| | March 6
Welcome to The Rights (and Wrongs) of Spring, your daily guide to what's going on in and around spring training.
Now, always remember the three key components of spring training:
1. Never, ever get too excited by a great spring performance or a lousy spring performance -- 96.3 percent of the time it means nothing. We always get a chuckle when some unknown player with six years of mediocre minor league play makes the opening day roster because of 50 good at-bats in spring training.
2. Never, ever get too excited by a great spring performance or a lousy spring performance.
3. Never, ever get too excited by a great spring performance or a lousy spring performance.
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Rumor Central
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Last week's New York Post had rumors of a Yankees-Angels swap involving Ricky Ledee and shortstop prospect Alfonso Soriano for Darin Erstad and Jim Edmonds.
The scenario does make some sense. The Angels need a shortstop in the worst way, considering the punchless Gary DiSarcina needed to be replaced yesterday. While Soriano is overhyped as a prospect, he would be a vast improvement over DiSarcina.
Erstad is an enigma after his miserable 1999 campaign, when he was one of the worst-hitting regulars in baseball. With the Yankees searching for a DH, Edmonds and Erstad could share the left field/first base/DH role with Tino Martinez. Edmonds is an impending free agent and it would be interesting to see how his laid-back attitude would fit with the Yankees.
However, if the Yankees do decide to trade Soriano, it would most likely be for a pitching prospect or two, not a position player. With Roger Clemens and David Cone on the wrong side of 35 and El Duque getting four years older by the season, the team will likely need an infusion of young(er) pitchers in the next year or so.
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With that mind, we paid close attention to Mike Hampton's debut last Friday with the Mets. The new ace got smacked around a bit, allowing five runs in two innings against the Cardinals. Remember, it means nothing. Hampton isn't suddenly about to turn into Anthony Young.
However, the outing did remind us of this little office pool we have here at ESPN.com. While we don't condone betting of any sorts, except for maybe the craps tables in Vegas, we did establish an over/under on Hampton's 2000 win total. The line is 17 wins. So far, four of us have taken the over and four the under, although one individual -- apparently not familiar with the above rule -- tried to change his bet to the under. Sorry. Too late.
Anyway, read nothing into Hampton's opening line. He's a good pitcher, although probably not as good as last year and unlikely to receive the terrific run support of last year. Which is why we say he'll end up with 17 wins.
Injury update
ESPN Fantasy Games maintains an in-depth report at the Baseball Injury Room, but here are a few nuggets to digest.
Kerry Wood has decided to junk his big-breaking slurve, and will go strictly with a fastball, curve and changeup this year -- although he has thrown only fastballs so far. Wood's slurve was at times an unhittable pitch, most notably when that pitch was used extensively when he fanned a record-tying 20 Astros on May 6, 1998.
"The curve has less stress on the elbow than the slider and we will build from there," Wood told the Chicago Sun-Times.
However, Wood had some additional comments that were interesting. "... But I don't think the slider is a pitch I can abandon. We will shorten it up and make it less stressful on the elbow, but I can't throw it out the window."
For more on Wood, ESPN's Tim Kurkjian will file a report for ESPN.com on Thursday.
The pretenders to the Yankees' throne are already falling by the wayside. Baltimore's Scott Erickson will miss the first month of the season after undergoing surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. Toronto's Chris Carpenter will have an MRI on Monday on his aching elbow. Carpenter had surgery in September to remove a bone spur and chips.
"It has been bothering me for a week and a half and I didn't know what it was," Carpenter told the Toronto Sun. "I thought it was something normal from having surgery. I figured that it would go away but it didn't."
The Jays are shutting him down for now, but are not expressing concern other than saying it's normal post-operative swelling.
Carpenter isn't the Blue Jays' only concern, however. Joey Hamilton is coming back after last year's shoulder problems and Kelvim Escobar was unable to throw the first two weeks of camp because of shoulder tendinitis.
Position battles
Rookie Mike Lamb is expected to win the Rangers' third-base job after his big season at Double-A last year (.324, 21 home runs, 51 doubles) but look for veteran minor leaguer Tom Evans to give him a battle.
Evans, who hit .280 with 12 home runs and 66 walks at Triple-A, has hit three home runs in the Rangers' first three spring games.
Coming up through the Blue Jays' chain, Evans has been a solid but unspectacular minor league performer. He doesn't have big power but hits for a decent average, draws walks and plays good D. If Texas wants Lamb to get a little seasoning at Triple-A, Evans should hold his own.
Fantasy corner
Sticking with the Rangers, big things are expected of Francisco Cordero, the flame-throwing reliever picked up from the Tigers in the Juan Gonzalez deal. Cordero walked three in his first spring outing and threw 25 pitches in one inning. Last year, he walked 18 batters in 19 innings with Detroit.
In other words, don't bid him too high just yet.
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ALSO SEE
Exhibition roundup: Gonzalez, Sosa hit first spring homers
Dibble's Diary: A Magical visit
ESPN.com's spring training 2000 coverage
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