The Week as Microcosm

Michael Cox

The Yankees blow. McGwire is on pace to hit 108 HR. The Mariners are done. Griffey is on pace to knock 81. The Cubs are looking like the team to beat. So are the Brewers. Dante Bichette is justifying his new pot-bellied look. And break up those Devil Rays!

Such is the hyperbole, running amok like Megalon in the media after baseball's first week of for-keeps play. However, being a clever, intelligent strikethree.com reader you probably guessed I was being facetious round about the time I mentioned the Cubs. To be fair, there's a fair amount of chuckling on ESPN and the Sports Machine when they say this stuff too, but some people are already worried/thrilled/confused:

• Cub fans, thrilled because they could put worries of an 0-10 start behind them on Opening Day;
• Yankee fans, worried because they have already seen their closer go down to (groin!) injury, and because they know how itchy Da Boss' trigger finger is;
• Mariner fans, worried because not only is the bullpen looking as bad as they had feared, but because Randy Johnson hasn't even been turning over substantial leads to them;
• Oriole fans, happy because maybe hiring Joe Carter and Doug Drabek was genius;
• Brewer and Devil Ray fans, grateful that their teams don't suck yet;
• Bichette fans, torn because he's hitting great but has lost his looks;
• White Sox fans, whose feelings are unknown because they're apparently doing something else with their time these days.

You and I both know that most of this stuff won't stand. Griffey and McGwire, while great, are no supermen, and Randy Johnson has been pitching well, but is just a bit wild and will gain focus as he gets deeper in the season. The Cubs will soon begin losing more than they win, the O's won't stay on top, Bichette will lose weight and batting average, and the Brewers and Devil Rays will commence to sucking soon enough. The Yankee and White Sox fans are anyone's guess, however.

There are, however, a few trends one could pick up on, even this early. First and foremost is that the M's pen could just remain this bad. The Indians added insult to injury during their two-game sweep in Seattle by having Mike Jackson, whose phone calls the M's wouldn't return two years ago, shut 'em down in both games. Mike Timlin and Bobby Ayala seem to have picked up where they left off last year, and the rest of the bullpen staff haven't been any help. At the least, the Mariner bullpen will be a millstone around an otherwise World Series-class team and the recipient of much swearing by Seattle fans, who only learned about the swearing thing last year.

It's gonna be a loooong year in Phoenix, where their team just doesn't have enough good players to win games. The punch line is that Jerry Colangelo spent good money trying to win at least a modicum of games, but there's just too much of a gulf between the ermine-lined footlockers of Bell and Williams and the cardboard shoeboxes of Batista and Fabregas and Brede, etc. etc. Plus, if there's one new ballpark folks'll tire of quickly, it's BOB (heck, I'm already tired of the name).

Without a strong rotation, the Yankees are going to be suffering in the dog days as well. Irabu is still a question mark in the American major leagues and his attitude won't help. Cone is nearing the end of his career. And a smart bettor wouldn't be counting on Orlando Hernandez to right the listing ship, no matter what his nickname is. Rivera's injury means no reliable closer, and Tino Martinez' likelihood of posting duplicates of last season's astronomical figures is close to that of my finding $100 on the ground - it could happen, but...

And the poor Expos may just play (or fail to play, as the case may be) themselves out of Montreal. Where they'll go, however, is another thing entirely. Who knows what's going to happen in Chicago, where the Sox are starting off the year with neither fans nor a plan (don't worry about them going anywhere, though - nobody else wants Reinsdorf, either).

So you fans across town in Wrigleyville, enjoy the view from the top while it lasts. The team may be treading air like Wile E. Coyote, but I swear he once almost made it to the other side...

Michael Cox just saw the future, and it is Glenallen Hill misplaying an easily catchable line drive. Sympathize at mc@strikethree.com.