MLB Fastball 08.10.07: MLB Bottom-Feeders
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 08.10.2007
Some teams seemed destined for greatness even before each season starts. Others seemed destined for failure. Three teams most commonly fall into that latter category. And in this week’s edition of MLB Fastball, I examine those clubs, most specifically the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Kansas City Royals.
Finally, Barry Bonds has put an end to all the drama and slammed home his record-breaking 756th home run. Now, like it or not, Bonds is the all-time home run king in Major League Baseball, placing Hank Aaron at No. 2 with his lowly mark of 755 hits out of the park. And now, we're left to wait and see how many more home runs Bonds can pad to his record so we'll have the figure that Álex Rodríguez needs to break within the next seven or so years.
Speaking of A-Rod, he is finally a member of the 500-home run club – and the youngest one at that. Besting Jimmie Foxx' mark of being 32 years and 338 days old, Rodríguez' blast against Kyle Davies of the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 4 made him the youngest player to hit 500 homers at the age of 32 years and eight days. That is well ahead of Foxx' pace and Rodríguez is definitely in line to shatter Bonds' home run record barring health issues. In fact, Rodríguez could very well be in line to be the first player in MLB history to hit 800 home runs – a mark that I doubt is in the cards for Bonds at this point.
For more on the broken records that have recently occurred, as well as Tom Glavine's entrance into the 300-win club, be sure to check out Ken Schmidt's Aug. 7th edition of Chutes and Ladders.
The Bottom-Feeders In MLB
Will These Teams Ever Compete?
Carl Crawford stars on a team that has never won more than 70 games in a season.
Somebody has to lose. That's just the way it is in sports. In every campaign, there has to be a winner and a loser – or in sports a group of winners and bigger group of losers.
Normally, there will be patterns associated with who is good and who is bad in a season. Some teams will just hit a rut, need some time to rebuild and will once again be in competition within a few seasons. Other teams will more than likely be consistently bad or mediocre, and can hit a really good season that shocks the hell out of everybody. Enter the Milwaukee Brewers.
But there are also those teams that will continually stink up the joint. For these teams, every season is the same story. The highest expectations will never rise above last place. And for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Kansas City Royals and even the Pittsburgh Pirates, that lack of progress has to be completely demoralizing for everybody associated with those organizations. That is those outside of the front office, however, who mostly choose to do either nothing or the wrong thing about it.
Now, I do think the Pirates are owed some respect since I think they try very hard to try and compete in a mediocre National League Central Division. The team just tries to do so with too little. But I think they have made some key strides to at least show they are trying to get in the thick of things. Just this past winter, they managed to make a move with the intention of adding some power to their lineup in the form of first baseman Adam LaRoche. It did cost Pittsburgh their closer in Mike González. But a team like the Pirates need to give up a little to get somebody like LaRoche. And considering they were deeper in pitching, it wasn't an outlandish deal on Pittsburgh end by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, LaRoche has not exactly turned their fortunes around so much with his 15 home runs and .248 batting average. Naturally, the fact that Pittsburgh is in last place in the NL Central by 13 games is not completely LaRoche's fault, as he's not the only Pirate under-producing. But he sure as hell isn't leading the charge either.
But again, I digress. Pittsburgh has shown a bit more of a willingness to make some team-altering moves in order to take a crack at being competitive. The Pirates should be commended for that, even if all of its efforts fail miserably at the end.
The Devil Rays and Royals, on the other hand, seem a lot more unwilling to make moves that will alter their organization for the better – even if some risk is involved. And because of this, Tampa Bay and Kansas City both seem content to sit on the sidelines while the other teams in their divisions fight for all the glory.
I will be fair to Tampa Bay and Kansas City by saying that they do play in rather tough divisions – the American League East and American League Central, respectively. The Devil Rays must play against teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, while the Royals have to compete against the likes of the Detroit Tigers (who used to be one of the failures in baseball), Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox.
But I don't think playing in a division with very competitive ball clubs should be any reason that these two squads literally give up and don't even make an attempt at winning. And anybody that says money plays an issue needs to take one look at the Oakland Athletics and then formulate a different theory outside of the one that's a decree to Major League Baseball to start up a salary cap. That, I will still contend, is not a solution to anything that people might deem as a problem.
This will be Tampa Bays' 10th year of existence in the league, and it will also be the team's ninth year finishing in last place in the division if things continue to play out like they have been thus far this season. The team must be wondering why it can't be more like the Arizona Diamondbacks, who managed to win the World Series after being in the league for only four years.
Right now, Tampa Bay is 25 games out in the AL East behind the Red Sox and it is also 20 games back in the AL Wild Card race, which currently happens to have the Seattle Mariners leading the charge.
Now, the Devil Rays do have some decent players. Carl Crawford, who has been with the team during his entire six-year career after being selected by it in the second round of the 1999 draft, is the star of the organization. He is a contact hitter with mild power and blistering speed around the base paths. He's everybody's favorite fantasy pick when it comes to grabbing an outfielder with stolen bases in mind. But he's been part of a loser thus far his entire tenure in the Major Leagues. Delmon Young, Johnny Gomes, B.J. Upton and Rocco Baldelli (who seems to be more fragile than tissue paper) all make up a decent looking Devil Rays' roster, a roster that looked even more appealing before Ty Wigginton was traded to the Houston Astros prior to this season's trade deadline. And their offensive output has proven that they do have the bats to hang with other teams around the league.
But their pitching is an absolute disaster. And when you look at the starting rotation behind Scott Kazmir – James Shields, Edwin Jackson, Andy Sonnanstine and now Jason Hammel – it's not really difficult to understand why. This rotation consists of four absolute no-names and an ace that hasn't had any examples ahead of him to teach him how to literally carry a team on his back. In his own right, Kazmir is not having his greatest season yet. But with that said, he has still been Tampa Bay's best pitcher. The Devil Rays have really needed to address their starting rotation for several seasons, and it seems like it just continually gets ignored by the front office. It seems like the Devil Rays would rather toss out a losing gamble every season on literal nobodies than invest some cash into good starting pitchers.
The bullpen in Tampa Bay is something else that always seems to mystify me. That's mostly because it seems like every time the team finds a reliable bullpen arm, it trades him away. That didn't happen this season and the Devil Rays did even bring in a solid late-inning option in the form of Dan Wheeler in the Wigginton deal with Houston. But nobody in that bullpen has an ERA under three, except for Josh Wilson, who has played a grand total of one inning of baseball. Al Reyes, who has actually been a good surprise for the Devil Rays this year, boasts an ERA of 4.39 and 17 saves.
In total, the Devils Rays are dead last in the league in ERA with a mark of 5.89. It's nothing to write home about really.
If Tampa Bay needs to focus on anything this offseason, it would have to be bringing in some top-end starting pitchers for its rotation, as well as some good relief pitchers. The bats are in place, now the mound work needs some lift. If the Devil Rays do that, then it's not completely out of the picture for the team to be on par with at least the Toronto Blue Jays, which basically means competition for the AL Wild Card spot. For Devil Rays fans, that might just be like winning the World Series.
In Kansas City, it seems like ages ago that the team actually won the World Series. That is actually pretty sad, though, considering they won the grand prize the same year I was born – 1985. So, thank you very much Kansas City for making me feel old!
The last time the Royals made the playoffs at all was also 1985, which will make this year's playoff-less season No. 22 in a row for the good ‘ol Boys in Blue.
But lets be honest, with an ace like Gil Meche, who was destined to come down to Earth eventually this season and realize he's not actually an $11-million a year starting pitcher, and a top batter in the form of Mark Teahan, is anybody really that surprised that the Royals are in last place in the AL Central?
Hell, I'm surprised that they've even won 50 games so far this season. That alone might just be reason to celebrate.
The Royals are basically absent as far as power hitting is concerned, sitting in 29th place in the entire league with 74 total team home runs – only one more than the Washington Nationals. They're pitching staff also gives up a lot of hits and boasts a collective ERA of 4.62, which places them 21st in that department in the entire league. On an all-around basis, the Royals really need improvement.
Way to state the obvious, I know.
And I think with Kansas City, though still a very hesitant club to spend cash (which is reasonable considering their attendance figures), I don't think they're completely against signing some checks for players they feel will make an impact. I mean, a $55-million a year commitment to Meche says a lot. It's just that the team either isn't attracting or isn't going after the right players.
Again, the Athletics are the model team that proves you don't necessarily need to attract the brightest and most highly paid stars in the game to be successful. But you also can't make your big investment of the offseason a No. 3 or 4 in any other starting rotation that you now plan to turn into your ace.
The Royals need a little bit of everything. They need some power to their lineup and some reliability from true top-end starting rotation talent. A little bit of help in the bullpen couldn't hurt either, though it's not the team's biggest issue and is something almost every club in the league needs to take a gander at sprucing up anyway.
So, the answer to my sub-head for this column is actually fairly simple. If these teams are willing to invest in the right talent in areas of severe need (like starting pitching in Tampa Bay and power hitting in Kansas City) instead of throwing something at the wall and hoping it sticks (even though chances are it won't), then there is a chance for both the Devil Rays and Royals even in two highly-competitive divisions. I know that really does sound fairly simplistic and not so easy to achieve, but teams should be able to put on a good showing even if they don't necessarily go after the huge names on the market every year. They can't be afraid to maybe spend a little money and go after even mid-tier talent that isn't on the level of superstar, but can contribute immensely to a team regardless. Four nobodies behind Kazmir in Tampa Bay's rotation and a lineup led by Teahan in Kansas City is simply not enough.
If these teams invest a little, there's no reason they cannot work their way out of being bottom-feeders, something the Royals have been for the past four years and the Devil Rays have been since entering the league.
Send all comments, questions, and suggestions to br7qbsteelers@yahoo.com.
