Post-Steroid Golden Age: 2008 Story-Lines Begin to Take Shape
Posted by Jason Chacon on January 30th, 2008
Well it’s that time of year sports fans. It’s Super Bowl Week–and don’t think that the biggest football game of the year has no bearing on the baseball world. After everyone’s NFL hangover ends, there is a notorious lull in the sports world that is soon followed by the reincarnation of the whirlwind we call the baseball season.
With just about 2 weeks before pitchers and catchers report to camp, storylines for 2008 have already been shaping since October’s end. All the build-up in the Major League prologue has to have a beginning. The drama begins, my friends, in spring training.
Many believe spring training to be just that: training. However, this is the time in which team chemistry begins to form with teams bringing in new players during the off-season (i.e. Josh Hamilton with the Rangers), established young guns try out new positions to make room for other prospects (Ryan Braun) and a select few minor leaguers challenge for a spot in the limelight. Here are few of what are sure to be many stories to follow in 2008, that will begin in Arizona and Florida:
So-Cal Centerfielders
There has been a lot of activity this off-season as players move from team to team via free agency. Many of these guys cashed in on contract years, so it will be interesting to see how well they respond to the money and their new cities. Southern California will be the intriguing epicenter of this MLB trend. Torii Hunter had himself one of the best seasons of his career in 2007, hitting 28 HR with a career-best 107 RBIs and a .287 AVG. However, Hunter’s defense is what was most sought after in pursuing the centerfielder. The dimensions in centerfield at the Big A are nothing that Hunter can’t handle, but there are still questions surrounding him in Anaheim. One of those will be his speed. Angels skipper Mike Sciosca has his team run more than any other in the AL. Can Hunter, who only had 12 and 18 steals in 2006-07 respectively, adapt his game from being an offensive centerpiece with the Twins to small-ball role player. Also, an issue is Hunter’s place in the lineup. With guys like Chone Figgins, Howie Kendrick, and Eric Aybar all contending for the 1 and 2 spots, is there room for Hunter in the middle of the lineup with Vladamir Guerrero, Casey Kotchman, Garret Anderson and Gary Matthews Jr.? Count on Hunter hitting in the 5th, possibly 6th spot, and forget about him seeing anywhere close to 100 RBIs on a lighter-hitting Angels team.
Across town, the Los Angeles Dodgers are also counting on a new centerfielder in Andruw Jones, who is coming off of a disappointing walk year in which he hit only .222 and a measly .724 OPS. On a team that had a lot of emotional baggage at the end of last season, Jones is going to be put into the awkward position of playing middleman to the age wars in the clubhouse. However, it is also possible that if Jones plays well and Joe Torre manages the way we have seen in the past, the pieces could be in place for a return to prominence for the Boys of Summer.
Fallout from the Mitchell Report
It’s that rain cloud above the heads of players like Paul Lo Duca, Gary Sheffield and Eric Gagne; the thorn in the sides of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Miguel Tejada. The steroid era has been proclaimed by some to be officially over, yet the aftermath and backlash has really not yet begun. How will fans react the first time Washington Nationals catcher Lo Duca steps to the plate after the report named him as major user and middleman of steroids and HGH? Will fans start to nay-say against established sluggers like Sheffield in Detroit? Or perhaps Troy Glaus will meet hostility in St. Louis over the accusations against him (although there was insufficient evidence), seeing as how he already has something to prove in filling the void letf by Scott Rolen.
The age of scrawny utility infielders turning into slugger all-stars may be gone. And to the players, the steroid era is all but done with. But for the fans, time will tell if the 90’s and early part of 2000’s provided a lost generation of baseball that they wont soon forget.
The New Wave
One of the best reasons to watch baseball today is for all of the young talent that is produced in this time when youth is considered to be so precious and vital. The times are changing for the old timers, and younger, faster prospects are eager to produce. The most exemplary evidence of this? The biggest blockbuster deal of the off-season included a 24-year old who already has over 130 career home runs–Miguel Cabrera was traded from the Florida Marlins to the Detroit Tigers. Guys like Cabrera and Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder are leading the charge of this new breed I like to call the Toddler Attack.
Every team seems to have that one (in some cases multiple) prized youth who they hope to build around like Felix Hernandez in Seattle and Alex Gordon in Kansas City.
With most of these players being in their early-to-mid-20s, they have had only to compete with older, slower players on the decline. But 2008 will mark the beginning of a period in which organizations will have to pit prospect against prospect in winner-take-all duels. The Angels, for example, will find out if Brandon Wood is worth his salt as he vies for the shortstop position. However, fellow youngster Eric Aybar is believed to have the advantage at the 6-spot going into spring training. If one outplays the other in Tempe this March, the other will most likely become trade bait. Likewise, Joel Guzman, who was the top prospect in the Dodger organization less than 5 years ago, tries to recapture his prospect status this March and outplay minor league phenom Evan Longoria for third base in Tampa.
This season may also see the arrival of an outstanding batch of young outfielders like the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Justin Upton, the Cincinatti Reds’ Jay Bruce, and new Florida Marlin Cameron Maybin thrust into long-term roles, along with glimpses of stud pitchers like the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, the Cleveland Indians’ Adam Miller and the Tampa Bay Rays’ Jeff Niemann. With young players at a premium around the league, top pitching prospects are in the rare position of climbing through minor league ranks at breakneck speeds.
These are just 3 of the stories to watch for in 2008 starting with Spring Training not involving men named Clemens or Barry Bonds. Though the steroid era has not died out completely, this is undoubtedly the post-steroid era; and I say this is the beginning of a second golden age of baseball.
Sphere: Related Content