Baseball Questions After Week 1.

You know what I love about baseball’s offseason? The domino effect of movement. The Braves lose star shortstop Rafael Furcal to the Dodgers, and in a move to replace him, trade their star third base prospect to the Red Sox for SS Edgar Renteria. On the surface, this looks fine, because the Braves have third base filled with allstar Chipper Jones, but Chipper has been injury prone the past few years, and even when healthy, isn’t a particularly good third baseman. Had they kept Furcal, then next year they could have installed Marte at third and moved Jones to first, where Adam La Roche is not the hitter that either Jones or Marte is/will be. The Braves then would have been stronger at three integral positions. Of course Furcal is costing the Dodgers 13 million, while Renteria is only costing the Braves five (the Sox are paying the rest), so there is always a monetary consideration. However, given that Jones hurt his ankle in last nights loss, one has to wonder whether this is one domino effect the Braves will wish they had stabilized. Either way, it’s certainly a story line worth following. Here, after the first week of baseball, are 10 other story lines worth following this season, none of which involve the Baseball’s evil monkey in the closet…

1) Will Boston Regret Letting Damon Walk?

The counter side of the Atlanta domino effect is what the Sox did with Marte. After trading last year’s free agent disappointment (Renteria) for a third baseman of the future, the Sox let Johnny Damon take the Yankees money and suddenly had to use Marte in a trade for a centerfielder. Crisp may be just the player Damon is (and by the contracts end, he’ll be better), but if 3B Mike Lowell’s tank is empty, and it looked so this spring, then the Sox may regret not spending the extra money on Damon and keeping Marte.

2) Will New York Regret Signing Damon?

This might not be a story line for this year, but two years from now. Still it bears watching now. The reason that NY signed Damon was to replace a once great centerfielder whose range and arm died with age. Well, Damon already has a weak arm and at () he’s no spring chicken. Considering that the Yankees don’t need Damon as a leadoff hitter (shortstop Derek Jeter has better leadoff numbers), he really only earns his money if he improves their defense. In the short term he will, but for how long?

3) Which perennial basement dweller will make a Milwaukee like move .500?

Last year the Brewers took a forward step, and while they were far from winning a pennant, Brewer fans had to be happy to see .500 for the first time in13 years. This year some moron pundits even picked them to claim their first playoff spot since 1982, so if they are continuing on the up and up, then who among their former bottom dwellers will make a move towards respectability? Tampa has the young hitters, but it’s unclear whether their new management team has a plan; the Royals are just plain clueless; Colorado still hasn’t found any pitchers to consistently force outs in the mountains; nor has Cincinnati realized that fly ball pitchers don’t work in a park where the ball carries. So the best two bets are the Pirates who were once managed by Jim Leyland, and Jim Leyland’s current team, the Tigers. The Pirates have slowly been adding pieces to their young pitchers and the addition of the underrated Jim Tracy in the dugout will help them, but this year watch the Tigers. The A.L. is hard, and besides Kansas City, there aren’t any easy conquests in the Central, but Jim Leyland seems refreshed after his years away from managing, the Tigers have great young power arms, and a solid lineup top to bottom. Expect them to hang around the fringes of the Wild Card Race well into September and finish between 80-84 wins.

4) How will the Mazzone effect play out?

For fourteen years, the Atlanta Braves have won division titles and in only one of those seasons has their offense finished amongst the NL’s top three. Their titles have been built on the importance of defense, timely hitting, and (especially) precision pitching. Seemingly behind that has been Leo Mazzone, the only star pitching coach in baseball. So good have the Braves been over the years, that Mazzone has become the only coach to be routinely mentioned as a Hall of Fame candidate. Yet, questions remained, because Mazzone’s success could never fairly be separated from Mazzone’s bench boss, Bobby Cox. That is, until this year. Mazzone left Atlanta, to join the staff of his childhood friend, Sam Perlozzo, in Baltimore. What does this mean for the two squads? Can Mazzone work his magic with Baltimore’s young hurlers? Can he improve a squad which last year finished 10th in pitching, or was his success the result of a particular blend of circumstances? And what about Cox and the Braves? This year their pitchers have been hemorrhaging runs, but is that the loss of Mazzone, or just the reality that their staff lacks the arms it once had? This year will go a long way towards answering all those questions.

5) Why Did Billy Beane Give Esteban Loaiza 21 million For Three Years?

I understand that Oakland increased Beane’s budget and that the man is far, far smarter than I, but for the life of me I cannot fathom why after all his savvy moves he tossed money at Loaiza. Beane doesn’t look at things like wins, and he’s less concerned with ERA than you or I, but Loaiza seems a stretch, even for Beane. Pitching is expensive, but given Beane’s prowess at mining young pitchers, why would he allocate over 7 million to a 34 year old pitcher who has only two 200 inning seasons, a WHIP of 1.42, a K/BB rate of 2.30, and an OBA of .337?

6) Will the Mets (gasp) regret trading Kris Benson?

Forget for a second his playmate wife and forget any success he might have under Mazzone in Baltimore this season, because this question really boils down to whether the Mets will regret not getting 200 solid, but unspectacular, innings from Benson. The Mets are legitimate contenders to win the NL East, and are perhaps the best team in the entire NL, but their weakness is in a pitching staff where the top three starters average 36 years old. Their fourth starter is Victor Zambrano, and their fifth had ZERO career innings pitched . An injury to Pedro or Glavine could quickly quell the high expectations of the Mets.

7) Will the Angels realize that this is a rebuilding year for them?

Much like the A’s last year --- where they stayed competitive, but let their kids play --- the Angels have a chance to retool on the fly. It may involve sacrificing 5 wins this year (and thus the division), but the sooner that they devote innings to Howie Kendrick, Kendry Morales, Casey Kotchman, the better they’ll be in the long term. Particularly if those innings (or more importantly, at bats) come at the expense of Garrett Anderson, Darrin Erstad, and Juan Rivera; each of whose tanks are running on fumes and costing the Angels victories.

8) Will the Devil Rays forget about the devil in their name and focus on winning some games?

The Rays, who are determining whether to drop the insidious Devil from their name, should instead be determining whether they plan on ever winning more games than they lose and if so, they should start by moving super prospect B.J. Upton to centerfield and then trading some of their excessive outfielders (Rocco Baldelli, Joey Gathright, and Aubrey Huff) for someone who can throw the ball across the plate. They don’t even need too strong of hurlers, because in two years, a potential lineup of Julio Lugo, Carl Crawford, Upton, Delmon Young, Jonny Gomes, and Jorge Cantu is going to RAKE.

9) On that note, will the Jays ever figure out how to beat the Devil Rays?

Ok, if, when they have those guys hitting one through six, and some decent pitchers on the mound, then fine the Jays can lose to them, but until then it is not acceptable. In this decade, the Jays have won only 57 of 108 games against the Devil Rays. By comparison, the Sox over the same period have gone 75 – 32 against Tampa. If the Jays wish to join baseball’s elite, which given the money they spent this summer they do, then they are going to have to take 13 of their 17 remaining games against the Rays.

10) Will fans realize that every time they boo Alex Rodriguez, they are booing a player who by all accounts has injected himself with nothing, but yet is well on his way to becoming one of baseball’s fifteen best players?

It’s strange the way that we take to some players and not to others. I like Jeter, something about the way he plays makes me cheer for him; thus, I’m not an ARod guy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge that ARod is the best baseball player in the American League (determining the best between and Albert Pujols is an argument for another day). For all of the brew-ha over a certain surly outfielder in the Bay Area --- whom I’ve carefully ignored amongst things to focus on --- I find it galling that people goad ARod for something as vague as not being clutch. The guy was the best fielding shortstop in baseball, but immediately put his new team first and moved to third to avoid controversy with Jeter, he consistently hits over .300, with 45 plus homers and 100 plus RBI’s. One day he will win a championship and then everyone will suddenly realize that they’ve scornfully missed watching one of baseball’s treasures. Well save yourself the loss, skip the time, and enjoy ARod now.