Two of the biggest underachievers of 1999, the Dodgers and Orioles, are doing better this spring. They probably won't be in the playoffs, especially the Orioles, but at least they're improving.
The Dodger camp has been quiet, which is good. "It's always something, the sale of the team, the (Mike) Piazza contract, something distracting," says first baseman Eric Karros. "This spring, it's just been baseball."
New right fielder Shawn Green has a lot to do with that. Green is a baseball player, very professional and non-controversial. He's an upgrade on the player he replaced, Raul Mondesi, who was always capable of doing or saying something wrong. Plus, Green is simply a better player than Mondesi. Last year, Green hit 56 points higher than Mondesi, who hit lower than Rey Ordonez.
|  | | Having Shawn Green in their lineup should do wonders for the Dodgers' offense this year. |
Green drove in 123 runs -- Mondesi and Marquis Grissom are the only outfielders who have batted at least 500 times in each the last five years without a 100-RBI season. Mondesi is an MVP talent if he uses the entire field, but he wanted to hit home runs like Sammy Sosa. Green hits the ball hard to the opposite field. Last season, he led the American League in doubles with 45. The Dodgers were last in the National League in doubles.
"I can't believe we got him for what we gave up," one Dodger said.
The Dodgers will be better because their middle infield defense will be better. Mark Grudzielanek, who was not a particularly good shortstop, has made a smooth transition to second base after working over the winter with Rangers infield coach Bucky Dent.
"He has great feet, he's a great athlete," Dent said of Grudzielanek. "Right away, he was pretty good making the pivot."
With Grudzielanek at second, Alex Cora is believed to be the leader at shortstop (despite a good spring by Kevin Elster). Cora might not hit, but he has the best range of any infielder on the club. Dodgers manager Davey Johnson is big on defense -- he did, after all, grow up in the Oriole system, which prided itself on defense -- and he cringed watching Grudzielanek and Eric Young in the middle last season, especially when ace Kevin Brown was throwing a lot of ground balls.
The Dodgers are better because catcher Todd Hundley is healthy. For the first two months of last season, he had no feeling in his throwing hand.
"You could have melted my fingers with a lighter and I wouldn't have been able to feel it," he said. Hundley started throwing better the last couple of months last season. This spring, he has been the best thrower in camp.
The Dodgers will be better because their bullpen is deeper with Gregg Olson, Terry Adams, Mike Fetters and perhaps Orel Hershiser. Their bench is also deeper with F.P. Santangelo.
Johnson loves a stocked bench and bullpen, neither of which he had last year. But none of this will matter if Chan Ho Park doesn't rebound from a terrible season, and Darren Dreifort doesn't become a well above average starting pitcher. Park mysteriously lost his good curveball and hard, riding fastball last year. And neither has returned this spring.
The Orioles, meanwhile, have major problems with their starting pitching. They were short one man in the rotation before spring training, and then workhorse Scott Erickson needed arm surgery and likely will miss the first month. That puts a lot more pressure on young Jason Johnson, who has had a very rough spring. And he tends to get really down on himself as it is.
That's the bad news. The good news is, the lineup is mostly healthy. Will Clark, Delino DeShields and Cal Ripken seem to be 100 percent after a season of injuries -- DeShields has swung the bat extremely well this spring, and has gotten some time in center field in case Brady Anderson doesn't recover in time from nerve damage in his foot.
The Orioles should score more runs this year, but they scored enough to win more than 78 games last season. They out-scored their opponents by 36 runs. No team in the last 15 years has finished further under .500 with a run differential that big. But, that's what underachieving teams do.
The biggest reason why the Orioles are better is manager Mike Hargrove. He's not a great tactician, and he's not a great handler of pitchers, but he brings a history of winning from Cleveland. He's the fifth manager in history, and first in 20 years, to be fired after playing at least .595 baseball over a six-year period. Clearly, the players respect him, which is more than what they did for Ray Miller. The Oriole camp is far less contentious this spring with Hargrove. And the '99 O's promise to be a far calmer, more enjoyable team to be around.
Same goes for the Dodgers.
ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian writes a weekly column for ESPN.com. | |
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Lineup analysis: AL East
Lineup analysis: NL West
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