Battle of the Ages Revisited

Dave Paisley

Way back in February, in the aftermath of the Stupor Bowl, I took a look at two different all-star teams - one made up of the over the hill gang, (age 35 and up), the other of the young whippersnappers (age 25 and under.)

Based on 1998 stats, the over the hill gang slightly outplayed the younger team, but not by much. I surmised back then that the decline of the older team and the maturing of the younger one would end up tipping the scales in favor of youth.

Offensively, the oldsters managed a .891 OPS, while the staring pitching turned in a 3.37 ERA and the bullpen a 3.88. Contrast that with the youngsters, who managed .882, 3.99 and 2.88 respectively.

Today I'll recap the performance of the aging veterans and check in on the youngsters next time.

Starting with the position players, it's a shame that there's a dearth of older catchers. Not surprising, really, as it's a fairly punishing position, and the best I could come up with was part-timer Jim Leyritz. In limited work, Leyritz still turned in decent offense.

The rest of the infield was, however, of excellent caliber, starting with Mark McGwire, who turned in another fabulous year, and Tony Fernandez, who exceeded my expectations altogether. Of course, Fernandez played third rather than second, but I'm not going to let that bother me here.

Player	Position	Career OPS	98 OPS	99 OPS
Leyritz	C	.790	.851	.786
McGwire	1B	.967	1.222	1.121
Fernandez	2B	.738	.810	.876
Caminiti	3B	.787	.862	.862
Larkin	SS	.832	.901	.810
Henderson	LF	.830	.723	.889
White, D.	CF	.735	.791	.744
Gwynn	RF	.847	.865	.858
Martinez, E.	DH	.944	.994	1.001
Average		.830	.891	.883

The only vague question mark in the infield was Ken Caminiti, who, as usual, was unable to stay fully healthy over the entire season. When he was available, though, he was very good. Rounding out the infield we have Barry Larkin, whose only fault is that he isn't Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez. Not bad for a geezer, though.

Continuing into the outfield, we have Rickey Henderson, who played more and better than anyone had any reason to expect. Center was a tough spot to fill, but Devon White is just about adequate. In right, I was torn between Tony Gwynn and Paul O'Neill, but Gwynn turned out to be the marginally better choice for '99, with higher production but less playing time. Filling out the hitting is Edgar Martinez at DH, who turned in another excellent year, bolstered by a late run at the batting title.

Overall, the older offensive guys did a great job of waving the flag for maturity this year, almost matching last year's performance. And let's face it, last year was going to be tough to repeat for some of these guys.

Turning to the pitching, the story isn't quite so rosy. I was banking on Roger Clemens, just like the Yankees, and was let down. Not that it wouldn't work out well anyway, of course. While the Rocket's performance was off, Randy Johnson was awesome. Contrasting him with Clemens made me wonder when he'll get a cool nickname. Any takers for a competition to find one for him?

Starters	Career ERA	98 ERA	99 ERA
Clemens	2.95	2.65	4.60
Johnson	3.36	3.28	2.48
Cone	3.17	3.55	3.44
Fassero	3.40	3.97	7.20
Finley	3.66	3.39	4.43
Average	3.31	3.37	4.18

David Cone was another fine choice who helps this team, despite a few injury worries. Jeff Fassero, on the other hand, is a complete mystery. How do you turn in a 7.20 ERA in 150-plus innings? It defies description. Rounding out the rotation, Chuck Finley's numbers don't look great, but he finished the season with two fabulous months, going 7-1 with an ERA around 2.00. Fueled by the disappointing seasons by Clemens and Fassero, this group's performance was significantly worse than last year.

Bullpen	Career ERA	98 ERA	99 ERA
Franco (repl. Myers)	2.64	3.62	2.88
Assenmacher	3.35	3.26	8.18
Cook	3.80	2.38	3.86
Langston (repl. Fossas)	3.94	5.86	5.25
Mulholland	4.20	2.89	4.39
Average	3.69	3.88	4.62

In the pen, I had to replace the missing-in-action Randy Myers, and chose John Franco. I could have gone with Rick Aguilera, too. Tony Fossas also never made it this season, so I replaced him with another dubious lefty -- Mark Langston, who, together with Paul Assenmacher didn't exactly help Cleveland much this year. Not that they needed it, mind you (well, not until the playoffs at least).

Dennis Cook and Terry Mulholland were adequate to round out the pen. Overall, a disappointing bunch relative to last year's performance, even more so than the starters, entirely expected in a bunch of aging relievers.

Next week I'll take a look at how the youngsters did and see how they compare to these fogeys.

about the author

Dave Paisley is a doctor, Jim, not a major-league umpire. Laud him for this tribute to the late DeForest Kelley at drdjp@strikethree.com.