"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
When it comes to players under pressure in 2008, there's three categories. You've got the players that are under a little bit of pressure, but have someone on the team to take the brunt of the load, you've got the players that have to put their teams on their back and carry them, and you've got Miguel Tejada. You can count on one finger the number of players this off-season who were traded for five players, named on the Mitchell Report, and had their immigration status threatned for lying to federal investigators.
Keeping Tejada's off-season struggles aside, the Astros are putting a ton of hope into Miggy this year. Without Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, they went from NL Champs to a 73-win team that spent time fighting with the Pirates for last place. Tejada, on the other hand, missed games for the first time since June of 2000 with a broken wrist, and saw his offensive stats decline all around the board. Both sides are hoping that things just seem a little brighter together this year.
There is a lot to be gained for both the Astros and Tejada this year. Minute Maid Park is a haven for right-handed hitters and Tejada can probably bounce back up to 30 homers and give the Astros a fearsome heart of the order with Hunter Pence, Lance Berkman, and Carlos Lee. If the Astros are going to contend this year, they're going to need Tejada help them club the crap out of opponents, because there's nothing that's going to save that pitching staff.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
The Athletics may be amidst a brand new rebuilding process after trading Dan Haren, Nick Swisher, Mark Kotsay, Stomper, and Billy Beane's first edition of Moneyball signed by Michael Lewis this offseason for all the prospects they can get their hands on, but that doesn't mean there aren't players on the team feeling pressure this season.
If you're Eric Chavez, for instance, you've got a lot to prove to yourself and the Athletics this season. Chavez missed 72 games last season thanks to a whole myriad of injuries. He had three surgeries this offseason alone to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, one to fix a bulging disc in his lower back, and then for good measure, he had the labrum in his left shoulder fixed as well.
There have been cadavers who've experienced less intrusion.
Chavez obviously struggled in 2007 while battling these injuries, putting up career lows in batting average (.240), OBP (.306), OPS (.752), and RBI (46) to name a few. HIs 15 home runs were also his lowest total since Eric's first full season in Oakland back in 1999.
Considering that Chavez is Oakland's highest paid player at $9.5 million this season, it's also very possible he won't finish the season as a member of the Athletics. Which means if he does perform well, he may have a way out to a contender come July.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
Last season, Ben Sheets made 24 starts. That means because of his various injuries, he missed somewhere between eight and ten starts for a team that missed the playoffs by two games. You can quibble with my math if you like, but I feel like it's not a stretch to say that the Brewers would've won two or three more games in 2007 with ten starts from Ben Sheets.
Injuries have, in fact, been the calling card of Sheets' career. Since the start of the 2005 season, he's got an above average ERA, a winning record, a ton of strikeouts, and great peripheral numbers. He's also not thrown more than 157 innings in any of those three seasons, tossing 156 and 2/3, 106, and 141 and 1/3. That's just not enough innings from an ace in the thick of a playoff race, which is what the Brewers expect to be in this year.
Because of his injuries, people tend to forget just how talented Sheets really is. If not for Jake Peavy and Johan Santana, Sheets would be a Cy Young contender this year based on talent alone. It seems like he's been in the league forever, but he's only going to be 29 in 2008, which isn't old at all. If he can make 30-some starts and break the 200 inning barrier, he's going to have a very good season and the Brewers are going to be in the thick of things. If he can't do that, well, the Brewers better hope Yovani Gallardo really steps up this year.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
On July 24th of last year, Padres starter Chris Young was 9-3 with a 1.82 ERA. That was also the day that Young left his start against Colorado after two innings and subsequently went on the DL with a strained oblique. Since then, Young went 0-5 with a 5.96 ERA. Hitters only hit .208 against him in that time, but the big number is 33 walks in those ten starts after 39 walks in the previous 20.
Since that day, the Padres lost three full games in the standings to the division champion Diamondbacks, and five and a half games to the Colorado Rockies. Granted, the Rockies went on an unbelievable run just to get to that one game playoff with San Diego. But if Chris Young wins one game down the stretch, then Rocktober doesn't exist. And that's not to blame Chris Young for the Padres not making the playoffs. It's only meant to illustrate that if the Padres are going to make a run at the playoffs against Colorado, Arizona, and Los Angeles, they're going to need Chris Young to be the Chris Young from his first 20 starts in '07, and not the last ten. A healthy Young combined with a typical Jake Peavy year gives the Padres a 1-2 punch as good as anybody in the division, and that includes Brandon Webb and Dan Haren.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
Royals third baseman Alex Gordon has been under a lot of pressure since the first time he stepped on a Major League field in a Royals uniform. I mean, most people in Kansas City had been proclaiming him the next George Brett even though the majority of them had never even seen the kid play.
Those are some pretty lofty expectations for a 23-year old kid (Alex just turned 24 last week). It's tough enough adapting to the Majors as a rookie, let alone having to do so while everyone expects you to play like a Hall of Famer. So it's not surprising that Alex had a very un-Hall of Fame like season in 2007.
Gordon finished his first season with a batting average of .247 and an OBP of .314. He also hit 15 homers and drove in 60 runs, while striking out 137 times compared to 41 walks. While it would still be unfair to expect Alex to have a breakout season in 2008, it would be nice to see him improve his walk and strikeout numbers, which should also help raise his batting average.
The Royals actually had a pretty decent season in 2007, but recent Royals standards anyway, and if the team is going to continue to improve it's going to be up to guys like Gordon and fellow youngsters Mark Teahen, and Billy Butler to produce runs. Something all three of them have the ability to do.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
On paper, the Arizona Diamondbacks are a better team than the division champions of last season. Dan Haren joins Brandon Webb for a 1-2 punch that's the envy of all baseball, their lineup returns intact and, even after trading Jose Valverde, their bullpen remains efficient and effective. So all they need to do is roll out the carpet and tramp their way back to the playoffs, right? Of course not.
Their success will hinge on several players. Can Randy Johnson return to form and round out the strong rotation? Is Justin Upton going to make a quick transition to the major leagues? Will Eric Byrnes's run-in with the law turn him from hero to zero? Okay, the last one's a bit of a stretch but, to me, the biggest questions have to do with Stephen Drew.
After a brilliant 2006 debut, Drew crashed into the mountain last season. His OPS was 683, he struck out 100 times and offered more questions than answers about his future. Was it a sophomore slump or a sign of the real Drew? There were some good signs. Drew walks a lot and played well in October. Without a thumper in the lineup, the D-Backs need to have production up and down the lineup. Drew has to be much better than he was last summer. If he is, a repeat as NL West champs could be in the offing.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
It is fair to reason that any player that suffers the type of down year that Jason Bay had last year will be under pressure to produce the following season. After a Rookie of the Year Award in 2004 and two consecutive seasons with 30+ homers, 100+ RBIs, an OBP around .400, and .900+ OPS. In fewer words, Bay was an MVP-type player playing for a terrible team. Last year, Bay plummeted to .247/.327/.418. Those numbers were worse than Jack Wilson's 2007 numbers.
Putting Bay even further under the gun were his recent comments expressing surprise that the Pirates didn't make any trades in the off-season. In fact, they tried like crazy to trade Bay but couldn't seem get a better offer than a reported package of Kelly Shoppach, Cliff Lee, and Franklin Guitierrez from Cleveland. That's not exactly a franchise changing package, so the Pirates rightly declined.
If I had to quantify the Pirates' chances in the NL Central this year, I'd put them around one in a million (so I'm saying there's a chance!). They're not even that if Bay fails to perform again. Realistically, Bay's playing for a ticket to a contender while the Pirates are hoping he plays well enough that they can acquire some real building blocks for the franchise. If nothing else, Bay's certainly got to be motivated to reclaim the Tip O'Neil Award in 2008.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
The Texas Rangers haven't made the playoffs since 1999, and if there has been a consistent reason why, it's because they've never had the pitching to overtake the Mariners, Angels, or Athletics. Whether it's because the front office has no idea what to look for in a pitcher, the ballpark they play in, or the oppressing Texas heat, the Rangers pitching staff always seems to falter.
So really, if I wanted to I could just pick the entire Rangers pitching staff for this post, but that would be against the unwritten rules of our Under the Gun series. Since I have to choose only one, I'm going to take Vicente Padilla. After all, Padilla signed a three-year $34 million contract extension before last season after a 15-10 campaign for the Rangers in 2006.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
Imagine coming to America while speaking little to no English and being paid exorbitant sums of money to play a game while millions of people watch you with a discerning eye and scores of your own countrymen follow every move you make. That's a pretty terrifying situation, right? Now imagine you have to do it all with Cubbie Nation expecting that you will be the final piece of the puzzle that ends their 100 years of futility. It's going to be a pressure-packed year for Kosuke Fukudome.
Still, Fukudome is a vital part to the Cubs' hopes in 2008. They really are entering this year as a legitimate contender in the NL, and he's the biggest upgrade to the team that went 63-48 after June 1st last year, which means he's the player expected to take the Cubbies to the next level. I remember all the hype around Dice-K last spring after the ridiculous fee the Red Sox paid to sign him, but has there ever been more pressure on a foreign player in his first season?
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
There are a lot of reasons why the Giants, as a franchise are "under the gun", and it's mainly because of the rest of the division. The Dodgers went out and got not only Andruw Jones, but they got Joe Torre to manage them. Arizona, who was only the division champ, pulled the trigger on a huge deal for Dan Haren. Colorado is the defending N.L. champion, and the Padres were a one-game playoff away from making the dance instead of the Rockies. So where does that leave the San Francisco Giants?
At this time last year, it was the Giants that made the big splash, signing Barry Zito to a ridiculously rich seven year contract and signaled the beginnings of a plan to prepare for the post-Barry Bonds era. Zito had it rough by the bay, going 11-13 with a 4.53 ERA, which was more than a half run jump from the previous season when he was wading through the rougher lineups in the A.L. The good thing for Zito is that with the circus revolving around Bonds, Zito's sub-par season didn't get as much scrutiny as it normally would have for a guy just signed to a huge deal. But guess what? Bonds is gone (and apparently, Zito is happy about that). So the focus is going to be on Zito as not only the ace of the staff, but the guy who young stars like Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum are certainly going to look to for knowledge. I imagine it's much easier to have your advice mean something if you're going well. Zito is going to have to go well if the Giants are going to have any chance in the stacked N.L. West.
"Under The Gun" takes a look at one player from each team who will bear all the pressure for the upcoming '08 season.
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