OBP), have gone skyward through the years. Consider: in his first full major league season, with the crosstown White Sox in 1990, Sosa walked 33 times in 579 Plate Appearances. His meager batting average of .233 was accompanied by an even more unappealing OBP of .282. Eleven years later, in 2001, he walked ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN times, more than three times as often as he did in 1990, and his OBP was an exceptional .437. Sosa slipped in most offensive categories last year, but even his numbers in 2002 are several levels above his output from a decade earlier.
As a hitter, the guy pushed himself. He wasn't satisfied to just hit home runs, but to be feared as an all-around hitter. You could say his improvement in that particular area was Jordanesque. Time was, Sammy would feast on young, scared pitchers who didn't know how to pitch to him. This is basically how he fattened up his power numbers in the early 1990's. In those days, pre-1996, the Madduxes and Schillings and the A-list of NL pitchers had little trouble dispensing with Sosa on an economy of pitches. I saw him homer off of Tom Glavine in a game at Wrigley in 1995 and was convinced Glavine just wasn't concentrating (he was in the ninth inning of a complete game that he was winning handily). In those
days, it was usually a mistake that allowed Sosa to take an All-Star deep, and it NEVER happened with the game on the line. Today, however, ALL pitchers fear him. His sharper eye has made it more difficult to get him out on waste pitches. Try sneaking a fastball by him? Not a chance. They can still strike him out, but now they have to work for it, and not just flick three sliders in the dirt.
And yet, for all the credit that is due Sammy for this remarkable turnaround, he evidently feels that so long as an athlete dominates one aspect of the game, he deserves to be placed on the same pedestal as MJ. So, while Cub fans have delighted in the reliability that Sosa's bat has provided his team, it has come at a cost. As an outfielder, Sosa has declined. Don't get me wrong-he was never THAT good to begin with. His emotion and lack of discipline prevented him from playing the position, even during his peak years, 75% as well as the man he replaced, Andre Dawson. And Dawson was in his mid-thirties with two lousy knees when he played for the Cubs. But Sosa's love of the spotlight has compelled him to conclude, correctly, that offensive pyrotechnics is the fastest route to the kind of celebrity status that Sammy saw MJ bask in, and for which he has thirsted himself. In short, chicks dig the longball or, in the case of Sammy, whose appetites, unlike those of former teammate and supposed clubhouse adversary Mark Grace, aren't women so much as cash, it is dead presidents who love the long ball. And so it has become that, in his pursuit of the twin American gods of fame and fortune, that Sosa has become a completely one-dimensional baseball player.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, on the surface. If you're a lousy fielder, you're a lousy fielder. Cub fans will recall, with great fondness, Keith Moreland. A converted catcher, Moreland ended up patrolling right field from 1983 (when he platooned with Mel Hall), to 1986. Arguably the best clutch hitter of the early Dallas Green-assembled Cubs teams, Moreland was no picnic to watch in the field. Fans forgave him because he tried his best, but just wasn't very good with the glove.
Similarly, if we saw Sosa work hard, bust his butt and shag fly balls in batting practice and, heck, even show up in Arizona when he's supposed to , well then we would be more forgiving. What Cub fans have issue with, and which sets us apart from most Chicago sportswriters as well as the blindly faithful frat house that commonly occupies the right field
bleachers, is that we see in Sosa someone who has come to expect us to turn a blind eye to his Keystone Cops routine in the field and worship him for his prodigious offensive output.
Sorry. We've waited over nine decades for a winner. I, for one, don't feel compelled to donate any energy to the Deification of Sammy Fund, not so long as he considers defense to be but an ancillary part of the game, and not so long as his attitude displays his eagerness to put himself front and center ahead of the team.
In the context of team baseball, offense and defense share the same weight. A player gets three to four at-bats a game and roughly three to four chances in the field. There is no such thing as overcompensating for bad defense. A perfect day on offense is still a 50% perfect day, even if a guy hits four home runs. If he also fails to cut off a ball in the gap with a
runner on first and two out, and misses a cutoff man, and/or throws to the wrong base, allowing runners to move into scoring position, AND YET, on top if it all, wants to receive special treatment in spite of such lopsided performance, then what do you have?
Well, in the Cubs' case, you have a player who cares only about himself, while drawing a paycheck for playing in a team sport.
Hey Sammy-you want to be like Mike? Then how about showing up on time for once?
posted by Oleg at 6:21 PM
Classes at Rutgers University begin January 21. This important for one, and only, one reason: Bobby Brownlie. He was the Cubs first pick in last year's amatuer draft in June, 21st overall. He is still unsigned. If Brownlie attends class on that date, the Cubs would lose his rights, and he would re-enter the draft next June. He was the first of the Cubs 4 first round picks, all college pitchers. The other three are signed, Luke Hagerty picked 32nd, Chadd Blasko taken 36th, Matt Clanton picked at 38. Justin Jones -- another lefty -- had a strong debut at rookie league Arizona, was a 2nd round pick out of a Virginia high school.
Last year at Boise in the short-season, low A league, Luke Hagerty posted a 1.13 ERA in 10 starts. In 48 innings, he had a 50/15 K/BB ratio, giving up 32 hits. He's a lefty who was a teammate of Bryan Bullington, the number 1 pick in the draft, at Ball State. He should get to high A Daytona by the end of the summer, maybe hitting AA, if he keeps pitching that well.
I'm not sure where Chadd Blasko threw last year, probably instructional league. He has been signed, though, and should make his pro debut this spring.
Clanton also made his debut at Boise. Clanton signed late and, therefore, only threw 2 innings. I don't think either Blasko or Clanton were hurt, but they are still very much unknowns.
The three were signed for a total of $3.75 million in bonuses. Last year the Cubs first pick was some guy named Prior. The Cubs gave him a major league contract worth over $10 million, with a $5 million bonus. None of the 4 pitchers picked this year have nearly that kind of upside or talent, obviously.
The Cubs also have several other pitching prospects in their minor league system. Andy Sisco spent the year at Boise last year as well. His numbers were even better than Hagerty’s: 14 starts, 7-2, 77.2 innings, 51 hits, 101/39 K/BB ratio. He’s at least a year younger than Hagerty, drafted out of high school in 2001. No wonder the Boise team went 41-27 and won the league title.
The Cubs also have a plethora of other young pitchers with a lot of upside elsewhere. Jak-keu Ryu was a teenager signed out of high school from Korea. Angel Guzman and Wilton Chavez are products of an increasingly fruitful Latin American program, which has also brought Juan Cruz, Francis Beltran, and Carlos Zambrano to the big league roster.
Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and Carlos Zambrano are all under 25, with a 23 year old Juan Cruz waiting in the wings to join them.
If Brownlie joins this talented group, the Cubs should be well on their way to a very good major league staff in the years to come.
posted by Oleg at 11:43 AM
