Landestoy Luke
By Landestoy Luke
I was told by a reader on the site yesterday that I didn’t mention the Yankees enough. What’s there to say? They have the best record in baseball and are the best team money can buy. No…I’m not complaining about it…every team plays under the same rules. However, it’s tough not to root for small-budget Tampa. They’ve made shrewd trades and built up their team through an excellent farm system.
Speaking of the Rays, word is they are in on the Cliff Lee sweepstakes. That brings the total number of potential suitors for Lee to 76. Dodger fans should ditch the idea that they will get Lee. It’s actually not a money thing (the Dodgers have room to add a big salary and reports indicate they are willing to do so). It’s a matter of Seattle getting prospects that are ready to play in the bigs and the Dodgers just don’t have those. They are fairly stacked at the lower levels, but with other teams having major league ready talent, they can’t compete. Roy Oswalt of Houston is more of a probability, given that Houston won’t be competing any time soon and can afford to take on players that may not be ready for 2-3 years.
I think differently on this than most baseball folks do. I’d prefer trading a package of guys for an everyday player than a pitcher. Acquire a pitcher in late July and you’ll get maybe 12 starts out of him. Is that guy going to be 3 or 4 games better than the pitcher they replace? Most likely not. In the postseason, there aren’t any givens either. In 1998, Houston sold the farm to Seattle for Randy Johnson. He was awesome during the regular season, but puked his first game in the NLDS and the ‘Stros were done. Two of the three players traded for him, Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen, were core contributors to Seattle ’s solid run at the beginning of the 2000’s. Granted…nothing is guaranteed with prospects, but they are valuable chips for trade and would rather flip them for players that will contribute every day. But that’s just me.
Bonita Alum wants me to go cover summer baseball. Sorry…the Luker doesn’t do summer leagues. Unless you’re really into seeing the 4th string pitcher who will end up throwing 5 total innings for the varsity club, summer ball is as exciting as reading Villathedevil’s horse racing stories. Now, if The Mid wants to dispatch Double L to Hawaii to cover the Hawaiian Collegiate Baseball League, I’m all in.
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Landestoy Luke is a former semi-pro baseball player in the California-Nevada Independent League. He credits his pitching coach, Urbano Lugo, for teaching him the splitter that he used with great success while a member of the Henderson Florencias. After spending some time as an advance scout in the Mexicali League, Luke now spends his time as a freelance writer.
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