Week 11

THE KEY TO THE TWINS, CUBS AND PHILLIES IMPROVEMENT IN 2001

By Adam Ulrey

There is a direct correlation between the Twins, Cubs and Phillies leading their divisions and their excellent pitching. The Cubs are fifteen games over .500 and lead the NL Central division by six games over the favored Cardinals. The Phillies are one of the big surprises of the year, twelve games over .500 and leading the mighty Braves by three games. The Twins are the darlings of major league baseball with a payroll of just 25 million, the same amount the Rangers are paying A-Rod per year. They are battling Cleveland for the AL Central division and lead them by a 1/2 game and are a fat sixteen games over .500. All three clubs who were picked to finish under .500 and are now leading their respective divisions have the same thing in common. They are not great hitting teams, but oh my, have they been getting the pitching and defense.

The Cubs lead the NL in pitching with a team ERA of 3.84. This is due in part to the improved starting pitching, but the bullpen has improved ten fold. The question mark coming into the year was could Kerry Wood get back to his pre-injury form. He showed signs last year, but at times you could tell he was really struggling. It takes two to three years of pitching after having Tommy John surgery to get back to your previous form. Well folks, he's back and that's good for baseball, but bad for the rest of the league. In 13 starts this year he is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.76, but has 114 Ks in just 79 innings pitched. Those are the kind of numbers you saw before the injury. He gives the Cubs a legitimate number one starter. For now though, the Cubs are using Wood as the number two starter behind the unknown staff star, Jon Lieber. Lieber leads the team with a 3.32 ERA and is second on the staff with seven wins. He and Wood pitched back-to-back one-hitters earlier in the year. In 100 innings, which also leads the team, Lieber has rendered only 19 walks. The grand old man of the staff, 37-year-old Kevin Tapani seems to go out and give them six quality innings. He leads them in wins (8) and has a solid 4.52 ERA. The other surprise in the rotation has been converted reliever Julian Tavarez, who is second on the team with a very impressive 3.39 ERA.

As good as the starters have been, however, it's been the improved bullpen that has helped vault the Cubs into first place. Jeff Fassero, who was signed as a free agent to get out the tough left-handers, was been a pleasant surprise as the closer early on. At the start of the season, Tom Gordon was penciled in as the closer but he went on the DL before opening day. Fassero went out and converted his first eight save opportunities until he finally blew one. He has an ERA of 2.61 and has formed a strong one-two punch with Kyle Farnsworth, who has become the best set-up man in the league, striking out 53 in 32 innings. Kyle has been clocked at over 100 mph this season. Gordon has come back from major arm surgery and has regained his closer role with nine saves and a 3.31 ERA.

For the Twins it is definitely the starting pitching that is carrying them along. Their front three starters; Brad Radke, Eric Milton and Joe Mays might be as good as any staff out there. Mays leads the team in ERA with a very solid 3.07, fourth in the AL. He also is tied for the American League lead in wins with 8. He is averaging seven innings a start, which has been huge because it saves wear on the bullpen. The staff ace is Brad Radke, who is 8-2 on the year with a very impressive ERA of 3.28. He has pitched the most innings in the AL (104) and has only walked 10 batters. None of the Twins' starters walk very many batters, so if you are going to beat them you're going to have to swing the bat. Eric Milton, who they received in the Knoblauch trade with the Yankees, has been a rock, winning 7 while posting an ERA of 3.63. This front three is the main reason the Twins are improved in 2001. Between them they have gone 23-9 and all three average over seven innings per start. Mark Redman is the fourth starter, but has been on the DL since late May. When he gets back he should provide the Twins with another good arm.

The Phillies' starters are not going to put a lot of fear into the opposing team, but they go out and compete and keep their team in every ball game. All five of their starters have ERAs over 4.00 but less than 4.60, which isn't bad. They are seventh out of sixteen teams in team ERA with a 4.23. They have not had a starter miss a start yet this year. All five average just over six innings a start and with the much-improved bullpen that's all manager Larry Bowa needs from them. Omar Daal, who lost 19 games last year, is the staff ace with a 7-1 record and a solid 4.09 ERA. Hes followed in the rotation by Robert Person (4-5, 4.78 ERA), Randy Wolf (4-7, 4.27 ERA), Bruce Chen (2-3, 4.35 ERA) and former Cub Amaury Telemaco (5-2, 4.46 ERA).

But the big reason the Phillies are 12 games over .500 is because of the much-improved bullpen. When they went out and signed Rickey Bottalico, Jose Mesa and Rheal Cormier, the baseball world collectively had a big laugh. These guys, especially Mesa and Bottalico, haven't gotten anybody out for years, but all of a sudden they have found the fountain of youth or some other magical potion. Mesa has 17 saves and a very impressive 3.33 ERA. Bottalico has a 3.79 ERA, with two wins and two saves. Rheal Cormier and Wayne Gomes both have very good ERAs, 3.34 and 3.38 respectively.

It's easy to see why these three teams lead their divisions when most people had them as cellar dwellers.

THOME'S BAT HEATS UP

Cleveland's slugging first baseman Jim Thome is known for his slow starts, but this year it was about as bad as it can get. Through the first 41 games of the season he was batting a pathetic .229 with 6 homers and only 21 RBIs. He had more strikeouts (45) than hits (30). He is known as a streak hitter who, when he does get dialed in, can carry a team on his back. Thome started taken extra batting practice and was getting pulled for pinch hitters when a tough left-hander was coming into the game in late innings. He has too much pride to say anything, but this was eating him up.

Despite Thome's slump the Indians were still winning, going 28-13 over this stretch. They were getting timely hitting from Juan Gonzalez, Ellis Burks, Marty Cordova and Roberto Alomar, but they needed Thome to get hot to provide protection for Gonzalez. Juan was starting to see fewer and fewer good pitches to hit, as teams were saying, "We'll take our chances with Thome." Well, his hard work must have paid off, because over the next 19 games Thome has been on fire. He hit .396 in this stretch, going 25-for-63 with 13 home runs and 25 RBIs. He has raised his overall average to .280, up almost 60 points. He has also become the Indians' all-time home run leader. On March 29th against the Detroit Tigers, Thome went yard with a towering shot to pass Albert Belle with his 243rd career home run. Thome commented that he was thinking about this home run a little too much and was glad to have it behind him. It's amazing that with all the great players the Indians have had in their history no one hit more than 242 homers as a Cleveland Indian. Now Thome can continue adding to his total, which as of this writing stands at 252. With his current hot streak, he moved to within two home runs of Manny Ramirez for the AL lead. He also propelled himself into the top ten in RBIs with his 46. Thome is one of those players you want to see be successful because he has what we call the old school approach to the game. He wears the socks up high and it's very rare after a game to not see his uniform dirty. He's one of those players I would pay to see play every day.

James Floto takes a look at the divisional races

Although there were only a few minor changes in the standings this week, there were several streaks, mostly by mediocre teams who finally made some small breakthroughs. Last week we spoke rather disparingly about the Devil Rays and Pirates, neither of which had broken the 20-win mark yet. Tampa Bay went 3-3 (Hey! When you're playing .290 ball, a .500 week is a big improvement), while the Buccos actually had a winning week, going 4-2, including a three-game sweep over Cleveland.

AL East: The duel between eternal rivals Boston and New York continued, with both teams going 4-2, keeping the Red Sox two up on the Yanks. The Red Sox won two of three from their former city mate, the Braves, who since leaving Boston in 1953 have called Milwaukee and now Atlanta home. Yet this has proved to be one of the more popular Interleague rivalries. The rivalry between the Yanks and Mets, of course, is current and bitter. After starting the week dropping two of three to the Expos, the Yanks came back over the weekend to sweep the Mets and keep pace with Boston.

Toronto slipped back into third with a 3-3 Week 11, while Baltimore, which had slipped from the lower deeps to within 3 of .500 last week, dropped 4 of six. The Jays are now 8 out, the O's 9 and the Devil Rays are finally above .300 (21-47, .309), but still are 19 1/2 out.

AL Central. While the Indians were busy dropping those three games to Pittsburgh, Minnesota had its first losing week of the year, dropping all three games in their weekend series with the surprising Cubs. In a strange way, though, this week was a testament to how well both the Twins and Indians have played all year; how many other clubs could lose four in a row and remain above .600 (Minnesota is 41-26, .612, a half game above 40-26 Cleveland.) The White Sox, which had been on a tear in recent weeks, continued their winning ways early in the week, taking all three of their tilts with Cincinnati. Over the weekend, though, they were swept by the Cardinals and ended the week at 30-35, 10 behind the Twins. Detroit played .500 ball in Week 11, finishing it 12 games out. The only team that had a good week in the ALC was the Royals, who won five in a row, lifting their still-rotten record from 22-40 to 27-41, gaining 3 1/2 on the leaders. KC is now 14 1/2 out.

AL West. Even the Mariners proved they were human. Of course, if a 4-2 week lowers your W-L percentage, you are doing pretty well. They never quite made it to .800, but Seattle is still the class of MLB, with a 52-15 (.776) record. With no other club in this division able to even sky above .500 for more than a couple days, we might as well hand the crown to Seattle now. The Angels took second place back from the A's, not because they played so well, but because Oakland dropped three straight to the red hot Giants over the weekend. At week's end, The Angels were a game under .500, 33-34, 19 behind the M's, and the A's were 32-35, an even 20 games out. Texas had another 2-4 week, and are hopelessly buried, 24-43, a fat 28 out.

AL East. As Adam pointed out, the Phils are having a great 2001, but they hit a snag, losing three straight to the Devil Rays early in the week. With a loss the previous day, that gave them a 4 game slide, their worst of the year. But they came back and took two of three from Baltimore over the weekend and still have a 3-game edge over the Braves. The Braves also had a 2-4 week, and both clubs had better watch out for the young, pitching rich Marlins. Florida has won 10 of their last 16 and are above .500, 34-33. The Mets, 30-39 (10 out) and Expos (27-42, 13) out, continue to struggle.

NL Central. The Cubs and Cards both swept their weekend series', and Chicago remained atop the division with a 41-25 record, which puts them 6 ahead of the Cards, who finally got Mark McGwire back. That should heat things up in this division, where the Astros and Brewers (both 33-33) remain within striking distance but just can't seem to get it going. Cincinnati is having an awful season, and it's not just the lost of Griffey causing it. They lost all six games this past week and at 25-42 are only a games and a half up on the Pirates.

NL West. Arizona continues edging away from the pack in a division that was only separated by a couple games, top to bottom, only a month ago. The D-backs won 4 times in Week 11, and are 42-27, .609. The Dodgers have managed to stay on their tails (37-32, 5 out) and with their red hot week, the Giants climbed from a game under .500, to tying their rivals in LA. Colorado also went 4-2, so the Diamondbacks have three teams chasing them. The Padres, on the other hand, who surprised everyone and were beginning to look like the Cubs, Phils and Twins, have slipped back down in June, and are now 11 out.