Is this turning into the year that baseball’s Children of the Steroid Era come in from the cold?
Nelson Cruz’s demolition of what was supposed to be the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series has only burnished his already considerable free-agent bona fides. He and another player with a 50-game suspension for doping in his past, Melky Cabrera of the Toronto Blue Jays, will make out handsomely this winter, and while most everybody expects Alex Rodriguez’s imminent return to the New York Yankees to be a circus – well, have you seen that Yankees’ lineup? My guess is they’ll find some use for A-Rod.
Cabrera was suspended in 2012 and was left off the San Francisco Giants post-season roster despite the fact he was leading the National League with a .360 average at the time of his suspension. Cabrera was eligible to come off the suspended list in time for Game 1 of the NL Championship Series that year, but the Giants told his agent even before the end of the regular season that they would not bring him back. The Giants went on to win the World Series and Cabrera received a World Series ring along with a full winner’s share of $377,002.64.
And with the Orioles’ hammering of the Tigers now complete, attention will shift to Chris Davis, whose 25-game suspension would expire after five games of the AL Championship Series. And while it is expected the Orioles will not keep a spot open for him on the roster during the ALCS, he will begin working out at the team’s complex in Sarasota, Fla., and club sources indicate he would be welcomed back on the roster for the World Series. It’s true that the details of Davis’s suspension differ widely from Cabrera’s, but you wonder whether the game has finally moved beyond a scorched earth policy for those who have run afoul of drug-testing. We’ll see how much money and length of term Cruz and Cabrera get before we know it’s real, but forgiveness is the necessary next step in coming to grips with the Steroid Era.
DROP THE PUCK
I’m thinking it will be another tough season for the seven Canadian-based NHL clubs with only one of them – the Montreal Canadiens – making the playoffs. Things will no doubt be calmer in Vancouver under new head coach Willie Desjardins; I just don’t there’s enough talent there to land one of the eight playoff spots. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Edmonton Oilers finish ahead of the Canucks, albeit not enough to make the playoffs. Here are my predicted finishes for the 2014-2015 NHL season:
ATLANTIC DIVISION: 1. Tampa Bay (*); 2. Boston (*); 3. Montreal (*); 4. Detroit; 5. Toronto; 6. Buffalo; 7. Ottawa; 8. Florida.
METROPOLITAN DIVISION: 1. Pittsburgh (*); 2, Washington (*); 3. Philadelphia (*); 4. New York Islanders (*); 5. New Jersey (*); 6. Columbus; 7. New York Rangers; 8. Carolina
CENTRAL DIVISION: 1. St. Louis (*); 2. Chicago, (*); 3. Minnesota (*); 4. Colorado (*); 5. Dallas (*); 6. Winnipeg; 7. Nashville
PACIFIC DIVISION: 1. Anaheim (*); 2. Los Angeles (*) 3. San Jose(*); 4. Phoenix; 5. Edmonton; 6. Vancouver; 7. Calgary.
STANLEY CUP: Chicago def. Tampa Bay
(*)- Denotes playoff team
WHAT I LEARNED
The things you learn in a week hosting a sports call-in show:
“The fact that John knows about it … he has to do something about it. He is the person from management that works with the players and set the tone.”
(*)Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Paul Beeston gently chides manager John Gibbons over Gibbons’ concerns about the teams clubhouse culture. Full interview
“I’ll tell you what: unfortunately the Orioles had a terrible injury – Matt Wieters was lost for the year – but I think it was kind of a blessing for this rotation. They really had to take responsibility for their actions and when they did they thrived.”
(*)Analyst Mike Bordick discusses the Baltimore Orioles under-rated starting rotation. Full interview
“I would imagine the offensive players have been grumbling that the ball is not where it’s supposed to be when they are getting to where they are … E.J. Manuel has regressed and he’s not ready to take the mantel.”
(*)Boomer Esiason of the NFL on CBS thinks Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone had no choice but to bench quarterback E.J. Manuel. Full interview
QUIBBLES AND BITS
(*)Not only were the additions of defencemen Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk a nice bit of business by New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow, the guess here is I’m not the only one who has gone from thinking that Jack Capuano was the first head coach fired to thinking the cross-hairs are now more squarely on Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle;
(*)New York Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault says that Martin St. Louis’ decision to play centre in the absence of Derek Stepan (broken fibula) won’t create issues defensively, since in his system the centre’s defensive responsibilities are similar to those of the wingers. Face-offs? That might be another matter, although St. Louis told reporters his goal is to at least not lose the face-off cleanly, and hope his more physical wingers can bail him out;
(*)Watching the Detroit Tigers bullpen implode in the first two games of their AL Division Series raised two questions: one, are they the new Atlanta Braves – good organizations run by smart men undone by one glaring weakness? And, two, what would have happened had Tigers general manager David Dombrowski not traded Doug Fister in the off-season, which resulted in Drew Smyly (1.039 WHIP in 63 games as a reliever in 2013, with an earned run average of 2.37) moving into the starting rotation and demonstrably weakened the bullpen before Smyly was ultimately traded for David Price? The Tigers have finished in first place in the American League Central the past four seasons with nothing to show for it, in part because the bullpen has been a mess. In the 1990s, the Braves had a starting rotation for the ages – Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. The Braves won the AL East title every year from 1991-2005 (1994 was a strike year) and had their starters win six National League Cy Young Awards between 1991-2000 – yet had just one World Series title to show for it, in no small part because they had seven different closers during the height of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz’s reign. Smoltz eventually moved into the bullpen in 2002 but by then it was too late to do anything other than wonder what would have happened had he been in the ‘pen earlier?