BY SCOTT MACGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There was a time this season when the Cleveland Indians might have as good a starting rotation as anybody in the American League.
Youngsters Jaret Wright and All-Star Bartolo Colon were coming into their own, and veterans Charles Nagy, Dave Burba and Doc Gooden were adding solid work and were a big reason the Indians led the A.L. in pitching heading into the All-Star break. But fatigue and injuries are setting in, and the question is whether this staff can hang on for a postseason run.
The Cleveland front office is particularly concerned that Wright and Colon may have been overthrown in the first half of the season.
"I'm tired," said Wright, who has allowed 14 earned runs in a total of six innings in his past two starts. "I don't know what having a dead arm means. I'm just tired."
Since the All-Star break, Wright is 1-2 with a 9.27 ERA (23 earned runs in 21 1/3 innings, 40 hits, 17 walks); Colon is 2-2, 4.85 (21 earned runs in 39 innings); Burba is 0-3, 4.34 and left Tuesday's start against the Angels with a strained left hamstring and a sore right forearm; Nagy is 2-2 with a 5.04 ERA (17 earned runs in 30 innings) and Gooden was 1-3 with a 5.60 ERA before allowing only one run in 6 1/3 innings Friday.
Chad Ogea, who might have been poised to take Gooden's spot in the rotation, has tendinitis in the middle finger of his throwing hand and went on the disabled list Friday for the third time this season. Burba is likely to miss his next start.
Indians general manager John Hart tried to bolster his staff by trading for left-hander Randy Johnson before last weekend's deadline, but wouldn't pay Seattle's asking price -- Burba, reliever Paul Shuey, infielder Enrique Wilson and outfielder Brian Giles. Johnson ended up going to Houston for minor-league prospects. "We were baffled," Hart said. "Whenever we talked to Seattle, it was about a major league trade for star-quality players. We barely talked about prospects."
KNOCK ON WOOD:
Similar questions about fatigue have been raised on the north side of Chicago, where Cubs phenom Kerry Wood was looking so tired last week that manager Jim Riggleman considered skipping his next turn in the rotation. He struck out only six in starts against the Mets and Rockies, then gave up five runs in two innings in a loss to Arizona Wednesday.
As it is, Wood will stay on his normal schedule, meaning if the Astros stay in their rotation, the Chicago-Houston matchup Saturday, Aug. 22, would pit Wood against Johnson.
"Contrary to some reports, it's not a sore arm," Cubs pitching coach Phil Regan said. "It's just tiredness. Every pitcher goes through it."
Said Wood: "Last year I backed off a start (at Triple-A). This is something that's happened to me in the past. It's come at a good point right now."
Later, Wood adamantly told Chicago reporters, "There is nothing wrong with my arm. Print that."
KUDOS FOR JONES:
Twenty-one year-old Braves center fielder Andruw Jones made news against the Reds last week by clubbing three homers in a three-game series, making 12 of his 42 career home runs at the expense of Cincinnati pitchers.
Add to that his defense. Many believe he'll be the hands-down winner of the National League's center field gold glove, one of many he'll earn before his career is over.
Observers are amazed at Jones' mix of speed, arm strength and instinct. "His movements are so quick, at times he appears not to be running, but gliding on a carpet of air," wrote Bill Zack of Morris News Service in suburban Atlanta. "(Jones) is so quick he appears to break for the ball before it is even struck and is awaiting its arrival before it reaches its apex."
Former Braves center fielder Marquis Grissom, now with Milwaukee, agrees. "He's got speed and an awesome arm," Grissom said. "He's fun to watch. I can see why they ran my butt out of there. If I had Andruw, I'd have done it too."
BIG YANKEE MACHINE:
All season, Yankees manager Joe Torre has refused to compare the awesome 1998 Bronx Bombers to the '96 squad that won the World Series -- or any great team, for that matter.
But Torre relented slightly last week when he compared this Yankee team to the 1976 Reds, who had a similar mix of speed, power, average and deep pitching with hitters Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey, Sr., Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Cesar Geronimo and George Foster and pitchers like Don Gullett, Gary Nolan, Pat Zachary and Rawly Eastwick.
"In a lot of ways, we're very similar to that," Torre said. For the Yanks, Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams provide speed and high averages, Darryl Strawberry and Tino Martinez the power and David Cone, David Wells, Hideki Irabu and Mariano Rivera the pitching.
The '76 Reds went 102-60 and swept Philadelphia in the National League Championship Series and the Yankees in the World Series. The '98 Yankees, 82-29 entering the weekend, are on pace to better that regular season record by 18 games with 120 wins.
EL SLIM FAST:
Cuban defector Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez has lost 15 pounds since joining the Yankees two months ago. He'll see a specialist this weekend in New York; he believes the problem is he's having a hard time acquiring a taste for American food.
Coach Jose Cardenal, one of Hernandez's pals, thinks it might be stress-related because of what El Duque left behind when he jumped in a raft and defected from Cuba last December -- two daughters and most of his family.
BAD RUMOR:
Without question, the zealousness and attention paid to last weekend's trading deadline is best explained by an incident with Dodgers general manager Tommy Lasorda and one of the players he ended up trading, second baseman Wilton Guerrero.
Last Thursday, a day before the deadline, Lasorda left his box at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium in the sixth inning and entered the Dodgers' dugout. An inning later, Guerrero was pulled from the game. The Associated Press in New York, monitoring the situation on TV, was convinced Lasorda had pulled off a trade for Johnson, with Guerrero as the final piece.
Wrong. In truth, Lasorda went down to use the dugout bathroom and Guerrero had a sore left leg. The Dodgers had actually pulled out of the Johnson sweepstakes three days earlier because they didn't believe they could sign him in the off-season.
"It was something," said Los Angeles hitting coach Mickey Hatcher. "When Tommy walked into the dugout, 14 guys thought they'd been traded."
Of course, Guerrero was traded the next day, but to Montreal for pitcher Carlos Perez and shortstop Mark Grudzielanek. But the incident shows how eagerly writers and players wait with baited breath on deadline night.
PRAISE FOR KONERKO:
Former Dodger Wilton Guerrero said he wasn't upset to be traded to Montreal, where he joins his outfielder brother, Vladimir. Wilton, though, did have an interesting comment about former Dodgers teammate Paul Konerko, who was angry when traded to the Reds with Dennis Reyes for Jeff Shaw on July 4.
"I can't believe (the Dodgers) got rid of him," Guerrero said of last year's minor league player of the year. "I understand why he was mad. That guy is going to be good."
OUT OF CONTROL:
Think the new stadium craze has gotten a little too expensive? Consider this: a story in last Wednesday's San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the public-private investment for a new Padres stadium would cost $800 million if approved by voters in November. That's more than the entire total annual economic output of some third-world countries, including Mongolia and Tajikistan.
THE FINAL WORD:
From Indians outfielder Brian Giles, a bodybuilder who shaves the hair on his legs and torso, after he was bitten five times on the left leg by what was believed to be a spider last week in Oakland: "My legs looked so good after I shaved them, the spider couldn't resist."
