Major league baseball players are the best at what they do, but does that status excuse them from using their brains for something other than trying to outguess the opposing hitter or pitcher?
I present Prince Fielder and Francisco Rodriguez, teammates with Milwaukee’s National League Central-leading Brewers as Exhibits A and B to explain what I am talking about.
Fielder and Rodriguez last week felt it was more important to comment on their personal selfish matters than to keep the team’s post-season effort as the primary perspective. The comments of both players were avoidable, but both opted not to avoid them.
With the Brewers scrapping to hold onto their division lead, Fielder, who can be a free agent after the season, said in a television interview that this would be his last year with the Brewers. Rodriguez, whom the Brewers acquired from the New York Mets July 13, complained that he was not getting chances to save games.
In my view, Fielder’s comments were dumber than Rodriguez’s complaint, though both could have benefited from keeping their mouths shut.
In an interview that was scheduled to be shown Sunday as part of TBS’ Major League Baseball package, Fielder, talking about his status with the Brewers, said, “I’m signed for this year, but being real about it, it is probably the last year.”
Fielder’s position comes as no surprise. Although he had avoided making that declaration, no one, including the Brewers, expected that he would sign a new contract with Milwaukee, certainly not with Scott Boras as his agent. Boras generally goes for every last dollar, and he isn’t going to get it from the Brewers.
But having made it through most of the season without talking about his plans, why would Fielder end that silence with two weeks left in the season and his team struggling to hold onto its lead?
I am not suggesting that Fielder should have lied about his plans; the last thing reporters want to hear is a bunch of lies that insult their intelligence. There would have been nothing wrong, however, with Fielder saying, “This is not the time to be talking about my plans after this year. There’s plenty of time to deal with that. At the moment we’re fighting to reach the playoffs, and that’s where my entire focus is.”
No one could complain about that type of response, but Fielder wasn’t quick enough or smart enough to come up with it. Instead he made a comment that invited further exploration.
First reporters went to Fielder to hear for themselves his intentions. Then they went to other players for their reaction to Fielder’s intentions, although they played down the impact of Fielder’s comments, his teammates were nevertheless drawn into his story at an inappropriate time. It was a distraction they didn’t need.
Rodriguez made his distracting comments at practically the same time as Fielder was declaring his free-agency intentions.
The relief pitcher told CBSSports.com that he was not happy with his role with the Brewers, who acquired him July 13 from the Mets, for whom he was the closer. The Brewers told him he would, if not share the closer’s role with John Axford, get a chance to save some games. But that’s not the way it has worked out.
Axford didn’t cooperate, running off 38 successive saves and prompting the rookie manager, Ron Roenicke, to adapt the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“I’m not happy,” Rodriguez told reporters the day after the initial interview. “That’s the bottom line for me. They told me one thing; they haven’t done it, and I stand by what I said.”
The Brewers were unrealistic when they told Rodriguez he would get save opportunities. Adding an acquired closer to an existing closer doesn’t work.
“Don’t tell me something you’re not going to do,” Rodriguez said. “That’s what irritates me most. They told me they were going to do something, and they didn’t. Simple as that. I’m pretty much trying to come in every day, ready to pitch, and get my job done when they needed me.
“But at the same time, I had an expectation like every other player. They told me they were going to do something, and they didn’t. That’s why I’m a little disappointed with the situation.”
The comments were not unreasonable, but they were misdirected. Why didn’t Rodriguez go to the manager and air his gripes with him? Despite his public comments, though, Rodriguez showed that he knew right from wrong.
“The season’s about to end in two weeks, and we need to win eight more games,” Rodriguez said. “So I’ll go as hard as I can the next two series coming up and try to wrap them up now. That’s it. That’s the bottom line now. That’s the most important thing.”
His understanding of the Brewers’ circumstances is why I said Rodriguez’s comments were not as bad as Fielder’s. But Doug Melvin, the Milwaukee general manager, said he didn’t have a problem with either player’s comments.
“I don’t view it as a big deal.” Melvin said in a telephone interview. “I don’t have any reaction except with the players and their focus is on winning.
“It hasn’t affected the rest of our guys. It’s just two guys who felt like making comments. I’d give it a day or so and see how the team reacts. I talked to Ron and have no reason to think anything will come of it.”
First baseman Fielder, who with Ryan Braun powers the team’s offense, “has seemed focused all year and never said anything about it. I don’t worry much about these things unless I think it affects the team.”
Melvin said he understood the position Fielder was in because “everywhere I go, every step I take I’m asked the question: will he be back next year?”
Melvin has been unable to answer that question because he has not entered into negotiations with Boras. “We’ll wait until the season is over,” he said.
But Melvin knows the size of the task of resigning Fielder. He was the Texas general manager in 2000 when the Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez for $250 million.
FROM NO. 1 TO NO. 23
If and when Ian Kennedy gains his 20th win for Arizona – he has won 19 games – he will join a surprisingly long list of pitchers who played for the New York Yankees and later became 20-game winners elsewhere.
That list numbers 22, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Doug Drabek became No. 22 by winning 22 games for Pittsburgh in 1990. Kennedy, a 26-year-old right-hander, doesn’t have enough starts left to win 23, but he can become No. 23.
Kennedy was the Yankees’ No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft and went to Arizona in the 2009 three-team trade that put Curtis Granderson in center field at Yankee Stadium.
As much as teams always need pitching, with the exception of Philadelphia, Brian Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, said the other day he did not regret trading Kennedy.
“I feel very fine with the trade,” said Cashman, who has enjoyed Granderson’s terrific season with the Yankees. But Cashman also said he didn’t regret trading Kennedy instead of the other young pitcher the Yankees had at the time, Phil Hughes.
“The view of Hughes in the industry at the time was exponentially higher than it was of Kennedy,” Cashman said. ”If I had been willing to include Hughes instead of Kennedy I would have gotten much more in the trade.
Nevertheless, Cashman added, he didn’t want to give up Kennedy either and feels the pitcher’s performance this season validates the Yankees’ scouts’ assessment of Kennedy.
Josh Byrnes, who was the Arizona general manager at the time, said he didn’t try to get Hughes “because we thought he’d be harder to get and have a higher price.”
The Diamondbacks, said Byrnes, now an executive with San Diego, thought Kennedy would be “a good solid starter but not a Cy Young candidate,” adding, “We probably didn’t evaluate him as a No. 1,” which he has been this season with a 19-4 record and 2.99 earned run average.
Cashman said he thought Kennedy benefited from the trade, explaining, “He’s a fly ball pitcher and the A.L. East is not as easy for a fly ball pitcher as the N.L. West.”
S.O.S FOR PIRATES (SAME OLD STORY)
At about the time baseball fans of college age were beginning their freshman and sophomore years in Pittsburgh last week, the Pirates were insuring that those poor, deprived students would extend their streak of never having seen a winning Pirates team in their lifetime.
That’s right. In case you missed it, the Pirates suffered their 82nd loss, racking up their major league-record 19th consecutive losing season. And to think they were in first place for a couple of days in July.
The Pirates have had two principal owners, one president, three general managers and five managers who never oversaw a winning season.
WHEN HISTORY ISN’T HISTORIC
Probably because it has had the most opportunities with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, the Yankees’ YES network is the biggest offender of baseball historical proportions.
As far as YES announcers are concerned, Jeter and Rivera have spent the season making history when that is not at all what they have done.
When Jeter got his 3,000th hit, YES announcers said he made history. When Rivera gained his 601st save, they said he made history. Neither, however, made history.
The first hitter to get 3,000 hits might have made history, though if he did he had already made history when he reached 2,999 because he was the first to get there.
Trevor Hoffman retired with 601 saves, and Rivera has tied him and maybe surpassed him by the time you read this. Being the first to 602 saves may be historic, but Rivera’s attaining 601 was not. Someone had already done it.
On the Yankees telecast from Toronto Saturday, Michael Kay declared, “Rivera will try to make history” by getting his 601st save. And when he recorded it: “Mariano with 601 saves, history here in Toronto.”
If there was anything historic about Jeter’s 3,000th hit, it was that he was the first player to get all 3,000 hits with the Yankees. But I never heard the YES announcers refer to their brand of “history” in that context.