[新聞] Empire taking over MLB again
Empire taking over MLB again
Dave Solomon
08/31/2007
-NEW YORK — Put the giddiness of the New York Yankees’ sweep on hold
for a moment because what we’re watching is far more significant than
three games in a division race that is still weighted heavily toward the
Boston Red Sox.
We’re seeing, largely in the last month, but also over the last 2½
years, the metamorphosis of the Yankees — on the fly — into the best
team in baseball again.
The aging hired guns are generally being phased out in a meticulously
scripted plan by general manager Brian Cashman, while the much maligned
farm system seems to keep producing exceptional young players and/or
prospects like Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano, Thursday’s brilliant
starter and winner Chien-Ming Wang, and the three rookie pitchers with
can’t miss credentials.
"I don’t think anyone’s (maligning the farm system) any more," said
Cashman after the Yankees beat Boston 5-0 Thursday to complete the
sweep.
The Yankees aren’t just the best team in baseball right now — with the
possible exception of the L.A. Angels — they’re built to be even
better in 2008, ’09, ’10 and beyond. The Joba Rules, Joe Torre
allowed, are being liberalized just a bit, and Saturday 22-year-old Ian
Kennedy tries to put his imprint on the season in place of the deposed
Mike Mussina.
Taking the liberty to project Kennedy as the real deal, 80 percent of
next year’s starting Yankee staff will be 28 years or younger and
average 23.25 years of age. Wang already is a proven
front-end-of-the-rotation pitcher and every expectation is that Philip
Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Kennedy will be as well.
"The game has changed tremendously since I played," said Torre. "These
kids come up here now thinking ‘it’s my turn.’ And not in a bad way.
We got Hughes out there getting angry with himself when he doesn’t get
a guy out. You can sense it. Joba and Hughes are very different than
anybody we’ve had in my time here. And Wang, when he came up here, he
had a calm about him that certainly has paid off."
Judging by the two 100-mile per hour fastballs that sailed over the head
of Boston’s Kevin Youkilis in the ninth, the young arms of the staff
don’t lack in the department of fearless, either. Both Torre and
Chamberlain said there was no way that boy wonder was throwing at
Youkilis to send a message — and logic seemed to dictate that was
probably the case. But it speaks to Chamberlain’s mindset, too. He’s
not afraid to dust a player back with a blazing fastball. Hughes is
wired the same way.
The left side of the infield, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are both in
their prime, Jorge Posada, having his best season (.330), has plenty
left and Robinson Cano is a young star at second base who contributed
with two opposite field home runs in support of Wang (six innings of
no-hit ball) Thursday. A major part of the metamorphosis includes the
mid-season decision to put Cabrera in center field every day — and
probably for the next half dozen years as well.
"We’ve brought up a lot of young guys and they’ve performed," said
Jeter. "They’ve done a good job building the farm system back up. When
we first came up ... I’m talking about myself, Jorge, Mo, Pettitte ...
right before that they were known for trading guys. They let us all come
up and now it seems they’ve gotten back to that."
Aside from the ejection of Chamberlain for twice throwing over the head
of Youkilis, the most revealing news of the day came when Torre sent the
21-year-old Chamberlain out to the mound for a second inning of work
after one day’s rest. He’s been treated with kid gloves to this point,
and though he still will not be used on consecutive days, Torre allowed
for some wiggle room in the basic plan.
"We’re still going by the same set of rules, but every once in a while
we’re going to be taking some liberties," said Torre.
Asked when he would be able to use Chamberlain again — given that the
Joba Rules called for two days off after two innings pitched — Torre
said, "That’s a good question. We never had in the rules anything about
ejections."
The Red Sox still have the pitching to hold onto first place, though
with the type of lineup they trotted out Thursday — five of the
starters had averages of .265 or lower, plus Manny Ramirez is out
indefinitely with a strained left oblique muscle — they are still
vulnerable to a bad patch.
But whether or not the Red Sox hang on to first is not the issue. The
issue is who is the better team right now? The Yankees are the answer,
especially with the infusion of the three immensely talented kid
pitchers.
They essentially have Clay Buchholz in triplicate, and they’ve managed
to infuse them on the fly, getting better and younger as a team.
"My job is to do two things," said Cashman. "Try to make us win now and
try to ensure we win in the future. We’re seeing the fruits of that
labor, no doubt."
The sweep of Boston is a bragging rights thing, more cosmetic than
substantive. But the composition of the Yankees, today, is what should
ensure the Evil Empire’s dominance well into the future.
Dave Solomon, the Register sports columnist, can be reached at
solomon@nhregister.com.
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18769345&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=530459&rfi=6
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