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| | Wednesday, April 19 New York Yankees | ||||||||||
| By David Schoenfield ESPN.com
Record: 98-64, 3rd overall Payroll: $92.0 million, 1st overall Runs scored: 900, 3rd in AL Runs allowed: 731, 2nd in NL What went right? Derek Jeter hit .349, scored 134 runs and may have been the best player in the American League. David Cone threw a perfect game. Bernie Williams hit .342 and played in a career-high 158 games. Mariano Rivera was once again brilliant out of the bullpen. Oh, and the Yankees went 11-1 in the postseason to win the World Series. What went wrong? Darryl Strawberry got arrested in spring training for soliciting an undercover prostitute. Chuck Knoblauch had trouble throwing the ball to first base. Andy Pettitte's ERA's was higher than 5.50 in four of six months. Tino Martinez's slugging percentage dropped significantly for a second straight season. Roger Clemens pitched well, just not as well as he had the previous two seasons with the Blue Jays. In retrospect, the critical decisions were: 1. Making Orlando Hernandez the No. 1 starter in the playoffs. It wasn't an easy decision for Joe Torre, but he made the right one, as El Duque went 3-0 in four starts, allowing just five runs. 2. Not panicking over Knoblauch's throwing problems. Bad organizations pick at minor issues like this until they fester into a big scab. Torre smartly kept playing Knoblauch, letting him spark the offense from his leadoff spot and not worrying about the occasional errant toss to first base. 3. Conserving Mariano Rivera. Torre doesn't overuse Rivera the first half of the season, which keeps him strong for October. Because of this, Torre isn't afraid to use Rivera for two-inning stints in the postseason. Rivera didn't allow a run after July 21. Looking ahead to 2000 Three key questions 1. Will age catch up to Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez, leaving gaping holes in two key slots in the batting order? 2. Will age catch up to David Cone and Roger Clemens, leaving gaping holes in two key slots in the rotation? 3. If the team is 43-40 at the All-Star break, a few games behind the Red Sox, will The Boss panic and trade away some of the promising prospects? Can expect to play better With regular time in left field, Ricky Ledee will improve upon his raw totals -- nine home runs, 40 RBI. He may even improve his .276 average and .476 slugging percentage. Can expect to play worse Jason Grimsley was an unexpected surprise with a solid year in middle relief, going 7-2 with a 3.60 ERA. His career ERA is 5.12 and he has almost as many walks as strikeouts. His strikeout/walk ratio in '99 was also a poor 49/40.
2B Chuck Knoblauch SS Derek Jeter RF Paul O'Neill CF Bernie Williams 1B Tino Martinez DH Darryl Strawberry/Jim Leyritz C Jorge Posada LF Ricky Ledee 3B Scott Brosius Rotation/Closer Orlando Hernandez Roger Clemens Andy Pettitte David Cone Eddie Yarnall Mariano Rivera
A closer look Year Team W-L ERA Team LERA WAT RERA 1967 N.Y. 16-13 2.76 61-101 3.38 4.7 .817 1968 N.Y. 16-12 2.20 73-89 2.99 3.6 .736 1969 N.Y. *25- 7 2.21 100-62 3.59 7.7 .616 1970 N.Y. 18-12 *2.82 83-79 4.05 3.2 .696 1971 N.Y. 20-10 *1.76 83-79 3.47 5.4 .507 1972 N.Y. 21-12 2.92 83-73 3.45 4.4 .846 1973 N.Y. 19-10 *2.08 82-79 3.66 4.9 .568 1974 N.Y. 11-11 3.20 71-91 3.62 1.4 .884 1975 N.Y. *22- 9 2.38 82-80 3.62 7.2 .657 1976 N.Y. 14-11 2.59 86-76 3.50 0.9 .740 1977 NY-C 21- 6 2.58 3.91 8.0 .660 1978 Cin 16-14 2.88 92-69 3.57 -1.2 .807 1979 Cin 16- 6 3.14 90-71 3.73 4.6 .842 1980 Cin 10- 8 3.64 89-73 3.60 0.1 1.011 1981 Cin *14- 2 2.54 66-42 3.49 5.7 .728 1982 Cin 5-13 5.50 61-101 3.60 -2.6 1.528 1983 N.Y. 9-14 3.55 68-94 3.63 -0.9 .978 1984 Chi 15-11 3.95 74-88 3.99 3.3 .990 1985 Chi 16-11 3.17 85-77 4.15 2.3 .764 1986 Ch-Bs 7-13 4.03 4.18 -3.7 .964 Totals 311-205 2.86 59.0Roger Clemens Year Team W-L ERA Team LERA WAT RERA 1984 Bos 9- 4 4.32 86-76 3.99 2.4 1.083 1985 Bos 7- 5 3.29 81-81 4.15 1.1 .793 1986 Bos *24- 4 *2.48 95-66 4.18 9.7 .593 1987 Bos *20- 9 2.97 78-84 4.46 6.5 .666 1988 Bos 18-12 2.93 89-73 3.97 2.0 .738 1989 Bos 17-11 3.13 83-79 3.88 3.2 .807 1990 Bos 21- 6 *1.93 88-74 3.91 7.5 .494 1991 Bos 18-10 *2.62 84-78 4.09 4.1 .641 1992 Bos 18-11 *2.41 73-89 3.94 5.1 .612 1993 Bos 11-14 4.46 80-82 4.32 -1.6 1.032 1994 Bos 9- 7 2.85 54-61 4.80 1.6 .594 1995 Bos 10- 5 4.18 86-58 4.71 1.5 .887 1996 Bos 10-13 3.63 85-77 4.99 -2.2 .727 1997 Tor *21- 7 *2.05 76-86 4.56 8.1 .450 1998 Tor *20- 6 *2.65 88-74 4.65 7.0 .570 1999 NYY 14-10 4.60 98-64 4.86 -0.5 .947 Totals 247-134 3.04 55.4Greg Maddux Year Team W-L ERA Team LERA WAT RERA 1986 Chi 2- 4 5.52 70-90 3.72 -0.7 1.484 1987 Chi 6-14 5.61 76-85 4.08 -4.0 1.375 1988 Chi 18- 8 3.18 77-85 3.45 5.9 .922 1989 Chi 19-12 2.95 93-69 3.49 1.7 .845 1990 Chi 15-15 3.46 77-85 3.79 0.9 .913 1991 Chi 15-11 3.35 77-83 3.68 2.8 .910 1992 Chi *20-11 2.18 78-84 3.50 5.6 .623 1993 Atl 20-10 *2.36 104-58 4.04 1.3 .584 1994 Atl *16- 6 *1.56 68-46 4.21 4.1 .371 1995 Atl *19- 2 *1.63 90-54 4.18 8.1 .390 1996 Atl 15-11 2.72 96-66 4.21 -0.4 .646 1997 Atl 19- 4 2.20 101-61 4.20 6.6 .524 1998 Atl 18- 9 *2.22 106-56 4.23 0.6 .525 1999 Atl 19- 9 3.57 103-59 4.56 1.9 .783 Totals 221-126 2.81 34.4As you can see, Tom Seaver was a remarkable pitcher. He had only two seasons where his ERA was worse than the league average -- and really, only one bad season. Clemens is just as amazing, with two years that were barely worse than the league ERA. And Maddux has been better than average each season since his rookie campaign. WAT (wins above team) tells an interesting story as well. Seaver was 59 wins better than his teams, a total that ranks fifth all time, behind Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson and Lefty Grove. And Grove was the only one of those who didn't pitch in the dead-ball era. Clemens is close behind Seaver at 55.4 wins, giving him a chance to catch Grove's total of 62.9 (of course, he could drop a bit as well). Maddux is a little behind, but his total is still very impressive. Remember, WAT compares a pitcher's performance to how his team does when he isn't pitching. The Braves have been a great team, and those games when Maddux isn't pitching are being started by guys like John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Kevin Millwood. It's fairly remarkable that Maddux is 22.2 wins above his team since joining the Braves. Seaver and Clemens are, of course, very similar as pitchers, making their comparison interesting. Both are fastball pitchers with big, wide butts and strong legs. Seaver remained a fastball/slider pitcher his entire career. Clemens still relies on a fastball/splitter combo. So, what can we expect of Clemens the rest of his career? Well, Seaver was 22 years old as a rookie in 1967. Clemens is 37, putting him where Seaver was at the start of the 1983 season. Seaver went on to win 47 more games to finish with 311 career victories. At this point, it's possible to see Clemens doing even better. His relative ERAs are much better than Seaver's were at this point in their careers, and he's playing on a better team. While Clemens is unlikely to rebound to his 1997-98 dominance, I believe he has several good years ahead if he stays healthy. 300 wins? I think Clemens will get there. And if he does, and especially if he puts together one more big (20-win) season, I think he'll surpass Seaver as the best pitcher since Lefty Grove -- and perhaps become the greatest of all time .. with Greg Maddux in hot pursuit of the same title. David Schoenfield is the baseball editor for ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Yankees minor-league report ESPN.com's Hot Stove Heaters  | ||||||||||
