Q&A Session

Jason Michael Barker

It's been quite a long time since I dipped into the old mailbag, and this new fangled electronic mail has been piling up faster than age discrepancies among Latin American baseball players. Sorry; that joke is soooo three weeks ago.

How about those emails? And speaking of those age discrepancies...

I think that MLB needs to make an effort to have correct info before letting these guys come in to the league. Is it really fair to the kids in the US? US kids have to produce legitimate birth certificates in order the play the game. Who wouldn't like to say they're 19 or 20 and have experience of actual age 23-24? It also conveys a message that lying is an OK thing to do since no action is being taken by the league. I have a problem with the fact that these guys can get signed at 16 years of age and the US guys have to wait.

Concerned

"Concerned," who didn't leave any other name, brings up a couple of interesting issues in this email.

First, of course kids in the US would like to lie about their ages. Of course, given that the majority of them get to eat three meals a day, train on superior fields and go to higher quality schools five days a week, I wouldn't really say they're at any great disadvantage.

That's a bit harsh, perhaps, but as long as the market for baseball players continues to mimic a meat market, there's going to be a great incentive for players (and the agents who represent them) to lie about their ages.

Second, I have to believe that in many cases, the teams knew their players weren't the ages they claimed to be. The Mariners, for example, have a reliever in their farm system named Aquilino Lopez who put up great numbers at AA last season after skipping high-A ball. If he really is 20, as the roster claims, then he's one heck of a prospect. You don't hear much about him, though, because it's generally understood that he's not 20.

Finally, I think you'd be hard pressed to justify punishing players this late in the game. The teams have already been punished in a sense, since their players are older and inherently less valuable. That said, I'm all for more stringent age checking going forward.

The number 1 catcher of the future for the Jay's will not be [Jason] Werth or [Josh] Phelps but rather Kevin Cash.

Mike

I'm guessing Mike wrote to respond to my AL Rookies to Watch column from a few weeks ago, in which I talked about both Phelps and Werth in reference to Toronto's catching situation in the future. Specifically, I mentioned that Phelps might move to another position to accommodate Werth, a pretty good hitter with a much better glove. I have to admit I hadn't heard of Cash before Mike's email.

Cash had a nice year at high-A Dunedin in 2001, hitting .283/.369/.453 with 43 walks in 371 at-bats. He also threw out 56% of opposing runners trying to steal, after a 55% mark in 2000. Primarily a third baseman in college, he is otherwise raw defensively and made 12 errors in 80 games behind the dish, though it appears his arm is very strong.

The biggest thing working against Cash right now is his age-having been drafted out of college he wasn't particularly young to begin with, and at 23 last season he was a bit old for the Florida State League. Werth, on the other hand, is a year and a half younger than Cash but played one level higher in the minors.

This isn't to say he doesn't have a shot at a career, but at this point there's no question in my mind that he's the third best catching prospect in the Blue Jays organization. But again, that's no knock on him because Werth and Phelps are very good prospects.

So... any good reason you didn't include Texas 3B Hank Blalock in your AL Rookies to Watch? The guy is a stud!

Jim in Arlington

I've got two reasons, actually, though I'm not sure they'd qualify as "good." First, when I was writing he hadn't yet been named the starter, and I was under the impression he was going to start the year in the minors. More than that, though, he just kind of slipped my mind.

In case you've been living under a rock, Blalock is considered by many to be the best hitting prospect in the game today. He began last season in the Florida State League, where he hit a blistering .380/.437/.557 in 237 at-bats. Upon being promoted to AA, he was so intimidated by the competition that he hit for the cycle twice in his first three games and finished with a .327/.413/.554 line. He then hit .344/.431/.713 with 11 homers in 122 Arizona Fall League at-bats, and he's hitting .361 this spring.

In other words, the guy can hit. At this point I'd have to make him my pre-season for American League Rookie of the Year honors, just ahead of Oakland's Carlos Pena-Blalock plays in a much better park for hitters and is under less pressure to perform than Jason Giambi's replacement.

You didn't seem to give the Red Sox much chance of winning the AL East in your preview. What gives?

Ryan
Cambridge, Mass.

The Red Sox do have a chance to win the division, but in order to do so they're going to need a number of things: 30 starts from the Pedro Martinez of old, healthy seasons from Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Veritek, better production at second and third, and one of Derek Lowe, John Burkett or Dustin Hermanson to step up as a solid second starter.

They'll also need some combination of bad things happening to the Yankees: Jason Giambi's hamstring acting up, age catching up with Roger Clemens, and/or David Wells blowing up (and not in the good way). That, and the hope that perhaps the Yankees have finally run out of karma, or mystique, or whatever it is they were just short of last season since having a seemingly endless supply since 1996.

about the author

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