So Bobby Valentine got a reprieve this weekend, from a Wharton Business
School student who admitted Bobby V didn't quite say all that stuff
attributed to him in a website posting last week.
That reprieve didn't save Valentine's job, because it wasn't in imminent
danger anyway, according to several highly reliable baseball sources. But
these developments don't exactly mean Valentine will be the Mets' manager for
life, either.
That's because while it turned out that Bobby V didn't make those remarks
about Todd Zeile, Derek Bell and the trade of Masato Yoshii this time, he has
made them numerous times before, in all sorts of off-the-record settings. And
Mets GM Steve Phillips knows that too well.
Phillips met with his manager for more than an hour in the team hotel
Friday night, and came away sufficiently satisfied with Valentine's account
of his Wharton talk to close the investigation for good. But the Mets were
still wondering why Valentine was trying so hard to keep tapes of his remarks
out of circulation.
The fact that so few people were willing to give Valentine the benefit of
the doubt, before the facts came out, tells you all you need to know about
how this guy is perceived. And about how many times he has gotten himself in
trouble before with similar outbursts. And about how endangered a managerial
species he remains.
It's clear that the patience of the Mets' brass has worn thinner than Rey
Ordonez over these types of soap operatics. But the Mets have kept winning
during Valentine's tenure. And there is no obvious high-profile candidate to
replace him waiting offstage. So as long as those two trends continue, Bobby
V is safe.
But if developments change on either of those fronts, that
unfamiliar-looking manager in the Mets' dugout might not be Bobby V in
disguise -- because while the details on Wharton-gate may have changed, the
tension between the manager and the rest of the Mets' organization lives on.
Rumblings and grumblings
When Curt Schilling rejoins the Phillies in two weeks, assuming his rehab continues along the same smooth path, he won't be the same pitcher -- but only because he might be better.
Schilling has been working on a change-up all his life but never had the guts to throw one in a game. During his extended spring-training stint, though, he asked to have his old mentor, former Phillies pitching coach, Johnny Podres, work with him in Florida. He said he asked Podres, the man who taught the change-up to Ramon Martinez, "once and for all how to throw it."
"About 10 seconds after he started teaching, it all clicked," Schilling said. And after he struck out a left-handed hitter with a change in a Florida State League game, he said it felt "like having two suns in the sky."
So when Schilling returns April 30, watch that sky for extra solar bodies.
The events in Tampa Bay that led to the firing of pitching coach Rick Williams started long before the gruesome run in which the Devil Rays gave up 72 runs in a stretch of seven games before Williams got the axe Wednesday.
Williams was a hard-working, likeable guy. But he'd clearly lost a large group of his pitchers. And Roberto Hernandez's less-than-sympathetic remarks in the local papers made it obvious the closer wasn't the president of Williams' fan club.
This team actually has three great young arms, in Ryan Rupe, Esteban Yan and Dan Wheeler. But the game plan of trying to buy time for the young guys by having veterans like Juan Guzman, Steve Trachsel and Wilson Alvarez eat innings blew up in record time.
Williams' firing also unleashed a lot of speculation about manager Larry Rothschild's job security. GM Chuck LaMar on that talk: "Absolutely not."
Tony Gwynn's health is always a big deal in San Diego. But it's an even bigger deal this year, because of the way his contract is structured. When Gwynn negotiated an extension this spring, he wanted the Padres to guarantee his 2001 salary ($6 million). Instead, they compromised on a clause that locked in the extra year if Gwynn gets 502 plate appearances this season. But he's already missed significant time, first after getting drilled with a pitch opening day, then with a gimpy knee. And that countdown to 502 has started already.
Despite the cold weather and distant fences in Comerica Park, there are still more indications that Juan Gonzalez will sign a long-term deal with the Tigers than that he won't. So GM Randy Smith was understandably aggravated by speculation to the contrary last week. Smith argues that Gonzalez will actually be helped by Comerica's big gaps because he's not a classic, McGwire-esque, upper-cutting kind of slugger. And besides, Gonzalez is more RBI man than home-run man.
"I think he has a better chance to break Babe Ruth's RBI record than he does to get to Hank Aaron's home run record, anyway," Smith said.
What's scary about Mark McGwire's back troubles isn't the MRI results (which are good). It's McGwire's concern over the situation. Big Mac has battled a bulging disc for years. And that's caused him discomfort at times. But this is the first time he says he's ever complained of actual pain. If he was worried enough to pass up an entire four-game series at Coors Field, the Cardinals ought to be worried, too.
Finally, as beautiful as the new Pac Bell Park is, there have been two big complaints so far: 1) Having the bullpen mounds in foul territory (which is minimal to begin with) instead of behind the fences is going to get someone hurt. And 2) they forgot to put a bathroom in both managers' offices. So when nature calls the manager's office in San Francisco, it will have to be a long-distance call.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. Rumblings and Grumblings will appear each Saturday. | |
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