DaWolf
06-30-2003, 04:12 PM
Huh? Did I miss something?
What's happened is that the White Sox beat up on the Twins and are back in the race, while the Royals won't go away. Jeremy Affeldt is back, the Royals continue to hit, and while GM Allard Baird tries to see the long view and trade Carlos Beltran, it may not be possiblem -- both because the trades aren't there and because the Kansas City fan base has been so revitalized that to trade Beltran during the season would be a bad message to the fans and the clubhouse.
Meanwhile, the Royals and White Sox are competing with the Expos for Robby Alomar, and a deal could well happen this week. Chicago has a lot of pitching in the organization, and one -- left-hander Neal Cotts, who came over from Oakland in the Billy Koch-Keith Foulke trade -- is so intriguing that when the Yankees and White Sox talked about a Jeff Weaver deal recently, Cotts name was involved.
As for Beltran, "there really isn't anything going on right now," Baird said. The one team that was seriously interested in the last month had been Baltimore, but Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan backed off with the emergence of Luis Matos. Ironically, part of the reason Beltran and Angel Berroa have so improved this season is the same reason Mora and Matos have taken off -- plate discipline.
"That's the whole story with Matos and Mora," said Orioles vice president Mike Flanagan, whose stress on plate discipline has the Orioles raising their on-base percentage 35 points and raising their projected run total by more than 150 runs. Matos came into the season with a career OBP under .280; he went into Sunday at .382. Mora was .334 last year, .466 this season.
Move over to Kansas City. "The work Jeff Pentland has done with all our hitters is a huge part of our success," Baird said. "He's gotten Beltran (.346 OBP in '02, .396 in '03) and Berroa (.301 OBP to .342) to buy into it, and they're taking off faster than we projected." If you remember, it was Pentland who got Sammy Sosa to buy into the notion, and after four seasons in which his OBP was under .325 (crashing at .300 in '96), he began a climb in which his improved command of the strike zone (.367 OBP in '99 to .437 in '01) the next five seasons correlated with his power surge
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=1574418
What's happened is that the White Sox beat up on the Twins and are back in the race, while the Royals won't go away. Jeremy Affeldt is back, the Royals continue to hit, and while GM Allard Baird tries to see the long view and trade Carlos Beltran, it may not be possiblem -- both because the trades aren't there and because the Kansas City fan base has been so revitalized that to trade Beltran during the season would be a bad message to the fans and the clubhouse.
Meanwhile, the Royals and White Sox are competing with the Expos for Robby Alomar, and a deal could well happen this week. Chicago has a lot of pitching in the organization, and one -- left-hander Neal Cotts, who came over from Oakland in the Billy Koch-Keith Foulke trade -- is so intriguing that when the Yankees and White Sox talked about a Jeff Weaver deal recently, Cotts name was involved.
As for Beltran, "there really isn't anything going on right now," Baird said. The one team that was seriously interested in the last month had been Baltimore, but Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan backed off with the emergence of Luis Matos. Ironically, part of the reason Beltran and Angel Berroa have so improved this season is the same reason Mora and Matos have taken off -- plate discipline.
"That's the whole story with Matos and Mora," said Orioles vice president Mike Flanagan, whose stress on plate discipline has the Orioles raising their on-base percentage 35 points and raising their projected run total by more than 150 runs. Matos came into the season with a career OBP under .280; he went into Sunday at .382. Mora was .334 last year, .466 this season.
Move over to Kansas City. "The work Jeff Pentland has done with all our hitters is a huge part of our success," Baird said. "He's gotten Beltran (.346 OBP in '02, .396 in '03) and Berroa (.301 OBP to .342) to buy into it, and they're taking off faster than we projected." If you remember, it was Pentland who got Sammy Sosa to buy into the notion, and after four seasons in which his OBP was under .325 (crashing at .300 in '96), he began a climb in which his improved command of the strike zone (.367 OBP in '99 to .437 in '01) the next five seasons correlated with his power surge
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/gammons/story?id=1574418